Lower Tiers The RU Viability Ranking Thread

[ryan]

I agree with Alomomola for low/mid A-Rank.

You pretty much already covered everything, but the coolest part about it, in my opinion, is that plays the role of a bulky pivot incredibly well. It can switch into most any physical attack, Wish on the switch, and then pass the Wish to a teammate that can better handle the Alomomola counter. Because of Alomomola's huge HP stat, usually it comes down to your opponent killing the Wish recipient if they want the turn to have not been wasted. In addition to this, thanks to Regenerator, it is one of the best Wish passers in the tier. It doesn't have to stay in after using Wish in order to heal up; it can switch out and heal off the damage while simultaneously passing its Wish to a teammate.

Another really cool thing about Alomomola is that it can Protect against common Choiced Pokemon who would destroy it in order to scout out which teammate you should switch to. If you know that your opponent's Rotom-Cut is Scarf, for example. you don't have to fear switching in a Ground-type on a Leaf Storm if you know that your opponent has already locked into Volt Switch. It can also bait Grass- and Electric-type moves on a switch into something like Bouffalant or Manectric. Although this isn't incredibly reliable, it's a nice perk.

Overall, Alomomola's versatility is lacking, but the job it does, it does incredibly well.

mola for A!

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

I do not think Alomomola should be above High-B.

The main issue is that it is incredibly weak and is set up fodder. It is also held back by being extremely predictable. That is, most of the time, it is going to be using Wish and then leaving or using Protect. The opponent can use this turn (or both turns, in the case of Protect) to set up Swords Dance, Bulk Up, Hone Claws, or whatever set-up move he or she has, which immediatley puts you in a defensive position, because +2 Attacks aren't exactly kind to Alomomola. For example...

252 +2 Atk Life Orb Gallade (+Atk) Close Combat vs 252 HP/252 Def Alomomola (+Def) : 84.46% - 99.44% (2 hits to KO)

Now you have a +2 Gallade threatening to destroy you. Usually, Alomomola is switching into these attacks, meaning that it may go like this: Turn 1: Switching into Close Combat or some other move, Turn 2: Alomomola uses something, most likely a support move, Gallade uses Swords Dance Turn 3: Gallade hits even harder than last time and might finish off Alomomola, or recover a ton of health with Drain Punch. Unlike the other Bulky Waters in the tier, it can't prevent a dangerous sweep via phazing or paralysis.

Alomomola has an impressive physical defense, but it can be set-up fodder very easily because it is so weak. Against a Durant, Waterfall does ~30% max and Scald does ~34% max, for example, which is bad. Out of the Pokemon silvershadow listed, although it walls Entei and Emboar, a lot of other Pokemon do that as well, Durant eventually beats it with a Lum Berry or if mola lacks Scald, or seriously maims whatever Alomomola passed to, Absol could run Thunderbolt, although that is rare, and Poliwrath does better at walling it in general, and Druddigon can actually 2HKO with a CB Outrage, guaranteed after Stealth Rock. There are also some other Pokemon that can still 2HKO it such as CB Aggron and CB Escavalier, something which other Bulky Waters could prevent by their secondary typings. It is also extremely vulnerable to Toxic itself. Overall, while Alomomola is a great team supporter, pivot, and its Wish is a very good move (def. the best Wish passer in the tier), its flaws make it not good enough for A-Rank imo.

EDIT: After some thought, I withdraw this. Yeah Alomomola deserves Low-A, I saw underselling it a bit. Toxic is really more annoying than I remember.

 

[ss234]

Well only spiritomb beats sd gallade depending on the fourth move / item so that's not a flaw just mola has, but every mon in the tier bar tomb(tangrowth is 1HKO'd by +4 cc iirc, may need entry hazards idk).

I honestly think you overrate how much of a setup fodder mola is. Toxic and protect go a big way in wearing down mons like rotom-c, and of course mola is capable of simply using wish against something it walls(hint-p much all of the physical attackers bar cb esca and cb aggron), and then pashing the wish to something such as druddigon, and restoring its health with regen, slowly wearing down mola checks through entry hazards and restoring the HP of the counter to their mola counter(I do hope this makes sense). Thanks to regen, mola doesn't really need to worry about being set-up fodder, as you can simply switch out, regaining health.

Mola is just so bulky on the physical side, and gives such amazing team support that I think mola should be A rank. The set-up fodder issue isn't that big of a deal imo anyway thanks to regenerator.

 

[august]

Yeah im agreeing with Mola for A rank. Alomomola is the definition of an ultimate team player. It almost singlehandedly beats every physical threat in the tier bar a few, and on top of that passes massive Wishes and spreads Toxic, and im sure everyone who has played RU knows how ridiculously (annoyingly?) bulky mola is and how painful it is when it can just come in and pass Wishes while you cant do anything to it.

I agree that the fodder issue isnt really a big deal. some of the common physical set up sweepers:

sd gallade: okay i admit mola doesnt beat this, but honestly not much does...
hone claws durant: mola can beat it with scald
sd absol: mola beats this, +2 lo night slash doesnt 2hko and it can just wish protect it off
sd gatr: gets wrecked by mola, cant really do anything
sd tops: mola has some trouble since lo stone edge does a lot but can still win especially if it gets a toxic off

then you also look at the list of flat out attackers that it can beat: tauros, medicham, cb entei, emboar, druddigon (any variant including lo sheer force with tpunch and cb), scyther, pinsir, rhydon, samurott, aerodactyl, archeops, non cb escav, fraxure, golurk, hitmonlee, primeape, piloswine, swellow, and even zangoose.

thats a ridiculous amount of threats that mola can beat almost singlehandedly so yeah i definitely think atleast low A rank is good

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Agreeing with most people here, Alomomola is definitely at least Low A-Rank material. Alomomola is the absolute best WishPasser in RU, passing massive wishes to many teammates. It shines especially on stall teams, where it can pass Wishes to things like Roselia and Spiritomb; Alomomola can attract the things Roselia / Amoonguss take on well and pass Wishes to them to make sure they stay healthy. It has Regenerator to make sure that it can keep its HP up while passing its Wish, so you rarely need to focus on getting your own Wish. It can attract Grass and Electric-type moves for things like Druddigon and Escavalier to some in on; these two even like the Wishes to keep spamming dem CB moves. While this is a bit off topic, this is a nice boon for Mola. Aside from that, it walls a lot of physical attackers unless the Pokemon in question is SD Gallade, but fuck him, nothing walls him aside from Spiritomb, right? Protect is great with both Wish and Toxic, allowing Alomomola to stall the opponent with Toxic, chipping their HP away, and if its weakened and has used Wish, it can keep wearing them down while retrieving its own Wish. A great Pokemon overall.

Alomomola for A-Rank!

 

[Molk]

You know thinking about it..... it seems kinda strange to have snover all the way up in low A rank while all the Pokemon that actually benefit from it are down in the B/C/D ranks. Idk about you but i kinda think the viability of these Pokemon kinda goes hand in hand, i probably wouldn't be using say, Walrein or Glaceon at all if Snover didn't exist, let alone placing them in top B rank, and likewise, Snover probably wouldn't be worth using for snow warning in RU if there weren't excellent abusers such as those to take advantage of them. What i'm proposing is that we either move Snover down to top B rank, or take say Walrein, Glaceon, and Rotom-F and move them up to low A rank along with snover. Personally i think the former sounds more reasonable, but if you guys think the latter is the way to go i'm fine with that too.

So what do you guys think about this? do you agree? or do you think its fine the way it is.

I'd also like to bring up moving Feraligatr down from top B rank to mid B rank. i'm not sure if its just me, but Feraligatr's been.....fairly underwhelming for me lately. Of course its still a viable Pokemon that you should prepare for, but these days i never really find myself having that much trouble with it, and i dont think i've been swept by a gatr regardless of the quality of the player in about a year to the honest. Feraligatr really struggles against many threats that are either able to revenge kill it easily or simply flat out wall it, such as Ferroseed, Tangrowth, Amoonguss, Alomomola, Rotom-C, Sceptile, Lilligant, Poliwrath, and more, which makes it much harder to sweep with these days in my opinion. Furthermore, Feraligatr recieves a lot of competition from some other physical Water-types such as Kabutops, who has a great secondary STAB and the coveted Rapid Spin, and even Samurott, who can OHKO things like Tangrowth that flat out wall the gatr (samurott's in top B rank too, so if you think its only fair to move him down as well i wouldnt be opposed to it). Overall, i really think Feraligatr isn't as a great as it once was, and i think that mid B rank would be more fitting for it than top, as while its a big threat that you should always prepare for, its rather easy to prepare for and beat from my experience compared to other Pokemon in top B rank.

also full support for mom fish :)

EDIT: what do you think of removing sawk and gorebyss from untested?

 

[ss234]

I actually think that snover should stay in low a, and the hail abusers should stay in B rank. This is because imo snover qualifies for a rank under the support factor, and that the hail abusers require snover to be effective. Even though they go hand in hand, the fact that snover makes a whole playstyle possible(and is therefore A under support traits), that doesn't mean that the abusers should as although they are excellent they require more support than the rest of the a rank mons so should stay in B.

 

[Molk]

Some more updates coming your way! :) Just a very small one this time, but its very widely supported :)

Alomomola up from top B rank ----> low A rank.

Pokemon in need of more discussion:

Cryogonal
Regirock
Snover
Feraligatr
Samurott

Happy Posting :) more stuff to come later!

EDIT: Oh yeah, what do you guys think of removing sawk and gorebyss from untested?

 

[vyomov]

Honestly, Regirock should be B. 200 Defense stat means it's walling physical attackers all day long, and 100 attack is good enough for it to sweep. It also gets Curse, meaning it can easily sweep after a boost. Albeit Rock has many weaknesses, it has crucial resists to Fire, meaning it walls mons like Entei to no end.

 

[TCTphantom]

Nominating Tauros from A- to A tier.

Tauros is so underated in this metagame. Rock Climb hits almost all that doesn't resist it hard, and it has Fire Blast and Earthquake to blast through Rock- and Steel-types. Rotom and Spiritomb can be issues, as can Misdreavus. But a standard Tauros can rip apart a team easily if the good ghosts are out of the picture. Thoughts?

 

[ss234]

Nomming arbok for mid / low c.

Arbok is not the best poke in the metagame. Not by a long shot. However, it does have some p unique traits. It is capable of checking sceptile, most fighting types bar gallade and intimidate can come in very, very handy sometimes. This means that arbok brings quite a lot to the table defensively-however, unlike amoonguss which also checks these pokes and more(of course guss lacks intimidate but you get the point), arbok is fast, and packs a pretty large punch with it's STAB Gunk Shot. It even has decently powerful priority in sucker punch. Coil is a damn cool boosting move, and if you can get +1 defense and the opponent gets -1 attack from intimidate, arbok is very hard to break through defensively. Arbok is also good at beating alomomola, which very few other physical attackers can claim.

Of course, arbok is not without its downsides-otherwise it would be used a lot more. A weakness to ground is huge when it is easily one of the best offensive types in ru, and it's also big because a lot of the physical tanks in the tier(steelix, rhydon etc.)have a much easier time beating arbok. It also has only ok bulk, even factoring in intimidate, so most strong neutral hits will 2HKO at worst. Couple this in with LO and taking damage from all hazards, bar tspikes which it absorbs, and arbok can find it very hard to setup and then sweep. Then of course you have to consider the fact that, while gunk shot is powerful, poison is a p bad offensive type, and misses out on rock, ground, ghost and steel(correct me if I'm wrong on any of these)-all of which are p common in ru. Gunk shot also misses a lot without a coil boost :/

Overall, I think that arbok is mid c / maybe low, since it is a decently bulky set-up sweeper, that although finds it difficult to setup sometimes, brings a lot to the table defensively and packs a big punch after a coil or two.

 

[Molk]

I'd be able to throw my support behind putting Tauros in mid A rank, i've had quite a bit with success with it over the course of BW2, and i always felt that it was pretty underrated (which is why i made it A rank in the first place lol). After some discussion on the initial top/mid/low rankings we decided that Tauros should be placed in low A for now, but some people still thought that mid A might've been a bit more appropriate for the bull.

Likewise, i'd actually like to bring up moving Cinccino down from mid A rank to either low A rank or possibly (not very likely) top B rank. I dont know about you guys, but i've actually found cinccino sort of underwhelming as of late :/. The new defensive turn of the metagame really doesn't do it any favors, with Pokemon that are able to completely wall Cinccino either by virtue of typing of just sheer physical bulk (Tail Slap is a great STAB, but sometimes base 95 Attack just isnt enough :/) popping up everywhere such as Steelix, Ferroseed, and Tangrowth. Tail Slap/Rock Blast/Bullet Seed may be relatively good coverage, but really thinking about it it actually grants many common Pokemon easy switch ins to the chinchilla, including the aforementioned Steelix and Ferroseed, Escavalier, Aggron, Magneton, Klinklang, and Spiritomb. Not only that, but Cinccino's fraility often seems to get the better of it for me, Tauros and Zangoose are currently placed in Low A rank for similar reasons, they really can't take too many hits if they fail to score a KO because of a combination of a lack of bulk or resistances, and as a frail Normal-type Cincy really isn't an exception to this. Furthermore, its possible (and actually pretty fun to tbh) to make Cinccino's own moves dramatically backfire against it with the use of either Rough Skin (Druddigon), Iron Barbs (Ferroseed), or Rocky Helmet (Various bulky Pokemon, seen most often on mons with regen or druddigon for me) recoil from one physical attack is enough, but because tail slap hits 5 times, cincy's taking that damage 5 times, then add on Life Orb recoil, and Cinccino's probably just barely hanging on to life after the tail slap. Overall i'm not really sure if people will agree with me on this at all, but i think Cinccino is kinda overrated and i'd like you guys to consider moving it down to low A rank/top B.

I'll update this within the next day or two :>

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

I disagree with Tauros for Mid A. Ever since I even started playing RU, I've gotten any success with or had any problems at all dealing with Tauros, which I have seen a few of. I know people really like the fact that it is hard to wall and its fast, but the the biggest thing is that Tauros cannot OHKO very many Pokemon with Rock Climb alone, and its coverage moves are OK but they still don't OHKO really that many Pokemon. It also has a pretty bad special defense (you'd be surprised) while getting practically useless if it gets hit by a status option, arguably being one of the game's most vulnerable to status. (yes, I know it can run Substitute, but Substitute doesn't see usage so it must not be that helpful). It's just too one-dimensional to me for it to actually need to move up.

I feel as if the main reason why people like it so much is because of the fact that it is an extremely underrated 'mon, but again, every single one I've used or faced in RU honestly just isn't that great. Now that Pokemon such as Alomomola (walls it easily) is getting more common, I don't see a reason for it to move up...

I do support Cinccino to Low A though, but not Top B because Cinccino can be pretty very threatening to offense.

 

[Molk]

kk, finally going to get to update this after Smogon's downtime, not going to add anything else other than the updates for now because it could go back down at any minute, but here are the update i made!

Regirock up from top C rank---> Low B rank (might put it higher with some support)
Feraligatr down from top B rank ----> mid B rank
Samurott down from top B rank ----> mid B rank

Pokemon in need of more discussion:

Snover
Arbok
Tauros
Cinccino

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I'm just going to post quickly. Forgive any grammar mistakes.

I use Tauros quite a bit and I say low A is perfect for it. He is extremely fast and powerful, but he does appreciate hazard support to turn some 2HKOs into OHKOs.

I may edit this later with more depth.

 

[Molk]

Hey guys, now that the forums are back up for good, i'm going to make a small update and bring up a proposal that was made on irc today! I'm not really sure if i agree with the proposal or not yet, but i'll be testing molt out for a little bit, and at the very least i can see where he was coming from when explaining molt's flaws Last time this change was proposed there was a pretty large amount of backlash, but eh, worth a shot lol, especially in the new meta. I posted a log of the irc discussion in the hide tags below because blara didn't feel like posting at the moment, so look in there for the arguments presented.

Moltres proposal

13:55 blarajan hey can we kick moltres out of S rank
13:56 blarajan and move it to high A
13:56 blarajan moltres is more of a liability imo now
13:56 august ^
13:56 august its gone down so much
13:56 august just cuz the nature of the metagame makes it hard for molt
13:56 blarajan yeah
13:56 august its harder to spin now that it ever has been
13:56 blarajan agreed
13:57 blarajan i hate having a crutch that forces me to spin
13:57 blarajan because if it comes in with sr down and you use one attack
13:57 blarajan you're dead if rocks aren't gone
13:57 august ya
13:57 blarajan and that's stupid
13:57 august thats the problem with my cuno team
13:57 blarajan which is why i am not even scared if my teams are moltres weak anymore
13:57 blarajan "eh slowking can handle it"
13:58 Molk hmmmm moltres is still a monster but ye SR really hurts it
13:58 blarajan high A
13:58 Molk last time this was brought up there was a lot of backlash
13:58 blarajan i don't want to post
13:58 Molk but eh worth a shot
13:58 blarajan do i have to post
13:58 august whenever i make an offensive team i
13:58 august make sure i use a water with aqua jet
13:58 Molk yeah unless you want me to like
13:59 august just to ensure molt is useless
13:59 Molk save this irc log and post it in the thread

Also, i've officially moved Cinccino down from mid A rank to low A rank as well, keep in mind that all the other recent proposed changes such as Tauros Arbok Snover etc are still up for discussion too! So it's not too late to post on them either! :).

 

[Oglemi]

K, Dragon time. Magneton is ridiculously good in this metagame, and because of that, it's ridiculously easy to get rid of Steel-types with it to clear the way for Dragons. Not only that but Specs Magneton does 92.57 - 109.4% to 252/0 Tangrowth with Hidden Power Fire, meaning there's really no physical wall that Magneton can't clear the way for the Dragons to sweep later in the game. Electric STAB is also amazing in this metagame and if you're not running an Electric resist you'll get trampled.

For these reasons I'm going to suggest moving Magneton from Low B -> High B.

Now onto the dragons.

Fraxure needs to move from Low B -> Low A. With Magneton support, there is literally nothing that can switch into a +1 Eviolite Fraxure and not get 2HKOed. Just the sheer amount of stuff that Fraxure can switch in on and set up a DD, and then OHKO is astounding. It's definitely on the same viability scale as Tauros and Zangoose atm. Not only that, but Outrage + Low Kick gives it all the coverage it would ever need. The only downside to Fraxure, as the other dragons, is the fact that, because it can't run Lum Berry, it'll have to switch out after 2-3 turns, or risk a confusion hit. But that can be easily worked around with team support.

Dragonair should really be Low B rank. Once phazers are out, a set that I'll provide can set up on a huge portion of the metagame and sweep late-game quite easily. It's super bulky on the special side and when it's sleeping it's also extremely bulky physically as well thanks to Marvel Scale. It's a bit slow and relies on mono-Dragon coverage which kinda hampers it a bit, but with another sweeping partner like Fraxure, Tauros, or Zangoose, and with Magneton support, it's a real monster.

Here's the importable set:

Dragonair @ Eviolite
Trait: Marvel Scale
EVs: 4 Spd / 252 HP / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Shelgon should be at Low C rank. It has a powerful Outrage, is very physically bulky, and has a larger coverage movepool than the other Dragons, but it's mostly either too slow, not quite bulky enough, and not quite strong enough without a ton of hazard or team support. But, it sets up on Fire-types like no other Pokemon in the tier, and there's almost nothing that can stop it at +2. It unfortunately has to rely on Brick Break for coverage instead of Low Kick, which hampers it a bit more, but it can also use Rock Slide or Double-Edge so that it doesn't have to use Outrage immediately. It's also got Overcoat so that it's not totally screwed by hail teams either and can at least set up on Slowking.

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

As a disclaimer, I've only used Fraxure once and I've never battled one in an RU environment, but at the same time, that's a problem. Its usage is, quite honestly, pathetic. Normally this isn't a large deal if its underrated, but Fraxure was 157th last month, 189th the month before that, with its usage only cracking the around 200-300 uses. The 1850 stats helped almost all A- or Top B-Ranked Pokemon that were NU (Walrein, Glaceon, Kanga, Zangoose, Tauros, Alomomola, and Golurk all were in the Top 70, Braviary was close), but Fraxure still only found itself at 142nd there too.

Why is this relavent? Even if Fraxure was forgotten, people would probably use it more than right now, rather than Fraxure rotting with "random" Pokemon people use in RU. Fraxure isn't even something that needs to be prepared for too much, mostly because of Druddigon making everyone prepare for it anyway. It is surprisingly harder to set up than I thought it would be the times I've used, because even most walls can break its substitutes with a neutral attack (even with an Eviolite), status just wrecks it, and its slow and frail-ish, with most Pokemon 2HKOing it. Even resisted attacks 2HKO it - Magmortar 2HKOs Eviolite variants with a Modest LO Fire Blast - while that's hard to switch into for anything, its still kinda bad, and neutral attacks from offensive Pokemon (ie most of the metagame) therefore do a number to Fraxure, potentially OHKOing it. Its rather hard to fit on teams with success, and the fact that Magneton is heavily suggested hinders teambuilding further. I wouldn't move it due to all of these traits, although feel free to prove me wrong. If this makes any sense, Fraxure is too irrelevant in RU and its flaws compound this. Low B is fine.

For Magneton, I agree with the points made, but it seems like those qualities fulfill Mid B-Rank rather than Top B-Rank. Wouldn't mind Top B though because its solid.

Dragonair and Shelgon should probably be added to untested before they are added to the ranks. Although not in RU, I've faced several Dragonairs in NU and it sucks in my opinion but I guess those are a bit different tiers (for refrence, Fraxure is also C-Ranked in NU despite the lack of Steels, something to consider). Shelgon is also probably better than Low C but idk

 

[Celever]

I tested out Shelgon and he deserves higher than Low C in my opinion. Top C or Low B fits him better, since he can be a great defensive wall but also potent at sweeping. I used pretty much the shelgon version of the dragonair set that oglemi posted, and he really did destroy.
Fraxure in Low A is good.
Dragonair should be Top C in my opinion, along with Shelgon most likely.

Edit: Swamp-rocket, Fraxure should always be in an offensive core with a wall-breaker. Did you have on of them? If you did then I don't see how you had difficulty getting Fraxure set up.

 

[DittoCrow]

I don't really think Fraxure should be A Rank. It's pretty tough to set up in such an offensive metagame in my experiences, and it gets 2HKOed quite often, even with Eviolite. It also lacks power and Speed at +1 in my opinion, making it miss out on OHKOes without hazards support and getting outsped by revenge killers such as Entei and Choice Scarf users. There's also a few Pokemon that can take a hit and stop Fraxure's sweep, such as Escavalier, Tangrowth, Uxie, and Ferroseed. I get that this is easy to overcome with Magneton and all, but the definition of B Rank fits Fraxure more than A. Anywhere in B Rank is fine I guess, I just never had much success with Fraxure since it required a lot of support xD.

Also I agree with moving Magneton up and Moltres to Top A.

 

[Molk]

I'm pretty neutral towards most of the proposed changes at the moment but i'd like to throw some support behind Magneton moving up to either mid or top B rank. Like some other Pokemon such as Ferroseed and Alomomola, its really improved a lot as of late, most likely because of Queen's abscence, one of the biggest thorns in the magnet's side. As Oglemi mentioned Electric STAB is especially effective in the current metagame, and Magneton's ability to trap and eliminate dangerous Steel-types such as Steelix, Aggron, Escavalier, Klinklang, Ferroseed, other Magneton, and even Durant (if using Scarf Magneton) is pretty awesome as well, and helps a bunch of other threatening Pokemon such as Druddigon, Fraxure, Klinklang, and Cinccino tear through the opponent's team more effectively. Outside of the Steel-type trapping role, Magneton can be quite the pain because of its exceptional defensive typing in Electric/Steel. To put just how good this typing is in perspective, outside of Magneton's 3 weaknesses, its either resistant to or completely immune to every other type in the game bar Water! Water-types dont even fare that well against Magneton either, as it can just zap them into oblivion with its powerful Electric-type STAB. Examples of common Pokemon that Magneton can trouble with its defensive typing and bulk include Cinccino, Spiritomb, Uxie, Kabutops (neutral to Waterfall but has enough bulk to take one and OHKO back), Cryogonal, Qwilfish, Rotom-C, Rotom-N, Alomomola, most hail abusers, and of course the Steel-types Magneton can trap such as Klinklang, Ferroseed, and Escavalier. So all in all, i think Magneton's probably better in the current metagame than its been in a while, and i'd be happy to move it up to either mid or high B rank.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I agree with moving Magneton up to Top B-Rank, been using him quite a bit lately, the Specs set is awesome. It is an excellent Steel trapper, beating most of the Steels one-on-one, and helps with Pokemon such as Druddigon, Mesprit, and Cinccino which have problems with Steel-types, especially Escavalier, and Magneton can also form a VoltTurn core with the latter two, so that's a plus! Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon provide great coverage, and Magneton also checks Absol, Kabutops, and Feraligatr. Magneton+Druddigon is quite the legit strategy, (my Papercraft Dragon team of UU could work in RU with modifications) and overall Magneton is just excellent. Magneton is also hard to switch into with the power, and also SpD Magneton makes a great weapon against hail, taking on most common threats easily. Overall Magneton is great, definitely Top B imo.

I'd agree with moving Fraxure up, it's a great Pokemon. It has a nice DD set which it can boost and become a powerful and speedy sweeper, and it has Outrage+Low Kick to become a threatening sweeper, while Taunt+DD makes it an excellent stallbreaker, preventing them from doing anything while boosting to formidable levels. Its performance in NU imo has nothing to do with its performance in RU. If it's not A worthy, then it's Top B at least, maybe Mid, but Top seems suitable. (It's most likely C-Rank there because Jynx is quite dominant there, whereas it's not as relevant in RU).

Dragonair and Shelgon could go for Low B and Low C, respectively, as Oglemi said, because it definitely seems suitable to them. I've faced Dragonair in RU and it's quite a bitch. Shelgon though might even make it higher, I've yet to try it out though.

Finally, regarding Moltres, I'm torn. Its SR weakness is incredibly crippling, which is something to note, and it's not that fast, but it's an excellent wallbreaker, making stall teams cringe and make most slow Pokemon a liability on the team. I still think it needs to be prepared for, although it is noteworthy I have dealt with it rather easily and I often prefer Entei or Emboar as my Fire-type of choice. Some of the Pokemon it could take on, like Scolipede and Sceptile, carry a Rock-type move (or even Aqua Tail in the former's case), which is something Moltres hates. There's also the fact that it needs Spin support to work well. Honestly, I could see it in either Low S or Top A, but either one is fine by me.

 

[kaonohiokala]

Seaking for B rank

Seaking @ Life Orb
Trait: Lightningrod
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
- Waterfall
- Megahorn
- Return
- Drill Run

Only one weakness thanks to Lightningrod. It's a hard counter to every Electric-type not shaped like a lawnmower and can even 2HKO max defense Qwilfish after the Intimidate drop. Even OHKOs 252 HP Slowking with Megahorn after SR. Also, a solid switch-in against common T-wave users such as Uxie and the aforementioned Qwilfish and Slowking, being able to absorb the T-wave and hit back with a powerful se attack.

Flawless neutral coverage, EVs let it outspeed max Emboar but you can invest more in bulk if you want. You could try out Ice Beam on a mixed set if you wanna take advantage of Lightningrod's special attack boost, but that requires a defense-dropping nature and some special attack EVs and relies on a Electric attack to get hit by in order to deal respectable damage, so w/e. watchu kno bout dis seaking boiiii.

B.S. thanks for not giving me enough time to edit this molk

 

[TROP]

Not related to the proposed changes, but can you remove Sawk from untested? There is no real reason to use it over Gallade or Medicham (speed is not a good enough reason when these guys have better coverage, get an actually useful second stab, or in medicham's case, hit way harder). Mold breaker is also not enough when you consider most of the levitate mons not called Misdreavus can't take more than a hit from Gallade or Medicham and the Sturdy mons either survive because they are not weak to fight and can take everything (Crustle), named Steelix, or just shit like Golem and Gigalith that you should never see...and forgot one, Basculin stops those sturdy/custap leads mons better anyway by hitting them in their weaker stat without locking itself.

 

[EonX]

I'll agree with Magneton rising to at least Mid B-rank, if not higher. The Specs set is a great offensive weapon and it's a fantastic teammate to pretty much anything that wants Steel types removed (think Braviary, Dragon-types, Klinklang, and Cincinno) That's not all it's limited to though. It's SpD set is fantastic for dealing with Hail teams (both Offense and Stall based ones) Even its weaknesses can be overcome with relative ease. Most Fire-types don't like the prospect of taking a Specs Volt Switch and being met with a check or counter. Ground-types get hit pretty hard by Flash Cannon and the only Ground-type that takes it well (Steelix) gets screwed over by HP Fire. Overall, Magneton is great in the current meta thanks to its combination of offensive and defensive qualities and I think that warrants it moving up to High B-rank.

Also, I'd be for moving Moltres down to Top A-rank. It's secondary Flying typing that made it so good during the Queen meta has really turned into more of a detriment now. It's the only common Fire-type in the tier neutral to Blizzard. It's 4x weak to SR, so it absolutely can't function with it on the field. It's still a really strong Pokemon, but with Hail in the tier and it becoming harder and harder to spin SR away, Moltres isn't what it was in the Queen meta. I can't say anything about the other suggested changes (Fraxure, Dragonair, and Shelgon) as I don't have experience with them