Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Bellibolt's great bulk, ability and access to soak allows it to beat offensive threats such as iron hands, iron bundle, chien pao, arcanine and others
Code:
Bellibolt @ Magnet / Life Orb / Weakness Policy / Mental Herb / idk
Ability: Electromorphosis
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 80 SpA / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soak
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave / Slack Off
- Acid Spray / Slack Off
Set beats band ada meowscarada, chien-pao, iron bundle, iron hands ( might need more def for booster low sweep into eq ), ting-lu most of the times ,twave gives a nice skele and annihilape mu ( if you're mental herb you always win if not and they have encore its a 50/50 ), acid spray is for stall azu ( if not magnet / lo ) and maybe some other stall mons, slack off might be good aganist something idk
Spdef set kinda ass only beats sylv, choiced mane and random special attackers
If there are any errors or if i missed something lmk
Bellibolt's great bulk, ability and access to soak allows it to beat offensive threats such as iron hands, iron bundle, chien pao, arcanine and others
Code:
Bellibolt @ Air Balloon / Magnet / Life Orb / Weakness Policy / idk
Ability: Electromorphosis
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 248 HP / 52 Def / 160 SpA / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soak
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave / Slack Off
- Acid Spray / Slack Off
Set beats band meowscarada, chien-pao, iron bundle, iron hands, speed boost great tusk (if balloon), sometimes ting-lu (lo / magnet / wp have a better chance) , twave gives a nice skele and annihilape mu ( if they're not encore you should always win otherwise it's 50/50 ), acid spray is for stall azu ( if not magnet / lo ) and maybe some other stall mons, lo near always beats gholdengo, slack off might be good aganist something idk
Code:
Bellibolt @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Electromorphosis
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 224 HP / 160 SpD / 124 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eerie Impulse
- Slack Off
- Thunderbolt
- Soak
Niche set that beats flutter mane, sylveon, skele ( non encore ), gholdengo and some other special attacker while mantaining mus like iron hands and chien-pao
If there are any errors or if i missed something lmk
band meow gets rolls with ada flower trick. chien pao wins with throat chop or icicle crash. you better beat iron bundle. iron hands wins with atk booster low sweep -> eq. speed booster great tusk has taunt. So this leaves non encore dirge and non encore / taunt ape (lol), azu, arcanine and iron bundle.
The second set still loses to pain split, sub, or taunt flutter, and sylv has fake tears? maybe im missing something in the sylv mu. i dont see how you get close to beating gholdengo bc they are immune to soak and impulse, and they can just nasty plot + recover and profit.
252+ Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 52+ Def Bellibolt on a critical hit: 234-276 (55.5 - 65.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 52+ Def Bellibolt on a critical hit: 156-184 (37 - 43.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
58.203125% chance to KO
252+ Atk Choice Band Chien-Pao Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 52+ Def Ruin Bellibolt: 253-298 (60 - 70.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Chien-Pao Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 52+ Def Ruin Bellibolt: 169-199 (40.1 - 47.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
248+ Atk Quark Drive Iron Hands Low Sweep vs. 248 HP / 52+ Def Bellibolt: 150-177 (35.6 - 42%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
248+ Atk Quark Drive Iron Hands Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 52+ Def Bellibolt: 306-360 (72.6 - 85.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
ig you can run more def and tank ( only winning vs hands if you're faster tho ) but you lose spa for the chien-pao mu, the sets are only examples you can use evs based on what you need
with all these changes it probably isnt a b+ mon but i still belive it has a great niche and should be ranked higher than D ( maybe c+ / b- )
gonna edit the original post with changes
With the recent vote to ban Spore, Yawn, and Sleep Powder, an unfortunate casualty is that Vivillon has been taken out into the backyard and shot.
Vivillon B -> D/UR
Without Compound Eyes Sleep Powder, Vivillon has nothing to offer over far better Bug-types like Slither Wing, Volcarona, and Scizor, and as a flying type it boasts a 91% accurate STAB hurricane off a 90 base special attack, but Vivillon struggles to use this to get OHKO's unboosted. With 80 hp and 50 in each defenses, Vivillon cannot under normal circumstances afford to press Quiver Dance.
(I've been saying Ban Sleep and running Vivillon since gen 7, thank god it's gone)
VR should be updated with all the round 2 mons now! We got to see the fall of all the sleep abusers and Gengar get some new friends in C- rank. The third round voting doesn't have nearly as many mons so we might get to the more fluid changes like we had last gen soon but we'll see. If I messed anything up just let me know because it is very easy to miss something when trying to update these.
Round 3 voting will include Braviary Torkoal Cinderace Staraptor Charizard (nom) Hawlucha (nom)
and here's the list of shifts if anyone is curious (it's also in the OP)
12/30/22:
Dragalge UR -> C+
Hydreigon UR -> C
Abomasnow UR -> C
Ceruledge UR -> C-
Armarouge UR -> C-
Glimmora UR -> D
Cetitan UR -> D
Krookodile UR -> C-
Gastrodon UR -> C
Quagsire UR -> D
Iron Jugulis UR -> C-
Flamigo UR -> D
Hatterene UR -> C-
Kilowattrel UR -> D
Orthworm UR -> D
Gyarados UR -> C-
Polteageist UR -> C-
Muk UR -> D
Eelektross UR -> D
Gardevoir D -> UR
Bellibolt D -> C-
Skeledirge S- -> A
Sylveon A+ -> A
Ting-Lu A- -> B+
Garchomp B+ -> B
Goodra B+ -> B
Salamence B+ -> B-
Vivillon B -> UR
Breloom B- -> C
Brute Bonnet C+ -> C
Clodsire C+ -> C
Jumpluff C+ -> D
Talonflame C+ -> B-
some people updated their votes so here's the shifts from them! OP should be updated to match
1/3/23
Azumarill A+ -> A
Dondozo A -> A+
Iron Valiant A -> A+
Great Tusk A -> A-
Meowscarada A- -> A
Dragapult B+ -> A-
Espathra B -> B+
Kingambit B- -> C+
Rotom Heat C+ -> C
Salazzle C+ -> C
Slaking C+ -> C
Slither Wing C -> C+
Clodsire C -> C+
Abomasnow C -> C-
Brute Bonnet C -> C-
Hydreigon C -> C-
Bellibolt C- -> C
Hatterene C- -> D
Polteageist C- -> D
Grafaiai D -> UR
Jumpluff D -> UR
Muk D -> UR
Ash's Staraptor was no joke and apparently the same applies to 1v1's. Staraptor isn't inherently bulky which might remove the appeal of it to some, but I think it shines most with its powerful combo of CC, Double-Edge and Bravebird. These can hit almost any type combo for neutral (spare ghost-steel) and unlike a certain Talonflame it has an attack stat higher than Gastrodon. While Priority Brave Bird is great, Staraptor dons both a Choice-Scarf and Choice-Band set to hit extremely hard, extremely fast and can even handle the S-Tier annihilape.
Notably the more popular set (scarf) beats a majority of relevant Meow, Flutter, Bundle, Moon, Ape, Chi-Yu, while Band can kill Sylv (even at max defense) every time. It doesn't always handle everything the best and is a soft blanket-check to common attackers which is why I support putting it in C
ig you can run more def and tank ( only winning vs hands if you're faster tho ) but you lose spa for the chien-pao mu, the sets are only examples you can use evs based on what you need
forgot rip
Charge boosted tbolt kills
started playing this meta recently so didn't know about these sets, for sylv supposedly you outspeed and soak t1 and eerie if they fake tears
thats mb i forgot how the ability worked
with all these changes it probably isnt a b+ mon but i still belive it has a great niche and should be ranked higher than D ( maybe c+ / b- )
gonna edit the original post with changes
reflect + slack off beats meowscarada and non sd hands,sitrus I think beats sd hands as well,pretty sure adding reflect there as a slash should push this mon to b at least
reflect + slack off beats meowscarada and non sd hands,sitrus I think beats sd hands as well,pretty sure adding reflect there as a slash should push this mon to b at least
It's Squawking Time.
Squawkabilly from UR to C- / C
Some of you may not know may not know what this pokemon is or does. Others may write it off saying things like "It doesn't have a single base stat over 100" and "This has the most barren movepool I've ever seen". Very few are enlightened enough to know the many facets of this bird of many colors.
This is probably the best set for Squawkabilly, as it has a pretty cool speed stat allowing it to run an adamant nature while still outspeeding Dragapult. STAB giga impact and brave bird can take out many neutral targets thanks to hustle, and if you are good at hitting low accuracy moves you will not even notice the downside! Aerial ace is there for hitting the very frail mons weak to flying such as Meowscarada (no protect), Berloom (rip sleep), and Vivillon (rip sleep x2). Fly is there for band Slaking and you can 50/50 Valiant by flying on their protect turn one to dodge their disable turn two, assuming you hit and they don't double protect, which is probably only slightly favorable for you. Some may say "This is just worse Slaking with worse coverage" but can Slaking be band and scarf at the same time? Exactly. Moving on.
Maybe you are a naturally unlucky person, and can't hit 72%-80% accurate moves to save your life, in that case here's another set:
Guts variants of Squawkabilly trade out speed for the ability to hit their moves which is kind of a lame deal, but if you want "consistency" i guess this one is better. Aerial ace is there if you need to click another flying move for some reason. Still being naturally faster than Annihilape is pretty cool too. 252+ Atk Guts Squawkabilly Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Annihilape: 438-516 (103.3 - 121.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO (100.00% after accuracy) Woooo
I am also sure there are 1v1 players who just like want to biggest numbers possible, at the expense of the actual viability of what they are using. In that case:
While this version of Squawkabilly may seem great on paper, it also has the worst of both the two previous sets being low speed and low accuracy while still not blowing up the better physical tanks such as dozo and Iron Hands. But hey 720 attack with an adamant nature is a VERY big number even though it may be overkill.
Also let it be noted that it is optimal to run the green or blue variants since they can be either guts or hustle while the white and yellow ones can only be hustle. "But wait" some of the astute readers may be asking, "don't the yellow and white variants have sheer force?" Yeah...:
This mon has 4 moves that get boosted by sheer force and the only physical one is called Pounce and has 50 bp. At least this one has a move to hit steel types with....
252+ SpA Choice Specs Sheer Force Squawkabilly Heat Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 254-300 (80.6 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
;-;
All versions have intimidate, but it doesn't even get feather dance and has comparable bulk to MissingNo.
It gets reversal which could be used to beat steel types with a sub liechi set, but the best steel type right now is also a ghost type.
The two most important factors for a mon to be good in 1v1 are consistency and variability and frankly Squawkabilly has neither. But it's also funny, so it gets points for that. The only reason I am suggesting C or C- is because it just. Looks better than most of the stuff in C- right now, which will all probably drop or become UR as we get further in the generation. In short: : C-/C Very strong attacker, that's about it : D/C- Identical to the green one, I just don't like the color as much : UR For whatever reason i do not think a specs set would be very good : Super UR Same as above, even worse color
It's Squawking Time.
Squawkabilly from UR to C- / C
Some of you may not know may not know what this pokemon is or does. Others may write it off saying things like "It doesn't have a single base stat over 100" and "This has the most barren movepool I've ever seen". Very few are enlightened enough to know the many facets of this bird of many colors.
This is probably the best set for Squawkabilly, as it has a pretty cool speed stat allowing it to run an adamant nature while still outspeeding Dragapult. STAB giga impact and brave bird can take out many neutral targets thanks to hustle, and if you are good at hitting low accuracy moves you will not even notice the downside! Aerial ace is there for hitting the very frail mons weak to flying such as Meowscarada (no protect), Berloom (rip sleep), and Vivillon (rip sleep x2). Fly is there for band Slaking and you can 50/50 Valiant by flying on their protect turn one to dodge their disable turn two, assuming you hit and they don't double protect, which is probably only slightly favorable for you. Some may say "This is just worse Slaking with worse coverage" but can Slaking be band and scarf at the same time? Exactly. Moving on.
Maybe you are a naturally unlucky person, and can't hit 72%-80% accurate moves to save your life, in that case here's another set:
Guts variants of Squawkabilly trade out speed for the ability to hit their moves which is kind of a lame deal, but if you want "consistency" i guess this one is better. Aerial ace is there if you need to click another flying move for some reason. Still being naturally faster than Annihilape is pretty cool too. 252+ Atk Guts Squawkabilly Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Annihilape: 438-516 (103.3 - 121.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO (100.00% after accuracy) Woooo
I am also sure there are 1v1 players who just like want to biggest numbers possible, at the expense of the actual viability of what they are using. In that case:
While this version of Squawkabilly may seem great on paper, it also has the worst of both the two previous sets being low speed and low accuracy while still not blowing up the better physical tanks such as dozo and Iron Hands. But hey 720 attack with an adamant nature is a VERY big number even though it may be overkill.
Also let it be noted that it is optimal to run the green or blue variants since they can be either guts or hustle while the white and yellow ones can only be hustle. "But wait" some of the astute readers may be asking, "don't the yellow and white variants have sheer force?" Yeah...:
This mon has 4 moves that get boosted by sheer force and the only physical one is called Pounce and has 50 bp. At least this one has a move to hit steel types with....
252+ SpA Choice Specs Sheer Force Squawkabilly Heat Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 254-300 (80.6 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
;-;
All versions have intimidate, but it doesn't even get feather dance and has comparable bulk to MissingNo.
It gets reversal which could be used to beat steel types with a sub liechi set, but the best steel type right now is also a ghost type.
The two most important factors for a mon to be good in 1v1 are consistency and variability and frankly Squawkabilly has neither. But it's also funny, so it gets points for that. The only reason I am suggesting C or C- is because it just. Looks better than most of the stuff in C- right now, which will all probably drop or become UR as we get further in the generation. In short: : C-/C Very strong attacker, that's about it : D/C- Identical to the green one, I just don't like the color as much : UR For whatever reason i do not think a specs set would be very good : Super UR Same as above, even worse color
Hustla bird is outclassed by staraptor yea I saw nom above I just think these sets are better, u turn is to cheese some psychics/darks or make mus more reliable. Fly is for slaking.
Hustla bird is outclassed by staraptor yea I saw nom above I just think these sets are better, u turn is to cheese some psychics/darks or make mus more reliable. Fly is for slaking.
I test this mon with Facade in the flame orb set. Aerial ace is bad in that set, I run taunt but giga impact is fine I guess (but taunt is something that staraptor can't learn). I test a intimidate set with reversal but was bad idea.
The only worth set is hustle band but scarf hustle seems interesting (but i don't test the scarf version). You can miss unlike the guts set but you need all extra power to no be completely outclassed by staraptor.
I use the band set with Brave bird, giga impact, double edge and fury attack (sometimes I see low level donphan with endeavour + ice shard during the test and troll people runing magnemite level 1 exist).
But you really only need Brave bird and giga impact honestly. Fly for slaking can be useful but only if slaking is slower and aerial ace for OHKOing sometime fragile without missing, good points.
Beginning with S- and A+, I have uped Flutter Mane and Iron Valiant to better align with my perception of these two Fairy-types and what I expect other people's perceptions are as of recent. Despite Annihilape sitting in S- with Greninja, they are both extremely prevelant threats but aren't on the same meta defining level as the ones in S. I also feel as if you could put Flutter Mane in S here, having a variety of sets which perform many different functions which allows it to be insane on preview and in the builder. Its basic and reliable sets are spectacular too.
From A there is a lack of Dondozo and Skeledirge. Since the Chi-Yu ban Dondozo has been less effective and its help isn't required to check things, Skeledirge is also completely removed from S-B because I feel like it hasn't much of a niche in the tier anymore, but this might be exaggerative as I wouldn't be completely against putting it in B/B+. Iron Bundle has been added, checking many threats. Iron Bundle has a naturally good speedtier and allows it to beat other high speed threats like Meowscarada and Greninja. Its Speed boosting set also being able to outpace Iron Valiant.
A- Includes Dragapult and Sableye. Sableye has been underestimated for a while, though not holding a candle to its prowess in the previous generation it is still quite potent here. Paired with the appropriate teammates, this thing can check a surprisingly high amount of the metagame. Iron Valiant plays a part in it not doing so well though, doing its job mostly better and the fact Prankster doesn't work on Dark-types. I feel like putting Sableye with the more niche picks that are in B+ isn't a fair placement. Dragapult is also here, carrying amazing coverage and ways to beat the best Pokemon right now. The only thing holding it back is having to compete with all the other Ghost-types in the tier but despite this it is a valuable member on any team, it is also threatening on preview with it being able to run special or physical sets.
B+ Now includes Iron Moth, this Pokemon has always been great on any team I put it on. Using AV and utilising its surprisingly high special defense helps it the most, allowing it to beat top special attackers like Flutter Mane and easily taking hits from Iron Valiant and Gholdengo. Being able to beat the big three in S- is not a trait that should be ignored, if any Pokemon should get a raise I'd definitely advocate for this one. When speaking about it, it feels like B+ is too low but admittedly it loses to many physical attackers and can't take even neutral hits from them.
B has Chien Pao and Talonflame added. Both of these have an incredible offensive presence, Talonflame's priority Brave Bird is its main selling point as it is able to Brave Bird Iron Valiants, Meowscaradas, Sableyes and Flare Blitz Steel-types such as Gholdengo and Corviknight. This has dropped recently and I don't understand much why, this Pokemon isn't insanely potent but I believe it belongs in the tier. Chien-Pao is extremely underlooked, possessing an incredible attack stat to fire its incredible STAB combination and Giga Impact off of. Even if you find its blistering speed lacking, it has priority options in Ice Shard and Sucker Punch.
Beginning with S- and A+, I have uped Flutter Mane and Iron Valiant to better align with my perception of these two Fairy-types and what I expect other people's perceptions are as of recent. Despite Annihilape sitting in S- with Greninja, they are both extremely prevelant threats but aren't on the same meta defining level as the ones in S. I also feel as if you could put Flutter Mane in S here, having a variety of sets which perform many different functions which allows it to be insane on preview and in the builder. Its basic and reliable sets are spectacular too.
From A there is a lack of Dondozo and Skeledirge. Since the Chi-Yu ban Dondozo has been less effective and its help isn't required to check things, Skeledirge is also completely removed from S-B because I feel like it hasn't much of a niche in the tier anymore, but this might be exaggerative as I wouldn't be completely against putting it in B/B+. Iron Bundle has been added, checking many threats. Iron Bundle has a naturally good speedtier and allows it to beat other high speed threats like Meowscarada and Greninja. Its Speed boosting set also being able to outpace Iron Valiant.
A- Includes Dragapult and Sableye. Sableye has been underestimated for a while, though not holding a candle to its prowess in the previous generation it is still quite potent here. Paired with the appropriate teammates, this thing can check a surprisingly high amount of the metagame. Iron Valiant plays a part in it not doing so well though, doing its job mostly better and the fact Prankster doesn't work on Dark-types. I feel like putting Sableye with the more niche picks that are in B+ isn't a fair placement. Dragapult is also here, carrying amazing coverage and ways to beat the best Pokemon right now. The only thing holding it back is having to compete with all the other Ghost-types in the tier but despite this it is a valuable member on any team, it is also threatening on preview with it being able to run special or physical sets.
B+ Now includes Iron Moth, this Pokemon has always been great on any team I put it on. Using AV and utilising its surprisingly high special defense helps it the most, allowing it to beat top special attackers like Flutter Mane and easily taking hits from Iron Valiant and Gholdengo. Being able to beat the big three in S- is not a trait that should be ignored, if any Pokemon should get a raise I'd definitely advocate for this one. When speaking about it, it feels like B+ is too low but admittedly it loses to many physical attackers and can't take even neutral hits from them.
B has Chien Pao and Talonflame added. Both of these have an incredible offensive presence, Talonflame's priority Brave Bird is its main selling point as it is able to Brave Bird Iron Valiants, Meowscaradas, Sableyes and Flare Blitz Steel-types such as Gholdengo and Corviknight. This has dropped recently and I don't understand much why, this Pokemon isn't insanely potent but I believe it belongs in the tier. Chien-Pao is extremely underlooked, possessing an incredible attack stat to fire its incredible STAB combination and Giga Impact off of. Even if you find its blistering speed lacking, it has priority options in Ice Shard and Sucker Punch.
Am new to these kinds of posts but I believe that haxorus should be higher!!
dragon girlie is very strong and surprisingly bulky if you run max hp/max defense.
200+ Atk Choice Band Iron Hands Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Haxorus: 279-328 (78.3 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dondozo Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Haxorus: 304-358 (85.3 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Donphan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Haxorus: 216-255 (60.6 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 0+ Atk Life Orb Mold Breaker Haxorus Outrage vs. -1 8 HP / 252 Def Iron Hands: 578-682 (128.1 - 151.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Also scarf haxorus beats pult, volcarona, and other frail mons very well
Braviary
Torkoal
Cinderace
Staraptor
Charizard 
Hawlucha 
