I'd like to nominate Mega Mence from A to A-. First of all, the most common core around is a mix up between Metagross Lele and Tyranitar/Zapdos/Incineroar/Lando, which severely hampers Mence's viability as, bar Lele outside of tailwind, it either gets cycle intimidated or straight-up walled and beaten down by every one of these mons. The fact that Earth Power Ice Beam Gastro is raising up in usage doesn't help either, as it threatens the standard set outside trick room and, in some cases, even outside it.
Hyper Voice is not as great as it used to be either since the (admittedly, very small) Aerilate nerf; coupled with the fact that almost every 'mon in A resistes it makes it so Salamence has to go for Double-Edge for damage, thusly forcing it to take sometimes significant recoil. The fact that the spider room core is more common now is a mixed bag for it, as it gets severly threatened by p2 while being a menace to Araquanid.
Its match-up against control is pretty lackluster, both against Gengar + double intimidate and ControLax. Celesteela is a bitch too.
I guess it's a decent stronghold against Zard Y though, so there's that.
Thanks for reading. :]
I disagree with this. Mence is still the second best mega in the format and should stay in A rank.
While Metagross can KO it with Ice Punch it has to correctly call the switch in. Metagross is outsped by Mence and takes >50% from flamethrower, so while it can't KO back it can put enough pressure on a weakened metagross that its not a hard counter. Also Mence is a good switch in because of intimidate. It's also worth noting that Hyper Voice + Fire Blast has a chance to KO metagross, so it's not an entirely safe switch in. Lele is outsped and KO'd by double edge for physical variants.
Furthermore, Metagross was always as present in the meta when Mence was in A, it's not like metagross is a new thing. The difference is not there's an intimidate user that can KO metagross and switch in on those ice punches directed to Mence.
Most physical Mence run either Earthquake or Brick break, both of which put significant damage onto Tyranitar and Incineroar. Also incineroar can't actually hurt Mence, so the uptick in that and corresponding fewer Lando actually helps mence. Mence can set up in Incineroar's face if it's a DD variant and can completely ignore incineroar if it's a special variant.
I don't know if gastrodon usage is changing enough for it to be a relevant consideration. Spider room isn't an issue because it KO's spider and is a safe switch in to it, and porygon2 has gotten worse because of incineroar and knock off being more common. Control Lax was a problem before and hasn't changed much. It also hasn't increased in popularity from what I've seen.
On the other hand, physical Mence shuts down the Kommo-o teams that are more common since it KO's Kommo-o and if you can get a DD up you outspeed it anyways. Given that they're usually paired with Bulu and Gengar, it's not a huge issue. The Blaziken cores that are more common now are also easy for Mence to deal with since physical blaziken can't really hit Mence. Also the CharX-Bulu teams that are more common aren't hard to beat either since Charizard relies on thunderpunch to hurt Mence and Bulu loses to it as well.
Gardevoir teams are more common and are a mixed bag - if you can keep speed control you will win because Gardevoir and Mence both KO each other.
My point being - Mence hasn't changed much since pre-incineroar, and is still the second best Mega. It has cut every single regional since Incineroar got released. Unlike Charizard-Y, it hasn't gotten worse since the meta changed. I don't think there's a reason to move it from A.