Looking over things more, curious on two things...
What brings Ferrothorn up to B rank this Gen? Very little seems to have changed for it and, through the entirety of last generation, it languished in D rank, even when it was around to potentially check Kyo-P. Any damaging Fire-attack still makes it cry, Primal Groudon isn't banned, and Mega-Ray's Boomburst still blows through its defenses. Is resistance to Sunsteel and outslowing Core Enforcer such huge boons to bring it up from D to B? Other than that, I guess it walls Solgaleo as a new thing, but Solgaleo isn't playing offense at least most of the time anyway.
Similar question for Deo-A, which is listed as A rank. It was at its strongest last Gen when EV limit was in place and it had access to Protean, allowing it to just nuke stuff and semi-Imposter-proof itself without even touching a set-up move and could run whatever coverage it wanted. And it was D rank and, if I remember right, got kicked to Unranked once Protean was banned. Are APS/Psychic Surge sets that much more potent than Protean was? Especially with no EV-limit so, combined with much weaker coverage, its missing out on a lot of OHKOs Protean could get. I get that means Galvanate can't Fakespeed all over it, but it still needs a lot of support in order to get in without taking 1 HP of damage, which is especially tricky when outslowing is becoming so popular people are running sub-level 100 to do it. Plus, its still forced into a Focus Sash and, if not APS, it's still checked by Caterpie with a Focus Sash running priority*.
*252+ Atk Caterpie Leech Life vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Deoxys-Attack: 218-258 (71.7 - 84.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Caterpie Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Deoxys-Attack: 73-86 (24 - 28.2%) -- 94.1% chance to 4HKO
So, what changed for these two that I'm missing?
What brings Ferrothorn up to B rank this Gen? Very little seems to have changed for it and, through the entirety of last generation, it languished in D rank, even when it was around to potentially check Kyo-P. Any damaging Fire-attack still makes it cry, Primal Groudon isn't banned, and Mega-Ray's Boomburst still blows through its defenses. Is resistance to Sunsteel and outslowing Core Enforcer such huge boons to bring it up from D to B? Other than that, I guess it walls Solgaleo as a new thing, but Solgaleo isn't playing offense at least most of the time anyway.
Similar question for Deo-A, which is listed as A rank. It was at its strongest last Gen when EV limit was in place and it had access to Protean, allowing it to just nuke stuff and semi-Imposter-proof itself without even touching a set-up move and could run whatever coverage it wanted. And it was D rank and, if I remember right, got kicked to Unranked once Protean was banned. Are APS/Psychic Surge sets that much more potent than Protean was? Especially with no EV-limit so, combined with much weaker coverage, its missing out on a lot of OHKOs Protean could get. I get that means Galvanate can't Fakespeed all over it, but it still needs a lot of support in order to get in without taking 1 HP of damage, which is especially tricky when outslowing is becoming so popular people are running sub-level 100 to do it. Plus, its still forced into a Focus Sash and, if not APS, it's still checked by Caterpie with a Focus Sash running priority*.
*252+ Atk Caterpie Leech Life vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Deoxys-Attack: 218-258 (71.7 - 84.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Caterpie Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Deoxys-Attack: 73-86 (24 - 28.2%) -- 94.1% chance to 4HKO
So, what changed for these two that I'm missing?