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Sun is still as dumb as ever (see: Ezrael/Nail's Cringe Sun 3(4?).0) and Ninetales is better than Torkoal which kinda sits there and tries to do things and doesn't really do them. Ninetales, meanwhile, outspeeds Urshifu and enables Venusaur/Charizard to be dumb and powerful and do dumb/powerful stuff.
Volcarona: Tier 2 --> Tier 1
I have no doubt that this will pass easily. Volcarona is one of the most terrifying pokemon in the tier due to its set-up ability and the plethora of support options to use it with. Fake Out and pivot moves from Rillaboom, Blastoise, or Incineroar and redirection from Blastoise, Togekiss or Amoonguss allow it to Quiver Dance up quite easily. Despite Blastoise being one of the most common pokemon in the tier, it's not even a solid check since +1 Bug Buzz / Giga Drain 2HKOs it. It beats Rillaboom and can OHKO Urshifu at +1 with Buz Buzz. The introduction of Heavy Duty Boots removed it's biggest threat in Stealth Rock. Even checks such as Tyranitar get 2HKO by Bug Buzz at +1 and lose to Blastoise, Rillaboom, and Urshifu. Unless you're running full on Sand, you're probably weak to Volcarona, running Blastoise + Chansey for example is not good enough against it. It's the strongest wincon in the game at the moment and should easily be in Tier 1.
Gothitelle: Tier 2 --> Tier 3
At the beginning of the DLC meta I argued for Goth to be in Tier 2 but I was wrong. It's tough being a Shadow Tagger when all four of the best pokemon in the tier beat it. Rillaboom and Blastoise can easily pivot out if they're in an undesirable situation, Urshifu OHKOs it, and Volcarona can set-up on it (unless it's Trick Room) and OHKO it at +1. There are just so many other support options I'd rather use: Blastoise, Rillaboom, Incineroar, Togekiss, Weezing-Galar, etc. I'd even use Necrozma over this since Photon Geyser hits harder, it gets Earth Power and Knock Off, and can live a hit from Urshifu. Overall, it just way too passive on the field and there are other options I'd use over it.
Chansey: Tier 2 --> Tier 3
Chansey is worthless in the game if you're facing a Urshifu. It's hard to bring in to wall Volcarona, Rain, PsySpam, etc. when your opponent can switch in their Urshifu and immediately threaten to OHKO you. While it can take special hits incredibly well, it can't do much else beside Toxic or Seismic Toss. Don't get be wrong, I still think Chansey is solid. However, it becomes useless too often for me and doesn't do a great job at damaging what it's supposed to check. I believe its way less splashable than we originally thought, and should drop.
Rotom-Wash: Tier 3 --> Tier 4 (or lower)
I've come to learn that if you're a water type not named Blastoise (excluding pokemon used on Rain teams), you're most likely bad. Honestly, I see no reason to use this over Blastoise. In theory, it beats Blastoise and is immune to Ground, but I don't see these as strong enough reasons to justify using it. The only pokemon in Tiers 1-3 that get STAB ground moves is Excadrill (which Blastoise beats), and Thunderbolt doesn't even 2HKO Blastoise with Sitrus Berry unless you're running significant investment. Rotom also misses out on Fake Out and Follow Me which is huge. If you want a strong electric type to beat Blastoise, use Zeraora. If you want a incredible water type support pokemon, use Blastoise.
Dragapult: Tier 3 --> Tier 4
To be fair, having 142 base speed is nice in a metagame where everything is so slow. However, it doesn't possess the offensive firepower to make good use of it. 100 base Special Attack is underwhelming, and requires Choice Specs to do any significant damage. You're able to drop 1 pretty strong Draco Meteor, but after that one turn, you're useless. -2 Draco is doing pitiful damage (does less than half to Volcarona) and suddenly you're playing 1v2. While it has 120 base Attack, being a Physical Dragon sucks. You're doing 52% max to Blastoise / 54% max to Rillaboom with a Life Orb boosted Dragon Darts. You get wrecked by Incineraor even more as a physical attacker, and if you want a set-up user, use QD Volcarona, CM Sylveon, or SD Scizor. It also loses to every Fairy type, and can't even protect against Urshifu. I do thing it can be used due to it's high speed tier, but I think Tier 3 is way too high.
Kyurem: Tier 5 --> Tier 4 (or higher)
This thing is a menace. Kyurem is one of the few things that can 2HKO both Blastoise and Rillaboom, and it even resists their STABs to boot. You also do massive damage to Amoonguss, Sylveon, and basically everything else beside Steels. Base 95 is pretty quick (slower than Urshifu tho) and you can even opt to run Modest since the only thing you're only missing out on Kommo-o. Others have found success using Assault Vest with Rock Slide but I'm a fan of Modest Life Orb because you're so ridiculously strong. This thing is at worst as good as Dragapult since it doesn't become useless after one turn.
252 SpA Life Orb Kyurem Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Assault Vest Rillaboom: 296-351 (73.2 - 86.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252+ SpA Life Orb Kyurem Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Assault Vest Rillaboom: 328-385 (81.1 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Kyurem Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 120 SpD Blastoise: 257-304 (70.9 - 83.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Kyurem Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 120 SpD Blastoise: 281-330 (77.6 - 91.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Kyurem Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 112+ SpD Togekiss: 283-335 (75.6 - 89.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Kyurem Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 112+ SpD Togekiss: 307-367 (82 - 98.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Kyurem Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Amoonguss: 320-377 (74 - 87.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Kyurem Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Amoonguss: 351-413 (81.2 - 95.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0- Atk Life Orb Kyurem Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona: 333-395 (107 - 127%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Gigalith: UR -> Tier 3 or 4
In a metagame where being 4x weak to Close Combat and being 2x weak to Bug Buzz cause Tyranitar pain against Volcarona, Gigalith emerges as an alternative sand setter which has better matchups vs both aforementioned threats. I previously posted a viable Gigalith team here, but wanted to let it percolate a bit before making a formal nom.
Having tested this pokemon some more, and also watching other people build with it, I am fully convinced that Gigalith is a better sand setter than Tyranitar in this metagame.
The biggest advantages Gigalith has over Tyranitar are:
Access to Wide Guard, which shuts down Volcarona and weather sweepers; and
A lack of Bug weakness, which makes Gigalith fairly confident in stomaching a hit from a +1 Volcarona before retaliating with a fatal Rock Slide back
But on a secondary tangent, a healthy Gigalith carrying Chople Berry can comfortably take one Urshifu Close Combat, then retaliate back with a Superpower that has a 86% chance to OHKO Urshifu before sand damage, and 92% chance factoring in the sand chip:
252+ Atk Gigalith Superpower vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu: 294-348 (86.2 - 102%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
Add 6.25% damage (1/16) for sand chip at the end of the turn
Finally, I will just mention that having Tyranitar's Dark-typing is simply a liability in a metagame where most teams want to include Urshifu, which is 4x Fairy-weak. Both Gigalith and Tyranitar are basically slow hit takers that want to set sand and Stealth Rock, but Gigalith patches up a Dazzling Gleam weakness while Tyranitar compounds it.
I'll preface this post by saying that Dark Urshifu is a solid margin better than anything else in the tier, and needs to be banned, and its presence looms over everything else. You have to strongly justify using pokemon which underspeed and are ohkoed by Choice Band Urshifu, which happens to be a lot of them.
Sun is good, rain is bad. Boomer and Shroomer are massive roadblocks for rain; Specs Muddy Water is what Kingdra wants to do but that's not a winning strategy into bulky grasses so it instead has to settle for the underwhelming Life Orb. Outspeeding Urshifu is vital in this format, and Politoed and Pelipper are sitting ducks against it while Sun's setter outspeeds and threatens an OHKO with Overheat or +2 Heat Wave. Urshifu partners very well with sun to remove its roadblocks like Tyranitar and Incineroar, and having synergy with the best mon in the format is great for Sun's viability, while Urshifu partners way less well with rain cores.
Clanger 2 -> 4?
It misses Melmetal. It loved having Melmetal on its team to beat up Fairy types and it loved being one of few mons who could legitimately claim to be fine into Melmetal. It desperately needs a steel type on its team to remove checks and the available steels right now are dire. The rise of Weezing is terrible for it, as it also hates facing down Toxic Spikes, and in a broader metagame view teams are not skimping on their fairy coverage and so Kommo-o gets caught in Urshifu's crosshairs. It only really caught on after it was clear Melmetal was good enough to be used on every team, and while that wasn't its only good matchup the metagame is significantly more hostile to it now than it was then. Offensive Clanger sets might come back some day, but now is not its time.
I will say that defensive Clanger might have a niche, but I haven't tested that set at all. That set's potential is the only thing holding me back from nomming it from 2 -> 5.
Tsareena 4 -> 3
Blocking priority is good, it does hella damage with Power Whip and hurts grass resists with whichever coverage move you want, it has a solid enough speed tier to actually get use out of the Rapid Spin buff. Queenly Majesty has some degenerate interactions with U-turn and some degenerate synergy with Unseen Fist; too often Tsareena can just get Urshifu onto the field for free and switch back in allowing it to nuke a slot without fear of silly things like Fake Out or Protect or Intimidate. Urshifu's broken and Tsareena enables it in a pretty oppressive manner in a lot of positions.
Gothitelle 2 -> 1
Urshifu is broken and partners extremely well with Gothitelle; Fake Out + CB Wicked Blow is the definition of oppressive. Also I don't know how to beat Urshifu if it's not trapped in and getting Faked Out while I switch to the mon that outspeeds and ohkoes. Goth also punishes it for locking into Fighting Move.
Gothitelle is also difficult to build with so I don't feel too strongly about this nom, as the VR is intended to be a resource for people learning about the tier and Goth requires flowcharting multi-turn sequences in the builder but I mostly want to push back against "goth is worse now" rhetoric and state on record that it's not any less good than it has been. It's still the Fake Out Shadow Tag pokemon, and I still can't believe they released it.
Tyranitar 3 -> 4
I don't have strong thoughts on Gigalith but I do know that running Tar right now requires a lot more justification than it did before. Pult and Incin are less good, offensive sets get straight up popped by +1 or HH Bug Buzz
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 302-356 (88.5 - 104.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
so it can't even check the #1 mon you'd want your tar to beat, and it gets a teammate killed every time it switches out of Urshifu. Endure + Eject Button is really really funny, but it also indicates the level that Tar has fallen to. It's fallen out of OU in singles, and while it has a place in DOU the power creep of the DLC is not treating Tar well. Its buddy Excadrill can comfortably claim to be the best Steel type (though Exca's not in a great spot in spite of that) but that's one of its few saving graces.
Dracovish 5 -> 4
252+ Atk Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (170 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu: 354-417 (103.8 - 122.2%)
Scarf is probably the only set worth running, but outspeeding and ohkoing Urshifu while being an actual sun resist is something not many mons can claim. It has Blastoise and Rillaboom problems (and others of course) and shouldn't go higher than 4 but it probably deserves a bump.
Volcarona 2 -> 1
Seconding this, not gonna add too much. It's the most potent boosting win con in a tier with so many supports looking for a partner to do anything at all.
Rotom-W 3 -> 5
Seconding this, it struggles to be useful. Another casualty of Urshifu and Rillaboom and general power creep in the DLC. It doesn't respond to the fire types; it can fight Volc if they come in at the same time but after a Quiver Dance it's losing damage trades. Against sun it gets Heat Waved and at best forces out Charizard once. Its very favorable matchups into steels are barely relevant in this format, and it's being exposed as just another mon with bad stats that can't hang.
Time for a new shift *and* a new ranker! I'm excited to welcome Paraplegic to the team, he's shown consistent ability to stay on the forefront of a rapidly changing metagame, which will be especially helpful as we navigate the DLC.
Tsareena Tier 4 → Tier 3
Qsns: 3, sun keeps winning
Paraplegic: Tier 3. Agreed with qsns
talkingtree: 3, read the noms
SMB: tsareena is great rn, I wouldn’t mind a rise to 2 so ofc i’m also ok with it rising to 3
Ezrael: Tsareena is pretty good, 3 feels appropriate
MajorBowman: 3, Tsareena is a super cool mon
Ninetales Tier 4 → Tier 3
Qsns: 3, sun keeps winning
Paraplegic: Tier 3. Ninetales is, much more so than any other weather setter right now, a functional, actually threatening mon, and sun seems to be in a very good place right now, so I think this rise is very warranted.
talkingtree: qsns's reasoning was written before the most recent round of ssnl matches (and therefore sun losses) happened, but Sun is still a super strong playstyle and at this point Ninetales is absolutely better than Torkoal on every variant aside from the rare semiroom. Outspeeding and heavily damaging Urshifu is too valuable to pass up.
SMB: tier 3, sun has proven to be the most viable offense playstyle
Ezrael: Tier 3, sun broke
MajorBowman: 3, agree with talkingtree fully
Volcarona Tier 2 → Tier 1
Qsns: 1. Absolute monster to deal with next to the litany of support options the tier has right now, especially toise, and the timbs are able to circumvent the otherwise exploitable weakness it has. Dominates most of the games it’s in. At the very worst, it trades for itself, but usually punches enough holes in the opponent’s team once set up to just end the game.
Paraplegic: Tier 1. I am of the opinion that volcarona is the most broken thing in this tier. It takes advantage of the phenomenal support options this tier has like absolutely nothing else, finds set up opportunities incredibly easily, and once its set up it usually takes over the entire game. We just lack really good counterplay to this in general and this seems like a no brainer.
talkingtree: 1. Volc is insanely strong, not much else needs to be said past what qsns and para already pointed out.
SMB: when you see so many random mons running rock slide just because of this thing, it means something. It also requires really good positioning when facing it and good countermeasures on teambuilding. Definitely tier 1.
Ezrael: 1, excellent offensive and defensive typing in this meta
MajorBowman: 1 for sure, not really much left to say beyond what my colleagues have already said
Gothitelle Tier 1 ← Tier 2 → Tier 3
Qsns: 2, I think it’s harder to fit on teams than in the past but certainly should not drop as it’s an incredibly effective part of the teams it is fit on.
Paraplegic: Tier 3. I think this meta is really unkind to the type of support goth offers. Between the overabundance of pivot moves being thrown around and both of the best offensive mons in the meta threatening it directly with super effective damage, I think tier 3 is a good indicator of its usefulness right now.
talkingtree: 2 still seems fine to me, I agree with qsns
SMB: agree with qsns, it’s been a while since goth is not as splashable but stag is always going to do something on every game. Fake out + stag is one of the best checks to stuff like urshifu, and it also pairs very well with urshifu, checking volcarona. To me goth’s viability depends a lot on urshifu, if it’s banned I’d agree with a drop to 3.
Ezrael: 2, and I still kinda wanna see goth suspected and banned. It’s going to be cancer pretty much always, but never the clear cancer--it’s always easier to ban the partner. I just want it gone.
MajorBowman: 2. With the popularity of Urshifu and Volcarona it’s a lot harder for Goth to just sit on the field at any given time, not to mention everything having a pivot move these days making shadow tag slightly less useful. However, shadow tag is still bonkers and Fake Out + shadow tag is still ridiculous, and like SMB said Goth can still support the things that threaten it pretty well.
Chansey Tier 2 → Tier 3
Qsns: 3. I think its matchup against Urshifu is playable but the rise in Volcarona and its inability to actually deal with it quickly holds it back from being the catch-all special check it’s meant to be.
Paraplegic: Tier 3. Being such urshifu bait holds it back tremendously in my opinion and I struggle to actually find myself using it due to how much of a liability it feels like vs it. It also sucks at holding back volcarona long term despite being meant to be a special wall. It obviously still offers good utility and is a nice defensive wincon, but I don’t see this meta as particularly kind to it.
talkingtree: 3, once again all has already been said.
SMB: 3, still a good mon but struggles vs the best mons on the tier as it has been said
Ezrael: abstain
MajorBowman: kill
Rotom-W Tier 3 → Tier 5
Qsns: 5, there are very rarely situations where I want this over a Pokemon such as Zeraora. No standout sets and there are better setup mons in the tier.
Paraplegic: Tier 5. I don’t really see this mons place in the meta. Its outclassed as both a water and electric type, the role compression it provides on paper isn’t very appealing in practice, and the things it has historically checked all gen aren’t as relevant right now, on top of struggling with both of the very good and common grasses in the meta right now.
talkingtree: Tier 5. It's been a long time since I've wanted to add Rotom-W to a team.
SMB: 5 or even UR, rillaboom sogood
Ezrael: 5, boomer :b:roke
MajorBowman: 5 :( I am the perennial rotom sympathizer but this meta is very unkind to our favorite appliance
Dragapult Tier 3 → Tier 4
Qsns: 3, pult’s fine. I put band on a team that has seen a few games and its speed, even while adamant, has been a valuable trait that allows it to work as an effective early game pivot and late game cleaner.
Paraplegic: Abstain, I haven’t seen a single one of these since dlc dropped.
talkingtree: I think 3's still okay. umbry's latest build with it shows that Dragapult still has some flexibility in its sets, and I think its speed + damage keep Pult relevant.
SMB: same as para, I haven’t seen it get usage so I’m going to abstain
Ezrael: 3, dragon typing is nice. Band/specs both have niche uses, and I’m definitely considering it on my teams.
MajorBowman: 3, being that fast is a huge boon in and of itself, and it still does some solid damage with offensive sets with a lot of cool support options
Kyurem Tier 5 → Tier 4 (or higher)
Qsns: 5, i don’t think it’s effective in this metagame and i don’t really think it checks that much with av sets.
Paraplegic: Tier 3. I think kyurem has a great place in the meta right now, checking a lot of the top mons while also being very offensively threatening itself with life orb sets or sporting nice utility with av sets.
talkingtree: I voted 4 last time and I think I'm going to stand by that. Losing pretty hard to Ninetales, Urshifu, and Volcarona really stinks but it's great in most other scenarios.
SMB: 4 is fine since it has a good or at least a decent mu vs some of the best mons on the tier, good random mon with access to rock slide.
Ezrael: 5, kyurem really struggles to get much of anything going and gets pressured really hard.
MajorBowman: abstain, I haven’t really seen this in use in quite some time
Gigalith UR → Tier 3 or 4
Qsns: 5, sand has a little bit of value and it’s probably about as good as ttar
Paraplegic: UR. I don’t think sand is very good right now, and while gigalith doesn’t have quite the amount of weaknesses tar does, in my opinion that doesn’t translate to being more viable when the archetype as a whole is suffering greatly right now.
talkingtree: 5 seems reasonable. If I'm going to use sand right now I think I'd go with Gigalith instead of Tyranitar and its stats + utility in Stealth Rock and Wide Guard are pretty valuable. Still, Gigalith is largely unproven and seems to be less effective in practice, so I don't think it should go any higher yet.
SMB: ig 5 is fine? I think sand is a cool antimeta pick I just don’t think gigalith is that great of a mon but it has a better mu vs top mons than ttar so yeah
Ezrael: 5, gigalith is a legitimate sand setter and sand has some value.
MajorBowman: 5, agree with tree + smb
Charizard Tier 4 → Tier 3
Qsns: 3, sun keeps winning
Paraplegic: Tier 3. Agreed with qsns.
talkingtree: yeah, this probably shouldn't have dropped in the first place.
SMB: tier 3, sun has proven to be the most viable offense playstyle
Ezrael: sun broke
MajorBowman: sun good
Kingdra Tier 3 → Tier 4
Qsns: 4, rain sucks due its poor matchup into the tier’s best support Pokemon
Paraplegic: Tier 3. Kingdra, despite having bad matchups vs some of the top members of the supporting class in this meta, also has great matchups vs the big offensive players and I think it's fine where it’s at.
talkingtree: I think 3's still good for Kingdra. The combination of Hurricane and Muddy Water can be really frustrating for teams to deal with due to their power and haxy secondary effects. Rain clearly isn't as dominant as I thought it might be when I heard Kingdra was getting Hurricane, but Kingdra itself is still a threat in the right circumstances.
SMB: 4, i don’t think the current metagame trends benefits rain at all
Ezrael: 4, rain isn’t strong as an archetype and requires a lot of support.
MajorBowman: 4, rain bad
Politoed Tier 3 → Tier 4
Qsns: 5, rain sucks due its poor matchup into the tier’s best support Pokemon and Politoed sucks worse than pelipper
Paraplegic: Tier 5. I think toed is about a tier worse than peli in this meta, and since peli is tier 4 that makes toed tier 5.
talkingtree: Tier 5, agreed with Paraplegic. Access to Tailwind is pretty crucial for rain teams, and having Helping Hand is only really good when the rain breakers can just plow through things with HH Muddy Water -- unfortunately, most threats in the meta either die to it without the HH boost or take it safely either way.
SMB: 4, same reasons as kingdra
Ezrael: 5, pelipper is better rn
MajorBowman: 5, rain bad
Kommo-o Tier 2 → Tier 4
Qsns: 4. I think it’s a weak damage dealer w Clangorous Soul into a metagame so heavily trying to target Urshifu and I haven’t been convinced by the ID + Body Press sets because I think it’s just too slow (both speed stat wise, where it takes a shit ton of chip damage before & after it sets up, and tempo wise because it isn’t a super immediate threat with its weak coverage).
talkingtree: I'd say Kommo-o's still Tier 3. Iron Defense + Body Press is powerful when you resist Wicked Blow and can therefore get away with being a semi-passive Defense booster. In addition, Mew starting to run Psychic to punish Weezing-G gives it great support and CS sets can still poke big holes in unprepared teams.
Paraplegic: Tier 3. Kommo, imo, is in a weird place right now where its simultaneously really appealing for some of the things it provides, like a very nice urshifu/volc check and pretty nice defensive wincon, and also incredibly unappealing because its best checks are everywhere and imo it can be a liability in combo with urshifu since stacking fighting types just seems super wack right now. I think its about middle of the pack viable as a result, which equals tier 3. Still clang clang forever though!
Ezrael: tier 4, I have been very unimpressed by clanger and if I wanted a mon to do damage I would just run volcarona or urshifu instead.
SMB: Every team needs at least 1 or 2 fairy types rn, goth is getting more popular and kommo-o also shares a flying weakness with both urshifu and volcarona which means some of the countermeasures to these 2 top mons also work for kommo-o. In practice I think it can put work, in theory not so much so I’m voting tier 4.
MajorBowman: 3, ID + body press is still pretty strong considering it’s a defense booster that still dunks on urshifu and it provides some pretty nice defensive utility with its typing
Tyranitar Tier 3 → Tier 4
Qsns: 5, tyranitar is an absolute joke into the Urshifu metagame.
Paraplegic: UR. I think sand is not good and really not worth running right now. Tar has so many issues and using it feels like shooting yourself in the leg.
talkingtree: Tier 5. Urshifu, Volcarona, Rillaboom, and Blastoise are all varying levels of bad matchups for Tyranitar, and if you manage to avoid matching up against these you've probably already won anyway because your opponent likely has a bad team. Still, I think it's not quite trash enough to push all the way to UR.
Ezrael: 5, ttar sucks
SMB: wherever gigalith ends up
MajorBowman: 5 is fine, agree with tree
Dracovish Tier 5 → Tier 4
Qsns: i built with fish and it’s fine, 4
Paraplegic: Tier 4. Nail’s nom said about all that needed to be and I agree with it.
talkingtree: Yeah, Dracovish can get a bump.
Ezrael: 5, I want to see vish get used before bumping it
SMB: tier 4, I agree with nails, I also built some teams with it and felt fine when testing, or at least better than before. Good random mon with access to rock slide x2
MajorBowman: 5, agree with jon that I’d rather see it than just bump it theoretically but I could see it rising soon
Talonflame's Atk is lackluster, but its speed stat, access to Gale Wings, and Flying/Fire STAB combination let it hit hard against common top tier threats like Urshifu, Volcarona, Venusaur and Rillaboom while also being able to set Tailwind with priority.
Recent Seasonals games have showcased what Talonflame is capable of, and I think it's worth respecting in the current metagame.
Tier 5 → Gastrodon Tier
Gastrodon almost always avoids a 2HKO from Adamant Talonflame's Brave Bird, and in return can threaten a 2hko with Scald or Muddy Water! It's also the highest SpD Water- / Ground-type Pokemon in the metagame.
But yeah, who's using Gastrodon in a metagame where every team is using at least one of Rillaboom or Tsareena? Easiest UR nom of my life.
I was going to finish up getting reqs today but something came up IRL and now it looks like that won't be possible. However, I used a specific set that I'd like to highlight because it pulled a surprising amount of weight.
Toxtricity @ Assault Vest
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 136 HP / 188 SpA / 8 SpD / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overdrive
- Sludge Bomb
- Nuzzle
- Volt Switch
Toxtricity is one of the few Pokemon that can claim to have a very positive matchup into Blastoise and Rillaboom, which is the main reason I wanted to try to make it work. However, to take advantage of that, something needs to be done about two of its strongly negative traits -- a mediocre Speed stat and pretty pitiful bulk. A Nuzzle AV set addresses both of these and allows Toxtricity to take a more supportive role. This specific spread allows Toxtricity to serve as a Rain check -- it's guaranteed to take LO Kingdra's Hydro Pump in rain and will outrun Modest Pelipper. Volcarona will also assume that Toxtricity is setup bait, and paralyzing it goes a long way towards answering that threat. Absorbing Toxic Spikes is also a huge boon in a meta where Galarian Weezing is so popular. The massive Ground weakness is still an issue, but Rillaboom already partners well with Toxtricity and can address that well.
I built around this set with qsns and ended up with something that led me to a 28-1 record: https://pokepast.es/b696eaad1d911c5a If Urshifu ends up being banned, then the last two/three slots can probably be modified fairly easily -- it was really the core of the first three that served as such strong support and offensive options, which allowed the three breakers to flourish. I'm not under any illusions that Toxtricity is a premier threat in the meta that deserves a high ranking, but I think Toxtricity → Tier 5 is fairly reasonable.
EDIT: Paraplegic correctly pointed out that I should add some replays to this nomination, so I hopped on ladder and got a few games. These were the only two that weren't against Monobug or Acupressure Shuckle or three Level 1 Pokemon, so they aren't perfect replays, but they show Tox's value in different ways.
Primarina in my opinion has a strong offensive presence because she go into battle and can do hyper voice + moonblast spam without having a safe change, only poison types can get in your hits, but primarina can do 1 ko with psyquic.
She does very well against common meta pokemon, because can withstand their blows thanks to their defenses and you can make them 1 ko, for example: weezing galar, dark and water urshi, incineroar, volcarona, blastoise...
Another advantage that primarina has is that we can adapt your evs for different play styles: trick room or tailwind making primarina hit first and do a lot of damage.
The absence of strong electric pokes (only zeraora) and tsarena as a partner, makes it quite difficult for them to hit primarina super effective, because we do stop rillaboom and its defenses make it last a long time in battle.
It true that depending on the build of the team primarina can need good support as tsarena, fake out support or speed control (sometimes) in order to get its full potential.
Sincerely completely disappeared from the MetaGame Through the appearance of Rillaboom, both Tsaerena and Incineroar have had a fundamental role in Fake Out Wars alongside indedee, but Milotic is down, since the monkey can surprise her everywhere and let her perform her usual set like Coil + Hypnosis. Another of the most viable options before choosing Milotic is that blastoise is currently better Support, Fake out + Follow Me give you access to a Free Boost of Volcarona or another Mon that breaks Teams in an exceptional way and being most of them pairs with Rillaboom + Weez or Gothi leaving the milotic option far out.
Tier 3 ---> 2
With the release of Urshifu Single Strike. Incineroar can Regain his corresponding Throne although the Damage that he currently commands is the Spa Attacker We can have an option to carry and play with his Evs to be able to mold him in a Crucial way in teams that need a wall pivot. The utility of incineroar and its power of damage allows it to Hit Volcarona and / or resist Preparing Evs For this with a Movepool Set it can be exclusive for certain occasions since being a Mon that is Amulled to all types of Equipment has the potential to go beyond what is required, being one of the best Psyspam checks and intimidating with access to U-turn or parting Shoot
Main reason is that it's biggest competition in Urishfu-S is gone. It is a legitimate threat that has been under the radar since it's twin brother has been stealing the spotlight. Now that more people are using Urishfu-R, I feel it is better than it's current tier 4 ranking. I could see it starting at 3, but honestly I think 2 is more appropriate (and if we start at 3, I definitely see it rising beyond that in the future).
Many of the factors that made Urishfu-S strong apply to Urisfhu-R:
Surging Strikes is a highly spammable move, almost as spammable as Wicked Blow
Strong neutral coverage with its STABs
In bad situations, has a U-turn that cannot be Protected against.
Urishfu-R had Iron Head as a coverage move to super-effectively hit many of the Pokemon that resist its STABs. Urishfu-S has the same thing with Ice Punch for all of its corresponding pokemon on the Viability rankings (Venusaur, Amoonguss, Dragapult, Whimsicott) except for Pelipper.
Which leads to a same concept of a Pokemon that's difficult to continuously sponge hits from. It is also good at lasting a long-time and keeping up with its checks, though not to the same extent because of Rillaboom's Grassy Slide, it gives Ven Sleep Powder opportunities, and Amoonguss is also good at lasting a long-time if needed with Regenerator. But these aren't enough to stop Urishfu-S from being a serious threat. Being able to nearly OHKO Volcarona with Banded Aqua Jet (guaranteed with any chip) is also a huge plus for checking the metagame's primary set-up sweeper.
Thinking of Gigalith as just a sand-setter is naive. It's an anti-weather, anti-TR, volc counter tank. It can easily be run on a lot of teams that aren't dedicated sand teams. There's no reason it shouldn't be as high as Ninetales.
Sand is a very "neutral" weather, so if you need a soft counter to rain, and a hard counter to sun, Gigalith has got you covered.
It performs fantastically against TR, having access to wide guard, changing weather and taking on Torkoal, underspeeding and koing Hatterene with Heavy Slam, and it's great bulk lets you tank out TR turns.
Gigalith is one of the best volcarona counters available, able to wide guard it's heat waves, tank a couple bug buzzes/giga drains, and able to ko it back with rock slide.
You can run a multitude of sets depending upon what you need from Gigalith - you can run a choice band to take advantage of it's fantastic 135 base attack, you can run iron defense + body press as a physical wall, or I've even had success running an AV to take further advantage of it's sandstorm boosted special bulk to make it one of the most difficult pokemon to remove. Also you can run the standard set that sets up SR, has wide guard, and then can run rock slide and heavy slam.
There's also been a bunch of metagame changes that has helped Gigalith: The rise of sun teams, rain teams more commonly using Pelipper over Politoed, the rise of hard TR teams, and the fact that there's no longer SS Urshifu on just about every team.
--> 5 or maybe 4
Take a look at some of your teams. Hawlucha probably outspeeds and OHKO's 2-4 Pokemon on every team - that's offensive pressure that can't be beat. Flying-Fighting STAB is fantastic, combined with high base power moves such as Acrobatics/Brave Bird & Close Combat, let's Hawlucha get past it's mediocre 92 base attack. With Unburden it outspeeds a lot of the games top threats either in supporting weather or tailwind, and it can set the fastest non-prankster tailwind in the game for your team.
Obviously it has drawbacks, such as it's weak defenses, and unburden forcing you to keep it in, but if put in at the right time and used correctly Hawlucha is a devastating offensive pokemon. There's definitely room for it in the metagame, and it should be ranked.
Nomination: Duraludon
UR--> 5
Reasoning: With redirection, fairies, and dragons being as big as they are in this meta, a mon that can ignore redirection in addition to being able to hit both of these types hard is valuable. Duraludon has good physical bulk as well as great special attack. It can run WP so it can run protect or run AV to make up for its admittedly bad Sp. Def. Considering it resists 10 of 18 types and that it's only weak to 2, being Fighting and Ground, Duraludon makes a decent pick for a Special Attacker mon.
probably 2, it dislikes being psychic weak since the psychics are way better than the fairies which was all that good urshifu had to deal with. but the name still says urshifu and it's pretty oppressive next to gothitelle, and solid enough in a bunch of other situations.
Probably 1, but I am quite humble. Hawlucha exploits the fact that there's not much good Flying resists in the meta, and those that do probably don't like taking a CC); though it only has 92 Attack, it can run Adamant and with those high BP moves the damage is sufficient enough. Surprisingly a good wincon and great at exerting pressure throughout a game; the natural Speed + Unburden is handy in letting it outrun stuff even while opposing Tailwind is still up and running, making it good at doing the wincon thing if not just being a Speed safety net against certain matchups like Sun (it outright beats sand tho lol). With all the Fake Out available and the +1 Defense boost easy to achieve, setting up a +2 boost with it is surprisingly easier than it looks, but then there's also the fact that it absolutely exploits the obvious best Pokemon in the metagame rn in Rillaboom. Only sad thing is against TR it's just a plain hitter, but getting +2 against that isn'timpossible. This Pokemon is not for the faint of heart.
Rotom-W is a very high-risk, low reward mon to use in this meta and I haven’t seen it in quite some time.
At best, it’s a Water type that can damage Blastoise. But beyond that, it doesn’t have any redeeming qualities and actually has a rough time versus a number of top VR threats, let alone Rillaboom.
Guss loses a lot of potential when it becomes the third best redirector in the tier and it also no longer is the easily splashable TR check because every prominent TR attacker has a very positive mu against it. It doesn't even make a whole lot of sense to throw it on a team to fill out some defensive synergy because using boomer/tsareena for that role makes more sense on most builds because pure grass typing is much more favorable due to there being like 5 or 6 extremely viable psychic mons. It can really easily get out of position fast because of the pivoting nature of the meta and often times turns into dead weight. Guss can still find its niche on fullroom teams but on standard balance every time I think of putting guss on a team I ask myself "would boomer just be much better here" and the answer is always yes. Lastly, because venu is such a threat in this meta, quality teams are typically over prepared for sleep shenanigans. I think it being winless in snake thus far is pretty indicative of where it is currently at in the meta
Feels like 2 grass type teams are more common than 0 grass type teams + volcarona getting the stanky boot leaves blastoise in a worse spot as there isnt enough setup in the game for something with 0 offensive pressure of its own. Noticeably worse than Rillaboom to me. The only ice type with a pulse destroys it and it has become a victim of its own success in helping make dracovish less relevant.
Feels like 2 grass type teams are more common than 0 grass type teams + volcarona getting the stanky boot leaves blastoise in a worse spot as there isnt enough setup in the game for something with 0 offensive pressure of its own. Noticeably worse than Rillaboom to me. The only ice type with a pulse destroys it and it has become a victim of its own success in helping make dracovish less relevant.
Time for another round of votes! Some of these are fairly delayed, so I apologize to those that made the nominations a while ago. I didn't want to force shifts during a suspect test or right when the meta was re-settling, which resulted in a long period between slates. We also went through the lower tiers, and since it's been so long I allowed the council to vote '3' in addition to the usual 4/5/UR. Without further ado, here are the votes!
Talonflame Tier 4 → Tier 3
talkingtree: 4. Priority Tailwind isn't quite as valuable with Urshifu and Volcarona gone, and this nomination was made when both were still around. I think Talon was 3 when the nom was made, but it's back to 4 now.
Paraplegic: 4. Talonflame isn’t bad, I think it actually has a decent amount of positives going for it. It is however held back by a lot of top mons really limiting its ability to generate free turns and the fact that tailwind isn’t as in demand as it was when shifu meta was ongoing.
SMB: 4, it’s only gotten worse; sand is relevant and tw is easy to stall for most teams
MajorBowman: 4, after a tailwind I think Talon struggles to find something to do. Using any of its (good) attacks means you break Gale Wings, and it doesn’t really have the bulk to get a 2nd tailwind off most of the time
Ezrael: 4, read above
Qsns: Tailwind bot for the broken Urshifu and Volcarona check were this thing’s main two roles. Doesn’t have these anymore. 5
Gastrodon Tier 5 → UR
talkingtree: UR. Anything that drops to a Grassy Glide needs many more positives to make up for that and Gastro has none.
Paraplegic: UR. Gastrodon tier(it really doesn't have any merit in this meta atm).
SMB: UR, no reason to use this on a meta where grass types and set up are dominant
MajorBowman: gastrodon tier (which is 5)
Ezrael: Gastrodon blows, UR
Qsns: absolutely terrible, UR
Toxtricity UR → Tier 4
talkingtree: my nom, god tox.
Paraplegic: 5. I haven’t seen anywhere near enough of this mon to rank it any higher than 5, but it does have a win in snake now where it performed well so I guess that's at least enough for it to get ranked.
SMB: 4, toxtricity is sogood, fills many roles a team should always have; tspikes absorber, togekiss, urshifu, and grass types check, it can also pivot and nuzzle can help with speed control. Pretty solid mon.
MajorBowman: 5 for now but could see it rising, not sure if one win in snake is enough to go straight to 4 but it has some potential. Overdrive is a great move and tox’s typing is actually pretty good given the meta
Ezrael: 5, bowman put it well
Qsns: i got owned by this in spl like 6 hours ago and i was genuinely impressed by it when tree & i built with it like last month. 4’s cool
Primarina UR → Tier 3
talkingtree: Not quite as good as it was when the nom was made, but definitely still deserves a ranking. I haven't used it much, but I think 4's probably accurate.
Paraplegic: 5. I’ve never been very impressed with this mon because builds with it always seem to end up with some fatal flaw, but it certainly sees enough usage to be ranked.
SMB: I don’t think primarina is good at all, as para said, most primarina builds give up the mu vs a lot of common stuff. Primarina in a vacuum might be tier 5? Yes. For me it’s UR in this meta tho.
MajorBowman: 3 is very aggressive, I’d go with 5 for now. I’ve been a fan of Primarina for the whole gen and even though Rillaboom is everywhere that’s often the best/only check to bulky waters on any given team. Primarina has some deceptive special bulk and can do some solid damage too, ranking it at 5 is fine
Ezrael: Primarina is not particularly scary, and definitely not as scary as kingdra or Scizor, both of which sit in tier 4. I think primarina suffers from competitors in the fairy slot and water slot. I’m unsure whether it should be 5 or UR, abstain.
Qsns: UR, just use Sylveon is what I felt with every team I tried.
Milotic Tier 5 → UR
talkingtree: UR. Incin's not great and there's basically no other Intimidate in the meta. If you want a sleep spreader, Venusaur is way better and doesn't make you lose momentum against the best mon in the format.
Paraplegic: 5. I think milo is still very annoying to deal with situationally regardless of if intimidate is common or not. I don’t even view it as anywhere close to the worst thing in tier 5 so I can’t in good faith vote to unrank it.
SMB: 5, mainly because I think sleep is broken and this thing can get crazy on the right mu or if you somehow ignore it or don’t put enough pressure.
MajorBowman: Agree with Paraplegic and SMB, it’s not as scary anymore but it can still be really annoying and sleep is crazy good
Ezrael: Most of the tools we have to stop sleep are aimed at stopping Amoonguss/Venusaur. Very few mons actually stop hypnosis sleep. That’s a sufficient niche, combined with competitive, to warrant tier 5.
Qsns: 5. Can be potent with proper team support though I think it demands too much atm to be any higher than 5. Sleep’s broken
Incineroar Tier 3 → Tier 2
talkingtree: Incin's kind of bad…. not sure how it managed to gain access to Parting Shot and lose viability but here we are. Stay 3.
Paraplegic: 3. Incin has its place and is just necessary on some compositions to plug holes, but it's kinda ass this gen. I think it’s like the poster child tier 3 mon right now.
SMB: 3 is fine, incineroar is not that good tbh, most teams don’t really need intimidate or a fire type. Having so many fake out users faster than it also punishes its viability.
MajorBowman: I think I value Incineroar more than the other voters but I still don’t think 2 is a good spot for it. It’s nowhere near as splashable as it has been in the past and has to decide between boots or an actual item, either of which gives it longevity issues
Ezrael: I wish incin could be tier 2 ;-;
Qsns: god no. Boots are the sole thing letting it hang onto Tier 3 and it feels incredibly mediocre when a team is forced to stick it on.
Urshifu-R Tier 4 → Tier 1 or 2
talkingtree: I'm kind of a non-believer in Urshifu but even I have to admit that 4's too low. Personally I'm probably leaning 3 since it doesn't hit hard enough and Water is such a meh offensive type, but I wouldn't protest it ending up in 2.
Paraplegic: Tier 2: It's still an urshifu. While it’s obviously less good than single strike, it’s still quite potent in its own right, and I think this is easily one of the best progress machines of the current meta.
SMB: tier 2, probably the best wallbreaker rn but this meta is dominated by grass types. Psychic and electric weaknesses are key to not be tier 1.
MajorBowman: 2 at most, agree with SMB here. Surging Strikes is really cool and it has some solid coverage but its typing is just wildly unfortunate
Ezrael: Tier 2. Urshifu is nuts in a vacuum. It does a ton of damage and can clean games. Could be better, but is a common sight on many teams.
Qsns: 2. Rillaboom weakness is rough as hell for something that wants to come in on the slow fat things - this also means that it isn’t very potent with speed control unlike good Urshifu - but yeah it’s still Urshifu, it clicks buttons and gets kills.
Gigalith Tier 5 → Tier 3
talkingtree: I think TTar is back to being better than Gigalith now that Volc's gone, so this nomination is a little outdated. Gigalith is plenty usable though, and the nom makes some good points about its viability. I'll say 4.
Paraplegic: 5. Gigalith, I will begrudgingly admit, is usable right now, far more so than during shifu meta imo at least. Tar, however, is so much better right now that I would only seriously consider gigalith on a select few archetypes right now and I do not consider it worth ranking above the bottom tier.
SMB: 5, volcarona and urshifu leaving the tier made ttar decent again so gigalith probably only fits on tr teams and it’s not that necessary imo. Double weather so good tho.
MajorBowman: 5, agree with all three above
Ezrael: 5, agree with above.
Qsns: Agreeing with tree. The ‘mon is completely useable and I don’t think TTar is thaaaat much better to where this goes to the bottom tier. 4.
Hawlucha UR → Tier 3
talkingtree: 3. That might seem like a reach going straight from UR but here we are. Rillaboom is the single easiest thing to fit on any team, so there isn't exactly an opportunity cost for using Lucha like you'd assume for Unburden + Terrain Seed. Aside from TR and Aegislash there really aren't many counters; even defensive Fairy-types like Weezing and Togekiss are susceptible to +2 Acrobatics after SR. There's a ton of Fake Out and redirection to facilitate setting an SD too.
Paraplegic: 3. This mon is really underprepared for a lot of the time right now, and that can cause it to oftentimes run away with games in a very entertaining manner. When supported correctly it’s usually able to accomplish something in any given game, and the respect that has to be given to it when seen at preview makes me believe it's worth ranking all the way up at 3.
SMB: it’s been a while since hawlucha is a tier 4 mon. Tier 3 might be too high tho. It needs 1 turn to set up and be threatening to non offense teams and most of these teams are running at least 2 of bulky fairy types, psychic types and zeraora. I agree most teams are underprepared for it and it’s good vs bad offense teams but 3 is too much for me, its viability peak was during urshifu and volcarona meta were most teams had 0 flying resists and 2-3 weaknesses and imo it was tier 4 in that meta too so :shrug:
MajorBowman: Jumping straight to 3 seems hasty and I’m still not fully convinced Hawlucha is more than a matchup fish. I respect that it has some game winning potential but it feels like it needs a near perfect setup in order to get that done. 4 for now
Ezrael: I agree with Hawlucha to 4. It’s not 3 worthy by any means; it requires a bit of extra planning to do what you want it to, and if you’re forced to get the boosts in a bad position, Hawlucha can lose all of its value. However, it does have the ability to win a number of matchups on certain teams.
Qsns: Abstain.
Duraludon UR → Tier 5
talkingtree: UR. I honestly forgot this Pokemon existed. A lot of its resistances aren't very stable thanks to its lacking SpD and awkward Speed tier, and the offensive coverage is fairly unimpressive too. Countering TR is nice and all, but fullroom isn't oppressive enough to dedicate a whole slot to that right now and you have to run LO to OHKO Hatterene, which means Dragon Tail is kind of awkward to fit on.
Paraplegic: UR. This mon sees no usage in serious environments. There wasn’t even a replay included with the nom to try and give us some taste of what it accomplishes in practice, so I don’t believe it should be included on the vr.
SMB: UR. :put_litter_in_its_place:
MajorBowman: UR, tree said it well
Ezrael: Whomst?
Qsns: ?
Amoonguss Tier 2 → Tier 3
Paraplegic: 2. I understand where the nom is coming from but I wholeheartedly disagree with it. Its matchup vs its “main competition” in rilla is particularly appealing to a number of compositions, and even on standardish balance teams where shrop claims rilla is always better, I think amoong is oftentimes a perfectly viable and sometimes even superior choice because while its secondary poison typing does give it a nasty psychic weakness to deal with, it also allows it to absorb t spikes, which is incredibly nice for any bulkier team not utilizing weezing. I think the comparison to rilla is a bit awkward outside of them both being grass types in all honesty, because when I’m looking to add either to a team it’s for very different reasons, they as pokemon accomplish very different things and apply pressure to opposing teams in very different ways. Rilla is obviously more splashable and that's why it's tier 1, but I don’t view amoong as comparatively worse enough where it should be 2 ranks below it.
SMB: 2, for brevity's sake; sleep is broken. Otherwise read para’s reasoning.
MajorBowman: 2. Any comparison to Rillaboom here feels pointless because Amoonguss and Rillaboom will almost never fill the same role on a team other than being a grass type. I mostly agree with Paraplegic here, Amoonguss still does a lot of very specific things that no other mon can do at once and can stand up to and/or enable a lot of the popular mons in the format.
Ezrael: 2. I am having a hard time figuring precisely how to use amoonguss, but it is definitely fundamentally strong.
talkingtree: 2. I had a reasoning written out with a different vote but Para convinced me.
Qsns: 2. In the same boat as Ezrael where I am struggling to build quality Amoonguss teams but Amoonguss often continues to be the best part of those teams. Rage Powder support is not great in this metagame but Spore absolutely is and Amoonguss itself is a genuine offensive presence with its coverage vs. a lot of teams.
i think my boy wailord has a tiny niche in the meta game and is a usable addition to your rain team. with a move set something like this
Wailord @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Def / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Aqua Ring
- Protect
- Water Spout
also I do not get why pokemon like pelipper or ludicolo don't ever use weather ball instead of scald. because if you play your cards right you have these boys almost all of the time in rain, where weather ball does more damage as a trade off for the 30% chance on burn I think you should really consider this move.
Support Pokémon like Pelipper won’t run Weather Ball because their damage output is low regardless, so the move with more utility will win.
Offensive Pokémon won’t run Weather Ball because it’s actively worse than just having a real STAB; you shouldn’t assume you always have your weather up when building your team.
Support Pokémon like Pelipper won’t run Weather Ball because their damage output is low regardless, so the move with more utility will win.
Offensive Pokémon won’t run Weather Ball because it’s actively worse than just having a real STAB; you shouldn’t assume you always have your weather up when building your team.
I recommend Fake Out, Muddy Water, Giga Drain and Ice Beam
Fake Out provides strong utility, and 70% accuracy is too low for Blizzard considering it's goal is usually to hit one Pokemon on the opposing team. Muddy Water's role, however, is to maximise the damage output in one turn, so the spread on this move is more beneficial even at the expense of 15% accuracy. Protect may be used over Ice Beam.
Now that Volcarona and especially Urshifu Single Strike are out of the picture, Gothitelle is striving once again as a support mon. It pretty much does the same stuff as it previously did before; trapping its foes and providing valuable support such as Fake Out and Trick Room, so there's not much else to add for it. Bang Othitelle.
Tier 2 > 1
I think Galarian Weezing deserves the Tier 1 spot (which I regret dismissing it back then because I don't know how Neutralizing Gas truly works), it gives you full control of when you want to shut down and activate abilities with the opponent trying to get rid of it, especially on Pokemon that are reliance on its ability. Weezing also benefits with not many Pokemon can threaten it with a SE attack. There's a reasonable number of Psychic-types, but most also don't like not having Psychic Terrain up (or Shadow Tag in case of Gothitelle), and Scizor ran Iron Head to hit Weezing harder. While its offensive stats aren't anything to write home about, Weezing does have good coverage and having Toxic Spikes to spread posion.
Tier 4 → Tier 3
Tier 4 → Tier 3
Tier 2 → Tier 1
Tier 2 → Tier 3
Tier 3 → Tier 5
Tier 5 → Tier 4
UR → Tier 5
Tier 4 → Tier 3
Tier 3 → Tier 4
Tier 3 → Tier 5
Tier 2 → Tier 3
Tier 3 → Tier 5
Tier 5 → Tier 4
--> 5 or maybe 4
2 ->3
Tier 5 → UR
Tier 4 → Tier 2
Tier 4 → Tier 5
Tier 4 → Tier 3
Tier 5 → Tier 4
Tier 4 → Tier 5
Tier 4 → Tier 3
Tier 5 → Tier 4
Tier 2 > 1
Tier 2 > 1