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No real opinion on the other nominations though. However, I would like to see Hydreigon drop to C-. What does this mon accomplish that the other dragons, Zygarde, Garchomp Dragonite, and hell even salamece, don't already do? I am aware Hydreigon is a special attacker but other Dragont types are simply more effective right now. Draco Meteor has so many switch ins it's not even funny, and it gets boned by most of the meta from Clefable, Tapu Lele, Tapu koko, Mamoswine, Hawlucha, Magearna, Weavile, Zygarde, and somehow loses to Toxapex??? Drop this mon.
Hydreigon's niche in OU is a specs user that's honestly less than stellar since it faces a lot of competition from Ash-Gren and Hoopa-U and struggles to deal with fairies being so common, but its current ranking already reflects this and it should definitely not drop. This mon is sort of an in-between of Ash-Gren and Hoopa-U; Hydreigon is slower but stronger than Gren, and it's faster but weaker Hoopa. I don't understand how this loses to Zygarde btw, it's faster even with modest since jolly Zygarde is trash, so your basically assuming its already got a DD up AND has Outrage/Z-Outrage, which rn is losing its worth because of Bulu being so common.
+1 252+ Atk Zygarde Thousand Arrows vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 220-261 (67.6 - 80.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
It dosen't lose to Pex either.
252 SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 108-127 (35.6 - 41.9%) -- 87.6% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
no hazards, one flinch and good rolls and Pex goes down
Here's a few more calcs:
252 SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 56 SpD Assault Vest Tapu Bulu: 230-272 (67 - 79.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Clefable: 190-224 (48.2 - 56.8%) -- 41% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Magearna: 154-182 (42.4 - 50.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
So it's an okay breaker overall, and if you want you could use modest for more power, but that leaves it vulnerable to Kyurem-B and non-scarf Lele outspeeding it (I'm not even going to mention Mimikyu). So yeah, don't drop.
This Mon is so good, I honestly underestimated this Mon and what it was capable of at the beginning of Ultra Sun and Moon. it's Flyinium-Z Set hits pretty hard and allows it to be a much greater threat when paired with defog. This Mon is so good at defogging, beating mons like defensive landorus and checking mons like SD Kartana which is really neat for offensive teams. It also has great utility In U-Turn and Knock Off, Knocking Off Heatran and Celesteela's Leftovers, Zapdos's Leftovers to help teammates like Kartana and it also knocks off Tapu Kokos specs and shuca berry. This Mon has been becoming even better as of late and deserves a rise imo.
Gliscor A- > A
This Mon is great, it is an outstanding deffoger and a very very promanent mon on balance right now. Being able to counter Toxapex and switch into Heatran, a Mon that is a massive threat to balance is huge. It also has been spiking in usage lately and Gliscor is very annoying for opposing balance builds, one of the best playstyles rn.
Medicham A- > A
This Pokemon is insane, Bolstering Huge power and a respectable 100 base speed no wonder this Mon is gaining traction. With mew falling in usage and mons like AV amoongus rising this Mon has been really really good lately. Many BO and balance teams fold from the combination of Volt-Turn Pokemon such as shuca berry Tapu Koko AV Magearna and defensive or scarf Landorus + Mega Medicham. This Mon is really good right now and I can see it joining Scizor as one of the few megas in A right now.
Amoongus B- > B
Ah Amoongus, in my opinion I always didn't really like this Mon but I cannot ignore how good AV amoongus has been lately. Pepole have been calling it a "better" Mega Venusuar because of it being able to check kartana and have coverage for heatran in one slot while having decent recovery in regenerator which i think is reasonable. I think Venu and Amoongus both have their pros and cons but I cannot ignore that this Mon has gotten better as of late and deserves a rise.
Latios B+ > B
If you ask me this mon is just not that good right now. Tyranitar is a very good Mon right now which hinders it alot but not only that, Heatran, Magearna AV Bulu, ect are very common right now and regular latios high speed tier on scarf is rarely even that useful nowadays as the metagame becomes less and less fast and offensive and more defensive as mons like Gliscor and Chansey Rise. Sure latios can trick said mons but Heatran Z move set is a threat, so is offensive Magearna, and Regular latios just should not be in the same ranking as Mega Latios which is in my opinion unless you are scarf latios almost always a better option and a better Pokemon overall.
Reasons:
1. Latias-Mega's movepool and ability makes her a great anti-meta Pokemon. Access to Ice Beam and Psychic/Psyshock allows Latias-Mega to cover top tier pokemon like Landorus T, Zygarde, Toxapex, Hawlucha, and Tapu Bulu (and even Kartana too because of that Pokemon's terribly low SpD); Access to Recover/Roost can let Latias-Mega wall another top tier pokemon, Magearna, even though Magearna is supposed to counter Latias-Mega; Immunity to Spikes, Toxic Spikes, and Sticky Web as well as access to Defog makes Latias-Mega one of the safest Defoggers in the game; Levitate makes her immune to incredibly common ground type moves like Earthquake, Earth Power; etc.
2. All-around high base stats and decent typing can allow Latias-Mega to have multiple viable roles in a team. Latias-Mega's typing, decent HP, and high Def + SpD can make for a really safe switch-in against a lot of attacks, even some super-effective ones like Magearna's Fleur Cannon; Latias-Mega's high SpA and Spe can make for a very threatening Special Sweeper (it has better SpA and Spe than the very common Tapu Lele and Magearna); Even Latias-Mega's Atk is decent in case a mixed Sweeper is needed on the team.
3. Comparable pokemon to Latias-Mega are in B+ tier rather than in B tier. Latias-Mega can (arguably) be just as versatile/useful/powerful as many of the B+ tier pokemon such as Keldeo, Latios-Mega, Rotom-W, and Venusaur-Mega. At the same time, Latias-Mega is more versatile/useful/powerful than the B-tier pokemon like Kingdra, Reuniclus, and Suicune.
EDIT NOTE: Corrected an incorrect assumption that Psychic terrain affected Latias-Mega.
Just a note, but due to Latias-Megas ability Levitate, it is non-grounded and doesn't benefit from the terrain Lele provides. I think the reason Latias is ranked lower than Latios is simply beacause its stats are worse for the role of a Special Sweeper. The only niche Latias provides is slightly superior bulk, at the cost of SpA and Healing Wish, the latter being the main draw. I think B is fine for Latias-M right now, if anything I think B- is more suitable, as I think mons like Excadrill, Mamoswine and Mew are much more viable, however it seems to fit nicely with Kingdra, a mon that is outclassed, but still maintains a decent niche.
Hippowdown C+ to B-/B Strongly Agree
With koko-lucha being so spam-able and common in the current meta, the pokemon that effectively beats this core if you play it correctly has no right being this low in the VR. Unlike other bulky grounds like the ever present landorous-therian and gliscor, this pokemon has the utility to phase out Hawlucha and render it almost useless unless your team is extremely slow, as even max max lucha struggles to outspeed top threats. Choice specs koko also has an extremely difficult time dealing with hippowdown, as its resistance to rocks and lack of any 4x weakness makes koko easy to deal with, compared to lando and gliscor, and the former lacks any form of recovery outside of protect+leftovers. While u-turn variants of koko do gain momentum on hippo, its notable that sand will be chipping down at anything that might come in, barring ground, steal, and rock types.
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 178-211 (42.3 - 50.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 256-303 (60.9 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
misc calcs to back up other things this hungry hippo checks:
252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 136-162 (32.3 - 38.5%) -- 53% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Aerilate Pinsir-Mega Return vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 160-189 (38 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Zapdos Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 120-142 (28.5 - 33.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Tough Claws Charizard-Mega-X Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 178-211 (42.3 - 50.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
(Just slack off till it kills itself, sand does great at chipping this)
+2 64+ Atk Scizor-Mega Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 159-188 (37.8 - 44.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
There's probably a few mons that could go here that I'm forgetting, but this poke is just a good blanket check in general to physical attackers and most electrics.
Overall, Hippowdown is a great koko/lucha answer, having the advantage over zapdos over actually checking koko and stone edge hawlucha. While hippowdown definitely requires team support of the likes of celesteela or another strong grass answer (celepex+hippo is very formidable), celesteela makes great use of sand + leech seed to chip down threats or walls such as lando or toxapex. Sand is also a good niche, supporting excadrill, while having the benefit of not being para'd by a zapdos, which ttar is very susceptible to.
Mimikyu b- to c+ Agree. What does this pokemon do that other ghosts can't do better? Unlike the two special ghosts in gengar and blacephelon, it relies on a terribly weak shadow claw that's only gimmick is more hax chases. I know the main "niche" people state this pokemon has is a spin-blocker on webs. Now, without even discussing the actual viability of webs, let's face the fact that the only viable spinner in the metagame is excadrill, which beats mimikyu anyways, even if it's sand rush because, well, my second point. Mimikyu hits like a truck. Well, a plastic one.
I'm not even kidding, you'd have more luck trying to break walls with an actual pikachu, not this fake toy. Mimikyu has never been able to break bulky steel types such as mega-scizor or celesteela, landorous-therian, and even toxapex. Mimikyu requires a z slot to break anything, and even then ghost-z is pathetic coming off of that attack stat. This lando weakness is only exemplified with how high its usage is, and toxapex just hazes and scald burns you. This pokemon's main draw is its ability, which is honestly a terrible way of revenge killing, you have to keep it untouched to soft check some things its supposed to revenge kill, like ash-greninja or something, I've never seen this pokemon actually revenge kill something effectively. Just use a scarfer for fucks sake. Mimikyu fulfills a useless niche on a dying play-style that's terrible at anything but being immune to a rarely used move. I suppose NEN is kind of scary, but there's far better users of a ghost nuke, gengar with z hex/sball and blacephelon if you pretend ttar doesn't exist.
It's shadow sneak priority struggles to knock out very common fast pokemon such as koko, kartana, keldeo (not common but it is a notable scarfer) lele ignores this and you need adamant to kill anything always so gl not dying to that, landorous,if anyone s insane enough to defend this bootleg mascot I'll go on.
Props to mimikyu for being kept in ou for so long by bad HO teams that can't pressure hazard control mons. Please let this drop, I've had enough of seeing this unmon in ou. Same with skarm and bisharp but I'll jump out a fucking window if I write another wall of text tonight.
Hippowdown C+ to B-/B Strongly Agree
With koko-lucha being so spam-able and common in the current meta, the pokemon that effectively beats this core if you play it correctly has no right being this low in the VR. Unlike other bulky grounds like the ever present landorous-therian and gliscor, this pokemon has the utility to phase out Hawlucha and render it almost useless unless your team is extremely slow, as even max max lucha struggles to outspeed top threats. Choice specs koko also has an extremely difficult time dealing with hippowdown, as its resistance to rocks and lack of any 4x weakness makes koko easy to deal with, compared to lando and gliscor, and the former lacks any form of recovery outside of protect+leftovers. While u-turn variants of koko do gain momentum on hippo, its notable that sand will be chipping down at anything that might come in, barring ground, steal, and rock types.
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 178-211 (42.3 - 50.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 256-303 (60.9 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
misc calcs to back up other things this hungry hippo checks:
252+ Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 136-162 (32.3 - 38.5%) -- 53% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Aerilate Pinsir-Mega Return vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 160-189 (38 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Zapdos Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 120-142 (28.5 - 33.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Tough Claws Charizard-Mega-X Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 178-211 (42.3 - 50.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
(Just slack off till it kills itself, sand does great at chipping this)
+2 64+ Atk Scizor-Mega Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 159-188 (37.8 - 44.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
There's probably a few mons that could go here that I'm forgetting, but this poke is just a good blanket check in general to physical attackers and most electrics.
Overall, Hippowdown is a great koko/lucha answer, having the advantage over zapdos over actually checking koko and stone edge hawlucha. While hippowdown definitely requires team support of the likes of celesteela or another strong grass answer (celepex+hippo is very formidable), celesteela makes great use of sand + leech seed to chip down threats or walls such as lando or toxapex. Sand is also a good niche, supporting excadrill, while having the benefit of not being para'd by a zapdos, which ttar is very susceptible to.
Mimikyu b- to c+/c/c-/why is this garbage unmon ranked? Agree. What does this pokemon do that other ghosts can't do better? Unlike the two special ghosts in gengar and blacephelon, it relies on a terribly weak shadow claw that's only gimmick is more hax chases. I know the main "niche" people state this pokemon has is a spin-blocker on webs. Now, without even discussing the actual viability of webs, let's face the fact that the only viable spinner in the metagame is excadrill, which beats mimikyu anyways, even if it's sand rush because, well, my second point. Mimikyu hits like a truck. Well, a plastic one.
I'm not even kidding, you'd have more luck trying to break walls with an actual pikachu, not this fake toy. Mimikyu has never been able to break bulky steel types such as mega-scizor or celesteela, landorous-therian, and even toxapex. Mimikyu requires a z slot to break anything, and even then ghost-z is pathetic coming off of that attack stat. This lando weakness is only exemplified with how high its usage is, and toxapex just hazes and scald burns you. This pokemon's main draw is its ability, which is honestly a terrible way of revenge killing, you have to keep it untouched to soft check some things its supposed to revenge kill, like ash-greninja or something, I've never seen this pokemon actually revenge kill something effectively. Just use a scarfer for fucks sake. Mimikyu fulfills a useless niche on a dying play-style that's terrible at anything but being immune to a rarely used move. I suppose NEN is kind of scary, but there's far better users of a ghost nuke, gengar with z hex/sball and blacephelon if you pretend ttar doesn't exist.
It's shadow sneak priority struggles to knock out very common fast pokemon such as koko, kartana, keldeo (not common but it is a notable scarfer) lele ignores this and you need adamant to kill anything always so gl not dying to that, landorous,if anyone s insane enough to defend this bootleg mascot I'll go on.
Props to mimikyu for being kept in ou for so long by bad HO teams that can't pressure hazard control mons. Please let this drop, I've had enough of seeing this unmon in ou. Same with skarm and bisharp but I'll jump out a fucking window if I write another wall of text tonight.
idk if you've ever used mimikyu, but it holds a massive niche in checking hard-hitting sweepers, which hyper offense have very few switch ins into, if any. these vary from stuff like qd volc, sd kartana, sd lando, and hawlucha, which Mimikyu can revenge kill with shadow claw/play rough into sneak. plus with disguise and sd you actually break through lando and toxapex depending on the sets.
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Mimikyu Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-Therian: 191-226 (50 - 59.1%) -- 76.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Mimikyu Shadow Claw vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Toxapex: 175-208 (57.7 - 68.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
+2 252+ Atk Mimikyu Never-Ending Nightmare (140 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Toxapex: 270-318 (89.1 - 104.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Black Sludge recovery
since hyper offense relies on weakening mutual checks, mimikyu being walled by ferro imo is a pretty moot point since it weakens it a ton with shadow claw. i get that its walled by scizor, but thats no reason for a drop. yeah it sucks as a spinblocker but thats never been why its on hyper offense anyway, especially since drill is the only spinner.
"what does this mon do that other ghosts can't do" lmao how are you even comparing blacephalon and mimikyu. mimikyu has a fuck ton of defensive utility because of disguise, lack of weaknesses to common types, and passable special bulk. its not hard to keep mimikyu in the back for and preserve its disguise, and being able to basically trade itself for a setup sweeper is invaluable.
Considering your profile pic is Mimikyu and tbh these calcs aren't very impressive, (+2 adamant Z move doesn't even guarantee OHKO on pex) i feel like perhaps you are biased towards this Pokemon not because you have had success eith it competitively, but because you like it as a pokemon. Drop this unmon.
i'll concede that mimikyu doesn't do that good vs balance. however, hyper offense in general has a great matchup vs balance since it usually has balance breakers that aren't mimikyu alongside it. mimikyu helps because it beats opposing offenses which don't have switch ins to mimikyu and have a tough time preventing a +2 mimikyu from sweeping it late game.
Considering your profile pic is Mimikyu and tbh these calcs aren't very impressive, (+2 adamant Z move doesn't even guarantee OHKO on pex) i feel like perhaps you are biased towards this Pokemon not because you have had success eith it competitively, but because you like it as a pokemon. Drop this unmon.
Mimikyu b- to c+/c/c-/why is this garbage unmon ranked? Agree. What does this pokemon do that other ghosts can't do better? Unlike the two special ghosts in gengar and blacephelon, it relies on a terribly weak shadow claw that's only gimmick is more hax chases. I know the main "niche" people state this pokemon has is a spin-blocker on webs. Now, without even discussing the actual viability of webs, let's face the fact that the only viable spinner in the metagame is excadrill, which beats mimikyu anyways, even if it's sand rush because, well, my second point. Mimikyu hits like a truck. Well, a plastic one.
I'm not even kidding, you'd have more luck trying to break walls with an actual pikachu, not this fake toy. Mimikyu has never been able to break bulky steel types such as mega-scizor or celesteela, landorous-therian, and even toxapex. Mimikyu requires a z slot to break anything, and even then ghost-z is pathetic coming off of that attack stat. This lando weakness is only exemplified with how high its usage is, and toxapex just hazes and scald burns you. This pokemon's main draw is its ability, which is honestly a terrible way of revenge killing, you have to keep it untouched to soft check some things its supposed to revenge kill, like ash-greninja or something, I've never seen this pokemon actually revenge kill something effectively. Just use a scarfer for fucks sake. Mimikyu fulfills a useless niche on a dying play-style that's terrible at anything but being immune to a rarely used move. I suppose NEN is kind of scary, but there's far better users of a ghost nuke, gengar with z hex/sball and blacephelon if you pretend ttar doesn't exist.
It's shadow sneak priority struggles to knock out very common fast pokemon such as koko, kartana, keldeo (not common but it is a notable scarfer) lele ignores this and you need adamant to kill anything always so gl not dying to that, landorous,if anyone s insane enough to defend this bootleg mascot I'll go on.
Props to mimikyu for being kept in ou for so long by bad HO teams that can't pressure hazard control mons. Please let this drop, I've had enough of seeing this unmon in ou. Same with skarm and bisharp but I'll jump out a fucking window if I write another wall of text tonight.
I have a feeling you're quite the Mimikyu fan, lol. Mimikyu, in my opinion should stay ranked because it is completely unique, no other Pokémon has this ability or this type combination, also physical Ghost and physical Fairies are few and far between. Mimikyu's access to priority and Swords Dance are exactly what it needs to capitalise on its ability. While yes, its power is underwhelming unboosted and it has a very awkward speed tier, the unique aspects carve it enough of a niche on Hyper Offensive teams, which I think you are heavily underestimating. Screens Koko is rising in popularity and Webs actually has a decent setter in Araquanid finally, the latter makes Mimikyu incredibly threatening. I'm on the fence, I can possibly see a Mimikyu drop to C+ but definitely not lower than that.
I'd like to again support Koko to S-, I know this was voted on in the previous slate, but since then Dual Screen and Shuca Berry have also become more prominent, making it much less predictable, this has been talked to death already.
I will support Hippowdon to B-, I think to B is a little to far considering the rise in usage is largely attributed to KokoLucha, which may become less common once everyone starts carrying checks, which is starting to happen already. But even outside of this Hippowdon is a great physical check and the ability to phaze things out to reset boost and to rack up hazards damage is great, particularly in conjunction with Toxapex and Toxic Spikes, which is very common. Sand + SR + Tox chip can whittle down a lot of mons to the point where sweepers like Kartana can break through even hard checks like Zapdos with Z Moves or boosted STAB.
Lastly Medicham-Mega to A, amazing balance breaker and Fake Out does awesome damage against a lot of set-up sweepers and fast attackers. It outspeeds and with STAB + Ice Punch hits every S ranked mon super effectively and a large number in A as well. Lele support for Zen and avoiding priority is awesome as well as fairly deep movepool allows this thing to fit on plenty of team builds.
idk if you've ever used mimikyu, but it holds a massive niche in checking hard-hitting sweepers, which hyper offense have very few switch ins into, if any. these vary from stuff like qd volc, sd kartana, sd lando, and hawlucha, which Mimikyu can revenge kill with shadow claw/play rough into sneak. plus with disguise and sd you actually break through lando and toxapex depending on the sets.
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Mimikyu Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-Therian: 191-226 (50 - 59.1%) -- 76.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Mimikyu Shadow Claw vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Toxapex: 175-208 (57.7 - 68.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
+2 252+ Atk Mimikyu Never-Ending Nightmare (140 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Toxapex: 270-318 (89.1 - 104.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Black Sludge recovery
since hyper offense relies on weakening mutual checks, mimikyu being walled by ferro imo is a pretty moot point since it weakens it a ton with shadow claw. i get that its walled by scizor, but thats no reason for a drop. yeah it sucks as a spinblocker but thats never been why its on hyper offense anyway, especially since drill is the only spinner.
"what does this mon do that other ghosts can't do" lmao how are you even comparing blacephalon and mimikyu. mimikyu has a fuck ton of defensive utility because of disguise, lack of weaknesses to common types, and passable special bulk. its not hard to keep mimikyu in the back for and preserve its disguise, and being able to basically trade itself for a setup sweeper is invaluable.
You make some fair points here, let me address them one by one.
"idk if you've ever used mimikyu, but it holds a massive niche in checking hard-hitting sweepers, which hyper offense have very few switch ins into, if any. these vary from stuff like qd volc, sd kartana, sd lando, and hawlucha, which Mimikyu can revenge kill with shadow claw/play rough into sneak. plus with disguise and sd you actually break through lando and toxapex depending on the sets."
I have used mimikyu, but I began to see that there's no reason to use this pokemon as a revenge killer when there are amazing choice scarfers such as kartana, keldeo, lele, protean gren, another hawlucha which is max max or jolly, even jolly fucking hawlucha is worth more as a lucha check than this. I find the fact that you start off with straw-manning the fact that you don't think I've used mimikyu before addressing any of my actual points. Despite your profile clearly showing you love mimikyu, I'll try to deconstruct your arguments. Also while I was writing this Lord Helix posted the tldr of this so....
The argument of Mimikyu being good versus offense is honestly absurd, as stated above there's other lucha checks that can eat offenses's ass, such as a faster hawlucha, ash greninja, mamo (not great versus offense but still ice shard is nice), weavile, etc. I know that mimikyu is a better check than all of these when in comes to hawlucha, and I'm not even going to get into how you need to preserve your disguise (I stated this in OP so idk why you failed to address this). But all the other hawlucha checks I listed are simply better pokemon.
"since hyper offense relies on weakening mutual checks, mimikyu being walled by ferro imo is a pretty moot point since it weakens it a ton with shadow claw. i get that its walled by scizor, but thats no reason for a drop. yeah it sucks as a spinblocker but thats never been why its on hyper offense anyway, especially since drill is the only spinner. "
Your boner for mimikyu is showing, at least when LL does this with qwilfish he at least sells you on the niche. I don't see your point here, having two pokes walled by ferrothorn is wrong because you weaken ferro? Have fun catching a leech seed, especially if its protect. Anyways, I don't want to push you into getting your waifu-mon blacklisted from this thread, I'll just leave it at the fact that everything mimikyu does, 5+ better mons can do better.
"what does this mon do that other ghosts can't do" lmao how are you even comparing blacephalon and mimikyu. mimikyu has a fuck ton of defensive utility because of disguise, lack of weaknesses to common types, and passable special bulk. its not hard to keep mimikyu in the back for and preserve its disguise, and being able to basically trade itself for a setup sweeper is invaluable."
I'll rephrase that, what does this mon do that other mons can't do? I am comparing blacephalon and gengar to mimikyu, they all hold a niece of strong ghost types that spam their stabs. I don't see your point about a "fuck ton" off defensive utility, disguise is a one time thing that relies you to never pivot this in for fear of a uturn or a volt switch or a priority move. While this does soft check mega medicham, so does a far better anti offense mon in lele (which doesn't suck a huge eggplant vs balance or stall). It's defenses are also meh, with bad hp and defense held up by a semi passable spdef stat that''ll often be useless because of how god damn strong special attackers are this gen (see: lele and koko). I don't honestly see your point of a "huge nieche", it suffers the exact same pitfalls other offensive lucha checks do in the need to keep yourself healthy, or in mimikyu's case, untouched. I'm not going to write any more about this terrible ass digimon that deserves to be in NU as much as Pikachu does, so I'll leave it at:
You're the guy who unironically listed trick room under mimikyu's other options, so you're either a fan of verlisify sets or trolling. I'm not sure how listing meme sets under a shotty analysis gives him any more authority than joe smo but ok (in response to Altervisi ) EDIT: After speaking on discord, its clear that Mathew was only really arguing against the UR nom I mentioned offhand, of course that's too low in the current meta. I apologize for the misunderstanding.
Just a note, but due to Latias-Megas ability Levitate, it is non-grounded and doesn't benefit from the terrain Lele provides. I think the reason Latias is ranked lower than Latios is simply beacause its stats are worse for the role of a Special Sweeper. The only niche Latias provides is slightly superior bulk, at the cost of SpA and Healing Wish, the latter being the main draw. I think B is fine for Latias-M right now, if anything I think B- is more suitable, as I think mons like Excadrill, Mamoswine and Mew are much more viable, however it seems to fit nicely with Kingdra, a mon that is outclassed, but still maintains a decent niche.
I'm going to give my own 2 cents as someone who's been quite a lurker of OU for pretty much all of this gen.
A+ -> -S
Tapu Koko has the majority of the metagame by its hairs right now, and I'm just going to echo everyone else by saying it should absolutely rise. Tapu Koko is metagame-defining and is as influential to offense as a Pokemon like Heatran or Toxapex is to balance/stall. I'd like to point out just how good the Specs set is- it can threaten so many defensive Pokemon in the metagame while being able to simply pivot out of checks like AV Magearna while still doing a nice bit of chip damage. Volt Switch switch-ins like Landorus-T and other Ground types aren't very reliable since they're scared out by a predicted HP Ice or even the possibility of Shuca Berry or Z Move sets. Tapu Koko can effectively bluff its set a lot of the time, and switch-ins like the aforementioned AV Magearna and Chansey can simply by lured in by the physical Z move set. This Pokemon literally fits all the qualities of what makes a Pokemon metagame defining. When this is all weighed in, Tapu Koko can single handedly win against the majority of the tier. I'll outline the number of switch-ins for you:
- Can't switch in (Can be a 50/50 with Specs set)
- Can't switch in
- Can't switch in
- Can't switch in
- Switches in (But Koko just pivots out)
- Can't switch in
- Switches in (But gets lured by Z-Wild Charge)
- Can't switch in
- Can't switch in
- Can't switch in (Can be a 50/50 with Specs set)
... and so on.
I'm not going to continue pointing out Koko's lack of consistent switch-ins because we all get the gyst now. When a Pokemon is such a crucial part of a top playstyle and the metagame as a whole, I think it's completely justifiable for it to rise. It's just as versatile as the Pokemon currently in S-, and can use different sets to lure different walls. I don't think Tapu Koko is broken at all obviously, but its situation is somewhat reminiscent of Genesect in early gen- a Pokemon that doesn't really have a lot of universal counters because of its flexibility. I think this is long overdue, but I just wanted to pop in and say I strongly agree with Tapu Koko rising to -S.
Mimikyu b- to c+/c/c-/why is this garbage unmon ranked? Agree. What does this pokemon do that other ghosts can't do better? Unlike the two special ghosts in gengar and blacephelon, it relies on a terribly weak shadow claw that's only gimmick is more hax chases. I know the main "niche" people state this pokemon has is a spin-blocker on webs. Now, without even discussing the actual viability of webs, let's face the fact that the only viable spinner in the metagame is excadrill, which beats mimikyu anyways, even if it's sand rush because, well, my second point. Mimikyu hits like a truck. Well, a plastic one.
I strongly support this nom. While its typing & ability is good, its stats on the other hand, are the opposite, with terrible HP, meh speed, & bad attack (even coupled with LO). As a result, Its outclassed by most physical setup sweepers in the teir. Shadow sneak, which is its best form of speed controll, is really weak, due to having 40 bp plus its poor attack. This guy does not deserve to be ranked with usable (albiet outclassed) 'mons such as volcanion, amonguss (which should rise), fini, and jirachi (which have noticable niches it the metagame), & as a result, I think a rank of C would fit it better.
Blacephalon B=>B-
Blace has good special attack, decent speed, and good STABs. thant's about all the good things I can say about this guy. Now for the bad things. Oh boy, does it have tons of bad things. First, It has a horrible movepool, havning only STABs, physical dark moves, moves like trick, & calm mind, and HPs (it doesn't get hp fighting), meaning it gets hopelessly walled by ash-gren, chansey, t-tar, heatran (if ur not using hp ground), mantine, & toxapex (shadow ball is a 2HKO, & pex will swich out). It also has ass defenences. I don't know why you wouyld run this thing over ash gren since A: it has better special attack & speed, & B: has a better movepool, so it can would-be counters. Thus, I think blace should drop to B-,where 'mons that have niches, but are outclassed reside.
I personally couldn’t disagree more with this. While Mimikyu can be really weak without a Swords Dance boost, it can literally set up for free and is such a great blanket check to so many offensive Pokemon thanks to Disguise. Lots of offensive teams rely on Mimikyu as their check to dangerous offensive mons like Tapu Lele, Volcarona, etc. The fact that it can guarantee to live any hit and hit back with a great offensive typing is something no other mon can do in this meta besides like sashcounter zam which isn’t nearly as good. Mimikyu’s access to reliable priority and Swords Dance allows it to break past walls like pex with its Z-Move set which is, in my opinion, it’s best set right now. You point out things people can literally just find by looking at the pokedex (bad HP, bad Attack, etc) and this argument is so bad because you’re not exactly explaining why this stops Mimikyu from doing what it does. No physical setup sweeper in the tier can blanket check mons like Mimikyu does, and frankly, it shouldn’t even be compared since Mimikyu’s role is very different. Mimikyu is in a good place at B right now and I don’t think you’ve actually explained why it should drop outside of pointing out information you can literally find by looking at its dex entry.
Again, you’re just pointing out information you can simply draw from looking at its entry on Smogon. Its movepool is pretty bad but it’s STAB combination is pretty good and hits most of the tier for neutral damage. The scarf set lets Blacephalon become a particularly great late-game mon, and I’m not sure why you compare it with ashgren at all since they hit completely different Pokemon. So yeah I completely disagree with this nomination.
Just so this isn’t a VR response I’d like to make my own nomination. I’m not sure how well this will be taken but, speaking about Ghost types, I think we should talk about Gengar.
B —> B-
I think Gengar is in a very tough place in the metagame right now. While it has a great offensive Ghost typing, ability to absorb Toxic Spikes as well as beat Pokemon like Z Move Lele 1v1, Gengar has a lot of shortcomings that make it no more than a niche option on some offensive teams. Blacephalon’s introduction gave Gengar heavy competition as a specially-biased Ghost type wallbreaker and Choice Scarf user. Gengar finds itself losing to many common Pokemon in the metagame such as Landorus-T, Magearna, Toxapex, Scarftana, Ash-Greninja, and just about any Pokemon that can outspeed it or wall it. Gengar’s awful bulk gives it little flexibility as far as sets go. A LO/Z-Move set leaves it prone to really common revenge killers like Koko and Ashgren, while a potential Scarf set leaves it way too weak and unable to secure OHKOs against bulkier Pokemon. In B-, it sits at a good place with similarly niche Pokemon such as Mimikyu and Victini. Overall, I think the metagame is very unkind to Gengar right now and it should drop to B-.
I disagree with a Gengar drop. Gengar has a very cool typing and has a variety of sets, great coverage and a bunch of useful tech moves like knock off (try it!), hex and willo. There's really no major meta changes to justify a drop imo. Besides Ash-Greninja, Gengar's closest direct compeition is Hoopa U and Blacephalon who are both slower or completely boned by Tyranitar in Blacephalon's case. While it's not bulky by any means, it also has marginally more defensive utility than Blacephalon (who has none). Absorbing Tspikes is a non-negibible aspect and helps offensive teams spin/defog less. Gengar is honestly underexplored, it has a really wide movepool like all the Gen 1 mons do. I think the totality of Gengar's unique traits carve it a solid niche for itself and it should stay in B.
I personally couldn’t disagree more with this. While Mimikyu can be really weak without a Swords Dance boost, it can literally set up for free and is such a great blanket check to so many offensive Pokemon thanks to Disguise. Lots of offensive teams rely on Mimikyu as their check to dangerous offensive mons like Tapu Lele, Volcarona, etc. The fact that it can guarantee to live any hit and hit back with a great offensive typing is something no other mon can do in this meta besides like sashcounter zam which isn’t nearly as good. Mimikyu’s access to reliable priority and Swords Dance allows it to break past walls like pex with its Z-Move set which is, in my opinion, it’s best set right now. You point out things people can literally just find by looking at the pokedex (bad HP, bad Attack, etc) and this argument is so bad because you’re not exactly explaining why this stops Mimikyu from doing what it does. No physical setup sweeper in the tier can blanket check mons like Mimikyu does, and frankly, it shouldn’t even be compared since Mimikyu’s role is very different. Mimikyu is in a good place at B right now and I don’t think you’ve actually explained why it should drop outside of pointing out information you can literally find by looking at its dex entry.
Again, you’re just pointing out information you can simply draw from looking at its entry on Smogon. Its movepool is pretty bad but it’s STAB combination is pretty good and hits most of the tier for neutral damage. The scarf set lets Blacephalon become a particularly great late-game mon, and I’m not sure why you compare it with ashgren at all since they hit completely different Pokemon. So yeah I completely disagree with this nomination.
Just so this isn’t a VR response I’d like to make my own nomination. I’m not sure how well this will be taken but, speaking about Ghost types, I think we should talk about Gengar.
B —> B-
I think Gengar is in a very tough place in the metagame right now. While it has a great offensive Ghost typing, ability to absorb Toxic Spikes as well as beat Pokemon like Z Move Lele 1v1, Gengar has a lot of shortcomings that make it no more than a niche option on some offensive teams. Blacephalon’s introduction gave Gengar heavy competition as a specially-biased Ghost type wallbreaker and Choice Scarf user. Gengar finds itself losing to many common Pokemon in the metagame such as Landorus-T, Magearna, Toxapex, Scarftana, Ash-Greninja, and just about any Pokemon that can outspeed it or wall it. Gengar’s awful bulk gives it little flexibility as far as sets go. A LO/Z-Move set leaves it prone to really common revenge killers like Koko and Ashgren, while a potential Scarf set leaves it way too weak and unable to secure OHKOs against bulkier Pokemon. In B-, it sits at a good place with similarly niche Pokemon such as Mimikyu and Victini. Overall, I think the metagame is very unkind to Gengar right now and it should drop to B-.
I'd like to disagree with gengar to b-. Gengar has utility and speed over blacephelon that allows it to 1v1 pokemon like toxapex, which even with taunt blacephelon's bad bulk and typing makes it loose in a 1v1 with toxapex. Blacephelon is also complete ttar food, and with both m-tar and band-tar being so common right now due to the rise of zapdos, this is terrible for blacephelon. Spdef tran is also very common, as is spdef toxapex. Gengar kills t-tar with focus blast after chip and hazards. Of course, focus blast is bound to miss and scarf-tar is sometimes ran on balance, but it's not complete ttar food. Taunt + NEN gengar is able to 1v1 toxapex. I'm not sure about why you listed landorous as a gengar check, as it needs to be scarf which is easy to scout for and defensive landorous cannot switch in. Magerna isn't OKOING gengar, and gengar can chip it down considerably for teamates such as skarftana, lele, zam, koko, etc. The argument that things outspeed and kill it is honestly mute, this applies to almost every offense sweeper, and blacephelon. Gengar also doesn't allow greninja to switch in if it's the scarf set, as gengar is good for a fairy weakness.
Gengar has an amazing matchup versus balance and stall, something blacephelon lacks with how common tyrainitar, spdef-tran, toxapex, etc are. Gengar is fine in B for being a rare breed of offensive poison type breaker with good utility and coverage, unlike blacephelon whose relies on spamming shadow ball without a fighting move to hit, as I keep saying, tyranitar and spdef tran and an almost dead weight fire typing vs toxapex, which gives it a rock weakness and is also hit by toxic spikes and scald.
In conclusion, Gengar's utility and powerfull sludge bomb/wave allows it to be a powerful balance breaker and revenge killer to top threats such as specs or cm lele, sd kartana, sd lando, etc etc. The argument that gengar is frail falls flat when you defend the slower and frailer blacephelon, which also has a worse move pool. I am on the fence about a blecephelon drop. On one hand, it's great versus offense but it's choice locked and calm mind sets fall flat vs tyranitar, heatran, and toxapex, all great and common pokemon.
Gengar B --> B-
I strongly disagree with this.
Gengar has many offensive tools it can use at it's command that range from focus blast to thunderbolt and many utility moves that range from willo to trick which can allow it to be able to find some use in nearly any game. There is very few pokemon that can switch in on gengar due to it's fantastic movepool and stabs. Sure many faster pokemon might beat gengar but that goes for any sweeper and I don't think that it's a reason Gengar should drop. Gengar's specs set is also able to beat many of the other powerful wall breakers such as lele and blacephalon. Gengar can also outspeed and beat SD kartana which is a fantastic pokemon and one of the most terrifying threats which is always nice to be able to do. If anything, it's ability to be an amazing anti meta pokemon along the likes of mamoswine deserve it to go up to B+ and after using Gengar for a while I can't agree more with the movement for sending it up.
Tapu Koko A+ ---> S-
I however strongly agree with this notion. I don't really have much to add other than it's many sets let it be hard to prepare for so it also has versatility to match it's strength ranging from shuca berry to screens.
Mimikyu B- ---> C-/C+/C
I somewhat disagree with the nomination, while Mimikyu certainly isn't as bad as it's being appeared out to be due to it's sweep check nature and free set up letting it get alot of chances to trade it's self for a more powerful mon like tapu lele which can let alot of teams have a field day I think that C- and C are much much to far out of reach for this thing but I would not mind a C+ ranking for Mimi, not on the notion that Mimi is bad, it's on the notion that C+ is more speaking of it's viability
Bisharp B- ----> C+
Now that (like blacephalon) the hype surrounding this mon due to defog has died I think it's best it goes back to it's original spot, many defogers can beat this thing 1v1 (aside from the latis) and due to the unreliable nature of sucker punch and it's low speed it can be hard for it to do much. Of course it has it's uses on web teams which is nice and all but then I ask, why is this thing not ranked in C+ with pokemon like shuckle and the damn spider? Due to it's uses I feel like placing this pokemom alongside jirachi,amoognus and volcanion is a massive misjugement in viability and that C+ with pokemon like it's web friends and Zard Y is a much better position for it to be in.
Hippowdon C+ ----> B-
I just want to note that I strongly agree with this but I don't have much to add on the matter, just showing my support.
I think Mantine’s role of defogging for balanced teams has been more or less replaced by Tornadus-T and Zapdos. While Mantine on paper has some great utility, I think it’s worth noting just how much of the S and A ranks Mantine just loses to or gets hit by toxic (Heatran/Pex) or knocked off (gliscor). Mantine’s biggest niche of Defog+Ash Gren/water check has been more or less replaced by Zapdos/Tornadus + bulky grass (bulu, tang, Amoongus) which offers much more offensive presence + not getting worn down as badly because of regenerator/grassy terrain+keeping up momentum. While they do different things, I think Gastrodon fulfills a similar defensive niche as Mantine (and has seen a good deal of tournament use) and does it better because of its typing and greater offenses. I’m not saying Mantine is bad, it’s definitely not, but I think that the meta has more or less replaced its niche with the afformentioned cores. It’s an awesome rain check but I don’t think it’s enough for B.
I think Mantine’s role of defogging for balanced teams has been more or less replaced by Tornadus-T and Zapdos. While Mantine on paper has some great utility, I think it’s worth noting just how much of the S and A ranks Mantine just loses to or gets hit by toxic (Heatran/Pex) or knocked off (gliscor). Mantine’s biggest niche of Defog+Ash Gren/water check has been more or less replaced by Zapdos/Tornadus + bulky grass (bulu, tang, Amoongus) which offers much more offensive presence + not getting worn down as badly because of regenerator/grassy terrain+keeping up momentum. While they do different things, I think Gastrodon fulfills a similar defensive niche as Mantine (and as seen a good deal of tournament use) and does it better because of its typing and greater offenses. I’m not saying Mantine is bad, it’s definitely not, but I think that the meta has more or less replaced its niche with the afformentioned cores. It’s an awesome rain check but I don’t think it’s enough for B.
I would like to note that mantine's use comes in a similar form to tapu fini in that it may be outclassed at it's job, but it's useful because of the fact it can do many jobs, that being said I think that gastrodon and mantine have almost nothing in common aside from being bulky water types and I don't think it's that far to compare the two. That being said, i'm not against a B- ranking for mantine but I certainly think that it needs more reason to go down there which I hope you can give me.
Tapu Koko A+ -> S-: Strongly agree
I don't really have much say that others haven't. The biggest thing is comparing it to other things in that tier. Toxapex, Kartana, and Heatran are the only S- mons right now. Quite frankly, I find Koko a lot more terrifying than Kartana. There is no mon that can wall all of its potential sets due to its capability to hit hard on both physically and special sides. Mageana? Destroyed by Z- Wild Charge. Bulu? Doesn't appreciate Z-Brave bird. Same for Mega Venasaur. Gastrodon and Hippowdon are hit hard by grass knot. Similar to Lando, it can pick it's own checks and counters. It also pairs great with some of the some threatening sweepers and Wall breakers like Hawlucha, Kyurem-B, Mega-Medicham, and Shift Gear Magearna. I was surprised when it wasn't on the inaugural S- list and the consensus on the comments seems to be that it should be there.
I also find it more threatening than the other mons in A+. Ash-Gren can struggle to achieve it's form. Volcarona needs Defog support to be successful. Lele's speed tier is a little bit too slow. I think it fits much better in S-
Tapu Koko A+ -> S-: Strongly agree
I don't really have much say that others haven't. The biggest thing is comparing it to other things in that tier. Toxapex, Kartana, and Heatran are the only S- mons right now. Quite frankly, I find Koko a lot more terrifying than Kartana. There is no mon that can wall all of its potential sets due to its capability to hit hard on both physically and special sides. Mageana? Destroyed by Z- Wild Charge. Bulu? Doesn't appreciate Z-Brave bird. Same for Mega Venasaur. Gastrodon and Hippowdon are hit hard by grass knot. Similar to Lando, it can pick it's own checks and counters. It also pairs great with some of the some threatening sweepers and Wall breakers like Hawlucha, Kyurem-B, Mega-Medicham, and Shift Gear Magearna. I was surprised when it wasn't on the inaugural S- list and the consensus on the comments seems to be that it should be there.
I also find it more threatening than the other mons in A+. Ash-Gren can struggle to achieve it's form. Volcarona needs Defog support to be successful. Lele's speed tier is a little bit too slow. I think it fits much better in S-
while I do think that Koko has a place in S-, I feel like some of the sets you list are just theorizing and haven't seen much high level play. I don't really think grass knot has any place outside of an extreme counter team or on scarf (non set) if you get 6-0d by swampert. Z wild charge is indeed a set, but I've never seen z brave bird used outside of meme sets, if you can provide a high level instance of this being used please post a replay. I feel the real strength of koko is not that it's a potential swiss army knife, the most common sets you'll see are simple pivot or utility offensive sets or specs. Cm z move and z wild charge are all nice techs, but the real strength is how good of a pivot it is. It forces switches and can taunt checks to prevent shenanigans and get in a powerful teammate such as megacham, hawlucha, k-b, pinsir, etc.
while I do think that Koko has a place in S-, I feel like some of the sets you list are just theorizing and haven't seen much high level play. I don't really think grass knot has any place outside of an extreme counter team or on scarf (non set) if you get 6-0d by swampert. Z wild charge is indeed a set, but I've never seen z brave bird used outside of meme sets, if you can provide a high level instance of this being used please post a replay. I feel the real strength of koko is not that it's a potential swiss army knife, the most common sets you'll see are simple pivot or utility offensive sets or specs. Cm z move and z wild charge are all nice techs, but the real strength is how good of a pivot it is. It forces switches and can taunt checks to prevent shenanigans and get in a powerful teammate such as megacham, hawlucha, k-b, pinsir, etc.
You're correct. Some of these are very team specific needs. I'm imagining pairing Koko with Ash-Gren and luring Bulu/Venu/Tang/Amoongus and eliminating the bulky grass and clearing the way for Gren to sweep. That's not a good set since it's very specific. The point of my post was to show how it can adapt and fulfill almost any offensive role you need it for. I have used Scarf Grass Knot as my rain answer and it isn't super great. 252 does about ~80% to Swampert so you need to get some chip first. Koko has constantly evolved so far from Magnet to Z-Wild Charge to Specs and now Shuca Berry is the latest Koko fad. While Z-Brave Bird isn't used much more, I wouldn't be surprised if it started becoming a short term answer to AV Bulu. 252 Atk Supersonic Skystrike (190) to 248 HP/0 Def Tapu Bulu does 98.5 to 116, 87% OHKO. That would work until people learn not to bring Bulu in on Koko which means they have to check it with something else. Once again, everyone else has mostly focused on the effectiveness of its current popular sets, I'm focusing on how it will react to the meta game responding to it. That's the reason for the heavy theory-moning. Everyone else took the good arguments.
So I've been lurking in this thread since the beginning of sun and moon, and I'd like to echo the nominations for hippowdon to b+. It's a hard stop to Koko, and can be an emergency check to Hawlucha with whirlwind. It also beats landorus 1v1 and can get rocks up. It does struggle with kartanas prevalence in the meta as well as rising trends like tornadus t, av moon, and not really rising but has been prevelant tapu bulu. But the compaction of a kokolucha counter is a a massive reason it shouldn't be ranked in c+ as it priovides a strong niche in the game despite fierce competition. I'm on mobile and have to go now and can't do much more.
I would like to nom tapu fini for C+ or even lower, honestly this is hard to justify using this mon, it faces a lot of competiton with better mons like mantine(actually have recovery, it's immune to spikes/t-spikes) and clefable, also the rising usage of zapdos, kartana and bulu really hurts it, and things like tornadus can chip it easily since it lacks recovery, as a trapper you better use azumarill and as a defogger you better use every other defogger in the tier.
also i don't think mew and gliscor should be 2 subranks from each other, they both checks lando and pex and work as deffogers, the diference being what they check, gliscor can check heatran, celesteela, some stall teams without sab, have the spikes/t-spikes imunity and have a great recovery. mew checks zygarde, medicham, lopunny,hawlucha(big deal) and criple kartana and bulu, while having a better overall bulk and a big moverpool to run lures if needed. I don't see why they have all that diference between ranks.
minor question: is mega latios still B+ worthy? he rose because of being a good lure, but now everybody expect him I don't think he is better than subendeavor diancie to say the truth she can deal with a lot of regular answers to diancie. also ttar is not everywhere like he use to be.
another note: if heatran switch on serp he looses, thats popular knowlege since ORAS, and he can't switch on specs blace neighter(nor can pex) blace is already B because of the reasons people are bringing again.
tapu koko a+ to s-
the metagame continues to trend in favour of tapu koko with pokemon like tornadus-t experiencing a spike in popularity while the likes of gastrodon and amoonguss have fallen off a bit. it's a solid wallbreaker, a fantastic offensive pivot with a number of versatile offensive sets. i don't have a whole lot else to add but i think this is easily the best pokemon in a+ right now.
nominations
hoopa-u a- to b+
hoopa-u has been used only 4 times in spl thus far. that's the lowest usage rate of any of the 24 pokemon comprising the a-subrank. to add to that, all 4 of hoopa-u's uses came in the first 2 weeks, and the only match it won was one in which hoopa-u never touched the field. hoopa-u is without a doubt a fearsome wallbreaker, but it faces stiff competition from ash-greninja, tyranitar, and weavile all of which provide additional benefits beyond wallbreaking prowess that usually lead to them being superior options. its low speed and susceptibility to all forms of hazards make it a tough pick in the offense matchup and when facing bulkier it usually has to muscle through multiple bulky steels, a fairy, and even sometimes a pursuit trapper like weavile (which has experienced a bump in usage throughout recent weeks). i don't intend to undersell hoopa-u too much because it's still a good pokemon, but i think the recent lack of usage combined with the heavy competition for the slot it occupies should at least warrant some discussion.
stakataka b- to c
stak is actually so bad but somehow people continue to try and justify its existence and i just cannot understand why. firstly, it's garbage as an otr mon because not only are one-off otr mons terrible in general, but it is entirely outclassed in that role by magearna which not only has way better coverage and breaking power but also provides defensive utility due to its fantastic defensive typing. magearna even snowballs better thanks to soul heart taking advantage of the opponent trying to sack. stakataka doesn't fare much better on full trick room as it is completely outclassed by literally all the common physical attackers found on trick room from alolan-marowak to crawdaunt. having no way to boost combined with mediocre coverage makes it such momentum drain for tr teams because after setting up trick room it will simply be forced out due to its inability to break through a majority of the common defensive pivots in ou (celesteela, mega scizor, toxapex, and landorus-t) that you will find multiple of on every ou team. to nobody's surprise this thing has no usages in spl because trick room is a super inconsistent and bad style and stakataka is a bad pokemon even in its best setting. its usage rate on ladder (1.2%) is lower than than ribombee, nidoking, kommo-o and buzzwole.
tapu koko a+ to s-
the metagame continues to trend in favour of tapu koko with pokemon like tornadus-t experiencing a spike in popularity while the likes of gastrodon and amoonguss have fallen off a bit. it's a solid wallbreaker, a fantastic offensive pivot with a number of versatile offensive sets. i don't have a whole lot else to add but i think this is easily the best pokemon in a+ right now.
nominations
hoopa-u a- to b+
hoopa-u has been used only 4 times in spl thus far. that's the lowest usage rate of any of the 24 pokemon comprising the a-subrank. to add to that, all 4 of hoopa-u's uses came in the first 2 weeks, and the only match it won was one in which hoopa-u never touched the field. hoopa-u is without a doubt a fearsome wallbreaker, but it faces stiff competition from ash-greninja, tyranitar, and weavile all of which provide additional benefits beyond wallbreaking prowess that usually lead to them being superior options. its low speed and susceptibility to all forms of hazards make it a tough pick in the offense matchup and when facing bulkier it usually has to muscle through multiple bulky steels, a fairy, and even sometimes a pursuit trapper like weavile (which has experienced a bump in usage throughout recent weeks). i don't intend to undersell hoopa-u too much because it's still a good pokemon, but i think the recent lack of usage combined with the heavy competition for the slot it occupies should at least warrant some discussion.
stakataka b- to c
stak is actually so bad but somehow people continue to try and justify its existence and i just cannot understand why. firstly, it's garbage as an otr mon because not only are one-off otr mons terrible in general, but it is entirely outclassed in that role by magearna which not only has way better coverage and breaking power but also provides defensive utility due to its fantastic defensive typing. magearna even snowballs better thanks to soul heart taking advantage of the opponent trying to sack. stakataka doesn't fare much better on full trick room as it is completely outclassed by literally all the common physical attackers found on trick room from alolan-marowak to crawdaunt. having no way to boost combined with mediocre coverage makes it such momentum drain for tr teams because after setting up trick room it will simply be forced out due to its inability to break through a majority of the common defensive pivots in ou (celesteela, mega scizor, toxapex, and landorus-t) that you will find multiple of on every ou team. to nobody's surprise this thing has no usages in spl because trick room is a super inconsistent and bad style and stakataka is a bad pokemon even in its best setting. its usage rate on ladder (1.2%) is lower than than ribombee, nidoking, kommo-o and buzzwole.
Agree with Koko to S-, but Stakataka should not drop a subrank, let alone two. I will concede that Stakataka faces competition from Magearna, but if you are already using AV Magearna, than Stakataka is a great alternative choice. I also agree with you that Stakataka should not be used on TR teams; it should be used like OTR Magearna on BO. Stakataka breaks past past all of the pivots you mentioned except for Mega Scizor, as Landorus Therian is 2HKOed by Gyro Ball and Toxapex is broken past via Stone Edge + Z Stone Edge, and its not like OTR Magearna fares better against Mega Scizor. Kind of a side note that usage shouldn't be used to judge viabilty. Kartana only got one use in the most recent SPL and it lost. Does this mean Kartana is bad? Celesteela and Gastrodon are also down in usage, Tangrowth has fallen out of favor for AV Tapu Bulu, and Mega Medicham, one of its best partners, is also great atm. I fully disagree with a Stakataka drop.
Agree with Koko to S-, but Stakataka should not drop a subrank, let alone two. I will concede that Stakataka faces competition from Magearna, but if you are already using AV Magearna, than Stakataka is a great alternative choice. I also agree with you that Stakataka should not be used on TR teams; it should be used like OTR Magearna on BO. Stakataka breaks past past all of the pivots you mentioned except for Mega Scizor, as Landorus Therian is 2HKOed by Gyro Ball and Toxapex is broken past via Stone Edge + Z Stone Edge, and its not like OTR Magearna fares better against Mega Scizor. Kind of a side note that usage shouldn't be used to judge viabilty. Kartana only got one use in the most recent SPL and it lost. Does this mean Kartana is bad? Celesteela and Gastrodon are also down in usage, Tangrowth has fallen out of favor for AV Tapu Bulu, and Mega Medicham, one of its best partners, is also great atm. I fully disagree with a Stakataka drop.
Landorus isn't 2HKOd by Gyro: -1 252+ Atk Stakataka Gyro Ball (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Landorus-Therian: 141-166 (36.9 - 43.4%) -- 99.5% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery, but your points are still valid imo
