I think Pinsir-Mega should at least ranked here. It has access to a set up move, overall powerful attacks and priority. Now this priority includes Quick Attack and Feint. Feint is a big move in this metagame, ruining an opponent's Protect, Wide Guard or Quick Guard. After one Pokémon falls for the Feint, all of the others do so they aren't protected any longer. With STAB and the Aerliate ability, Feint's base power rises to 58.8. This is far from terrible when you have a +2 Pokémon on the field.
With that, I think Pinsir should either be ranked C+ or B- or at least somewhere on the viability rankings.
If you get the setup without Pinsir immediately fainting, having accomplished nothing, it's probably because your opponent has set up to Terracott sweep you or something to that effect.
If you're not carrying Wide Guard support, Mega Pinsir is prone to being OHKOed by Rock Slide. If you are carrying Wide Guard, it's still prone to dying horribly for a lot of other reasons. It eats your valuable Mega slot, and one of its biggest advantages in Singles -that it has all the coverage it needs on its own- isn't very useful in a meta where you have two teammates to handle that end for you. Fake Out is everywhere, and Mega Pinsir is perfectly susceptible to it. Stealth Rock and Sticky Web are still the primary hazards to ever get put up, and it hates both of them. It can't sweep an enemy team by itself, unless that team is hilariously Earthquake-vulnerable in which case there are other, better choices for that, like Excadrill with Sand support.
Mega Pinsir's Flying Feint is relevant, just because Wide Guard and Quick Guard are everywhere and huge, but at the same time you can usually just Feint something other than Aegislash if it is Aegislash using Wide Guard, so the obvious utility is actually fairly low. The main use I see for it is actually letting you finish off lone Protecting Ghosts, who are trying to survive the one extra turn they need for their allies to save them, and that's pretty niche.
Mega Pinsir really isn't that good in Triples.
I've been doing a bit of Triples myself, and I think Whimsicott should be B+
A Couple reasons for this: It can faint on turn 1 and still be the defining factor in winning. It has the fastest Taunt and Tailwind in the game, so it can Taunt other users before they can Taunt it, and getting up Tailwind turn 1 is a amazing boon for Special Mega-Mence and Bulky Mega Khan. It also gets Helping Hand, which with my experiences with The mons listed, as well as C ranked ones like Typhlosion, turns a lot of 2HKO's into 1HKO's. The 4x Poison and 2x Fire Weakness are a bit problematic, as well as its general lack of offensive presence, but it can screw up a good few common leads as well as often make sure that if you are facing a faster team, that you'll outspeed unless it's also a Tailwind team, in which case you just go for a Taunt. Still loses to Aromattise in the sense it can't get past the Veil with Taunt though.
It also gets access to Encore, so it can lock things into undesirable moves, like locking Aegislash into Wide Guard/Kings Shield and Mega Khan into Fake Out, forcing a switch.
Now I haven't tested out Memento/Charm/Confide just yet, but those seem like they could be useful. I'll report if it is or not once I do, though I'm already skeptical about confide..
But from what I do know, I still think it deserves to be bumped up, being one of the only Pokemon with access to a plethora of priority support moves, not limited to Encore, Taunt, Helping Hand, and Tailwind. It just has so much 1st turn Momentum Killing potential with the Utility it has.
Whimsicott should be high in the rankings just because it's part of Terracott and Terracott is king of Triples.
It doesn't actually have the fastest Tailwind in the game. That honor goes to Talonflame.
There are many reasons that I believe it should drop this much. First, there's the fact that its ability, Intimidate, can be deflected by the even more common Bisharp due to the high usage of Landorus-Therian as well as Mega Salamence and Hitmontop and Gyarados' viability (I think you see where I'm getting at with Bisharp as well, in my opinion it deserves an A+). In Doubles OU the only thing making this different is the lack of Gyarados, Hitmontop, and Salamence, resulting in less Bisharp viability, though Bisharp is still a great Pokemon there. There's also the fact that Intimidate really only gets a few of the Pokemon that are widely used on the Smogon Triples ladder according to the 1760 usage statistics.
Second, it isn't as viable as Landorus-Incarnate for a few reasons.
- Landorus-Therian needs speed control unless it's holding a Choice Scarf. Sure, games are faster, and Tailwind or Trick Room would seemingly last for longer than usual, but there are less opportunities to set them up in Triples due to the intense speed of a game. Landorus-Incarnate doesn't need a Choice Scarf due to the fact that it already outspeeds Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Charizard Y, two common threats in the meta game.
- Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian is pitiful. If you lock yourself into Earthquake (which is spread), you basically lock yourself into a move that can hit your own partners if they aren't Flying type/Levitators, but most of them stack weaknesses with Landorus-Therian and it would be better off with a partner that doesn't have the Flying type or Levitate really. They have to Protect in order to Earthquake, which seems simple enough. The catch? If they Protect the Pokemon you're trying to hit with the spread reduced Earthquake, you can't Earthquake a second time without A) hitting your own Pokemon, which can be bad depending on the situation (99% of the time you don't want to hit your partner), or B) by switching, which is difficult in this meta game due to the intense speed, and they could switch just as easily. All this time, both slots, your partner and your Landorus-Therian, are taking unwanted damage from major threats such as Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Charizard Y. Another small thing is that many Aegislash and Hitmontop carry Wide Guard which makes your Landorus-Therian pretty much walled by them (Hitmontop having Intimidate isn't fun for it either). Landorus-Incarnate doesn't have to worry about this problem, because it doesn't need to carry a Choice Scarf and it can safely switch between moves, assuming it's using a physical set. Special Landorus-Incarnate also have the option to hit Aegislash and others with a non spread Earth Power.
- Landorus-Therian's base 145 Attack stat isn't all that due to the small movepool it gets physically, as many common Pokemon in Smogon Triples are able to resist most of its moves and Earthquake and Rock Slide are both completely blocked by Hitmontop and Aegislash. It's such an awful Pokemon in my eyes that something that is weak to one of its STABs can completely wall it.
Third and finally is that in Triples, you have two varying positions for your Pokemon to be on. The Side, where you have a partner and two enemies, and the Middle, where you have two partners and three enemies. I'd like to talk about how it does on the Side and Middle first.
On the Side, Landorus-Therian can do a few things. It can spread Rock Slide flinches to the two opponents it has, though this isn't enough to consider it a great Pokemon as Rock Slide isn't really that strong due to spread reduction and you aren't guaranteed to flinch/hit really. Earthquake is only worse, as you would have a reduced power Earthquake that makes you hit yourself and can be easily blocked by opposing Pokemon with Wide Guard and you can take unwanted damage in the process, making you lose what might be a needed Heatran or Talonflame check, while also either A) making your partners waste a turn using Protect, B) making your partners take unnecessary damage from Earthquake, or C) stack weakness with other Flying types/Levitators.
The Middle is only worse. Your Landorus-Therian is a dead-weight center of attention in the Middle, as it just 100% gets stopped by Wide Guard with its main attacking moves and takes any spread move damage from any spread move aside from Earthquake or Discharge.
I would like this Pokemon, Landorus-Therian, to drop down to possibly B- to C, because it's so easily checked compared to Pokemon in even B+ rank and does less good for a team than bad.
Sure, the ladder is a bad place to get statistics from especially for Smogon Triples as I have learned (Focus Sash Brave Bird Talonflame is apparently the most used Talonflame and Brick Break/Crunch are more used than Double-Edge on Kangaskhan), but they are also the only place I can really grab statistics from, and the Top 10 most used on the ladder correspond a great amount with the viability rankings.
Alluding to the fact that Hitomontop walls it while being vulnerable to one of its STABs is meaningless. It effectively doesn't
have Flying STAB: Fly is it, and terrible. It's also no commentary on its general effectiveness anyway.
You're completely missing out on the single biggest thing Landorus-Therian brings to a team in Triples: U-Turn Intimidate. Staraptor and Masquerain are your other options, and far inferior. Landorus-Therian with a Scarf is actually quite impressive, and Bisharp being able to take advantage of its boosts isn't that impressive because Bisharp itself tends to fold to any one attack -it's weak to multiple spread moves, and even with Wide Guard support it has to fear stuff like Mach Punch. If you're providing Quick Guard support, you're back to the spread move problem. If you're doing
both in the same turn, you're, what, hoping Bisharp can solo the enemy team? It's too fast to outslow Trick Room Pokemon, too slow to keep up with everybody else, and doesn't really benefit from any of the really amazing things uniquely effective in Triples like Gravity. Bisharp has
uses, but it's not amazing, certainly not enough to make U-Turn Intimidate value-less or anti-value.
And in Triples Intimidate is basically like putting up Reflect,
just by entering the battlefield. In both cases enemy Physical damage goes down by a third, and since Triples is fast and half the enemy team is on the field at any given moment, Reflect's advantage of persisting after switches is actually surprising minor -and you can
stack Intimidates. U-Turning out also messes with Wide Guard assuming it can neutralize Landorus-Therian while getting in a different Pokemon.
Landorus-Therian isn't as good in Triples as it is in Doubles, due to Wide Guard being a lot more viable, but it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination.
Gothitelle's ability to trap opponents is just phenomonal in this meta game when you can take out the opponent very quickly, in a process I call "horde killing". The process of horde killing is having a few bulky yet fast attackers, such as Diancie, Metagross, or Salamence, to switch in while Gothitelle Protects, and let them wreak havoc on the Pokemon they just terribly want to bully, usually KOing two or even three of the opponent's Pokemon in just two turns. This is slightly weak to Bisharp, however, as it OHKOs Diancie on switchin, hits Metagross for supereffective damage with a priority Sucker Punch, and absorbs Mega Salamence's Intimidate very well, while dealing a heavy amount of damage to Gothitelle. Despite that, it also has access to a few other tricks, such as Trick Room, Competitive, and a STAB that demolishes Hitmontop in the form of Psyshock. It's an exceptional choice for counter teaming, as you can add five Pokemon that you know have a great time against a specific opponent and Gothitelle, and switch those five in whenever and wherever they are necessary. Its biggest counter and greatest enemy is Bisharp, the one thing that can just demolish a team in seconds if dealt with incorrectly, but it can be dealt with in a way by having Gothitelle trap it while something Bisharp dislikes switches in.
Trapping is incredibly weak in Triples. Switching almost never happens
anyway in Triples, except in the form of U-Turning out, Volt Switching out, or Baton Passing out for specific strategies, all of which laugh at Shadow Tag, because switching is just far, far too dangerous, liable to cost you a Pokemon rather than save your Pokemon. Gothitelle itself essentially adds nothing to your team at that point -it's a bulky Psychic type that isn't that fast, which is nothing unique and the other slow bulky Psychic types out there actually do useful things like, you know, kill enemies, or Burn them, or set Trick Room fairly reliably.
If you read the other two, you can probably already tell that I love Bisharp in this meta game. It is, in my opinion, the greatest Pokemon in Smogon Triples due to the high amount of Intimidate as well as a high amount of viable Dark and Steel weak Pokemon. If it were naturally faster I wouldn't be afraid to ask for a ban to be honest, it's just that amazing a Pokemon. It's really hard to Sucker Punch at +1 from Intimidate and not do more than 75% to a Pokemon, and after Tailwind is set up it can OHKO so much at +1 with Knock Off and Iron Head very easily. It doesn't switch well but that's not really a problem because it's a lead that stands to absorb Intimidate and Sucker Punch anything in its way.
Bisharp is tricky to use because if you're not Sucker Punching something successfully, you're probably functionally useless, and a lot of amazing teams open up with arranging teamwide benefits or ridiculous supersweepers like Terracott. (Which Bisharp is completely useless in the face of) It also hates the omnipresent Hitmontop, which is an incredible choice all around. I can see why people like Bisharp in Triples, but I'm not all that fond of it, especially since most Triples teams don't have clerics, which makes it incredibly vulnerable to stuff like being Will O Wisped by Sableye.
Hitmontop is extremely versatile and there's no reason for it to be lower really. It easily stops opposing spread moves, provides Fake Out which is incredibly useful in this meta game, and it really does deserve an A+ purely because of that. It has amazing bulk too, and it, unlike Landorus-Therian, puts use to its ability Intimidate, giving itself good bulk to stay in longer and it can actually save the day against Bisharp.
I'd seriously consider S-rank for it, honestly. It's ridiculous, a general toolbox for literally any team. It's more or less literally "any team is made better by adding it".
Smogon Triples Viability Rankings
Aegislash
Kangaskhan-Mega
Landorus-T
Charizard-Mega Y
Cresselia
Diancie-Mega
Heatran
Hydreigon
Salamence-Mega
Sylveon
Talonflame
Terrakion
Bisharp
Blastoise-Mega
Hitmontop
Keldeo
Kyurem-Black
Mawile-Mega
Metagross-Mega
Politoed
Shaymin-Sky
Suicune
Venusaur
Thundurus
Togekiss
Zapdos
Amoonguss
Camerupt-Mega
Excadrill
Gardevoir-Mega
Gengar-Mega
Gyarados-Mega
Gyarados
Meowstic-M
Rotom-Wash
Venusaur-Mega
Abomasnow-Mega
Aromatisse
Azumarill
Breloom
Chandelure
Clefable
Ferrothorn
Genesect
Gengar
Gothitelle
Hariyama
Jellicent
Jirachi
Kingdra
Ludicolo
Mienshao
Milotic
Rotom-H
Scrafty
Arcanine
Aerodactyl-Mega
Conkeldurr
Deoxys-A
Greninja
Mamoswine
Mew
Rhyperior
Sableye
Scizor
Slowbro
Slowbro-Mega
Swampert-Mega
Thundurus-T
Tyranitar
Whimsicott
Aerodactyl
Latias
Porygon2
Weavile
Clefaify
Crobat
Darkrai
Dragalge
Garchomp
Landorus-I
Latios
Lucario-Mega
Lopunny-Mega
Machamp
Pinsir-Mega
Raikou
Serperior
Tornadus-I
Victini
Virizion
Volcarona
Blaziken
Braviary
Charizard-Mega X
Cherrim
Clawitzer
Dusclops
Feraligatr
Gallade-Mega
Garchomp-Mega
Gastrodon
Manectric-Mega
Swampert
Typhlosion
Cofagrigus
Raichu
Rhydon
