As a whole I'm enjoying this version of UU much more than all of the other incarnations. Low accuracy sleep has its silly moments, but I feel like it gives a lot of depth to the tier. Ideally, you want your opponent to get a bad sleep, or work really hard to actually land it. I feel success in UU is dependent on a lot of openers, you really want to land sleep as soon as possible so you can start mashing the good buttons (Thunder Wave and attacks) and make progress, all the while making it difficult for your opponent to do the same to you. Unlike other lower tiers where sleep lines aren't really a thing, planning ahead in UU openers seems to be a bit more required in this meta. Sadly, it is pretty difficult to guarantee a sleep, you either have to take shaky odds in game or in the builder to get it.
Building in UU is a lot more freeform than in other lower tiers. In general, the further down you go, the "midpoint" team is stronger relative to other teams since there are less mons and options available in the meta. In ZU, you can pretty safely get away with running the top 5 mons and never change. PU is also in that boat, but one still needs to be mindful of sweepers so you can't just spam the same six all the time. NU's midpoint team (Mime Moth Zard Stoise) is known to run into some pretty bad matchups depending on the lead and what other mons you run. I think the UU midpoint team (Hypno Lap Kang Flier Fastmon Lead) is by far the weakest midpoint team across lower tiers. The opponent has so many options to dismantle that structure since there is no redundancy in it. Stacking two attackers that share one check is very difficult to play around that team. Especially since Kangaskhan (and other mons as well) pretty much trades for a KO when it hits the field, you WILL have to lose one of your Pokémon on that structure that is required for the structure to function. Even without that consideration, it is impossible to cover all of your bases, you want Pokémon that can check Fires, Cuno, Electrics, Haunter, Slowbro, Normals, Dugtrio, Gyara, etc. I also think UU is a very "tax" heavy metagame, where you really want to put a mon into your scout to deter certain strategies, since there are so many Pokémon. Sadly, these tax collectors don't really fit well onto the midpoint team (Slowbro, Haunter, Golem, Vic). If you think you can just run one structure in UU, I think you will not find much success, there are just way too many levers to pull to get a very favored matchup into the midpoint team. Building is very free form in UU - I've said that the type chart doesn't really matter since almost every mon in RBY can eat a hit from something, even if they are in a losing matchup. You don't need to fret that much about having the right switch-ins for the right mons for every matchup.
I'm not going to go into much detail on what a Pokémon does (mostly), you probably already know, these are more my explanations for my placements.
I don't have much to add. He soft checks every Pokémon barring like Dodrio. Most openers revolve around this guy, too. You do not want your Lapras to take a KO early without a sac or paralyzed Pokémon because this guy comes in and immediately gets sleep. The existence of Hypno puts Lapras in this weird middle state, since Hypno is pretty happy to 1v1 Lapras even without sleep. Paradoxically, I don't think Hypno is that valuable in a lot of game states. He checks everyone, but it's not a blowout since Hypno is a slowmon that gets revenged very easily. Almost every attacker barring Kadabra and electrics can put up enough damage to make Rest a non-issue.
Lapras is very dependent on the threat of sleep to be valuable. I've heard exaggerations about how offensively potent Lapras is, Lapras isn't that powerful. It is a slowmon so just trading into it and revenging is often good enough. Hypno also exists on literally every team, and I think Hypno trading with Lapras post-sleep is better for the Hypno user. Thunderbolt is probably the worst click in the tier since Pokémon that would want to come in on Lapras can do so on Thunderbolt. Switching around Lapras isn't some impossible task because of the assness of Thunderbolt, but you play a very dangerous game if Sing is also on the table. I don't think Lapras really synergizes well with early sleep because of this interaction, Lapras is very reliant on the threat of sleep to stop your opponent from dancing around you, but getting sleep early in UU is huge. I think Lapras is rather droppable because of this, Lapras doesn't really synergize well with what you want to open with, and there are definitely ways to beat Normals without using Lapras. I'd also like to shoutout Rest Lapras as its 4th. Body Slam is very underwhelming and is kind of the button you click when you need to KO a 15% mon. Surf has a bit more use cases since it gives you a 100% accurate STAB move and something to hit Fires, but it is very scout dependent. Rest isn't going to be useful in most matchups, but Articuno is a real threat, and the 10% of times you actually run into Articuno, you are grateful for the move.
Yea, that's right. ALL OF THESE MONS ARE EXTREMELY DROPPABLE: Only 1 mon is in my A tier, every other mon you need to actually think about putting on your team instead of defaulting to something.
Dragonite has a big rotund body that can trade out with pretty much everything, sadly, pretty much everything excludes Lapras and Haunter and to a lesser extent Kangaskhan so it is nowhere near mandatory. Still, it is probably the best speed control in the tier (excluding Hypno obv). It fits on an innumerable amount of structures since Thunder Wave is good. Sometimes you need one of your guys to trade out with a Fire or Electric type, and also is one of the better mons into Dugtrio. I don't think this guy is that good on midpoint teams because of the cuno weakness when stacking Kang + Dnite (unless you are woke and run Tales last). Why do I think Dragonite is better than Kangaskhan? Well, Slowbro teams are inherently worse in the meta than Lapras teams singlehandedly because of this mon. I'll get into Kang's metagame impact:
This guy is mad overrated. He isn't bad by any stretch, but please, I beg of you, put some thought on your teams instead of defaulting to Kangaskhan every time because Hyp Lap Kang kind of forces you into a midpoint team. Kangaskhan kind of forces a free trade for a piece on your opponent's team, and it is inevitable. But paradoxically, I don't think Kangaskhan really deters many Pokémon from being used, despite being so common and good it doesn't really impact the builder that much. I'd say its biggest impact is that it makes Dugtrio a lot worse (if Dugtrio ever takes a KO Kangaskhan comes in and you have to switch or give up your speed control on midpoint teams) (another reason why midpoint teams are not that good), while Golem and Nidoking get worse because of Kangaskhan, and also Dragonite gets a bit worse as well. There are just so, so, many ways to beat someone with 100% Kangaskhan usage. Haunter gives Kangaskhan a rough time, especially if you pair it with Moltres, in a similar vein, Ninetales also great at beating Kangaskhan, Kangaskhan doesn't help with electric spam or versus Victreebel, Articuno also loves seeing high Kangaskhan, surprisingly Slowbro is rather fine with Kangaskhan being used, and the stuff that Kangaskhan beats are also not too afraid of trading into it (Clef, Dodo, Persian with Growl). And to top it off, every team has a built in Kangaskhan check in Lapras. Like yea, this Pokémon is good, trading a piece of your opponent's structure is very good because they put that piece on their team for a reason, but it also forces you to run a very midpointy team since Kangaskhan provides very little defensive value that your other two slots have to pick up the slack on unless you go fishing.
You'd think this guy would be a lot worse because you'd look around and see that he loses the 1v1 vs a lot of stuff, but Dodrio is a great revenge KOer. Lapras doesn't want to come in on Bslam -> Hbeam since it basically is a sac at that point. Dodo also has enough value as a Dugtrio check as well. Dodrio pretty much forces your opponent to sac and revenge instead of trying to preserve a sac, which I find to be very valuable in UU. Dodo is also pretty much the only thing that just outright wins the Hypno mu. Kang Bslam -> Hbeam doesn't KO. I like Dodo since it is pretty much the best way to dispatch Hypno from the tier (barring sleeping it of course)-- you either get what you want, or put a ton of damamge on the opponent's team + can get lucky with paras and crits.
This guy is really, really, good, but doesn't fit that well on the standard midpoint team. Kangaskhan, Lapras, Dragonite, and Gyarados being so ubiquitous is obviously great news, and Haunter is more consistent at getting sleep because of its speed than Hypno or Lapras even though it is clicking Hypnosis. It also gives Kangaskhan a hard time which is also good. But on Hypno + Lapras + Kangaskhan teams, it doesn't really help with what the team actually needs. It needs something that can shore up its weakness to overload strategies (which tend to be special attackers), and Haunter just isn't that guy, the midpoint team also wants a fastmon, and while Haunter does qualify as a fastmon because of it outspeeds Haunter, you'd ideally want to run something even faster. Haunter also gets Hypnosis early in the game which makes your own Lapras less threatening, and running Haunter makes the Dugtrio matchup a lot worse so you want to overcompensate for it. With other electrics, you can cope because the threat of Body Slam prevents Dugtrio from just clicking Rock Slide on your head for free, Haunter really doesn't threaten Dugtrio barring boom, and booming on Dugtrio is neutral at best. The opponent won't need Dugtrio as much anymore because you just gave them the mon Dugtrio wants to check anyways. This sounds like immense haterade but the secret to running Haunter is literally to drop Kangaskhan. I am serious. They both have similar weaknesses (weakness to special attackers, ok-speed) and when you don't run Kangaskhan and stack that weakness, Haunter has a lot more room to breathe and can fulfill its goal of being the most annoying rat in every possible gamestate. Like seriously, what wants to switch into Haunter? Hypno is rather risky since it can eat a boom, which torpedoes your sleep lines. This guy is way better than people give it credit for, and you really, really want to pay the Haunter tax in the builder. Persian is a vey good Pokémon into not Haunter, and running Haunter encourages your opponent to run Dugtrio which is middling.
The stars have practically aligned for Ninetales in this metagame. I see people saying that it isn't UU because Moltres and Rapidash are better and I couldn't disagree more, if you cannot see how the current metagame is and how Ninetales fits in it, I am sorry, but I think you do not understand the tier. Let's go with the obvious -- Ninetales is a fastmon. What makes this important? Kangaskhan is on every team, and Ninetales is one of the very, very, few Pokémon that have a 2HKO on it while outspeeding. Kadabra and Rapidash have a roll. Moltres speed ties. Unless you want to run back Tentacruel, literally nothing else is in this category. That immediately differentiates Ninetales from the other fastmons (electrics and kad). Amazingly, having a button with 120 base power is better than the button with 95 base power. But what is also important to note is that Dugtrio is everywhere. Every fastmon has troubles with Dugtrio, but Ninetales is the best versus Dugtrio since Dugtrio cannot just switch into its STAB attack. This is huge, this is important, please read this damn sentence, instead of revenging a Pokémon, electric types risk thudding into Dugtrio and doing nothing. Ninetales has much fewer counterplay options when revenging something. In fact, nothing really wants to switch into Ninetales' STAB attack barring Gyarados, Slowbro, other Ninetales, and Moltres. It's a good thing that Slowbro is overhated and unused because people think it is bad because it doesn't fit on the midpoint team, and because people live in a carbon monoxide chamber and have forgotten that Ninetales even exists. Hypno gets 3HKO'd. Lapras loses the mu on switch-in. What about Dragonite? Yea, what about Dragonite. Dragonite immediately risks burn, and unlike Rapidash, Ninetales is actually bulky so Ninetales can trade into Dragonite, especially if Fire Blast burns on entry. And if it doesn't? Lapras is literally right there and eating a twave on Lapras is fine, since it allows you to not be afraid of immediately getting slept. Ninetales also has a genuinely good defensive profile. Lapras can't 2HKO it, Articuno is scared of it, and it trades out versus electrics. Very cool. Fire-types are good. (I will get into Gyarados in its section)
Even if you agree with me that Fire-types are good and electrics are overrated, if you think Ninetales is unviable because Rapidash is better in the lead slot and Moltres is better in the back I implore you to use that meat computer nestled between your eyeballs. Ninetales is nothing like Moltres, for one, Ninetales actually outspeeds Kangaskhan and Haunter, and also doesn't explode into the common Blizzbolt coverage of the tier. Dragonite getting burned on entry isn't good for Dragonite since it doesn't have the tools to actually beat Ninetales afterwards, whereas Moltres is scared out because of Blizzard and Thunderbolt so Dragonite can still safely trade. Ninetales is better into electrics than Moltres and can directly switch into Haunter, and in a pinch can switch into Lapras. Lastly, Ninetales has access to Quick Attack which is better than it seems since Fire-types tend to take para, and if you think it's bad it also gets access to Flamethrower for a baseline level of value that Rapidash and Moltres don't have (They are the only two fires that don't learn Flamethrower). A lot of people are running an absurd amount of Kangaskhan/Lapras/Hypno structures and Ninetales is like, really good into that, especially if they use Dragonite since it doesn't like switching in at all. Ninetales and Moltres are completely different mons, one is a "breaker" and that can function as an acceptable agility mon that either wants to trade out immediately for as much damage or clean up an endgame. Ninetales is a standard fastmon that doesn't have to rely on Electric STAB, so it isn't afraid of Dugtrio coming in and wants to come in and KO a difficult mon and then trade out. They are completely different Pokémon. If anything, running both of them on the same team in the back is viable and they complement each other (Hyp Lap Haunt Tales Molt is a real structure into ppl who never run double electric). And if you think Ninetales is outclassed by Rapidash in the lead slot, exert your beady little eyes by looking at these calcs,
Ninetales Fire Blast vs. Dragonite: 64-76 (16.6 - 19.7%) -- possible 6HKO
Rapidash Body Slam vs. Dragonite: 63-75 (16.3 - 19.4%) -- possible 6HKO
I have seen people say that Rapidash is better than Ninetales because it can actually threaten Dragonite, what? It literally does less damage, Rapidash is more afraid of paralysis, and Dragonite does more damage back.
Dragonite Blizzard vs. Ninetales: 86-102 (24.6 - 29.2%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO
Dragonite Blizzard vs. Rapidash: 100-118 (30 - 35.4%) -- 25.2% chance to 3HKO
This is not some binary one can threaten Rapidash and the other cannot, Rapidash has a stronger Hbeam but Ninetales has stats, they are about the same into Dragonite.
Want to be better versus every lead sleeper? Ninetales is that mon. Want to be better versus Clefable?
Clefable Blizzard vs. Ninetales: 79-93 (22.6 - 26.6%) -- 23.1% chance to 4HKO
Clefable Blizzard vs. Rapidash: 91-107 (27.3 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Or the 7th most popular lead, Kangaskhan? There are genuine use cases for Ninetales and pretending that Rapidash is outclassing it is silly. Rapidash is a bit better versus lead Dodo and lead Kadabra (which constitute 9% of all lead), Ninetales is better into sleepers, Kangaskhan, and Clefable (which constitute 28% of leads). Against Electabuzz (will get into this later), Dragonite, Rapidash, Grounds, Waters, and Hypno (Ninetales Fire blast 3HKOs and Rapidash Body Slam doesn't, but the paralysis is quite nice), they are roughly the same. It is almost as if, depending on what the opponent brings, either Rapidash or Ninetales will be better.
Some people have told me that when Rapidash gets luckier, it can get more value. I disagree heavily. Sleep is what UU is all about. It comes back to sleep. Rapidash can click Agility, risk one more turn of paralysis, and maybe get off a Hyper beam on the next guy. But when Ninetales gets lucky? you have a 70% paralyzed mon that makes your opponent's life miserable since they need to actually push past Ninetales' bulk to get sleep, which gives you a lot of opportunities to outplay. Look at the calcs, Ninetales is leagues bulkier than Rapidash in every metric, it avoids KOs that Rapidash gets hit by, a paralyzed Ninetales is worth so much more than a paralyzed Rapidash. Quick attack is very useful in the lead because of this. Versus Electabuzz, 2 Fire Blasts into Quick Attack KOs, and your opponent has to stare down a 70% paralyzed Ninetales and somehow push sleep throw it (Kang Hbeam doesn't KO from that range). Like, making sleep difficult for your opponent is so good in UU. If you view the world where the lead slot is just some ununionized laborer not apart of the team that gets sacked immediately and you don't want to extract more value from a fortunate opener, yea, sure, run the more linear option, run Rapidash, its more your speed.
Will Ninetales remain as good after this post? Certainly not! A lot of what makes Ninetales good is that the meta is absolutely not prepared for it because people just don't know what it does (how many of you actually know the Fire Blast into Quick Attack ranges?) People have said this mon is unviable, it isn't, please actually prepare for this mon instead of running Hyp Lap Kang every game. How do you beat Ninetales? Literally just run a Lapless team, man, run Slowbro, but everyone has been too afraid to do that. Gyarados isn't some silver bullet, it is slow and gives free entry to Haunter and also a lot of people just beeline trading Gyarados for 60% on Lapras at every chance they get.
At this moment, do some self-exploration, and by self-exploration, I mean self-scouting. Look at what you have ran in the past 6 months, and if you are one of the people that has been running Hyp Lap Kang on every team, look at that webpage and see how Ninetales could have owned you. If you are reading this and have placed Ninetales below 20, I command you to delete your VR, and bump Ninetales up five places NOW.
Electric leads are bad. If you twave turn 1, you make your sleep game so much harder. Please stop leading these mons, they tend to twave t1, and then make no progress and you have to throw in another mon to finish the job. In the back, they are all ok, but we live in the reality where Dugtrio is the number 5 usage mon. Maybe in the future they'll be better once Dugtrio usage dips. Raichu has all the coverage but Electabuzz has better speed, both of them are rather interchangeable but Raichu can also run Agility sets which I am a fan of. A lot of games, electrics just trade out with each other. Electrode is the worst of the electrics but I think it's the best electric on double Electric, booming to KO Dugtrio or doing enough to put Hypno in range is really good. Worth bringing as a solo electric into high Persian and Slowbro, but people do not like those mons that much at the moment. Realistically any of the three electrics are about as good as each other.
EDIT: Just thought about it and Raichu is kind of a fraud. I drop Surf on it pretty often because Golem isn't that common, but at that point, Electabuzz is just kind of better. Probably still worth bringing on double electric over buzz in the back because you do actually need to cover your bases and have a gameplan against Golem, but most other teams aren't too peeved by Golem anyways.
One of the most slandered Pokémon behind Ninetales. The first step with building with Slowbro is to drop Lapras, which is why people think this mon is bad. There are like single-digit amounts of Lap + Bro teams and they have mostly been explored, so you should try Lapless bro. In exchange for dropping Lapras, Slowbro gets to mash Thunder Wave ASAP which can torpedo your sleep game, so running it with a lead sleeper is really good. Lapras doesn't synergize well with lead sleepers, so I think most Slowbro structures should be lead Sleeper (or back Haunter/Grass) with Slowbro. You need to pay your Slowbro tax otherwise people WILL spam Moltres and Rapidash and Ninetales into you. Even with regular midpoint teams, replacing Lapras with Slowbro gives you viable teams (Moth Hypno Bro Kang Gyara Dug is something I've run before, you'd think that you explode into Lapras, nah you don't, I think Bro is better than Lap on double back Normal teams as well, Tang + Bro is also a rather good structure too)
Great into Hyp Lap Kang teams, but doesn't really fit that well with Kangaskhan itself. Dropping Kang and running Haunter is probably better. Ironically, these two are weak to Dugtrio so you kind of have to commit to bird spam.
May have peaked early in RBYPL when people thought this mon was patently unviable, but it still has an immense builder impact. For the midpoint team, Dug Kang Dnite used to be the default iteration of that team but it obviously loses to Articuno (In one game, I saw someone preserve a 27% Lapras because it was required to not lose to Articuno which was unknown if it even was on the team at the time -- this is not a play you like making). As a result, more people are building teams more robust into Articuno rather than saying that Lapras will surely stop Articuno. Likes being on teams that trade with Lapras, obviously. Probably the second best Lapless structure, where you run a sweeper like Cuno or Agility Raichu over Lapras for the surprise factor.
The time where Articuno and Moltres (and Ninetales) are this good is probably not going to last long, this is only possible because Slowbro has very low usage.
I think this guy is very, very, overrated at the moment. Dugtrio into the midpoint team is pretty dreadful. Lapras is too bulky, Kangaskhan can come in after a KO and then you are in a terrible position, the midpoint team also has a flier so you also are required to make a lot of plays just to have a functional mon. It also falters into Slowbro and Tangela teams as well. It is still great into the not midpoint teams though, and has a sizable builder impact (will get into this later with Tangela). Dugtrio wants to face off-kilter teams rather than the midpoint team, while Dugtrio also isn't that good on midpoint teams, weaknesses to birds gets stacked with Kang which is rather rough for it, so your flier ends up being a load-bearing piece that is too valuable to give up.
Persian is a Normal but I'd say its a lot close to Dugtrio than any other Pokémon. Cat is also rather bad into the midpoint team, since Dragonite kinda owns you, and you also stack all of the weaknesses that Kangaskhan brings while prodiding less defensive benefit (another Kangless angle). You should try Dugtrio + Persian. Both of them have rather overlapping checks (Dragonite) so just trading one of them into Dnite to enable the other one is rather nice. For the things that they don't overlap with, they complement each other rather well (Dugtrio for Haunter, Persian for Gyarados)
Gyara exists in a weird space. Actually having STAB is nice, but not having speed control means that unlike Dragonite, it cannot just trade out for something. Which is rough, since in a lot of games I see people switching out their Gyara because it is in a 100-0 mu vs an electric or haunt or cat. Most teams have the tools to beat Gyara as well, Lapras exists (unless you actually have something that wants Lapras gone, I don't think this trade is particularly advantaged for the Gyara user). It's also slow but paradoxically really scared of being paralyzed because it needs to outspeed Dragonite, it gets revenged rather easily too. Fitting it on a structure is rather difficult because of this, it probably best exists on bird spam and is a good enabler of Dugtrio on midpoint teams (though it isn't that simple, since electrics can rather safely bslam into Gyarados). It also is great into teams with a ton of fires, but not that great, it is slower than all of them and the fire user usually wants to trade their Lapras for Gyara anyways. Gyara also really, really, wants STAB, but it also wants Body Slam as a midpoint click, and also wants Hyper Beam to actually do damage to Hypno. I'd sooner drop Body Slam than Surf to be honest, since Body Slamming into Haunter is bad, especially in the early game when it gives the opponent a free sleep.
Pretty good on teams that want to trade with Lapras. Lapras is rather threatened by this mon and wants to click Sing as it boosts up, which permanently takes sleep off the table for the Tent user, which is good. If the Lapras user KOs tent with a crit, Hypno gets a free sleep on the Lapras anyways and you can play from there. Other mons not named Lapras or Slowbro don't like switching into Tentacruel since its Surf / Hpump hit very hard.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-861007
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-866644
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-869947
Unlike Gyarados, Tentacruel doesn't really let in other mons like Haunter that could trade in its stead or completely lose the lead matchup.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-865538
Funnily enough, Tentacruel is such a linear mon that people would rather die than let their Tentacruel touch their Lapras. As a result, people tend to stay in or make switches that are unfavored, so running Tentacruel and like, clicking Surf is kind of viable since your opponent knows that you want to bring in Lapras and chip it.
I've already said a lot on Rapidash and Fire leads in general. Fire leads are good! They are really good, in fact. The most common leads are Electabuzz, Haunter, Rapidash, Clefable, Dodrio, Dragonite, Kangskhan, and Nidoking, and fire leads have a great matchup distribution into this (Dragonite lead isn't the end of the world since they risk Lapras getting instant sleep). Rapidash doesn't really affect the tier outside of the lead slot, so I don't rank it too highly (still easily apart of UU though!)
Same issues as Rapidash in that it only exists in the lead so I can't bump it higher. I think this mon is bad on Lapras teams and is best on Bro + Kang teams. The goal of every moth's life is to sleep something ASAP and then take sleep for its bro. Staying in and going for the Stun Spore isn't the best line in all cases, a lot of people like to burn sleep turns versus moth so running a normal like Kang is really good for it.
This is the final tax collector of the tier, Golem sucks into like everyone that isn't running back buzz/trode and Doddrio, but it has boom to like have value in its bad matchups. Teams that it is viable on are not that numerous, to be honest, it is definitely one of the more scout dependant Pokémon.
Good lead but you don't want to bring it too much since lead sleepers give the opponent a huge momentum advantage. I've said that Twave leads are bad before -- they are bad because Dnite doesn't really make progress after it twaves Lapras, and electrics also don't make progress after twave. Clefable actually has buttons that do damage so I don't even consider it a twave lead, it actually takes a KO after it clicks twave. I've seen it in the back, but it doesn't really solve anything, it kind of is like Normal Type Dragonite, so I expect this mon to get better as Dugtrio usage dips. Alright neutral lead, not too bad to run in the back but I have difficulty finding teams where it naturally fits on, I need to build with back Clefable as a starting point if I end with it in the back.
Very unimpressed by it in the back, though with high Dnite usage it occasionally ends up in favored endgames. Into someone who exclusively uses paralysis leads, this guy is the goat, but I haven't been seeing people doing that after UUCL.
The final fastmon, just like tales and the electrics, it is still weak into Dugtrio but I'd argue it is even worse. Dugtrio has to respect Body Slam to some degree but Kadabra is incapable of paralyzing Dugtrio, which makes its plays much more forced. I've run it as a fastmon on teams weak to Haunter, but idk, just kind of underwhelming on those structures and very dependent on opponent scout for me to bring it out.
Unlike Golem where you can kind of cope by clicking Explosion if you don't get a good matchup, the rocks are like actual sleep sacs when they miss their scout. Aero probably has more places in the metagame on real teams that aren't fishing since it can fit onto more defensive structures while not being as passive.
The other two are more defined by their lows than anything, Oma kind of blows out Bird Spam but is just so much worse into not Bird Spam.
Kabu is worse into Bird Spam but its bad mus aren't nearly as bad since Slash gets progress (unless you run into Haunter but all the rocks are pretty bad into Haunter since it makes a dead slot on your team that can never switch into it).
Poliwrath and Venusaur are kind of real leads, Wrath speed creeps some mons and could technically do stuff if your opponent doesn't have Haunter, Venusaur is when you speed creep even more for 80 base speed, which ties Dragonite, but for some reason do not want to run Venomoth (extraordinarily rare).
I think the other mons are like, you can run them and win games. But I don't think you can contrive a use case for them to be actually worth running.
Though, I'd say everything after Raticate is complete memery and barely ordered, and I only ranked because they have seen one or two uses in previous UU metas (Drowzee is obviously unviable).
There are some mons not listed here that aren't throwing per se, but like, they make your life a bit harder for gains that aren't worth it. I think I'd see myself running Charizard out of everyone here.
Building in UU is a lot more freeform than in other lower tiers. In general, the further down you go, the "midpoint" team is stronger relative to other teams since there are less mons and options available in the meta. In ZU, you can pretty safely get away with running the top 5 mons and never change. PU is also in that boat, but one still needs to be mindful of sweepers so you can't just spam the same six all the time. NU's midpoint team (Mime Moth Zard Stoise) is known to run into some pretty bad matchups depending on the lead and what other mons you run. I think the UU midpoint team (Hypno Lap Kang Flier Fastmon Lead) is by far the weakest midpoint team across lower tiers. The opponent has so many options to dismantle that structure since there is no redundancy in it. Stacking two attackers that share one check is very difficult to play around that team. Especially since Kangaskhan (and other mons as well) pretty much trades for a KO when it hits the field, you WILL have to lose one of your Pokémon on that structure that is required for the structure to function. Even without that consideration, it is impossible to cover all of your bases, you want Pokémon that can check Fires, Cuno, Electrics, Haunter, Slowbro, Normals, Dugtrio, Gyara, etc. I also think UU is a very "tax" heavy metagame, where you really want to put a mon into your scout to deter certain strategies, since there are so many Pokémon. Sadly, these tax collectors don't really fit well onto the midpoint team (Slowbro, Haunter, Golem, Vic). If you think you can just run one structure in UU, I think you will not find much success, there are just way too many levers to pull to get a very favored matchup into the midpoint team. Building is very free form in UU - I've said that the type chart doesn't really matter since almost every mon in RBY can eat a hit from something, even if they are in a losing matchup. You don't need to fret that much about having the right switch-ins for the right mons for every matchup.
I'm not going to go into much detail on what a Pokémon does (mostly), you probably already know, these are more my explanations for my placements.
I don't have much to add. He soft checks every Pokémon barring like Dodrio. Most openers revolve around this guy, too. You do not want your Lapras to take a KO early without a sac or paralyzed Pokémon because this guy comes in and immediately gets sleep. The existence of Hypno puts Lapras in this weird middle state, since Hypno is pretty happy to 1v1 Lapras even without sleep. Paradoxically, I don't think Hypno is that valuable in a lot of game states. He checks everyone, but it's not a blowout since Hypno is a slowmon that gets revenged very easily. Almost every attacker barring Kadabra and electrics can put up enough damage to make Rest a non-issue. Lapras is very dependent on the threat of sleep to be valuable. I've heard exaggerations about how offensively potent Lapras is, Lapras isn't that powerful. It is a slowmon so just trading into it and revenging is often good enough. Hypno also exists on literally every team, and I think Hypno trading with Lapras post-sleep is better for the Hypno user. Thunderbolt is probably the worst click in the tier since Pokémon that would want to come in on Lapras can do so on Thunderbolt. Switching around Lapras isn't some impossible task because of the assness of Thunderbolt, but you play a very dangerous game if Sing is also on the table. I don't think Lapras really synergizes well with early sleep because of this interaction, Lapras is very reliant on the threat of sleep to stop your opponent from dancing around you, but getting sleep early in UU is huge. I think Lapras is rather droppable because of this, Lapras doesn't really synergize well with what you want to open with, and there are definitely ways to beat Normals without using Lapras. I'd also like to shoutout Rest Lapras as its 4th. Body Slam is very underwhelming and is kind of the button you click when you need to KO a 15% mon. Surf has a bit more use cases since it gives you a 100% accurate STAB move and something to hit Fires, but it is very scout dependent. Rest isn't going to be useful in most matchups, but Articuno is a real threat, and the 10% of times you actually run into Articuno, you are grateful for the move.Yea, that's right. ALL OF THESE MONS ARE EXTREMELY DROPPABLE: Only 1 mon is in my A tier, every other mon you need to actually think about putting on your team instead of defaulting to something.
Dragonite has a big rotund body that can trade out with pretty much everything, sadly, pretty much everything excludes Lapras and Haunter and to a lesser extent Kangaskhan so it is nowhere near mandatory. Still, it is probably the best speed control in the tier (excluding Hypno obv). It fits on an innumerable amount of structures since Thunder Wave is good. Sometimes you need one of your guys to trade out with a Fire or Electric type, and also is one of the better mons into Dugtrio. I don't think this guy is that good on midpoint teams because of the cuno weakness when stacking Kang + Dnite (unless you are woke and run Tales last). Why do I think Dragonite is better than Kangaskhan? Well, Slowbro teams are inherently worse in the meta than Lapras teams singlehandedly because of this mon. I'll get into Kang's metagame impact: This guy is mad overrated. He isn't bad by any stretch, but please, I beg of you, put some thought on your teams instead of defaulting to Kangaskhan every time because Hyp Lap Kang kind of forces you into a midpoint team. Kangaskhan kind of forces a free trade for a piece on your opponent's team, and it is inevitable. But paradoxically, I don't think Kangaskhan really deters many Pokémon from being used, despite being so common and good it doesn't really impact the builder that much. I'd say its biggest impact is that it makes Dugtrio a lot worse (if Dugtrio ever takes a KO Kangaskhan comes in and you have to switch or give up your speed control on midpoint teams) (another reason why midpoint teams are not that good), while Golem and Nidoking get worse because of Kangaskhan, and also Dragonite gets a bit worse as well. There are just so, so, many ways to beat someone with 100% Kangaskhan usage. Haunter gives Kangaskhan a rough time, especially if you pair it with Moltres, in a similar vein, Ninetales also great at beating Kangaskhan, Kangaskhan doesn't help with electric spam or versus Victreebel, Articuno also loves seeing high Kangaskhan, surprisingly Slowbro is rather fine with Kangaskhan being used, and the stuff that Kangaskhan beats are also not too afraid of trading into it (Clef, Dodo, Persian with Growl). And to top it off, every team has a built in Kangaskhan check in Lapras. Like yea, this Pokémon is good, trading a piece of your opponent's structure is very good because they put that piece on their team for a reason, but it also forces you to run a very midpointy team since Kangaskhan provides very little defensive value that your other two slots have to pick up the slack on unless you go fishing. You'd think this guy would be a lot worse because you'd look around and see that he loses the 1v1 vs a lot of stuff, but Dodrio is a great revenge KOer. Lapras doesn't want to come in on Bslam -> Hbeam since it basically is a sac at that point. Dodo also has enough value as a Dugtrio check as well. Dodrio pretty much forces your opponent to sac and revenge instead of trying to preserve a sac, which I find to be very valuable in UU. Dodo is also pretty much the only thing that just outright wins the Hypno mu. Kang Bslam -> Hbeam doesn't KO. I like Dodo since it is pretty much the best way to dispatch Hypno from the tier (barring sleeping it of course)-- you either get what you want, or put a ton of damamge on the opponent's team + can get lucky with paras and crits. This guy is really, really, good, but doesn't fit that well on the standard midpoint team. Kangaskhan, Lapras, Dragonite, and Gyarados being so ubiquitous is obviously great news, and Haunter is more consistent at getting sleep because of its speed than Hypno or Lapras even though it is clicking Hypnosis. It also gives Kangaskhan a hard time which is also good. But on Hypno + Lapras + Kangaskhan teams, it doesn't really help with what the team actually needs. It needs something that can shore up its weakness to overload strategies (which tend to be special attackers), and Haunter just isn't that guy, the midpoint team also wants a fastmon, and while Haunter does qualify as a fastmon because of it outspeeds Haunter, you'd ideally want to run something even faster. Haunter also gets Hypnosis early in the game which makes your own Lapras less threatening, and running Haunter makes the Dugtrio matchup a lot worse so you want to overcompensate for it. With other electrics, you can cope because the threat of Body Slam prevents Dugtrio from just clicking Rock Slide on your head for free, Haunter really doesn't threaten Dugtrio barring boom, and booming on Dugtrio is neutral at best. The opponent won't need Dugtrio as much anymore because you just gave them the mon Dugtrio wants to check anyways. This sounds like immense haterade but the secret to running Haunter is literally to drop Kangaskhan. I am serious. They both have similar weaknesses (weakness to special attackers, ok-speed) and when you don't run Kangaskhan and stack that weakness, Haunter has a lot more room to breathe and can fulfill its goal of being the most annoying rat in every possible gamestate. Like seriously, what wants to switch into Haunter? Hypno is rather risky since it can eat a boom, which torpedoes your sleep lines. This guy is way better than people give it credit for, and you really, really want to pay the Haunter tax in the builder. Persian is a vey good Pokémon into not Haunter, and running Haunter encourages your opponent to run Dugtrio which is middling. The stars have practically aligned for Ninetales in this metagame. I see people saying that it isn't UU because Moltres and Rapidash are better and I couldn't disagree more, if you cannot see how the current metagame is and how Ninetales fits in it, I am sorry, but I think you do not understand the tier. Let's go with the obvious -- Ninetales is a fastmon. What makes this important? Kangaskhan is on every team, and Ninetales is one of the very, very, few Pokémon that have a 2HKO on it while outspeeding. Kadabra and Rapidash have a roll. Moltres speed ties. Unless you want to run back Tentacruel, literally nothing else is in this category. That immediately differentiates Ninetales from the other fastmons (electrics and kad). Amazingly, having a button with 120 base power is better than the button with 95 base power. But what is also important to note is that Dugtrio is everywhere. Every fastmon has troubles with Dugtrio, but Ninetales is the best versus Dugtrio since Dugtrio cannot just switch into its STAB attack. This is huge, this is important, please read this damn sentence, instead of revenging a Pokémon, electric types risk thudding into Dugtrio and doing nothing. Ninetales has much fewer counterplay options when revenging something. In fact, nothing really wants to switch into Ninetales' STAB attack barring Gyarados, Slowbro, other Ninetales, and Moltres. It's a good thing that Slowbro is overhated and unused because people think it is bad because it doesn't fit on the midpoint team, and because people live in a carbon monoxide chamber and have forgotten that Ninetales even exists. Hypno gets 3HKO'd. Lapras loses the mu on switch-in. What about Dragonite? Yea, what about Dragonite. Dragonite immediately risks burn, and unlike Rapidash, Ninetales is actually bulky so Ninetales can trade into Dragonite, especially if Fire Blast burns on entry. And if it doesn't? Lapras is literally right there and eating a twave on Lapras is fine, since it allows you to not be afraid of immediately getting slept. Ninetales also has a genuinely good defensive profile. Lapras can't 2HKO it, Articuno is scared of it, and it trades out versus electrics. Very cool. Fire-types are good. (I will get into Gyarados in its section)Even if you agree with me that Fire-types are good and electrics are overrated, if you think Ninetales is unviable because Rapidash is better in the lead slot and Moltres is better in the back I implore you to use that meat computer nestled between your eyeballs. Ninetales is nothing like Moltres, for one, Ninetales actually outspeeds Kangaskhan and Haunter, and also doesn't explode into the common Blizzbolt coverage of the tier. Dragonite getting burned on entry isn't good for Dragonite since it doesn't have the tools to actually beat Ninetales afterwards, whereas Moltres is scared out because of Blizzard and Thunderbolt so Dragonite can still safely trade. Ninetales is better into electrics than Moltres and can directly switch into Haunter, and in a pinch can switch into Lapras. Lastly, Ninetales has access to Quick Attack which is better than it seems since Fire-types tend to take para, and if you think it's bad it also gets access to Flamethrower for a baseline level of value that Rapidash and Moltres don't have (They are the only two fires that don't learn Flamethrower). A lot of people are running an absurd amount of Kangaskhan/Lapras/Hypno structures and Ninetales is like, really good into that, especially if they use Dragonite since it doesn't like switching in at all. Ninetales and Moltres are completely different mons, one is a "breaker" and that can function as an acceptable agility mon that either wants to trade out immediately for as much damage or clean up an endgame. Ninetales is a standard fastmon that doesn't have to rely on Electric STAB, so it isn't afraid of Dugtrio coming in and wants to come in and KO a difficult mon and then trade out. They are completely different Pokémon. If anything, running both of them on the same team in the back is viable and they complement each other (Hyp Lap Haunt Tales Molt is a real structure into ppl who never run double electric). And if you think Ninetales is outclassed by Rapidash in the lead slot, exert your beady little eyes by looking at these calcs,
Ninetales Fire Blast vs. Dragonite: 64-76 (16.6 - 19.7%) -- possible 6HKO
Rapidash Body Slam vs. Dragonite: 63-75 (16.3 - 19.4%) -- possible 6HKO
I have seen people say that Rapidash is better than Ninetales because it can actually threaten Dragonite, what? It literally does less damage, Rapidash is more afraid of paralysis, and Dragonite does more damage back.
Dragonite Blizzard vs. Ninetales: 86-102 (24.6 - 29.2%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO
Dragonite Blizzard vs. Rapidash: 100-118 (30 - 35.4%) -- 25.2% chance to 3HKO
This is not some binary one can threaten Rapidash and the other cannot, Rapidash has a stronger Hbeam but Ninetales has stats, they are about the same into Dragonite.
Want to be better versus every lead sleeper? Ninetales is that mon. Want to be better versus Clefable?
Clefable Blizzard vs. Ninetales: 79-93 (22.6 - 26.6%) -- 23.1% chance to 4HKO
Clefable Blizzard vs. Rapidash: 91-107 (27.3 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Or the 7th most popular lead, Kangaskhan? There are genuine use cases for Ninetales and pretending that Rapidash is outclassing it is silly. Rapidash is a bit better versus lead Dodo and lead Kadabra (which constitute 9% of all lead), Ninetales is better into sleepers, Kangaskhan, and Clefable (which constitute 28% of leads). Against Electabuzz (will get into this later), Dragonite, Rapidash, Grounds, Waters, and Hypno (Ninetales Fire blast 3HKOs and Rapidash Body Slam doesn't, but the paralysis is quite nice), they are roughly the same. It is almost as if, depending on what the opponent brings, either Rapidash or Ninetales will be better.
Some people have told me that when Rapidash gets luckier, it can get more value. I disagree heavily. Sleep is what UU is all about. It comes back to sleep. Rapidash can click Agility, risk one more turn of paralysis, and maybe get off a Hyper beam on the next guy. But when Ninetales gets lucky? you have a 70% paralyzed mon that makes your opponent's life miserable since they need to actually push past Ninetales' bulk to get sleep, which gives you a lot of opportunities to outplay. Look at the calcs, Ninetales is leagues bulkier than Rapidash in every metric, it avoids KOs that Rapidash gets hit by, a paralyzed Ninetales is worth so much more than a paralyzed Rapidash. Quick attack is very useful in the lead because of this. Versus Electabuzz, 2 Fire Blasts into Quick Attack KOs, and your opponent has to stare down a 70% paralyzed Ninetales and somehow push sleep throw it (Kang Hbeam doesn't KO from that range). Like, making sleep difficult for your opponent is so good in UU. If you view the world where the lead slot is just some ununionized laborer not apart of the team that gets sacked immediately and you don't want to extract more value from a fortunate opener, yea, sure, run the more linear option, run Rapidash, its more your speed.
Will Ninetales remain as good after this post? Certainly not! A lot of what makes Ninetales good is that the meta is absolutely not prepared for it because people just don't know what it does (how many of you actually know the Fire Blast into Quick Attack ranges?) People have said this mon is unviable, it isn't, please actually prepare for this mon instead of running Hyp Lap Kang every game. How do you beat Ninetales? Literally just run a Lapless team, man, run Slowbro, but everyone has been too afraid to do that. Gyarados isn't some silver bullet, it is slow and gives free entry to Haunter and also a lot of people just beeline trading Gyarados for 60% on Lapras at every chance they get.
At this moment, do some self-exploration, and by self-exploration, I mean self-scouting. Look at what you have ran in the past 6 months, and if you are one of the people that has been running Hyp Lap Kang on every team, look at that webpage and see how Ninetales could have owned you. If you are reading this and have placed Ninetales below 20, I command you to delete your VR, and bump Ninetales up five places NOW.
Electric leads are bad. If you twave turn 1, you make your sleep game so much harder. Please stop leading these mons, they tend to twave t1, and then make no progress and you have to throw in another mon to finish the job. In the back, they are all ok, but we live in the reality where Dugtrio is the number 5 usage mon. Maybe in the future they'll be better once Dugtrio usage dips. Raichu has all the coverage but Electabuzz has better speed, both of them are rather interchangeable but Raichu can also run Agility sets which I am a fan of. A lot of games, electrics just trade out with each other. Electrode is the worst of the electrics but I think it's the best electric on double Electric, booming to KO Dugtrio or doing enough to put Hypno in range is really good. Worth bringing as a solo electric into high Persian and Slowbro, but people do not like those mons that much at the moment. Realistically any of the three electrics are about as good as each other.EDIT: Just thought about it and Raichu is kind of a fraud. I drop Surf on it pretty often because Golem isn't that common, but at that point, Electabuzz is just kind of better. Probably still worth bringing on double electric over buzz in the back because you do actually need to cover your bases and have a gameplan against Golem, but most other teams aren't too peeved by Golem anyways.
One of the most slandered Pokémon behind Ninetales. The first step with building with Slowbro is to drop Lapras, which is why people think this mon is bad. There are like single-digit amounts of Lap + Bro teams and they have mostly been explored, so you should try Lapless bro. In exchange for dropping Lapras, Slowbro gets to mash Thunder Wave ASAP which can torpedo your sleep game, so running it with a lead sleeper is really good. Lapras doesn't synergize well with lead sleepers, so I think most Slowbro structures should be lead Sleeper (or back Haunter/Grass) with Slowbro. You need to pay your Slowbro tax otherwise people WILL spam Moltres and Rapidash and Ninetales into you. Even with regular midpoint teams, replacing Lapras with Slowbro gives you viable teams (Moth Hypno Bro Kang Gyara Dug is something I've run before, you'd think that you explode into Lapras, nah you don't, I think Bro is better than Lap on double back Normal teams as well, Tang + Bro is also a rather good structure too) Great into Hyp Lap Kang teams, but doesn't really fit that well with Kangaskhan itself. Dropping Kang and running Haunter is probably better. Ironically, these two are weak to Dugtrio so you kind of have to commit to bird spam. May have peaked early in RBYPL when people thought this mon was patently unviable, but it still has an immense builder impact. For the midpoint team, Dug Kang Dnite used to be the default iteration of that team but it obviously loses to Articuno (In one game, I saw someone preserve a 27% Lapras because it was required to not lose to Articuno which was unknown if it even was on the team at the time -- this is not a play you like making). As a result, more people are building teams more robust into Articuno rather than saying that Lapras will surely stop Articuno. Likes being on teams that trade with Lapras, obviously. Probably the second best Lapless structure, where you run a sweeper like Cuno or Agility Raichu over Lapras for the surprise factor.The time where Articuno and Moltres (and Ninetales) are this good is probably not going to last long, this is only possible because Slowbro has very low usage.
I think this guy is very, very, overrated at the moment. Dugtrio into the midpoint team is pretty dreadful. Lapras is too bulky, Kangaskhan can come in after a KO and then you are in a terrible position, the midpoint team also has a flier so you also are required to make a lot of plays just to have a functional mon. It also falters into Slowbro and Tangela teams as well. It is still great into the not midpoint teams though, and has a sizable builder impact (will get into this later with Tangela). Dugtrio wants to face off-kilter teams rather than the midpoint team, while Dugtrio also isn't that good on midpoint teams, weaknesses to birds gets stacked with Kang which is rather rough for it, so your flier ends up being a load-bearing piece that is too valuable to give up. Persian is a Normal but I'd say its a lot close to Dugtrio than any other Pokémon. Cat is also rather bad into the midpoint team, since Dragonite kinda owns you, and you also stack all of the weaknesses that Kangaskhan brings while prodiding less defensive benefit (another Kangless angle). You should try Dugtrio + Persian. Both of them have rather overlapping checks (Dragonite) so just trading one of them into Dnite to enable the other one is rather nice. For the things that they don't overlap with, they complement each other rather well (Dugtrio for Haunter, Persian for Gyarados) Gyara exists in a weird space. Actually having STAB is nice, but not having speed control means that unlike Dragonite, it cannot just trade out for something. Which is rough, since in a lot of games I see people switching out their Gyara because it is in a 100-0 mu vs an electric or haunt or cat. Most teams have the tools to beat Gyara as well, Lapras exists (unless you actually have something that wants Lapras gone, I don't think this trade is particularly advantaged for the Gyara user). It's also slow but paradoxically really scared of being paralyzed because it needs to outspeed Dragonite, it gets revenged rather easily too. Fitting it on a structure is rather difficult because of this, it probably best exists on bird spam and is a good enabler of Dugtrio on midpoint teams (though it isn't that simple, since electrics can rather safely bslam into Gyarados). It also is great into teams with a ton of fires, but not that great, it is slower than all of them and the fire user usually wants to trade their Lapras for Gyara anyways. Gyara also really, really, wants STAB, but it also wants Body Slam as a midpoint click, and also wants Hyper Beam to actually do damage to Hypno. I'd sooner drop Body Slam than Surf to be honest, since Body Slamming into Haunter is bad, especially in the early game when it gives the opponent a free sleep.Both of these guys are actually pretty different but they just happened to end up next to each other on my VR.
This guy does no damage and doesn't synergize well with Lapras, but it enables a ton of archetypes. Haunt + Molt appreciate Tang, Electric spam does as well, a lot of teams that drop Kangaskhan to stack a certain type of attacker tend to have a rough time versus Dugtrio (ironically, depending on what type of birds you bring, Dugtrio could be a problem for bird spam). Tangela is the mon that enables those teams to be actually safe bringing into a game rather than just being matchup fishes.
Also suffers from not synergizing well with Lapras. Pretty good on Slowbro teams. Not that good as a defensive piece. Victreebel is also why I am on that Ninetales gas, Rapidash just dies for damage if you get lucky, while Ninetales allows you to keep a sac so you can get free entry on Hypno and sleep it. Sacs are really important when playing with Victreebel, since although it technically outspeeds Hypno, it has a difficult time coming in to actually make use of that trait.
This guy does no damage and doesn't synergize well with Lapras, but it enables a ton of archetypes. Haunt + Molt appreciate Tang, Electric spam does as well, a lot of teams that drop Kangaskhan to stack a certain type of attacker tend to have a rough time versus Dugtrio (ironically, depending on what type of birds you bring, Dugtrio could be a problem for bird spam). Tangela is the mon that enables those teams to be actually safe bringing into a game rather than just being matchup fishes. Also suffers from not synergizing well with Lapras. Pretty good on Slowbro teams. Not that good as a defensive piece. Victreebel is also why I am on that Ninetales gas, Rapidash just dies for damage if you get lucky, while Ninetales allows you to keep a sac so you can get free entry on Hypno and sleep it. Sacs are really important when playing with Victreebel, since although it technically outspeeds Hypno, it has a difficult time coming in to actually make use of that trait. Pretty good on teams that want to trade with Lapras. Lapras is rather threatened by this mon and wants to click Sing as it boosts up, which permanently takes sleep off the table for the Tent user, which is good. If the Lapras user KOs tent with a crit, Hypno gets a free sleep on the Lapras anyways and you can play from there. Other mons not named Lapras or Slowbro don't like switching into Tentacruel since its Surf / Hpump hit very hard.https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-861007
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-866644
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-869947
Unlike Gyarados, Tentacruel doesn't really let in other mons like Haunter that could trade in its stead or completely lose the lead matchup.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1uu-865538
Funnily enough, Tentacruel is such a linear mon that people would rather die than let their Tentacruel touch their Lapras. As a result, people tend to stay in or make switches that are unfavored, so running Tentacruel and like, clicking Surf is kind of viable since your opponent knows that you want to bring in Lapras and chip it.
I've already said a lot on Rapidash and Fire leads in general. Fire leads are good! They are really good, in fact. The most common leads are Electabuzz, Haunter, Rapidash, Clefable, Dodrio, Dragonite, Kangskhan, and Nidoking, and fire leads have a great matchup distribution into this (Dragonite lead isn't the end of the world since they risk Lapras getting instant sleep). Rapidash doesn't really affect the tier outside of the lead slot, so I don't rank it too highly (still easily apart of UU though!) Same issues as Rapidash in that it only exists in the lead so I can't bump it higher. I think this mon is bad on Lapras teams and is best on Bro + Kang teams. The goal of every moth's life is to sleep something ASAP and then take sleep for its bro. Staying in and going for the Stun Spore isn't the best line in all cases, a lot of people like to burn sleep turns versus moth so running a normal like Kang is really good for it. This is the final tax collector of the tier, Golem sucks into like everyone that isn't running back buzz/trode and Doddrio, but it has boom to like have value in its bad matchups. Teams that it is viable on are not that numerous, to be honest, it is definitely one of the more scout dependant Pokémon. Good lead but you don't want to bring it too much since lead sleepers give the opponent a huge momentum advantage. I've said that Twave leads are bad before -- they are bad because Dnite doesn't really make progress after it twaves Lapras, and electrics also don't make progress after twave. Clefable actually has buttons that do damage so I don't even consider it a twave lead, it actually takes a KO after it clicks twave. I've seen it in the back, but it doesn't really solve anything, it kind of is like Normal Type Dragonite, so I expect this mon to get better as Dugtrio usage dips. Alright neutral lead, not too bad to run in the back but I have difficulty finding teams where it naturally fits on, I need to build with back Clefable as a starting point if I end with it in the back. Very unimpressed by it in the back, though with high Dnite usage it occasionally ends up in favored endgames. Into someone who exclusively uses paralysis leads, this guy is the goat, but I haven't been seeing people doing that after UUCL. The final fastmon, just like tales and the electrics, it is still weak into Dugtrio but I'd argue it is even worse. Dugtrio has to respect Body Slam to some degree but Kadabra is incapable of paralyzing Dugtrio, which makes its plays much more forced. I've run it as a fastmon on teams weak to Haunter, but idk, just kind of underwhelming on those structures and very dependent on opponent scout for me to bring it out. Unlike Golem where you can kind of cope by clicking Explosion if you don't get a good matchup, the rocks are like actual sleep sacs when they miss their scout. Aero probably has more places in the metagame on real teams that aren't fishing since it can fit onto more defensive structures while not being as passive.The other two are more defined by their lows than anything, Oma kind of blows out Bird Spam but is just so much worse into not Bird Spam.
Kabu is worse into Bird Spam but its bad mus aren't nearly as bad since Slash gets progress (unless you run into Haunter but all the rocks are pretty bad into Haunter since it makes a dead slot on your team that can never switch into it).
Poliwrath and Venusaur are kind of real leads, Wrath speed creeps some mons and could technically do stuff if your opponent doesn't have Haunter, Venusaur is when you speed creep even more for 80 base speed, which ties Dragonite, but for some reason do not want to run Venomoth (extraordinarily rare). I think the other mons are like, you can run them and win games. But I don't think you can contrive a use case for them to be actually worth running.
Though, I'd say everything after Raticate is complete memery and barely ordered, and I only ranked because they have seen one or two uses in previous UU metas (Drowzee is obviously unviable).
There are some mons not listed here that aren't throwing per se, but like, they make your life a bit harder for gains that aren't worth it. I think I'd see myself running Charizard out of everyone here.
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