The RU Viability Ranking Thread

[Nails]

Mola is probs mid s because it makes your team not die while countering ~everything.

Scyther is prolly mid b tbh because it's about as good as manectric, lanturn, fraxure, and eggy. Really solid speed tier and uturn is broken, needs support to do work or you die and it cant counter anything except like, uxie and sceptile. Tbh it's almost exactly the physical version of manectric (same base speed, spams volt turn, some decent utility with switcheroo/pursuit, glass cannon, relies on weak coverage to hit resists, bad defensive typing for what it wants to accomplish).

Magmortar is solid if you need what it has to offer. It has taunt, wisp, focus blast, vital spirit, thunderbolt... you have a ton of options that make it not just a worse Moltres. If you want a nukemon, Moltres will be better 99% of the time. If you want utility and wallbreaking, Magmortar might do the job better.

Other shifts:

Slowking to low s because other water types have more utility and druddi poops on it.

Uxie to mid a because sponging 3 special attacks a game isn't as useful as it once was but it's still pretty good.

Qwilfish to mid s because spikes are cool and you counter lots of things and stuff.

Magneton to low s because Double01 says it's not a threat.

Steelix to high a because it's really big and beating Druddi is crucial.

 

[XEspmasterX]

Hello, can someone explain why Magneton is in both A-h and A-m? Is this a mistake or is it intentional for some reason?

 

[speed ghilliesniper]

I'v talked on momo already so yea, so I'll skip that.

Scyther: Probably fine where it's at tbh. Scyther just really underwhelms me when I'v used it, mainly due to it's choice sets being to easily forced out and the ubiquity of stealth rock in the tier. My main beef with it is it's stealth rock weakness hinders the choice sets ability to spam u-turn for momentum which is a problem as it's coverage is pretty lacking and It's STABs are really not that great to be choiced into. Offensive swords dance you have to ask yourself why you're not using Durant as it has a much better typing (there'a a reason Scizor is top tier OU and Scyther is RU despite having the exact same bst) resulting in less weaknesses, no sr weakness, snd more resistances. Add in similar power (+1 Life Orb hustle Durant is about equal to +2 Life Orb technician Scyther), better bulk on the physical side with no Eviolite, and better coverage with it's moves meaning it's not nearly as easily threatened out (plus not being 100% boned if it does have to switch with rocks on the field). The bulky SD set is pretty cool against more defensive teams although it has a big power drop with Eviolite attached and is still super vulnerable to status and runs into gigantic coverage issues between Roost and SD meaning it has to cut down it's already limited coverage. So yea, keep it High-C imo.

Magmortar: Not particularly swayed either way on this one, I always saw it as an inferior Moltres with less power and less Stealth Rock Weakness (although it's still weak to it and weak to spikes). But I will say that Fire STAB with a way to get rid of waters (Thunderbolt) is a nightmare combination for Stall meaning that once it gets in it can wreck some damage. Plus thanks to it's good power and Excellent coverage it can do major damage to bulky and balanced teams and excelling with paralysis support from the likes of Qwilfish and Uxie. Basically it's a fantastic wall breaker with some speed issues and not packing quite as much fire power as some others so somewhere in B is fine for it. Mid or Low doesn't really make a huge change, I'd be inclined to leave it in Mid-B but honestly it could go either way if somebody else would like to chip in and breath some life into this.

And yea if somebody could put Magneton somewhere definite that would be good, I'd say High A for being the most versatile Steel type in the tier.

 

[Hot N Cold]

Top S:
-Druddigon

Mid S:
-Slowking
-Sceptile

Low S:
-Moltres
-Kabutops
-Escavalier

This is for me the S-rank in my opinion, Uxie and Alomomola dont deserved him. I can explain later etc

 

[JMcFizz]

Having played NU quite a bit, I can attest to Alo's incredible ability to take physical attacks. However it isn't quite able to take the huge banded attacks from some big threats in the tier. To take on the premier S rank physical nukes, Druddigon and Escav, it needs to be paired with something else to take on the banded stabs, ie. Steelix.

252+ Atk Choice Band Druddigon Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 255-300 (47.7 - 56.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Escavalier Megahorn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 276-325 (51.6 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Aggron Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 297-351 (55.6 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

However as a bulky pivot on things that don't hit too hard it does a great job. But it isn't able to wall all physical attackers. When pressured by the right banded poke, alo is unable to wishpass.

Also, it get completely shit on by pokes that set up using a substitute. I run a sub bulkup gallade, and it sets up ALLLLLLL over Alo, as drain punching something with that HUGE HP stat is a beautiful thing.
Alo has problems with hone claws durant as well... If it switches in on the hc...
+1 252 Atk Life Orb Hustle Durant X-Scissor vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 281-331 (52.6 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
with a LUM berry you could even conceivably sub durant IN on alo, if you don't get the 9% chance of a double scald burn.
0- SpA Alomomola Scald vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Durant: 67-81 (25.9 - 31.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

I get that Alo does what it's meant to do when used correctly. However, its failure to take on the best physical nukes in the teir 1 on 1, and being HUGE setup bait for Lum berry or substitute pokes imo disqualifies it from S-rank. So Alomomola for High A

 

[Hot N Cold]

Yeah I think that Alomomola deserved be non-S rank because:

Predictable utility and movepool as well, with this means that Alomomola at best have 5~6 moves to use only lol Scald or Waterfall; first burns but can be counterproductive along with Toxic also Waterfall hits slighty stronger, Wish and Protect are mandatory, finally the Toxic or Magic Coat, if you dedices run Magic Coat then cant counter another stuff (ex: SD Samurott).
This is all about their movepool at best, so cant be threatened by itself.

Actually many things really can donk Alomomola; not only beat him, also they can take a big advantage playing around Alomomola teams.

- Physical grass types such Sceptile, Torterra or Sawsbuck.
- Pretty hard hitters like Aggron or Druddigon with the Choice Band, Alomomola relies on the Protect at best and they needs another secondary check for the hard hitter otherwise will be 2HKO.
- Substitute boosters which are common/strong in RU beats Alomomola also a big potential to sweep their opponent team, the list is very long like: Gallade, Fraxure, Braviary, Bouffalant, Klinkang, Crawdaunt, Scolipede etc
- Status on physical stuff like Toxic Golurk, Entei or Druddigon cripple Alomomola for the entire battle (heal/aroma only fits at stall tbh).
- Lum Berry mons like SD Tops or HC Durant break him.
- Another stuff like Zangoose SD or Gothorita (this last for trap).

This list is only at the physical side, where Alomomola is really fat; clearly if you're gonna use a team which is 2/3 walled by a single Alomomola you're gonna get owned like for example a random team: aerodactyl lo / scarf emboar / sr druddigon etc but is a thing about teambuilder not about how strong is Alomomola which I agree that is probably the best wall in the entire tier and extremely fat, but just not enough good to S-rank because predictable, lack of power totally and enough things takes advantage or handle him, so Alomomola deserved Top-A Rank in my opinion, also clearly at my eyes.

 

[Durant]

Magneton is top A and mid A so you might want to fix that.

 

[Leer]

This is probably going to be the last post or one of the last because we have just one month of Gen V RU (Molk are ypu even updating this) left but whatever.

After countless tests and the quality posts above, I've been convinced otherwise of Alomomola being S rank. It could wall most Pokemon but most Special threats and a few Physical nukes could KO it, as well as other stallmons. It won the pp war most of the time and could wishpass, but thats what makes it Top-A I guess.

I'll actually agree with Nails about Scyther being Mid-B. I was thinking about saying that initially, but I wasn't sure if I was asking for too much.

Lilligant cpuld probably be Low-A rank honestly. I used it a TON (first team), and while it preformed at A level with a late-game sweep saving me a lot, it wasn't really on par with Tangrowth. It only had decent bulk (70/75/75) and it has to use the unreliable Sleep Talk to set up, which can go bad in a miss or a quick wake-up. And while Own Tempo+Petal Dance is a good combo, it still locks you in for a few turns, which could be bad if they carry a Bouffalent or Sawsbuck or something.

And same with Absol. It's A-Rank, but I feel lile it's more Low-A material. I don't feel like it's on par with zero-weakness Spiritomb as a Dark type, and it does have more flaws than other Mid-A Pokemon of the same niche. It can't bulk more than a couple hits from anything other than a non-offensive threat, and it needs Sucker Punch due to its 75 base speed. It does have a 120 base power (after STAB) move paired with a 130 attack stat and a high crit chance, so no lower than Low-A, but other than that it doesn't have too much going for it. Now, in Gen VI it does have a 100% crit rate with Super Luck+Scope Lens+Night Slash, but the mega evolution will end up sending it to UU.

Sorry for any typos, I'm posting from my phone right now.

 

[Hot N Cold]

With SPL almost done, and same with this tier, i wanna post how I feel that they should be ranked, the mons between S and A Ranks

S-RANK

top:
-druddigon - best mon in the tier: great bulk, utility and power, good ability and nice typing for RU tier, cons: weak to hazards + being slow + explotable weakness, does bad against spike statackin offense, kills 1 mon at best (this cons makes druddi not broken!!)
-sceptile - 3054685268 options for playing, totally unpredictable + very fast this thing which makes advantage almost always in 1 vs 1, can sweep entire teams or just lure and kill key mons, weak af.

mid:
-slowking
-sigyliph

low:
-kabutops
-moltres
-qwilfish
-durant

A-RANK

top:
-aerodactyl
-alomomola
-rotom-c
-magneton
-steelix
-golurk

mid:
-emboar
-escavalier
-mesprit
-uxie
-spiritomb
-rhydon
-lilligant
-rotom-n

low:
-cryogonal
-omastar
-amoonguss
-aggron
-scolipede
-tangrowth
-gallade

 

[SilentVerse]

Since I'm out of SPL now and there is literally only going to be one more relevant RU match happening ever, I'll post my rankings as well :).

S-Tier - metagame defining pkmns; easy to fit onto teams and they should be prepared for b/c they will wreck you otherwise

High

Druddigon - really well-positioned mon in the meta, strong af with cb outrage and has a ton of utility with moves like pursuit and typing that makes it a good check to things like sceptile and lilligant. best set is cb with outrage coverage and 2 support moves (sleep talk pursuit sucker dclaw toxic...) since it owns against both balance and aggro teams (aggro it can 1 for 1, balance gets crushed once their steel gets weakened). mixed is better vs slower teams and can dunk mola lix cores easier, but is pretty bad against faster ones since it has a harder time 1 for 1ing due to less bulk. defensive is mediocre but it has a solid niche so its pretty ok.

Mid

Alomomola - best bulky water in the tier. invalidates probably 60% of ru's physical attackers, this is kinda stupid and op but it stabilizes the meta a lot to a point where teambuilding becomes very interesting so it's a cool mon. the cornerstone of a lot of slower teams b/c wishing and switching out while taking like 0 dmg b/c of regen is op as fk. changes the dynamic of teambuilding a lot b/c you can't overcome it via straight attacking like say milotic, so set up sweepers become a lot more valuable since its really easy to set up on, as well as spikes since all the spikers can set up on mola really easily and spikes neutralize regen which allows you to overcome it via straight attacking. also has a very hard counter in gothorita so gothorita builds are strong against this too.
Durant - really good typing + really fast + really fkin strong = good pkmn. also surprisingly versatile even tho it has an ass movepool. solid af check to a lot of things with scarf while still being a decent sweeper, really hard to switch into with band, bones most of its initial switchins with subpass, can sweep certain teams with hc. bug stab is strong in ru and this is probably the best user of it, so. this and druddigon are big reasons why steels are like necessary on every ru team.

Low

Sceptile
Magneton - druddigon and durant being so strong means steels are strong. this dude bones steels. he is strong.
Sigilyph

A-Tier - reasonably strong pkmns, easy to fit b/c they cover a bunch of roles in one teamslot or fill important slots that are difficult to fill otherwise

High

Qwilfish
Rotom-C
Aerodactyl
Slowking
Moltres
Rotom-N
Steelix

Mid

Kabutops
Escavalier
Uxie
Golurk - has a really strong niche of being a rocker and a spinblocker in one teamslot. solid bulk + strong attack + strong coverage make it a very solid mon. this dude is also funny b/c he can run literally like 6 different types of berries; ghost resist for rotom, rindo for rotom-c, yache for cryogonal, colbur for pursuit users, passho for slowking, lum for random status dudes.
Cryogonal
Smeargle - really strong hazard setter. fast and has spore + both hazards, so it can get hazards down while dunking a dude b/c sleep in bw is op all in one teamslot.

Low

Aggron
Torterra - really good anti-ground mon. has positive matchups against most of the other rockers in the tier and is a good check to a bunch of other things. also an offensive ground that can feasibly get through mola (mostly) on its own. risky in some ways b/c it gets boned particularly hard by some of the best mons in the tier (sigilyph moltres durant jynx cryogonal), but solid as a ground type sweeper or a rock setter that beats other rock setters.
Gallade
Lilligant
Emboar
Entei
Spiritomb
Tauros
Roselia

B-Tier - good pkmns, but slightly niche and fill specific roles on teams.

High

Absol
Archeops
Omastar
Rhydon
Amoonguss
Manectric
Accelgor
Samurott
Scolipede
Tangrowth
Cinccino
Mesprit

Mid

Hitmonlee
Jynx
Bouffalant
Sawsbuck
Zangoose
Klinklang
Ferroseed
Medicham
Swellow
Braviary
Gothorita

Low

Magmortar
Lanturn
Poliwrath
Regirock
Crustle
Clefable
Typhlosion
Seismitoad
Carracosta
Mandibuzz
Scyther
Galvantula
Rotom-F
Musharna
Garbodor

C-Tier - limited pkmn, mons that can't be splashed into a bunch of different teams but can work with a team built around them, or mons that are mostly outclassed by stronger ones but have very specific niche applications

Leafeon
Ninjask
Vileplume
Exeggutor
Ludicolo
Sawk
Hariyama
Drifblim
Piloswine
Haunter
Drapion
Probopass
Fraxure

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

agree with most of HnC's list except:

emboar is too high, Low A
Amoonguss is too low, Mid A
Mesprit is way too high, somewhere in B

 

[Nails]

S+

Druddigon (i originally thought 100% of teams were improved by adding druddigon, but hnc convinced me that it was closer to 80-90%)

S

Nothing is close to drud, it gets a buffer tier between it and the second place mon.
S-

Alomomola
Rotom-C
Sceptile

A+

Magneton
Kabutops
Sigilyph
Moltres (only scarf, anything else is like low a or so)
Rotom-N (only because it can deal with moltres pretty well)

A

Scolipede
Qwilfish (bulky qwil sucks)
Cryogonal
Golurk
Aerodactyl
Steelix

A-

Durant
Amoongus
Spiritomb
Slowking (drud bait, best use is a sigilyph counter or fighting type switch in)
Swellow
Archeops
Escavalier (only because pursuit is really good, the rest of the mon sucks)
Seismitoed
Aggron

B+

Jynx
Lanturn
Torterra
Emboar
Rotom-F
Ferroseed (kind of a gimmicky spiker, but it's a spiker and spikes are super strong)
Roselia (see above)
Accelgor (see above)

B

Uxie
Smeargle
Entei (cb espeed is like 60% of the reason to use it, mola + mushroom/tangrowth on the enemy team makes it worthless)
Gallade
Cinccino (cb only)
Riolu (extremely matchup dependant, but it's basically a pokemon that can sweep any team once its counters are removed given a turn of setup)
Omastar (see above. yes, i think omastar is the functional equivalent of riolu.)
Scyther (pursuit + uturn)
Haunter
Manectric

B- (after this point everything is situational so I'm basically listing mons that I think don't completely suck at anything you try to do with them)

Rhydon
Tangrowth
Mesprit
Tauros
Bouffalant
Lilligant
Gothorita
Klinklang
Exeggutor
Absol
Zangoose
Primeape
Braviary

C+

Medicham
Crustle
Poliwrath
Samurott
Zangoose
Clefable
Klinklang
Piloswine
Musharna
Altaria (specstile switch with recovery, does nothing else well)
Crawdaunt
Gurdurr
Hitmonlee
Sandslash
Ninjask (252 SpA Choice Specs Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Ninjask: 127-150 (39.07 - 46.15%). it still sucks, but the fact that it can switch into specstile and set up if you predict right makes it viable. untested, btw.)
Galvantula
Regirock
Typhlosion

I might be forgetting a couple mons but everything else basically sucks

 

[-Tsunami-]

Since I don't play RU, might as well share my list.

S+
Alomomola
[10:07] <@Tsunami> amazing hp, massive wishes, regen, good typing, scald, toxic, gay as shit, walls everything, fuck stall fuck mola

S mid
Druddigon
Durant

Rest of list is whatever :]