Lower Tiers RBY Ubers Viability Rankings (2015 to 2018)

[Lutra]

Art by Kaiju Bunny | RBY Ubers Old Gens Hub

2015-18 RBY Ubers VR | 2019 MASTER VR

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Welcome to the RBY Ubers Viability Ranking Thread! If you're not familiar with the concept, we place Pokémon in ranks, based on how necessary they are on highly competitive teams. It will hopefully give you a good impression of the tier, to help with teambuilding. Pokémon are sorted alphabetically within each rank.

If you feel that a Pokémon is misplaced, feel free to make a post about it – that's what this thread is for.

Tier Format:

• Banned Moves: Dig, Double Team, Fissure, Fly, Guillotine, Horn Drill, Minimize (Evasion + Invulnerability + OHKO moves).
• Clauses: Freeze Clause, Sleep Clause, Species Clause.

OP Rank

These Pokemon are overpowered for the RBY OU tier and dominate the RBY Ubers tier. They should be used on every single serious team.

OP+

Mewtwo – Fast boosting special tank and physical wall – best Mewtwo and Slowbro check; can 2HKO lots of threats after an amnesia boost.

OP-

Mew – Physical sweeper, mixed wall, paralysis spreader, transformer and boomer – best fellow Mew check; scariest threat for standard ubers teams.

S Rank

These Pokemon excel at their roles in the RBY Ubers tier to such a point that you find numerous of them on serious teams.

S-

Chansey – Special wall, status spreader and freeze absorber – Mewtwo and Slowbro check.

Slowbro – Slow boosting special tank, physical wall and paralysis spreader – Mew and Mewtwo (unreliable against Thunderbolt) check.

Snorlax – Mixed tank, paralysis spreader (via Body Slam) and boomer. – Threatens paralyzed Chansey.

Zapdos - Mixed bulky sweeper, screener, paralysis spreader. – Checks Chansey and Slowbro.

A Rank

These Pokemon are exceptional at their roles, performing significant roles in the RBY Ubers tier, and are found on many serious teams.

A+

Exeggutor – Sleeper, paralysis spreader, boomer, psychic and ground resist.

Tauros - Fast physical tank & paralysis spreader (via Body Slam).

A-

Gengar – Fast sleeper, normal resist, weak boomer. – checks Slowbro, counters mono-normal attacking Mew / Snorlax.

Golem – Zapdos counter, normal resist. Less tankier version of Rhydon that can boom.

Jynx – Lead, sleeper, ice resist, psychic resist and sleep absorber.

Rhydon - Zapdos counter, normal resist. Hits hard with Earthquake/Rock Slide and can threaten paralysis with Body Slam.

B Rank

These Pokémon have effective roles in the RBY Ubers tier and are common less used alternatives to S Rank and A Rank Pokémon in serious teams.

B-

Starmie – Fast twaver, Psychic & ice resist, screen abuser, freeze absorber. – stalls non-Thunderbolt Mewtwo.

 

[Ortheore]

Off the top of my head, I'd say Jynx (Sleep+Ice), Egg (Sleep+Boom), Lax (boom), Starmie (spreads status, Light Screen and Recover are cool) are easy A rank mons. Beyond that I'm not sure, it feels like ages since I played this tier and I did poorly at it when I did play as well lol. Looking forward to some matches =]

 

[froggy25]

Mewtwo should have its own rank imo.

Jynx is a A, Snorlax too. Self-Destruct really helps it in this meta. Egg is good as well.

Hypno is a surprisingly decent lead in Ubers, more than in OU.

 

[Xeze]

RBY Ubers revolves around Mewtwo tbh, so I agree that Mewtwo should have his own rank.

 

[Ortheore]

In my mind it looks like

Mewtwo
=====
Mew
=====
Bro, Chansey
=====
Everything else

Also Hypno was something I ran a lot the last time I played, I just couldn't remember why, or how effective it was, but if that's something other ppl feel good vibes about then it def belongs in A rank

 

[Lutra]

Put Mewtwo in S++, Mew in S+ and Chansey, Slowbro in S.

 

[Isa]

Snorlax is A+ or better. Lives 999 stab psychic guaranteed and can boom.

 

[Prinz]

"S++", just call it Mewtwo tier imo

 

[Lutra]

Changed S++ to S* to make it look a bit neater.

Added A Rank. Need more feedback on Starmie (not seen it been effective much myself).

B rank will be common alternate mons in those 1 or 2 spots.

C rank will be rarer ones, that have still have somewhat decent roles.

D rank will be very rare ones, that have realistic but not good roles.

The rest will be unranked probably, maybe an E rank for very unscrupulous theorymons, we'll see.

 

[Crystal_]

Mewtwo's rank is so high, it overflows into Caterpie-.

 

[Isa]

Slowbro is too highly ranked. It loses to TBolt Mewtwo cleanly, only stalls Ice Beam Mewtwo, and it's not a good check to Mew - +4 Mew 2HKOs with Earthquake guaranteed.

Not convinced about the merits of Jynx either. I'd rather use Starmie lead and Exeggutor backup than Jynx lead with optional Egg backup. Booming is too important to pass up (and resisting TBolt/Psychic is superb).

 

[Lutra]

Well, twave is good on anything bulky, in order to save yourself. Booming is not something I like so much, because you have to get the ubers in the right damage-range, and actually hit them with it (or a valuable non-uber target).

Jynx is good for getting sleep down early, which is good in a tier environment so heavily involved with status (like luring twave with your sweeper). It's also decent vs Chansey.

 

[Inspirited]

I would like to nominate Jolteon for B or C rank because of its leading potential. It basically guarentees early paralysis when paired with eggy and can actually hurt an opposing exeggutor should it lead (any damage on eggy makes Mewtwo and Mew MUCH more threatening). It also stops Jynx from spamming blizzard as much as it likes since there isnt much it can rest on. It makes good sleep fodder since it doesnt do all that well outside of the first few turns other than threatening fast paralysis in some niche situations. You use this > Zapdos because it isnt weak to blizzard. You do need a solid plan for lax when using this mon. C is probably best since it does allow a more or less free lax or chansey but can do some pretty nifty things in quite a few situations.

 

[Ortheore]

Slowbro is too highly ranked. It loses to TBolt Mewtwo cleanly, only stalls Ice Beam Mewtwo, and it's not a good check to Mew - +4 Mew 2HKOs with Earthquake guaranteed.

Not convinced about the merits of Jynx either. I'd rather use Starmie lead and Exeggutor backup than Jynx lead with optional Egg backup. Booming is too important to pass up (and resisting TBolt/Psychic is superb).

Twave is a huge gamechanger tho, it means that it is actually a great stop to non-tbolt M2 and is definitely a workable Mew check.

Also I'm not sure why running Jynx means you're passing up Egg? Also Jynx is totally viable outside the lead spot imo

 

[Jorgen]

Interesting to see that Tauros hasn't received any mention on this list. I mean I guess it can't really take Psychics and can't set up, and as such, the Physicals of choice are Mew and Snorlax, but outspeeding every non-Mewtwo viable mon and having that insane STAB Hyper Beam crit rate certainly still make it a solid cleaner, no?

LS Starmie and Hypno were mentioned earlier and seem to pull their weight in terms of their roles. I guess Hypno is kinda worthless after it throws Sleep, though. Like, worse-than-Alakazam worthless.

How many Mewtwo run Tbolt, really? I mean it's not unheard of, but you handicap yourself against other Mewtwo by not running IB, so Tbolt is destined to be somewhat uncommon. Slowbro's solid, stalling Mewtwo is all you CAN hope to do, and Bro's one of the best at it. Low S rank seems fitting.

Jynx, I feel, has merit. Immune to freeze, can freeze things itself, and of course the most reliable sleep in Ubers. Explosion is the main thing making Egg better, otherwise it'd be Jynx all the way.

Jolteon is pretty bad in Ubers. I don't really see what it does.

Zapdos might be decent? I mean it loses to Mewtwo obviously, but I presume with Reflect it puts up a solid fight against the ancillary Physical mons, namely Lax and Mew. Eh, probably not, I wouldn't use it.

AgiNite is probably a thing. Gets in on standard Mew with EQ as its "STAB" (which it wants over Bslam to get important 2HKOs in conjunction with Hbeam at +2), lives a +2 HB as it Agi's up, then goes to town. Granted, it's not great, but it's viable enough to be worth mention I suppose.

 

[Funbot28]

I think Snorlax should move up to S with Chansey, as they kinda function the same way, with Lax having even better Def

 

[froggy25]

Lax doesn't work at all like Chansey. Chansey set up Light Screen and fish a freeze with Ice Beam or can use TWave, Lax is there to Self-Destruct, sometimes can set up an Amnesia, or get a para with BSlam

 

[Isa]

if you dont know the differences between chansey and snorlax and the way they work and play i honestly think this isn't the proper thread to post in


either way, tauros has merits and deserves a ranking, but since the bulk is higher and the speed is faster i think A rank is justifiable, i dont see him in A+ rank at all in fact.

starmie deserves A or A- ranking in my opinion. very fast twave, water/psychic typing is good, blizzard scares exeggutor. i run LS chansey without tbolt in ubers to neuter mewtwo and starmie can stall vs. that if need be as well. reflect starmie might also be viable?
+6 Mew Earthquake vs. Starmie through Reflect: 134-158 (41.4 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+6 Mew Hyper Beam vs. Starmie through Reflect: 200-236 (61.9 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Mew Earthquake vs. Starmie on a critical hit: 155-183 (47.9 - 56.6%) -- 89.5% chance to 2HKO
Mew Hyper Beam vs. Starmie on a critical hit: 232-273 (71.8 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

so yeah starmie for A rank imo but i can see A-.

 

[Lutra]

Added Starmie and Tauros to A. I'd probably say reflect Starmie probably isn't worth it, too unreliable because of Body Slam Mew.

What do people think for Dragonite? I think its pivoting ability with wrap works pretty well with twave support, even with the multitude of bulky pokes, so I'd say B+.

Articuno has a good trait in surviving a lax boom at full health, and has the potential to wake up and do something against a paralyzed Mew if you want to ultimately fodder it off.

 

[skies]

Nominating Electrode to be ranked. Probably in the B Ranks somewhere, as it's very subpar. Has Thunder Wave to spread, beats through bulky Pokemon such as Chansey via Screech Explosion, and has Thunderbolt to smack Slowbro. Fastest Pokemon in the game, and an excellent way to check Mewtwo because it can neuter it with Thunder Wave or KO with -2 Explosion after just a tiny bit of prior damage. Lives a +2 Blizzard, and, surprisingly, +2 Psychic is not a guaranteed OHKO on Electrode. Overall, it's very niche and still very weak / frail, but it deserves a ranking.

 

[Ortheore]

bumpitty bump, idk if ppl are even interested in this thread, but it's been linked in the tour op so w/e.

I feel like Chansey and Bro both need to drop to A+

Though they are generally very useful and strong considerations for any given team, they are far from worthy of an automatic spot on a team. Not to mention that including both of them is actually very restricting, since it basically forces you into running Jynx or Egg in the last non-lead position (unless Chansey is Sing lol).

Also Gengar for B or whatever it is in the OU thread. The fact that its explosion is pathetic vs Ubers is irrelevant since in practice it's booming on all of its usual targets (Egg, Chansey) as the ubers don't come out to play in the early stages of the game, which is the only point of the game that Gengar is relevant for. Meanwhile fastest sleep is as good as ever.

Have no idea how Dnite would do in ubers so I can't say really.

Electrode is bad, Screech + boom would never work unless all you're trying to do is force something out. Which isn't worth it imo.

As for Articuno, I think of it as being more viable in ubers than in OU but if I think about it I'm not satisfied with possible reasons why. I guess it checks Mew, Egg and Lax and freezes are always nice, even if it's not well suited to protracted wars. But Bro and Chansey are abundant while Starmie is a thing as well. Idk.

Also I always wonder about how playable the tier would be if there were no freeze clause lol

 

[Mr.E]

LS Starmie and Hypno were mentioned earlier and seem to pull their weight in terms of their roles. I guess Hypno is kinda worthless after it throws Sleep, though. Like, worse-than-Alakazam worthless.

How many Mewtwo run Tbolt, really? I mean it's not unheard of, but you handicap yourself against other Mewtwo by not running IB, so Tbolt is destined to be somewhat uncommon. Slowbro's solid, stalling Mewtwo is all you CAN hope to do, and Bro's one of the best at it. Low S rank seems fitting.

Well, both Hypno and Zam have the distinction of being two of the few mons that absolutely will not roll over against Mewtwo. Being pure Psychic, they won't get destroyed by Psychic like non-Psychics (that's a fun phrase to say) and don't have elemental weaknesses to exploit like Starmie and friends. On that note, Jynx is probably pretty legit too since who the fuck is running Flamethrower/FB over TBolt and Ice Beam, but Jynx doesn't get T-Wave once it's done sleeping something.

Are people legit playing RBY Ubers right now or are we just theorymonning? Because on paper I could see TB being roughly as common as Psychic. Assuming we require Amnesia, Recover and Ice Beam to not-lose against other Mew and Mewtwo, TB is better against the other Psychics (Jynx, Slowbro, Starmie) where Psychic is better against the Normals (Snorlax and Tauros anyway, LS Chansey walls regardless). I think it's a fair trade-off either way.

 

[Lutra]

There's an RBY Ubers tournament going on the moment. This tier environment is relatively simple to study in comparison to OU, but still nowhere near enough battles have taken place to encourage skilled battlers to test their knowledge versus each other at the highest levels.

The problem with Tbolt is, it's not necessarily needed to win. Jynx can't exactly rest vs 999 Mewtwo Psychic, Slowbro has to be adequately boosted and avoid crits versus it, and Starmie needs to faster than Mewtwo for decent longevity. Tbolt additionally helps with PP warring, but it feels like you're giving up moves that have a better general fit.

 

[Mr.E]

Well Jynx isn't gonna beat Mewtwo anyway but it can eat up more Psychic PP than TBolt PP, and Psychic has less PP to begin with so that could be problematic. Slowbro only loses to Psychic/IB Mewtwo if it gets frozen, are you going to triple crit it with Psychic? TBolt Mewtwo can just kill it no questions. Both Slowbro and Starmie get Thunder Wave off and bore Mewtwo to death if it doesn't pack TBolt.

Then of course Psychic all but forces Snorlax to Selfdestruct because it's gonna get two-shot otherwise, OHKOs Tauros with crit/boost. TBolt certainly sounds appealing enough though, Body Slam doesn't have 100% PAR rate. ;[ Is Jolteon a thing? Probably not...

 

[Omanyte]

Tauros doesn't deserve an A rank. I barely ever see Tauros in Ubers and for good reasons.
No set up, no resistances, no recovery moves, Thunder Waves everywhere.