POST WORLD CUP OF LOOR VR CHANGES (HUGE) (BIG OPINION WARNING)
RISES
A- -> A
this shouldve rose last slate but since then it only proven itself even more since. every game this guy was in during world cup, he went over time. crazy utility, crazy coverage, crazy win con. see luthiers game vs that italian guy which basically explains everything.
A- -> A
swiss army knife of OU. basically does anything you want it to do. insane winrate in wcop (mostly on that ferro spikes team). everybody kinda knows what tini does blah blah utility blah blah good typing and bulk but I want to just mention what changed on why it should rise. taunt tini on spikes is terrifying. it can force a ton of chip then just deny recovery. Encore is equally as good but i think the introduction of people using taunt is what makes tini more of a threat than its been. also the lesser used band set can just blow up a ton of teams as well.
A- -> A
this is kind of a more personal opinion rather than a general reflection of the meta i guess. clowns winrate in in wcop is kinda not good but i find the rise in scarf sets make this mon even more scary than it was before. considering your counterplay vs scarf and specs is completely different if you dont have a ttar, the guessing game blace can force can be a headache in your attempt to not get snowballed. having the strongest sball in the tier is nothing to laugh as this tier has been heavily defined by not losing to sball since the beginning, no matter how good or bad the ghosts got. trick makes the mon decently effective vs fat (though id still not heavily rely on him too much and bring something in back for guys like blissey). specs hits everything insanely strong and scarf can just flat-out win sometimes. the best counterplay is obviously rocks but with optimal play, even with rocks up, you can still maximize the value you get out of the turns blace comes in.
B+ -> A-
bulky sets on balance plagued the pools stages of wcop. rillaboom is able to keep up excellent late game pressure against more offensive builds by just existing and bulky sets seemingly never die. LO sets are still pretty scary to face on HO. while the hype for monke is slowing down, I dont see why it shouldnt rise at the moment if we matchup-y mons in A- already while its significantly better than anything in B+. i predict this guy to just be a trend that lasts a little past OLT like gastro but heym theyre fun mons! worldest fakest water resist though
B -> B+
found its way on to several spikes and balance builds to good success. being a steel thats not super afraid of zone at the jump is pretty good, soft checking a ton of top threats as well. offers a ton of utility, sd sets having a ton of coverage and defog sets being, well defog. i wouldnt slap this on a team and call your mu vs stuff like lele and weav fine and would prob recommended stacking checks to these guys but at the moment scizor being able to soft check so much is decently helpful.
B -> B+
mu chicken is getting some decent mu fishes rn
B -> B+
another mon that found itself on a ton of spike stacks and clef balances. this guy is basically a less cool gastro but can get the job done nonetheless. the ground typing is obviously very valuable and having one that can recover is insanely annoying. solidifies its niche over gastro by having sand stream which can be good for fat builds to help wear down the other team, resetting weather can be very good too.
B -> B+
i said earlier I wasnt a fan of this mon but im basically rising all the guys you see on skarm fats sooooo we might as well rise him.
B -> B+
scary rain guy, adapted to the gastro meta and washtom meta with pwhip. frog is a threat.
B- -> B
now scratch everything i said about the skarm fats builds bc they lose to crawdaunt in rain
C+ -> B-
we've seen some weakness policy stuff as well as some utility stuff lately for rachi. while its wcop winrate is horse shit, i think its niche is on the level of some the stuff im putting in B-.
C+ - B-
I think zolt is worse than excadrill for sure but zolt is actually not bad as a mu fish sometimes.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-634574 see this world cup game where suapah got the exact type of mu im talking about. BO teams with ground lando/chomp is where this thing thrives. its decently bulky and its typing isnt bad either. functions fine as a C+ mon.
i said this before but i wanna take a jab at getting this in b-. zolt doesnt like the rise of grounds with recovery but can absolutely farm teams that lack those guys. people cite spdef lando as a issue for him, however, theres a couple reasons why this isnt that huge of a problem atm. lando is not usually running max hp max spdef atm, a lot of them are running speed or mixed defenses which makes chipping lando a lot easier. sand also has a ton of options to abuse lando mus that can go in zolts favor. you can also run jank shit like toxic to put lando on even more of a timer. I really like using this guy atm and he can smash a ton of bo and offense builds given the right positioning.
UR -> C- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-637120 we got lucky
DROPS
A -> A-
heavily underperformed in wcop. a bit too passive outside of future sight and lots of offensive teams can take advantage of it. needs to run some spdef in its spread to perform consistently as a water resist but the drop in physdef makes it less good vs other none water typed physical threats. neither of the twins should drop below A- as regen water pivots are still super good in general. just this is more reflective of bros current state.
B+ -> B
increase of zap, koko, skarms have not been nice to him. also increase of other grounds that are not lando kinda throw gzaps original gameplan for a loop. lots of pokemon that can outpressure it at the moment and gets worn down pretty fast. still a strong breaker but B+ is too generous.
B -> B-
still a fun mon but very inconsistent as a wincon. has a hard time finding set up opportunities, and even when it does its dealt with pretty easily. fatter sets are being used that dont have agility and go for like rest/taunt stuff, which are cool. but very mu fishy and outclassed by other fat breakers that we have in tier. being a dark type wincon is still okay in sball go haha meta but has a hard time positioning itself by anybody who is not mimikyu stardust or storm zone.
B -> B-
i was indifferent before but after some testing i have a opinion. mews current fat set is not good. literally checks nothing and just exists to set spikes i guess? cosmic cheese will always farm certain teams but people with brains have figured their way around it now. mews current gameplan is just very inconsistent and is more in line with my vision of B-. if people experiment with more offense sets that are not cosmic power than maybe id even consider rising it but as it stands, mew is not very good right now.
C+ -> C
rise of ground types with recovery makes this things mu fish even worse than it was already. a lot of people convinced this is good have never seen a gastro in their life. the mon still farms bad ladder players but in tours hes been dead for a long time, even before the recovery ground type rise. despite being the naturally fastest mon in the meta, leki still somehow gets pressured into taking chip a lot of the time as well. its just not worth a team slot.
C+ -> C
nobody is using heater but skypenguin and its worse with gastro and hippo on the come up
C+ -> C
yes this again. insanely passive, cant even properly check what its meant to outside of like kart i guess. you can take advantage of how passive this is very easily. knocking it makes it basically useless. literally nobody uses this in tours and its only used on ladder by a certain somebody and people using their teams for fun.
C+ -> C-
i said leki was not worth a team slot, well this guy straight up terrible. functionally outclassed by lando in every way and the slug is the better water/ground in this meta. only niche has is as a tran check but with no recovery other than rest, literally use ANYTHING else. this one hurts me because mudkip is my favorite mon
might edit this if i think of anything else