Lower Tiers RU Viability Rankings Thread

[SableyeStudios]

I'd like to request a move for Gallade, from B to B+. Gallade's viability within the tier is overlooked, being able to run a variety of different sets including scarf/band with trick, and either three physical moves or SD + two moves from his extensive movepool including Close Combat, Zen Headbutt, Ice Punch, Earthquake, Fire Punch, Leaf Blade, Knock Off, Poison Jab, Rock Slide, Thunder Punch, and Shadow Sneak. For example:

Gallade (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Trick
- Knock Off
- Zen Headbutt

or

Gallade (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trick
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Zen Headbutt

These sets provide provides fast and strong coverage for many of the tier's threats, including Flygon, Virizion, Alomomola, Venusaur, Registeel, Diancie, Sneasel, M-Glalie, Escavalier, and more, all with its movepool. The only other fighting type physical attacker in the tier is the newly introduced Sawk, whose movepool is the same as Gallade's but much more limited. Gallade's high Special Defense also makes it a "tank" of sorts, absorbing attacks from Sigilyph, Meloetta, Slowking, and the tier's other Special Attackers. Running an Assault Vest set only makes it bulkier, like so:

Gallade (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Ice Punch
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Zen Headbutt

This set provides an absorber of some special moves to save other team members. Overall, Gallade's speed, physical attacks, and special bulk make it in an extremely viable member of the RU tier in general.

 

[Lord Death Man]

I don't have an opinion on moving Gallade, but scarf gallade is almost entirely outclassed by Medicham, who has the same typing and much more power - the major difference being knock off which is only situationally relevant. Assault Vest isn't really a relevant set, because it's not fast enough or strong enough to really threaten most teams, though I'll admit I've been caugt off guard by it more than once.

I believe the most relevant sets for Gallade are swords dance and MAYBE sub bulk up, because Medicham often does pure offensive sets better and Gallade's bulk is unfortunately just a bit too low for utility (such as wil o wisp or dual screen) sets.

 

[lighthouses]

Choice band gallade sorta of has a niche as well since you have knock and cc making it so running a pursuit trapper isn't a requirement, you're also a little fatter so that might come in handy sometimes

 

[Hilomilo]

I'm assuming that this thread won't be active for the remainder of ORAS RU due to the popularity of 7th gen metagames, and before I got to a few noms that I feel are worth addressing, I would just like to applaud Spirit for doing a fantastic job managing this thread! RU players seriously appreciate your contribution to the metagame and assistance of new players via this thread :)


Now, onto what I think is important, rises and drops that should occur come the potential final update. There are a few pokes that while still good, are either extremely out of place in their respective ranking due to how much worse they've gotten, or are beyond worthy of moving up thanks to having gotten a lot better in the current meta. Here's what I think should happen. Tell me what you guys think!

Fletchinder down to B/B+, preferably B

Talk about a huge fall from grace. Fletchinder is still a decent revenge killer if you need a stop to Venusaur or SD Virizion, but common scarfers like Medicham and a newer one in Drapion can take care of these threats with just as few worries and without nearly as much support. Not only does Fletchinder on your team immediately mean you need Flygon (or Blastoise but electric types will hurt), and its hard checks in Magneton, Registeel, Diancie and many more are all really common and really good right now. Honestly just doesn't compare to anything in A- anymore at all, and there are plenty of B+ mons as well that are just way more consistent than Fletch.

Lanturn up to B-

Lanturn is a lot different than anything else currently in C+ (bar aboma, which I'll get to later) in that it's able to provide itself team with a lot more overall utility. It's solid defensive typing and ability allows it to act as a check to common threats in Jolteon, Braviary and Glalie, and STAB volt switch and toxic are valuable tools that allow it to pressure the likes of Alomomola and Slowking. Really good on balanced teams, which are definitely popular in the current meta.

Gallade up to B+, Absol up to A-

It may seem a little odd to group these two together, but I decided to advocate for the rises of both Gallade and Absol because their swords dance sets are both just really good right now. Gallade doesn't have a lot of trouble finding set-up opportunities since it pressures common stuff in Venusaur and Drapion, and a boosted Close Combat is capable of OHKOing Alo frickin Momola. This thing also has great synergy with Escavalier, since both can take care of each other's checks pretty well. Absol's been discussed recently, and it pretty much just becomes an absolute menace after one swords dance boost, and is really being understated in B+ among things it's quite better than

Escavalier up to A+

Ever since the Dugtrio ban, Escavalier has just been an amazing anti-meta pokemon in that it's able to stop pretty much everything that's risen in popularity since Dugtrio's departure (bar Mega Camerupt). Its vest and band sets are both extremely effective in terms of breaking stuff like Diancie, Drapion, Venusaur and even Alomomola and alongside being a great check to the newly extremely viable threats of the tier, it's also a great teammate to the above mentioned mons. I cannot stress how well this thing does against Drapion and Virizion, which are unreally popular right now. Oh, and pursuit for things like Jellicent and Meloetta is the icing on the cake.

Abomasnow up to B-
It honestly pains me to see this thing in the same rank as Aurorus. It's just so underestimated in the current meta that it isn't even funny. So many people lazily slap a water type like Alo or Jellicent on their teams to switch into ice type attacks, and this is where Aboma's grass typing comes in, since a 252 STAB giga drain is going to do a whole lot to either of these mons and things that don't resist it. I also think that this big guy should rise, since as much mentioned above, it really shouldn't share a rank with Aurorus. It can actually run a mixed attacking set and lure its most common checks (fire types) with earthquake, while Aurorus has trouble setting up rocks or rock polish and can't pressure its checks as well. It's also worth mentioning that Fletch getting way worse helps this thing a lot.

And lastly,

Torterra up to B
Not much to say here, wood hammer and eq destroy RegiMola cores and have very little switchins on ANY archetype. Stealth rock and the ability to sustain itself via synthesis allow it to use its traits to force switches and pressure super threatening stuff like Slowking, Drapion, Diancie, and Alomomola(among others). WAY too understated within its current rank, I mean, don't tell me its less consistent than Accelgor or Hariyama.

If you read all of this, thanks so much for reading and let me know what you think! Again, thanks so much to Spirit for managing this thread and for everyone that's contributed for all the thought-provoking discussion! :)

 

[col49]

right-o, figure things are wrapping up, i'd like to give thoughts on where i figure stuff should be. i'll expand a bit on the more drastic shifts plus w.e folks want some clarification on, but i feel there's a lot of "good in theory, kinda falls short in application"-type placements rn i'd wanna get cleared before the meta completely fizzles.

s rank

• alomomola
• venusaur
• flygon

a+ rank

• registeel
• drapion
• escavalier
• virizion
• diancie
• sneasel

a rank

• rhyperior
• camerupt
• slowking
• jellicent - i feel as tho jellicent's level of activity in its role as a bulky water, in addition to its typing (most significantly providing the bug resist) grants it a pretty strong distinction in a metagame where so often you will encounter teams lookin to respond to the passivity of builds via dudes like sd (resttalk or 2-3 atks) esca and the like. furthermore, hex variants keep up this idea by granting less leeway to traditional scald absorbers such as venu and sigi. it has a much higher necessity to run colbur > lefties in this meta, which makes it a lot less capable of a glalie / camel response, but i consider it to be very much in the top 3 of waters next to king and mola rn
• glalie
• uxie
• medicham
• meloetta

a- rank

• sawk
• magneton
• scrafty - been on record saying this is probably where it should go. i think that this 'mon brought about a bit of a sea change in how dudes set up their defensive cores as it brought about a difficulty in rk'ing not familiar to the more orthodox status-resilient boosters, ie.sigilyph, malamar, etc. while heightened incorporation of stuff like leech seed venu and non-diancie faeries has buffed their handle on this, not all teams can or should take to this, and to that end i figure this should go here
• audino
• emboar
• absol - been strong for a minute; sd is a beast that remains exploitative of current balances and the fact that most drapion have to take midgame damage on most fighters have lower defense. hurt slightly by the fact that it needs to come in for free and oftentimes run lum to really gain traction, but i would say its one of the most plausible, purely offensive boosters at this time
• jolteon
• sigilyph
• blastoise

b+ rank

• delphox
• aerodactyl
• xatu
• granbull
• bronzong
• barbaracle - deffo a push, but smash barb is one of the most consistent sweepers in the tier i think; punishes a ton of type choice locks (lookin at drap, sneasel, emboar, etc.) while maintaining a mild resilience to status via lum / sub + herb and revenge-killing. most of the dudes that check it are already hard-pressed to play in on the midgame, so setting the stage for its sweep is just so fluid a process. it can sometimes get a bit dicked trying to set up vs.some balances, especially if u /really/ don't have a good history w/scald, but there are real high returns on this
• rotom-c
• spiritomb
• seismitoad
• houndoom

b rank

• exploud
• gallade
• torterra
• fletchinder
• hoopa
• steelix
• banette
• rotom-n
• vivillon
• gourgeist-xl
• hitmonlee - in the opposite direction to barbaracle, i think hitmonlee is soooooo underwhelming. contextually, it feels like hitmonlee brings nothing huge to the table most of the time. having some kinda utility is so big to most beaters (emboar has the bulk to make use of bug / dark / fire resist, esca is a given, camel plays up the volt immune, etc.), and not only does lee not have this, but it doesn't really flesh out a niche with its traits offensively either; doesn't break a granbull / def venu too effectively, slower than the usual speedy facets of balances (plus gets iced by gonner eq via awful defense), maximizes the net loss from playing around protect due to hjk being its sole strong stab, etc. all it's got to show for it is the whole offensive spinner angle, but really i don't view that as a hugely significant thing rn, both cuz its mediocre at it (back to the no free turns thing) and it really only expands into something significant w/something like a delphox pairing, a mon i think is stifled heavily already by the prominence of pursuit and / or diancie balances.

b- rank

• druddigon
• malamar
• mesprit
• lanturn
• garbodor
• abomasnow
• weezing
• hariyama
• piloswine
• gurdurr
• scyther

 

[phantom]

took some input from people over the past few weeks and here are the last updates for the gen:

Escavalier up to A+
Glalie (mega) down to A
Scrafty up to A-
Hitmonlee down to B+
Braviary down to B+
Fletchinder down to B
Absol up to A-
Delphox down to B
Xatu up to B+
Spiritomb down to B
Barbaracle up to C+
Abomasnow up to B-
Jellicent up to A
Mawile & Combusken Unranked

Thx to everyone who took the time to contribute to this thread and its various iterations over the years. See you all in SM!