Being able to OHKO a lot of the meta is one thing, being able to live to OHKO them is another especially if even at +1 it gets out-sped by what it needs/wants to OHKO. Ludicolo's versatility/durability in it's AV set lets it live through a decent amount of the meta and just laughs at thundurus's taunts. Its swift swim set out-speeds lando-t in the rain by a whooping 7 points with a neutral nature and 132 evs in speed and both sets threaten lando-t with non-stab ice beam.
Well then why are Mega Lucario and regular Lucario B-ranked? Or Infernape? Why is Gengar A ranked? Only one of the many Pokemon it can OHKO outspeeds it, and simple team support fixes that. It applies massive pressure to some of the best Pokemon in the meta, such as Kangaskhan, Heatran, Bisharp, Terrakion, Metagross, and many more. None of those Pokemon outspeed it after a turn of Speed Boost. Frailty is not something to be desired in Pokemon, especially in doubles, but it hardly is equivalent to C ranking.
Because they all offer more than the rather simple "Hey, I'm gonna protect turn one and then just start hitting you really hard in the face because I out-speed you now, is that ok?" sets. I do agree that frailty shouldn't be the only reason why a pokemon is in a certain rank but when it is not only frail, but also; predictable, and needs team support, then those 3 things combined should be reason enough to keep a pokemon in one rank instead of another.
Honestly what does Mega Lucario offer other than protect turn one and hitting hard? It has Follow Me which is pretty cool on double mega teams granted, but I guarantee it's not B-rank because of that one extra option as very few go that route and its very team specific.
I'll give you that on that's what it does but its unpredictable with if it hits you hard with a physical attack or with a special attack, with base 145 attack and 140 sp attack and decent coverage, physical, mixed, and special are all options for a player to have. And while blaziken has 120 attack and 110 sp attack, its special attack pool is by far inferior compared to that of its physical move pool
I dunno, but most kanga sets are incredibly predictable. As well as gengar's. There are some mons thst have quite the predictable moveset (e.g Cresselia) but still worth incredibly high ranks. I think that we should see what Blaziken/Mega Blaziken has to offer compared to what things it can't do before saying "It's predictable and frail and that's why it can't be B- Rank". Blaziken's niche is there as well: it's predictable. Because you expect it to protect turn 1 it can punch a hole in your team if you aren't ready for it and the player doesn't protect turn 1.
Blaziken's Special movepool might not be fantastic, but it has a power STAB in Fire Blast/Overheat and coverage in HP Ice, which is pretty much all you need. Lucario's Aura Sphere and Flash Cannon are significantly weaker that its physical moves due to low base power, and tbh its honestly not that surprising. I'm not saying this to devalue Luc or say that these two Pokemon are exactly the same, but I do think they're similar cases of a fast, frail, and powerful sweeper. They might have some downsides and they might cater to a specific playstyle, but with the right (moderate) team support they can be pretty lethal and place well.
Notable flaws? Low initial Speed, pretty squishy. Significant disadvantage against certain common threats? Yeah, Lando-T shits on it, Talonflame really does see it as a free kill, and Suicune just says "lol. Tailwind". Predictability is iffy to me: imo, it does have rather serious 4MSS, and although any viable set can be labeled as "its obviously offensive" unless WoW Chicken becomes a thing. Fire STAB is always powerful, but impossible to guess if its Special or Physical. Fighting STAB is physical; no reason to pick Focus Miss. Protect is obvious but.. isn't exactly a bad move. 4th slot goes all over the place. Stone Edge, Sub, Baton Pass, HP Ice, Brave Bird, seconday Fire move? Don't really know till it hits. I'd say its generally got more positives than negatives and its not too hard to reasonably accomodate. Items vary between LO, Mega Stone, Sash, maybe Lum? Blaziken for B, imo.
You forgot.....the haxy move (AKA rock slide)
The thing with Swampert is that, besides having almost unexistant offensive pressure and being able to hit hard only when hits for SE damage, it gets completely walled by Rotom-W and other bulky water types and can't take as many hits as Suicune. LO Bisharp only needs some chip damage on Swamp to get the KO with Knock Off, and Sun Archetypes checks it pretty badly. I think Swamp fits the B rank description pretty well, as it has some considerable niches but some notable flaws and require a little bit more of support to work properly.
I've used Swampy a lot (the mentioned Earth power/Scald/Wide guard/Ice Beam set even) and yes, this is all true. If it has to hit neutral, it does piss for damage. It does amaze me at times, but it does disappoint at times. I was impressed overall, but I wouldn't stick it in an A rank with Aegislash and Megazard-Y. So yeah, I'd back bumping non-mega Swampy to B, it does pull a good amount of weight considering its flaws.
Correction: Mega Sceptile does, in fact, have a few widely anti-meta match-ups it plays into. However, outside of those...it's pretty dang bad. Due to its horrid typing, it's usually caught in bad situations. Also, its move pool is god awful. It can stay in C- tier.
Y'know, i kinda share your opinion on Mega Venusaur, as well at the same time i kinda refuse it. Aaron's Pokémon sets are kind of overused and overrated overall, but i think Mega Venusaur ain't in A rank just 'cause Aaron used it. The council isn't stupid enough to make that mistake.
Disagree. Despite the low movepool, as i said Grass/Dragon is quite good as coverage, capable to hit a good portion of the meta; also with a +1 Leaf Storm can OHKO almost anything don't resist it.
This post only makes it sound like you haven't used Mega Sceptile. I have, and while it's really not what I would call "amazing," I would use it over Mega Charizard X or Mega Garchomp any day of the week. I think you forget that Mega Sceptile's Lightning Rod allows it to redirect Electric-type attacks, making it good support for Pokemon like Suicune and Gyarados. It also has Quick Guard and outspeeds and OHKOes Mega Salamence (even Modest outspeeds), so before you say something like "lol use Raichu instead for that," ask yourself if Raichu can do either of those things. Quick Guard is especially neat since Mega Sceptile is faster than just about everything that uses Fake Out, so it makes a pretty neat 'mon to block Fake Out with. It's basically a 'mon that can redirect stuff with Lightning Rod, but still has some things over Raichu. Compare to Mega Charizard X (why would you sacrifice your ability to use Mega Charizard Y for any reason whatsoever) and Mega Garchomp (why would you use this over regular Garchomp.) Hell, I even fail to understand how Mega Sceptile is ranked below Smeargle, a Pokemon that's frail as hell, offensively worthless, Taunt bait, and has literally no use outside of Dark Void. I'd want a raise to at least C+ for Mega Sceptile, if not higher.
The disrespect of Smeargle. I once ran a Khanartist team that relied on bluffing Fake Out+Void and instead forcing the double protect and tailwinding. Smeargle can Follow Me, Helping Hand, Tailwind, Dark Void, Transform, etc.. Another interesting thing is that the threat of Smeargle forces your opponent to focus more on that rather than your sweepers. Smergle when played correct is extremely threatening
