Yay, I should be more active now that my family excursion is done...oh wait, still got something else to do tomorrow, I guess its gonna be one more day until I can be truly active with SC. Oh well, now that I'm on PC again, I think its time I respond to some of the posts!
Aerodactyl @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpD
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Defog
Strategy: Set up stealth rocks on an espeon. Run a team of 5 mons all 4x weak to rocks. Switch out, win. Defog if they switch out their espeon so they don't get rocks
So you're using a strategy that's obvious from team preview but relies on your opponent not seeing it coming?
The thing I see with this is that even if its obvious, it can be hard to realize it. I guess because I don't pay too much attention to other players' teams (outside of Mega Absol teams, which kinda require you to know what's the opponent is trying to do to combat it to win), so it would probably catch me off guard. However, may I ask why Unnerve was chosen on the set? In my experience with Aerodactyl, I've found that Unnerve is a horrible ability for it, since it does nothing to support it, and can potentially backfire. I'm personally not a fan of Aerodactyl now, but I simply feel like it's useless unless it runs Whirlwind, but to each his/her own.
Few suggestions to Viability Rankings:
Decidueye UR -> A- Only user with batonpass and curse that is a ghost
Likcilicky Family -> UR Outclassed by walrein, slowpoke and to an extent charizard
Charizard A -> A+ Bellydrum user that can kill iteself 100% with sunnyday
Smeargle S -> S+ Best mon hands down, compareable to lax in gsc
Espeon A -> S Really good utility mon having magic bounce to prevent taunt/phaze spam
Illumise A -> UR Does not have trick like volbeat and oblivious set is outclassed by espeon
Alakazam Family A -> UR Outclassed now that magic guard is banned
Sunkern A- -> B- Really bad mon now that better smeargle checks have been found
Ribombee A -> A- Rise of usage in Espeon/Absol and defog hurts it
Dugtrio B- -> B A counterteaming mon that has a decent niche
I needed to post this sooner, but I delayed due to our battle just now. Just my opinions on these changes.
Decidueye: I don't know about A-. I don't see Curse+Baton Pass being that big of a niche that it can be considered A-. Now, Ghost type curse is very useful, as Alolan Marowak showed to us, but I don't see the niche Decidueye being A-. I can see B+, but not A-, since its most useful on Mega Absol teams (which have, surprisingly, haven't died down yet).
Lickilicky: Despite the misspelling, I feel like it can stay there, or maybe going down a rank, but not all the way down to unranked, since it is incredibly similar to Walrein. It is similar enough that I can see it staying there.
Charizard: still loses to Taunt, unlike the other big Belly Drummers (other than Alolan Marowak, which kills itself in two turns). If anything, I could see it dropping to A-, because of its massive Taunt weakness.
Smeargle: I don't see any issues with S+, except I don't see there being enough S ranks to justify creating a new sub-tier for the S tier. Once/If Ditto joins S rank, then absolutely, but until then, I disagree.
Espeon: Yes, I'd say its the best Baton Pass user, but I'm not a fan of drastic changes, especially when Ditto isn't yet S rank, despite being arguably better than Smeargle. I really want it to be A+, and last I checked, so does Adrian, but...yeah...
Illumise: I don't know anymore...I would use your own words that "Trick+Pecha is bad" and "Smeargle is the only good user." Yes, its Oblivious set is outclassed by Espeon, but the whole reason to use it is to bluff Prankster, which Volbeat can't do. I will say, however, that both it AND Volbeat should be dropped to A-, since neither pull as much weight as they once did whilst the meta was still developing.
Alakazam: Why is it still there?
Sunkern: Again, not a fan of drastic changes, but yeah, I agree with you there. It definitely should be dropped in ranking, I just don't know if B- is the right tier, maybe B?
Ribombee: Agreed. I was never a fan of it, so I never saw why it was worth A rank. I guess Sticky Webs will be useful for low ladder, but still.
Dugtrio: If Espeon wasn't so good, and Mega Absol was so overrated, than I would suggest making it Unranked. However, in the current metagame, I'd have to say that you are right.
Bare in mind that these are simply my opinions, so I could be wrong. And one thing that needs to change ASAP
Ditto A+ --> S: I may have been the one to get it ranked only A+, but after using it, I now agree with Adrian that it deserves S rank. Its the most safe Pokemon in the meta, as well as the best way to beat Mega Absol teams consistently. It stops so many Pokemon that it deserves S rank.
