Project SV ZU Personal VR

[FlamPoke]

Hey all, relatively new to ZU but have peaked at 1495 on ladder and wanted to share both my opinions of the tier/metagame AND a Tiermaker I made for you to share yours as well! https://tiermaker.com/create/february-2024-sv-zu-16598396

All tiers are in order alphabetically, but everything should be roughly where it belongs; most stuff could go up or down a grade and I would be fine with it but these are my personal opinions thus far!

​

A short breakdown of a handful of mons I think are worth discussing:
- Speed Boost + Swords Dance makes this torched chicken a great setup sweeper if you can manage it well.
- A personal favorite of mine in the tier, capable of running Physical or Special sets pretty nicely and has nice natural bulk, especially when coupled with Assault Vest.
- Arguably the most dangerous mon in the tier, after just one Quiver Dance this thing can be quite difficult to manage and it has multiple viable Tera types to capitalize on.
- Prankster Encore + Thunder Wave / Will-O-Wisp is insanely good in this meta given the litany of setup options available.
- Right there with Ori-P for me as a dangerous mon, the stat distribution really helps here because you can run all sorts of sets (Life Orb, Choice Scarf or Specs, Leftovers Sub/Leech, etc).
- Very strong, very fast and great STAB options to abuse when coupled with a Swords Dance.
- Hard to kill and spreads Toxic / Toxic Spikes pretty comfortably while spamming Body Press / Knock Off / Poison Jab.
- One of the best breakers in the tier with the option to run Choice Band, Scarf of Leftovers with a Bulk Up set.
- Fillet Away gives this the equivalent of a Shell Smash at the minimal cost of 50% HP (25% if you run Sitrus, which you should). If given the turn to setup this can get out of hand quickly.

 

[fish anemometer]

didn't think very hard about this, mostly as there is a lot of mons and not a lot of quality games to go off of, but am open to discussion !

fish vr

 

[plznostep]

Rough Viability List for people to know what to use before ZUWC happens, I want players have actual resources for the tier and quality games so there is an actual fight for all countries and development instead of someone bringing Quaxwell thinking its good. Thank me later, will be excluding Pokemon I think who are broken from the list, they will be put below instead and assumed banned. Probably some questionable placements but it doesn't matter, you'll get the gist of how good something is anyway.

Broken
Malamar
Frosmoth
Vulpix (Drought)

Top
Muk
Passimian
Rotom


High
Abomasnow
Arboliva
Articuno
Basculin
Combusken
Eelektross
Lurantis
Magmortar
Magneton
Morpeko
Oricorio-Pa'u
Orthworm
Persian-Alola
Piloswine
Poliwrath
Pyroar
Raichu-Alola
Rhydon
Shaymin
Sneasel
Sneasel-Hisui:
Spiritomb
Tauros
Toedscruel
Toxicroak
Veluza
Venomoth
Whiscash

Mid
Appletun
Avalugg-Hisui
Beartic
Crabominable
Cryogonal
Dipplin
Golduck
Gurdurr
Haunter
Houndoom
Lapras
Ludicolo
Lycanroc-Midnight
Mabosstiff
Masquerain
Medicham
Naclstack
Oranguru
Perrserker
Primeape
Probopass
Raichu
Rotom-Frost
Sableye
Samurott
Shiftry
Trevenant
Victreebel

Low
Ampharos
Arbok
Banette
Bellossom
Cacturne
Dachsbun
Ditto
Dugtrio
Dugtrio-Alola
Electivire
Exeggutor
Flapple
Flareon
Glaceon
Granbull
Honchkrow
Indeedee-F
Komala
Meganium
Noctowl
Quaxwell
Rabsca
Rampardos
Regice
Rotom-Fan
Scovillain
Tauros-Paldea-Combat
Vespiquen
Vivillon
Volbeat

 

[wooper]

top
dipplin
muk

high
abomasnow
arboliva
articuno
avalugg-hisui
basculin
eelektross
lurantis
gurdurr
magmortar
magneton
morpeko
oricorio-Pa'u
orthworm
piloswine
poliwrath
pyroar
primeape
raichu-alola
rotom
rhydon
shaymin
sneasel
sneasel-hisui
spiritomb
swanna
pauros
toedscruel
toxicroak
veluza
Whiscash

mid
appletun
beartic
bellossom
cacturne
camerupt
combusken
crabominable
cryogonal
electivire
exeggutor
glaceon
golem
honchkrow
houndoom
indeedee-f
lycanroc-midnight
mabosstiff
naclstack
perrserker
persian-alola
raichu
rotom-fan
sableye
samurott
tauros
trevenant

the rest are either low or ur and idc to distinguish atp truly!

 

[FlamPoke]

Figured I'd join in at some point regarding my thoughts on the new (and still developing) metagame. All tiers in alphabetical order and I'd be willing to argue one tier up/down for any mon. Brief workup of each tier included.

S Rank:
Not sure anything has really seperated itself from the rest of the pack enough to warrant an S right now...

A+ Rank:


Charizard is still a threat, though I don't think it is the clear top dog in the meta like some. Mesprit is sneaky broken, capable of being a top-notch support mon or setup sweeper. Passimian is probably the best Choice Scarfer, until Floatzel gets a bit more love from people at least... P2 is unkillable and can do so much in a game. Regirock similarly unkillable, similarly great utility.

A Rank:


Decidueye-Hisui is still an elite mon, but not quite top-5 certified to me anymore. Dudunsparce still has great value overall, any set you want to use can work. Glastrier is sneaky broken and benefits from the general tone of the metagame giving it great matchups. Ori-Sensu is broken when given one turn to set up. Qwilfish loves seeing Helectrode leave and not much come down to challenge it. The Sneasels are still great, maybe worth an A- but both work really well. Snorlax loves to run full 252+ Adamant and still absorb hits. Typhlosion is worse than zard.

A- Rank:


A handful of pretty good mons that all can put in overtime on the right structure, my favorites in this list are definitely Floatzel and Magneton.

B+ Rank:


Bonnet has been pretty solid, maybe moves up to A- at some point soon. Otherwise, a handful of mons that fill roles well but aren't super splashable or great. Respect Clawitzer and Honchkrow, and Shaymin looks sneaky good.

B Rank:


A handful of okay mons, mostly interesting to see that sun mons are all in this range outside of Scovillain - could maybe be a good structure. I think a few mons here are really underutilized, mainly Muk and Spiritomb.

B- Rank:


Meh, okay mons.

 

[wooper]

S
none!

A+
charizard
dudunsparce
mesprit
regirock

A
decidueye-hisui
dipplin
glastrier
grafaiai
magneton
orthworm
passimian
sneasel-hisui
qwilfish

A-
articuno
brute bonnet
cramorant
floatzel
jolteon
palossand
qwilfish-hisui
sneasel
snorlax
typhlosion
vikavolt
whimsicott

if i feel so inclined i will include more but i think this is a good snapshot of the top-tier mons imo!

 

[sinnabyss]

wanna give my own two cents here, ranked in tiers
S
Nothing lol

A+
The Lando-T of the tier (ignore qwil), Mesp is just super versatile and splashable, the sheer unpredictability makes it hard to check mesp untill it reveals its set. PhysDef or SpDef rocks is such good role compression on offense teams, NP is super dangerous to deal with, scarf is a good revenge killer that can Hwish teammates, whatever you can think of, mesp can probs run it.
Zards blend of offensive firepower and defensive utility is super useful, it denies stuff like typh, hecid, whimsy, and a bunch more just by itself, not to mention it hits like a truck. Wisp ruins like 90% of its checks, and if your team doesnt have a bulky water, then zard can be a nightmare to switch into (hi BaitWiz hows ur floatzel)

A
Regirock is super hard to kill and can be quite threatening with IDBP, plus rocks never hurt. Its super vulnurable to hazards tho, and its matchup into mesp is pretty bad lol. Its a good zard check till it gets wisped but hey better than nothing.
splashable scarfer that dunks on qwil, knock and uturn make it great at forcing progress, really doesnt have a safe switchin besides weezing.
these stats will never be bad, glast is stupid hard to deal with defensively and can be hard to take down without supereffective attacks, but guess what, it teras and youve lost a mon. low speed hurts but everything else about it is elite.
defensive sets are pretty overrated imo, considering a lot of top physical attackers dont care about intimidate and the lack of recovery being a pain. SD however is incredibly hard to wall, and +2 tera aqua jet picks off like everything that doesnt resist it. Scarf is pretty good too, surprise factor is a lot and bluffing defensive is quite useful. also spikes is broken with so little removal.
again, super hard to kill mon that has a ton of good sets. CM is very dangerous, Coil flips the matchup against physical attackers that usually beat it, defensive is super annoying with all the moves it gets, plus the yellow magic can turn games around.
near uncontested speed tier, stab knock, hits deceptively hard esp if it gets an SD. Taxels shitty accuracy holds it back however, as well as it dying to a light breeze.
bulky water? zard check? two super good abilities? pivoting? lanturn only really suffers from being passive af, everything else about it is super good. Water absorb is not a meme with floatzel running around.
still a great mon, doesnt love zard everywhere tho. Triple arrows is broken af, and defog sets are quite nice for more defensive teams. synergy with regi is a nice perk aswell.

A-
super underrated at the moment, banded hits like a truck, scarf is the fastest scarfer around, hell specs is potentially good to lure qwil. qwil spits on physical sets tho, but flip turn lets it just go to smth that deals with qwil. strong priority never hurts either.
floatzels partner in crime. being the fastest mon in the tier (shut up electrode), strong pivoting. CM and specs are equally scary threats.
lumping these two together bc theyre both fat fucks that eat attacks all day. Dipp is quite passive even with growth tho, and cuno is quite exploitable with its typing. offensive cuno is genuinely pretty decent, and both can completely stuff attackers on either side.
sneasel again, this time with ooga booga stab CC. not having to run boots gives it a lot more options, eviolite makes it hard to take out, band hits super hard, and scarf ties with float for the fastest scarfer.
whimsy conveniently is 1 speed faster than abuncha mons, like the sneasels and floatzel. Plus, its typing lets it check hecid, bonnet and viriz nicely. HDB encore is best set IMO bc of the sheer utiliity of encore, but specs is still solid. bad zard matchup hurts but uturn is there so..
doggo. offensive sets are hurt by 4MSS, you want SD, acelerock, stone edge, CC, psyfangs, play rough, crunch, and prob some other moves. it is scary in the right matchup tho. band hits hard and fast, esp with accel, and suicide lead sets are good aswell.
should this borb get a free turn, you better hope your special wall is healthy, because otherwise you will get swept. QD is a broken ass move even on ori and on HO teams this is a fantastic breaker and cleaner.
defog goes brrr. good matchup into the fires and usable bulk score cram a good niche i think. gulp missile can be incredibly irritating to deal with, and somewhat alleviates crams passivity.
zard rising up make orth a lot less good, but its still solid in its own right. spikes and two boosting options make it useful in most matchups, and its 10000 resists are very helpful in detering certain clicks.
typh feels super awkward, on one hand its super scary in certain matchups, but in some others it feels useless. the fact it cant switch into stuff makes it so much less use. the support it needs to enable it is quite a pain too. definitely not a bad mon, but it certainly isnt top tier anymore.
BBs big ass stats save it here. sure, it has a bunch of solid checks like whimsy and hecid (unless ur zenbutt) but its great bulk, hardhitting attacks esp with booster and priority in sucker punch makes it worth the support needed to make it work. u-turn weakness is a pain but tera exists to help with that.

too lazy to go lower than this lol

 

[LettuceLeaf07]

VR feels like it needs an update so the idea of doing this popped into my head but instead of posting it right after I made it, I waited until it wasn't dark outside. Anyways this is my experience so Piloswine makes the list. I would have done a tiermaker but im lazy. Mons are ordered within tiers using the patent-pending method of 'absolutely no rhyme or reason.'

S
S-
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+:

unmons mini-tier list which covers the spectrum of C+/C to UR

S
A+
A
--- line between 'redeeming traits' and 'you better know what you're doing' ---
A-
B+
B
--- line between 'ok...?' and 'what are you thinking' ---
B-
C+
--- fe/nfe line ---
C:
no:

Thoughts as they arrive:
I would put this into A+ since it's our only option as a spinner, but imo that doesn't automatically make it good. Meta feels kinder to it than it was pre-shifts (and I learned how to use it) but i'm still a hater.
I'm super high on scarf sets rn I'm so glad we didn't lose this to shifts
I somehow don't have a real opinion on these two. I stuck them into A- because I think they're legit and worth running over all of B+, but not mons i can call higher (as much as I want to put cb lycan higher but nobody uses it)
These 2 are popping off rn imo OTR is one of the best ways to fight S-tier scarfers
B+: Tier for things that are definitely good and worth considering, but are by no means common or meta.
this is cope in B+
I think this mon needs to prove itself a bit more before it goes higher. In theory its good because it switches into the S-tiers 75% of the time but in practice I use Virizion.
I'm a hater idk how this ever got to A- on the vr but i think im too much of a hater to have a logical objection more than this
So hard to justify this because our special attackers are Electric and Fire.
VERY good on terrain and maybe worth trying out off designated terrain teams, but needs more than just me pushing them
my baby. tera and resist fwge + not ice weak + bulky still
I went crazy with the unmon list. I think the VR doesn't need all of them (obviously). If I were actually making the VR, I would keep most of everything until about A-, and absolutely nothing lower than B.
our removal sucks these should be viable on paper

I'm gonna explain some more things in a vr thread post (pilo & jolt come to mind), but feel free to roast me (lightly plz) for any of these takes.