Reasoning will only be provided for what we have deemed to be notable changes. This includes all the changes that were made in the A-ranks and above, as well as mons that were unranked, newly added to the VR, or moved by more than a single sub-rank. Further reasoning will not be provided in this post, but if you have any objections then please feel free to request more elaborate reasoning.
Rises
Milotic A -> A+: Milotic has once again taken the place of RU’s best defensive water and one of the tier’s best glue mons. In short, it is extremely splashable, provides a lot of defensive utility, and performs with great consistency. A key part of why it is so good at the moment is that it manages to serve as a decent blanket check to several huge threats, namely Reuni, Incin, DD Flygon, Chandelure, Rhyperior, etc, while at the same time not being too passive thanks to Flip Turn. Granted, it does have a bit of a 4MSS. Scald/Recover/Haze/Toxic is a momentum drain versus Celebi and Toxicroak. Scald/Recover/Haze/Flip Turn gets blocked by Heliolisk, Toxicroak, and Gastrodon (assuming Storm Drain and not Sticky Hold). Scald/Recover/Ice Beam/Flip Turn is a better answer to DD Flygon and can deal good chip to Helio, Croak, and Cele, but it is set up fodder for Reun and DemonGross. Scald/Recover/Ice Beam/Haze can sit on Reun and DemonGross, answer DD Gon consistently, and do chip to the aforementioned mons, but it does not have access to a pivot move, nor can it poison opposing defensive waters. So, it does still have issues, but it continues to see plenty of usage and success in all of the ongoing tournaments. The 4MSS really is perhaps better understood as a trade-off that you have to make decide on your team, rather than a huge flaw that it is impossible to cover for.
Incineroar A -> A+: Incin is super spashable, has plenty of defensive utility, it is great at making progress, and it performs with a consistency that is only outdone by a select few mons in this tier, namely Flygon and Crobat. Defensively, Incin fills the role of a decent fire resist, ghost resist, grass resist, and psychic immunity, while Intimidate lets it trade versus most physical attackers when in a pinch. Offensively, it is great at making progress with its STAB Knock, Blitz, SD and coverage. CC is particularly useful for opposing Incin and Guzzlord, whereas U-turn enables it to work as a pivot. Defensive sets perform noticeably worse than SD sets, partly because they struggle to make progress on their own, and partly because they are set up fodder for Reun. Nevertheless, such sets are also arguably viable, as they turn Incin into a sturdier Fire/Ghost/Grass resist and lets it slow pivot into potent breakers such as Xurkitree or Heracross.
Guzzlord B+ -> A-: Guzzlord has the particularly valuable niche of being a blanket check to
to many of our best special attackers, namely Chandelure, Celebi, Sigilyph, Reun, Heliolisk, Mowtom, and Nidoqueen, while also being able to make progress offensively with its STAB Knock. Heavy Slam also allows it to break through fairies like Togekiss, Diancie, or Weezing-G over time, while Dragon Tail lets it rack up hazard damage or force out slow boosters. Guzzlord can also run a disrupting ProTox set, or it can use Rest Talk to simply sit on fat mons, remove their items, and phase them around. Because of these qualities, Guzzlord is a splashable glue mon that performs with great consistency. It is thus deserving of a spot among the A-ranks.
Pangoro: B+ -> A-: Panda possesses a tremendous ability to wallbreak which is almost unparalleled. It therefore tends to perform well in fatter, slow paced metagames, whereas it dislikes fast paced metagames. The rise of Umbreon balance and the fall of HO was thus of great benefit to Panda. The subsequent slight decline in Umb balance hurt it a little bit, but the present metagame is nonetheless rather nice to it. The current metagame has a distinct pivot-centric character, which to some extent hurts but mainly benefits Pangoro. On the one hand, it might not love facing faster Volt-Turn builds, as it could very well be overwhelmed by their pace, chip, and power. Yet it is also advantaged by this development, as it is easy to bring it in to make progress with one of the tier’s many great pivots. Furthermore, it tends to do very well versus the slightly fatter Milotic Turn-Turn/Volt-Turn builds, as is evidenced by its success in such matchups in various RULT, RUWC, and Slam games.
Raikou B+ -> A-: Raikou suddenly rose to prominence once more during RULT and has performed decently ever since. CM sets are much better now, mainly because Gastrodon and Seismitoad are not as common as they used to be, whereas Flygon, Steelix, and Nidoqueen are our main ground types at the moment. Raikou can Scald the former for a 3HKO and potentially burn it, whereas it can 2HKO the latter two. It may also run Shadow Ball to break through Celebi.
Sigilyph B - > A-: Sigilyph was ranked too low in the last VR update and it has only grown in viability ever since. Between CM LO, CM Flame Orb Psycho Shift, 3 attacks Roost, Toxic 2 attacks Roost, and Defog it has a plethora of good sets to choose between, several of which have different defensive answers. Consequently it is often difficult to play against, forcing the opponent to either give away momentum to scout out its moves or to risk losing an important mon. It also has several useful defensive traits, such as an immunity to hazard damage, immunity to poison/burn, ground immunity, psychic resist, fighting resist, and grass resist. This lets it work as a status absorber, Scald switchin, and as a solid switchin to CM Reun and NP Cele. All of the above are extremely valuable. Practically no other offensively inclined mon can perform fill all these roles. As such, we feel that Sigi deserves to be among the A-ranks.
Tsareena B- -> A-: While Starmie has become worse as a spinner, Tsarena has improved significantly. Its main draw over Starmie is that it poses a bigger threat offensively, either as a potential sweeper or as a breaker that can make progress. The main grass resists in the tier generally hate taking a hit from one of its coverage moves. For instance, Regi, Meta, and Crobat all dislike getting knocked. Add to this that Tsareena can kill Crobat with Spin into Axel with a tiny bit of chip first, for instance after taking a Knock early in the game, and suddenly Tsar may be positioned to clean up as soon as SR go up or if Bat is unable to heal. Moreover, given its offensive prowess, it is rather difficult to spinblock. Given the above, we think that Tsar is deserving of a spot in the A-ranks.
Escavalier B- -> B+: Escav has a rare combination of qualities which is rather valuable at the moment. It provides you with lots of useful resistances as a sturdy defensive steel type, while also dealing with pesky set up psychic types such as Celebi and Reuni. But what really sets it apart from other steels is its ability to make progress. Knock is just an absurdly good move, while Megahorn does a chunk to defensive waters. It could get burned, however, so it does enjoy cleric support. Moreover, unlike Regi, Meta, or Zong, it cannot set SR and it certainly is not a good Togekiss answer. We therefore think B+ should be sufficient.
Aerodactyl C+ -> B: Aero has several unique qualities that were previously undervalued by the VR. Its speed and typing allows it to function as a switchin to Togekiss and Crobat, while also being able to break or sweep with DD. Roost is another option which lets it switch into mons like Toge, Noivern, Crobat, and Torn with greater consistency. It could for instance be used to improve the NP Toge matchup for teams that use Toxtricity as their electric or Steelix as their steel. Additionally, Aero provides a ground immunity, fire resist (albeit a shaky one), and U-Turn resist; the latter of which is particularly useful vs Flygon Volt-Turn, as Flygon cannot as freely U-Turn into the Xurk, Raikou, or Pangoro in the back. Yet Aero also has significant issues. For one, while both DD and Roost sets pose an offensive threat to more offensive builds, it struggles to make progress vs fat waters such as Milotic and Gastrodon. Aero can trade some of its longevity for more offensive power by using LO over Boots, but this means that it will be forced to Roost more often, thereby giving away the momentum. DD sets similarly have a harder time setting up and are easier to revenge if they take both SR and LO chip. Given the above, we feel that B is a proper rank for Aero.
Drops:
Sharpedo A -> A-: HO is generally not as good as it used to be. This also hurts Sharpedo, as MimiShark HO, which arguably used to be the best way to use Shark, is no longer quite as good. Shark still remains usable, particularly on Volt-Turn offense, and it can even function as a pivot itself with Flip Turn. However, the decline of HO still hurts its viability a little bit.
Umbreon A -> A-: Umbreon balance truly came to life during RULT. It has since declined ever so slightly as a result of the playerbase adapting to it, for instance by using mons such as Panda, Incin, Guzzlord, Bewear, and Lucario. Nevertheless, Umb balance still remains solid, and Umbreon is still our best cleric by far, hence why it retains a spot among the A-ranks.
Starmie A -> B+: Scarf, Specs, and LO are about as good as they were, but Spin + Teleport is not as potent anymore. This is in part because it is easy to spinblock, and partly because mons such as Heliolisk, Toxicroak, and Celebi can take advantage of it. To make up for this we have seen people forego either Teleport or Spin for Ice Beam, both of which perform decently, but not quite as well as Port + Spin used to.
Noivern A- -> B+: Same reason as last time it dropped. While Noivern in itself is a great mon which in a vacuum seems to be a rather splashable mon which performs consistently, provides useful resistances, functions as a form of speed control, and is decent at retaining momentum and pivoting into breakers, it has one big issue: it faces stiff competition from Crobat, Flygon, and Togekiss, all of which generally tend to outperform it. It is therefore far harder to fit Noivern on your team in practice, which is why it now sees much less usage and success than it used to.
Unranked mons:
Frosslass, Ribombee, and Sylveon C- -> UR: Ribombee and Sylveon should be very clear-cut cases. One could feasibly make an argument for keeping Froslass in C-, given that you do still at times see Froslass lead HO. However, suicide lead HO is not particularly good at the moment. In this Boots-infested metagame you usually get more out of using mons that are not dedicated to setting Spikes. Even MimiShark spikes offense tends to opt for other spikers, such as Heracross, Roserade, and Golisopod.
New additions:
Ninetales UR -> C: Ninetales replaces Torkoal on sun. Sun’s viability remains largely unchanged. We therefore gave it Torkoal’s old spot in the VR.
Drednaw UR -> C-: Drednaw was added because it has a small niche as a rain abuser. See this post for more details:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...ings-crown-tundra.3676023/page-6#post-9289234
-> UR
-> C or wherever kabutops goes
b- -> a
-> Being able to take care of foes that wall Eiscue such as Chandelure and Marowak-Alola is extremely important. Luckily for Eiscue, Sharpedo resists both Fire and Ghost and can OHKO both of them. It can also deal with Bronzong, which is slightly annoying (but managable) for Eiscue to deal with.
-> Due to its frailty as well as the fact that Eiscue must be at 25% to sweep, it is extremely weak to Priority moves. Indeedee's Psychic Terrain solves this issue, making Eiscue immune to priority moves and allowing it to
-> Dealing with bulky Water-types is essential, so Wood Hammer Mimikyu is a great teammate for Eiscue. On top of that, Mimikyu can take advantage of the holes Eiscue punches in teams.
A -> A+
B -> A
B -> A-
B -> A-
B+ -> A
B+ -> A-
B+ -> A-
B- -> A-
A -> A-
A- -> B+
B -> C+
(m/f):
(ghost)
) 
) 
) 
A- to A
B to A-
C to B
UR to C+
) 
) 
