Rises:
A -> A+: Celebi continues to see great success because of how adept it is at taking advantage of passive, status-reliant Pokemon like Bronzong, Vaporeon, and Mudsdale. It finds a lot of opportunities to boost up and tear through teams, and it really only needs two attacks to do so. It's still pretty easy to keep contained offensively, but Celebi is no longer the meme of the tier like it was some months ago.
A -> A+: Drapion is really consistent at making progress through teams with Knock Off and poisons from Poison Jab. Although teams will rarely fold to it at preview because of how weak it is without boosting, at +2 Drapion can make pretty decent headway into teams that lack Mudsdale or Guzzlord.
A- -> A: Golurk has virtually no defensive counterplay. You're basically tasked with winning coinflips every turn if it gets in safely. Rock Polish is also a really cool tech that sees a fair bit of usage nowadays, helping alleviate Golurk's biggest handicap: its pretty poor Speed.
A- -> A: Guzzlord is both a great wallbreaker and defensive presence. It helps contain offensive threats like Starmie, Salazzle, and Decidueye while not making your team passive as fuck. Sometimes, Guzzlord teams can feel a little slow, but NU has enough fast options in the tier to make up for it.
B+ -> A-: Goodra has seen a good rise in usage lately as more people explored Expert Belt sets to make the most of its great coverage. It can lure in and take out traditional answers to Dragon-types, namely Diancie, Sylveon, and Mantine, with Iron Tail and Thunderbolt. The insane special bulk is also really helpful, letting it check foes like Rotom-C, Celebi, and Starmie pretty comfortably.
(ground) UR -> C+: Silvally-Ground is a niche but effective sweeper. It has just enough coverage between Multi-Attack, Rock Slide, and Flame Charge to hit standard Ground-type checks and greatly benefits from Bronzong usually forgoing Levitate in favor of Heatproof.
UR -> C:
"it role compresses a helio check, momentum, and a water
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av can deal with rotom-mow kind of because it uses beam and lives storm
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mostly you're using defensive heal bell/tect w tox
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and it tends to be servicable
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helps with lazzle too"
Thanks
Meri Berry
UR -> C:
UR -> C: Sand has demonstrated enough ladder consistency to warrant placement. Its got enough pivot support with options like Dragalge and Rotom-C to make the most of sand turns, and Lycanroc + Sandslash is a pretty strong offensive core that overwhelms shared defensive stops.
UR -> C: Ribombee's Quiver Dance set is a fine late-game cleaner if you get rid of your opponent's Steel-type, which isn't too hard to do with Magneton support.
(steel) UR -> C: :) it pivots and checks Dragon- and Fairy-types
Drops:
S- -> A+: Copperajah continues to exist in this weird place where it still has a lot of raw value between its bulk and power but generally fails to make the most of it all. Teams can keep it contained offensively quite easily because its Speed is pretty awful even when invested in, and defensive answers like Bronzong, Talonflame, and Guzzlord are everywhere. The competition with Bronzong for the Steel-type slot has died down in some regards because of Diancie and Mudsdale letting Copperajah run its better sets more easily, but Bronzong's abilities and access to Iron Defense make it less vulnerable to coverage attacks and make it a late-game terror if the opponent can't quickly remove it.
A+ -> A: Sirfetch'd is still an insane breaker capable of cheesing past answers if it scores critical hits at the right time, and Choice Band sets are about as effective as ever. The main issue for Sirfetch'd is how prominent Talonflame is in addition to the plethora of other Fighting-resistant options, which make it harder to arbitrarily get through teams. Sirfetch'd's Speed also continues to be somewhat of an issue because of its really unimpressive defensive traits, which harms it in comparison to other wallbreakers like Celebi, Starmie, and Toxicroak.
A -> A-: Surely to be controversial, Vaporeon is not the premier defensive pick it was metas ago. We've seen a continued rise of Pokemon like Rest + Iron Defense Bronzong, Nasty Plot Rotom-C, Recover Starmie, Celebi, and others that either negate Vaporeon's effectiveness against specific Pokemon or just outright make its life hell. There's definitely room for adaptation, such as
Pokeslice noting Toxic as a great option, but these techs have severe opportunity cost. Vaporeon still serves as a great cleric, Wish passer, and answer to foes like Salazzle, but it's not the defining Pokemon it was in the past.
A- -> B+: Glastrier is very awkward. On paper, its stats should make it capable of blanket checking half the tier and smashing the other half with powerful attacks. However, Ice on its own sucks defensively, which limits Glastrier's defensive capabilities; its Speed sucks, meaning it suffers like Copperajah from having to trade hits to get off its damage; and the rise of Bronzong has severely hampered its ability to make progress.
B- -> C+: Aerodactyl is not good at getting past the common Rock-type checks that are plentiful in the tier. Other fast wallbreakers like Tauros, Starmie, and Salazzle are more consistent options because their defensive counterplay is more vulnerable to being taken out over time.
C+ -> C: Absol's lacking bulk, middling Speed, and reliance on Sucker Punch to pick off faster threats make it require pretty hefty support to get good mileage out of. Guzzlord is a superior option here despite the even more lacking Speed because of how much defensive utility it provides.
C+ -> UR: Charizard can set itself apart from Talonflame somewhat because of its much superior power, but that hasn't been enough for it to truly solidify a place in the metagame. Salazzle is a better wallbreaker, and defensively answering Charizard is really easy, which makes the lack of U-turn a pretty big downgrade from Talonflame.
C -> UR: Ferroseed had a little bit of use in the NU Snake tour but never really picked up at all afterwards. It's a fine answer to foes like Starmie and Dragalge and one of a few available Spikers, but it's really hard to justify using unless you really need the role compression.
C -> UR: Omastar seldom saw use as was because Blastoise has historically outclassed it as a Shell Smash sweeper, and with Blastoise's continued decline, Omastar too has lost any real reason to be used.
C -> UR:
C -> UR: Electric Terrain never caught on after Flygon's departure, and the continued high usage of Pokemon like Celebi, Sirfetch'd, and Rotom-C makes this offense archetype hard to pull off.
C -> UR: As we said in the last update, Uxie is likely to fluctuate between being ranked and being unranked. We're now unranking it because while it's usable, it's just not present enough currently to justify placement on the VR.
C -> UR: Virizion is outdone by its competition to a really horrible degree. The Speed is a plus over options like Celebi, Rotom-C, and Toxicroak, but the lack of any immediate power and awkward choices it has to make for its coverage slots severely hinder it.
C -> UR: Zoroark has never established a meaningful niche in the tier outside of a bit earlier this year where Choice Scarf was an alright set. It struggles greatly with Diancie and Guzzlord prevalence and requires setup to break through teams.