Hello all,
Quick update for now, the next slate will likely be the final update of the generation so discussion is completely open bar the D ranks of course, so feel free to make whatever nominations your heart desires. And a VR council update:
Arifeen has been removed and we have added
Moon,
Odd Della Robbia, and
The Leprechaun.
Now onto the update!
Ranking Updates
Code:
Rises:
Mandibuzz A- → A+
Necrozma A- → A
Donphan A- → A
Slowbro A- → A
Flygon B → B+
Araquanid B → B+
Milotic B → B+
Xatu C+ → B
Passimian B- → A-
Vaporeon B- → B
Gigalith B- → B
Klinklang C → C+
Drops:
Barbaracle A- → B
Machamp A- → B+
Ribombee B → B-
Tangela B- → C+
Torterra C+ → UR
Glalie-Mega C+ → C
Rotom-C C → C-
===
Ditto UR → C+
Reasoning
Rises
Mandibuzz helps deal with trends like Necrozma and Donphan, Toxic + Knock Off is very good vs. balance, usable Defogger etc,, snake usage and winrate are indicative of how good it is as well. Necrozma does the same things with its CM Z-move set, it was initially deemed broken or of S rank status by some but we've seen a lot of specially defensive Toxic Mandibuzz (and some fast Taunt) and other answers like Slowbro, Slowking, and Houndoom.. so A is fine. Donphan is in somewhat of a similar boat - it's still on an upward trend but people have started to actual prep for it, so A is fine for it as well. Slowbro beats nearly every Fighting-type while handling trending Pokemon, particularly Passimian and Necrozma, and has freedom with a last moveslot, allowing it to fulfill different roles. For example, Calm Mind allows it to beat Calm Mind Psychic-types (Necrozma Xatu Sigilyph) and is a threat in its own right, especially since players have a tendency to use Pokemon such as Choice Scarf Houndoom as their answer to Calm Mind Psychic-types. It can also run a third attack such as Ice Beam (mainly for Noivern) or even Electrium Z + Zap Cannon which is difficult to switch into, Toxic is fine as well. Flygon is turning out to be a pretty great Choice Scarf user, capable of pivoting into many set up Pokemon such as Virizion and then forcing them out and gaining momentum with U-turn, it provides further utility in Toxic / Defog etc as well. With the rise of balances, we are seeing a big rise in Pokemon such as Registeel and Slowbro, so Araquanid can get a rise- it was a little underrated in the vr beforehand anyhow. Milotic is seeing a bit of usage again, Refresh + Toxic + Scald is very annoying for a lot of balance teams to handle reliably and of course it's still as bulky as ever. However, it's somewhat easy to abuse depending on the set and is a bit of a momentum sap, so a small rise is fine for now. Xatu beats Registeel and Bronzong hard (combined 44ish% usage in snake) and can handle Stealth Rock Metagross as well, which is worth a decent rank by itself. It can also pack Toxic to handle switch ins, mainly Mandibuzz and Slowbro, or pack Calm Mind to further take advantage of getting free turns off said Steel-types, so B is fine. Passimian's Choice Scarf set works similarly to Flygon's which is very good and its Choice Band set is an absolute menace to switch into, many Close Combat resists are either outright 2HKOed or taken out by a coverage move which makes it difficult to handle, C to A- over two updates might seem a bit crazy but it's definitely warranted, check out snake replays if you're still questioning the rise. Vaporeon is a decent Wish passer that has perks over other Water-types like Heal Bell but not much else.. moving on. Gigalith dicks all the Fire-types hard and can set rocks. Klinklang is getting a small rise for its sweeper set, it's not reliable at all but can fish a good matchup every now and then so C+ is fine.
Drops
The metagame is shifting more towards balance, and with that comes an influx of bulky Pokemon such as Slowbro and Registeel, and Barbaracle struggles to break through even bulky offense teams as Pokemon like Virizion and Metagross are really prevalent, which means that it typically doesn't get much farther than a single kill with +2 Z-move. Machamp is just not that effective.. Hariyama gives it competition as an AV user that can more reliably handle Fire-types and Passimian gives it competition for it as a wallbreaker that can also provide U-turn and hit a very relevant Speed stat, unlike Machamp. Ribombee had some traction back in the days of SPL, but it really struggles to make headway in this metagame. However, it does have cool utility in U-turn, Sticky Web, Trick, so it's good enough for B-. Tangela has lost a bit of appeal as a physically defensive wall due to the drop in Zygarde-10% usage and now we have the rise of threats such as Choice Band Passimian who can actually handle it with Stealth Rock up.. it also just isn't a reliable switch in to other Pokemon like Choice Band Metagross (you lose to Attack raise or click Knock Off and risk being trapped), and has to run Hidden Power Flying to not be setup for Virizion. Also Mandibuzz is getting a loot more usage and that just dicks Tangela so it can get a little drop, still has a lot of utility and such so C+ is fine. Torterra was somewhat viable as a Zygarde-10% switch in, so you can imagine how good it is now. Glalie-Mega and Rotom-C are literally just horrible, I would just unrank them personally but Glalie does offer Spikes and Rotom-C has.. Defog that beats like one Stealth Rock user!
New Rankings
Ditto does the same thing it does in every tier: pressures set up, helps vs. fat etc.. there are multiple posts in this thread calling for a rank so you can read those for more if you haven't already.
Discussion Points
As I said earlier, feel free to discuss the rank of anything but those in D, but stay on topic please. See you all next time!
Edit: here is a link to the votes.