I'll make a longer post than my previous one in regards to dropping Skarmory. Skarmory seems on paper like it'd be a good pokemon still in this metagame, with solid defenses and the abilities to counter (or at least check) Azumarill Mega-Pinsir, Landorus-T, Excadrill, Mega-Scizor, Mega-Gyarados, Garchomp and more. But Skarmory's problem lies in the fact that it can't do much to anything to the things it's supposed to counter. Sure, it can wall Excadrill and non Fire Blast Tyranitar, but what can it do in return besides phaze them out or lure in one of the numerous pokemon that threaten Skarmory like both Charizards, Keldeo, Thundurus, Greninja, Heatran, HP Fire Latios, Focus Blast Landorus-I, Rotom-W (which kills the Skarmory's user momentum without a Volt Switch immunity and can always switch in for free), Entei, Mega-Manectric (see Rotom-W), Raikou and more. For this reason, Skarmory kills momentum fast. It has Defog and Roost, but a set with Defog/Roost/Whirlwind/Brave Bird, a recoil move on a defensive pokemon with an uninvested base 80 attack brings absolutely no offensive pressure at all and lets a variety of pokemon walk over it. For instance, Mega-Scizor can come in and Defog freely since Skarmory has no room for Taunt or set up Swords Dance while Knock Off does huge chunks of damage at +2 or +4. Brave Bird does a pittance in exchange. Landorus-T is walled and it's hazards are defogged but it's free to simply U-Turn into something that pressures Skarmory. It's better to use a pokemon that can force pokemon like Excadrill, Landorus-T and Mega-Scizor out as well as provide offensive momentum like Keldeo rather than a pokemon like Skarmory that can't do anything but phaze.
It's also important to point out that B+ does not indicate a bad or unuseable pokemon. B+ still indicates a useful pokemon. But A- indicates a great pokemon, which Skarmory simply isn't. Skarmory can Defog and heal itself which makes it hard to wear down as well as provide insurance against a big threat in SR Excadrill and it checks Birdspam as long as it's not running Magnezone. But while you'd think the Aegislash ban helped Skarmory, being one of the long line of pokemon that were hard-walled by Aegislash it actually gave rise to wallbreakers that have no trouble breaking through Skarmory like Medicham and Gardevoir. The Skarmbliss + bulky grass + Quagsire stall teams no longer function because of this, and thus Skarmory is not as worth a team slot as it was before. Stall would rather run something that can pressure these offensive behemoths and Balance would rather run Ferrothorn for a bulky steel and Lati@s for removing hazards. I'm not sure if Mega-Mawile's ban even helped Skarmory, I mean it was a shaky check at best only being able to phaze it out and hurt it with Rocky Helmet Counter and Focus Punch + SD Fire Fangs mauled it, but if anything it just gave popularity to Megas that beat Skarmory, the only viable ones that don't are Mega-Chomp lacking Fire Blast (rare) and Mega-Pinsir (can still win if Skarmory is slightly weakened which is easy to do with smart switches). +2 Mega Heracross OHKOs with Close Combat after Rocks. Mega Gyarados is a shaky check at best because Skarmory can't afford to Brave Bird it and +1 Waterfall OHKOs if Skarmory flinches or gets a bad Whirlwind it's doomed. Mega-Ttars falls under the large category of pokemon that Skarmory walls but can't do anything back to but phaze it out.
Again, Skarmory isn't bad. It's a good pokemon. But it isn't a great pokemon because of it's lack of offensive presence, lack of consistency when checking things it's supposed to check, poor match-up with the majority of S-Rank threats (loses to Thundurus, Zard-X, coming in on BD Azumarill without full HP, Keldeo unless it Brave Birds on the switch, I don't think Scald OHKOes back though so whatever) as well as not being able to return fire to what it's supposed to be walling like Lando-T, Excadrill and whatever else. Chansey can Toxic the likes of Zard-Y, Greninja and Thundurus as well as chip away with Seismic Toss but because of Brave Bird's recoil and the ability to constantly need to Roost thanks to a patheticly low HP stat as well as not being able to run Toxic Skarmory can't. Skarmory has attributes. It can Defog on a lot of pokemon like AV Azumarill, Landorus-T, Excadrill, Mega-Scizor, Ferrothorn, Lando-I without Focus Blast (do people actually use Lando-I without Focus Blast?) and it's like the only pokemon in the tier that Sand Rush Excadrill can't even touch which is amazing. But it's attributes don't outweigh it's lack of offensive presence, how easy to pressure it is, how it loses momentum (almost everything in S-Rank can 2 shot it and like half of A+ rank and some of A rank too, overreliance on Whirlwind and competition from Drill, Lati@s, Mega-Scizor and Starmie as a hazard remover. It's more than enough to not consider Skarmory an A- rank threat anymore. The rise of Ferrothorn has also hurt Skarmory since they tend to wall the same sort of pokemon and the Fire type coverage to hit Ferrothorn also hurts Skarmory and even though Skarm isn't weak to Fighting like Ferrothorn it still takes too much to wall Medicham, Heracross, some Terrakion or even Conkeldurr since Skarm's Roost is faster and Drain Punch hits it for SE, I swear Skarmory would be an A rank if it resisted Fighting but because it doesn't it can't wall half the stuff it wants to wall.
Skarmory represents the sort of full stall that isn't as viable anymore and should be moved down to B+. Admittedly I'm on the fence about Chansey so no comment there. On a side note I'm surprised Smeargle didn't drop but Scolipede did. Smeargle is like the definition of niche, it can Geomancy pass but it's super gimmicky and hard to pull off, it needs both Focus Sash and Mental Herb to not die in one hit or not be Taunt bait but it can't do both. I think it should be moved all the way to D Rank. Maybe it's overkill but it does one thing that can't be done by better pokemon that actually support the team their own and can hold their own the rest of the battle.
