Resource SV Monotype Viability Rankings

[Dead by Daylight]

To add to RealBigC's points, I don't get why Articuno is higher than Galarian Zapdos. While I do believe in Articuno, it's C-tier at best. Zapdos-Galar is a great Scarfer, and yes, while Enamorus competes with it, both of them synergize incredibly well together, since Galarian Zapdos breaks Steel-types, freeing Enamorus to drop either Mystical Fire or Earth Power. Articuno is a good choice, but not deserving of B-tier.

 

[TheRealBigC]

I agree with pretty much 90% of the tier list, however I have some problems:
Dragon:
A -> S: Uh how are supposed to switch into any fairy move without it. OH you have dragalge, well that mon sucks. Yeah, for your only fairy switchin, this thing is mandatory.

Ghost:
B -> A: I argued this before and I will argue it again, zoroark should be A-tier, in fact, I think that the entirety of ghost should be shifted upwards a bit, hence:
A -> S A -> S
I think these are self explanatory, mane is you of your few options against dark and is just an insane special attacker overall. Without it you are screwed. Pult has the speed and uses it good effect against things that can outspeed mane or are scarfed.

Poison:
B -> A: Unaware is so huge for poison as one of the things that it has some problems with is setup as your only option to threaten them is with haze pex. When your team is highly defense, only one option against setup is not enough, hence I feel clod should be higher. Plus, clod and pex complement each other perfectly

Steel:
this is going to be a hot take:
C -> B: Steel is playing more offensive this gen but spike stack + protect spam is still degenerate and surprisingly good. Orthorm is a key component to that. It blocks gravity, which is a traditional weakness to spike stacking teams.

Haven't played with Ground a lot so can't really comment on that, but as for the others I'm gonna have to disagree, although I can see where you're coming from:

Yes, it's your only switch in against Fairy moves, but it still has a neutrality instead of a resist or immunity, so it can't really eat a lot of STAB Moonblasts across a whole game. This is especially true if your opponent gets Spikes up. It's certainly one of Dragon's most important mons, but ultimately I feel the lack of good reliable recovery outside of Rest (which has many drawbacks) holds it back from S.

These two, while obviously fantastic, are simply not on the same power level as Spectrier, which can easily clean out whole teams due to Grim Neigh. Saying Flutter Mane is good against Dark is a bit inaccurate considering its vulnerability to STAB Sucker Punch or from Scarf Meowscarda or Samurott-Hisui if it's not running a Scarf itself; it can easily pick up KOs, but is easily forced out and revenge killed. Overall, post-HOME a lot of types can answer Flutter Mane a lot more reliably, so I think the drop is justified. Dragapult has a lot of utility and different sets it can run, but ultimately it's just not on the same raw power level as Spectrier.

Given the aforementioned analysis of Flutter Mane and Dragapult as A rank mons, it should be pretty obvious Zoroark-H is simply not on the same level despite its clear utility.

Klefki is a far superior Spikes setter for Steel due to its typing, access to Prankster and additional utility in setting Screens. Orthworm acting as an answer to Gravity is not only pretty niche, but also not particularly reliable considering Sandy Shocks can easily 2HKO Orthworm with Tbolt or simply just pivot on it with Volt Switch; meanwhile, Orthworm itself doesn't really do much to threaten it in return.

 

[yedla]

1)(Flying) How come Articuno is as high as B? Is STAB Freeze-Dry really that good? This isn't me trying to disagree with the ranking to clarify, it's a mon I haven't really seen much of so genuinely curious

Not a big fan of Articuno but if i had to make a quick answer.
MPL have a lot of influence on this prs and if we take the usage:
1.Fly
2.Water
3.Dark

Articuno is really good against those types i think it's obvious for fly and water. Dark have Chien Pao and Greninja, Corviknight have a hard time to come on these two Pokemon. If you want a defensive check to gren, Articuno is a good option with freeze dry and u-turn.
Even if Flying have other option Articuno have a good mu vs top types .

 

[wkxkevin]

Haven't played with Ground a lot so can't really comment on that, but as for the others I'm gonna have to disagree, although I can see where you're coming from:

Yes, it's your only switch in against Fairy moves, but it still has a neutrality instead of a resist or immunity, so it can't really eat a lot of STAB Moonblasts across a whole game. This is especially true if your opponent gets Spikes up. It's certainly one of Dragon's most important mons, but ultimately I feel the lack of good reliable recovery outside of Rest (which has many drawbacks) holds it back from S.

These two, while obviously fantastic, are simply not on the same power level as Spectrier, which can easily clean out whole teams due to Grim Neigh. Saying Flutter Mane is good against Dark is a bit inaccurate considering its vulnerability to STAB Sucker Punch or from Scarf Meowscarda or Samurott-Hisui if it's not running a Scarf itself; it can easily pick up KOs, but is easily forced out and revenge killed. Overall, post-HOME a lot of types can answer Flutter Mane a lot more reliably, so I think the drop is justified. Dragapult has a lot of utility and different sets it can run, but ultimately it's just not on the same raw power level as Spectrier.

Given the aforementioned analysis of Flutter Mane and Dragapult as A rank mons, it should be pretty obvious Zoroark-H is simply not on the same level despite its clear utility.

Klefki is a far superior Spikes setter for Steel due to its typing, access to Prankster and additional utility in setting Screens. Orthworm acting as an answer to Gravity is not only pretty niche, but also not particularly reliable considering Sandy Shocks can easily 2HKO Orthworm with Tbolt or simply just pivot on it with Volt Switch; meanwhile, Orthworm itself doesn't really do much to threaten it in return.

Orthworm is a hot take so I'm fine with the criticism, I just have a lot of fun with it. Hoodra I can sort of see, but I feel that even though that is true, I can't see a dragon team without it be viable.

As for the ghost ones I can get the point, however my issue it that if that's the case the tier list needs to be shifted down. Personally, I would say that putting mimikyu, dengo, and dirge in the same tier as mane and pult is a bit silly. I can forgive dengo and dirge because those are genuinely important, but I just cannot see the mimi. It does have access to shadow sneak and disguise but the problem is that mimi's viability lies within having the disguise unbroken. With a type as frail as ghost, that's very hard to do. IMO if spec stays in its own tier I have the following proposal:
mimikyu A -> B
ceruledge B -> C

 

[pikachu<3]

Some initial ranking nominations after looking at the rankings:

Rock:

A-> S

This should be on every rock team; has multiple viable sets and sets the ever-helpful sand. How is this not S?

A -> S

Rock's best special attacker; has great coverage options and supports the team with Toxic Spikes via its ability; in addition, can run spikes and/or hazard removal if the team needs it; absorbing toxic spikes is nice bonus as well. As a bonus, it's also a decent scarfer on a type strapped for speed control in general. Should be on every rock team.

S-> A

This is not mandatory on rock. Teams with TTar + lycanroc, for example, often cut garganacl due to lack of space. I feel less strongly about this than the TTar and Glimmora nominations, but if TTar or Glimmora aren't S this definitely shouldn't be.

C -> A

This is the best ground immunity for rock (with a air balloon). It deserves a much higher rank than C.

Normal:
A -> S

Cyclizar should be on every normal team. It can run removal with Spin, can run a choice item if the team needs a choiced attacker, and Shed Tail support is always welcome. What normal team isn't running this?

Bug:
A -> S

Again--what bug team isn't running this?

 

[pikachu<3]

Just laddered a bit with psychic for the core challenge, time to put in a few nominations:

Psychic:

B -> S/A

Although this mon is technically not mandatory due to there being other Ghost immunities available (namely, Meloetta), this really deserves at least A and strong consideration for S. This is on 95% of psychic teams for good reason; it's a necessary part of PsyTerrain teams (A major playstyle on this type), and even ignoring those, Psychic terrain's utility in easing revenge killing threats such as Kingambit, Mimikyu, and Azumarill is really nice. In addition, this mon is good standalone, being able to run both Specs and Scarf effectively, and it even has nice utility options such as Trick and Healing Wish. B rank is massively underselling this mon and its importance to the type.

B -> C

How the mighty have fallen. Slowbro lost Teleport and Scald with the transition to gen9. This normally wouldn't be enough to justify a C ranking on this own, but bring a momentum sink for psychic is really dire this gen; losing momentum with this type generally means sacking a mon or worse due to several dangerous threats such as Volcarona, Ceaseless Edge Samurott, Gholdengo, Spectier, and Kingambit, many of which can even setup on defensive mons like Slowbro and sweep the Psychic team or make problems for the Psychic team by setting spikes while getting a kill. In addition, it doesn't scout banded earthquakes (from things like Sand rush Excadrill last gen) effectively becuase psychic no longer has a splashable ground immunity, reducing this mon's value as a regenerator pivot. Overall, defensive pivots without a momentum move are really hard to justify when using a type like this; as psychic currently stands, slowking is more viable than slowbro due to chilly reception alone and that is already in stuck in C. This might deserve a D ranking if we're honest, but possible builds with Slowbro need to be explored more first before coming to that conclusion.

B -> C

Everything written about slowbro above also applies to Glowking; the AV set suffers from the exact same problems. However, it is capable of running HDB with Chilly reception and does absorb Toxic spikes, so there is some hope for this mon to make a comeback.

B -> C

Used this mon during the core challenge and was not impressed. Iron Leaves' main selling points are the speed, water resistance, and grass STAB. That is where the good points end.

Swords dance sets get revenge killed by too many threats (flutter, pult, any fast mon with uturn or first impression, etc) and suffer from four moveslot syndrome (needs Leaf blade + CC; without night slash you lose to Gholdengo, without Psyblade you lose to toxapex/amoonguss/sneasler/Volcarona/Tauros/etc). I would not recommend using a swords dance set.

Scarf sets hit a fantastic speed tier but lack power; outspeeding +1 Volcarona is nice but you don't KO even with terrain support (252 Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona in Psychic Terrain: 241-285 (77.4 - 91.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO) and honestly even has problems killing frail targets like Flutter Mane without support (252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 237-280 (94.4 - 111.5%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO), and also doesn't kill many important targets you'd really like to kill (252 Atk Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spectrier: 232-274 (68 - 80.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery, 252 Atk Iron Leaves Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 248-294 (64.2 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery, 252 Atk Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 194-230 (61.1 - 72.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO). In addition, as good as the speed tier is it still gets outsped by +2 cloyster and Polteageist, so you'll need another answer to these if you don't want to lose to them. Overall while the scarf set is useable it has many flaws and needs a lot of support to shine.

C -> D
If I'm looking for a mono psychic with Calm mind and stored power with Fairy coverage, I'm using a certain oversized turkey before ever touching this thing. Not nominating to UR because Trick room + lunar dance is cool, but that playstyle is really niche and doesn't justify a C ranking.

Also, lastly:

Grass:


C -> UR: Watching Arch play over 180 games on his alt and fail to make bronze has convinced me this is unviable. Does nothing that grass really needs while taking up a valuable teamslot. In architect's words, using this is like playing 5v6. Grassy terrian is nowhere near valuable enough to justify using this; please unrank.

 

[TheRealBigC]

Just laddered a bit with psychic for the core challenge, time to put in a few nominations:

Psychic:

B -> S/A

Although this mon is technically not mandatory due to there being other Ghost immunities available (namely, Meloetta), this really deserves at least A and strong consideration for S. This is on 95% of psychic teams for good reason; it's a necessary part of PsyTerrain teams (A major playstyle on this type), and even ignoring those, Psychic terrain's utility in easing revenge killing threats such as Kingambit, Mimikyu, and Azumarill is really nice. In addition, this mon is good standalone, being able to run both Specs and Scarf effectively, and it even has nice utility options such as Trick and Healing Wish. B rank is massively underselling this mon and its importance to the type.

B -> C

How the mighty have fallen. Slowbro lost Teleport and Scald with the transition to gen9. This normally wouldn't be enough to justify a C ranking on this own, but bring a momentum sink for psychic is really dire this gen; losing momentum with this type generally means sacking a mon or worse due to several dangerous threats such as Volcarona, Ceaseless Edge Samurott, Gholdengo, Spectier, and Kingambit, many of which can even setup on defensive mons like Slowbro and sweep the Psychic team or make problems for the Psychic team by setting spikes while getting a kill. In addition, it doesn't scout banded earthquakes (from things like Sand rush Excadrill last gen) effectively becuase psychic no longer has a splashable ground immunity, reducing this mon's value as a regenerator pivot. Overall, defensive pivots without a momentum move are really hard to justify when using a type like this; as psychic currently stands, slowking is more viable than slowbro due to chilly reception alone and that is already in stuck in C. This might deserve a D ranking if we're honest, but possible builds with Slowbro need to be explored more first before coming to that conclusion.

B -> C

Everything written about slowbro above also applies to Glowking; the AV set suffers from the exact same problems. However, it is capable of running HDB with Chilly reception and does absorb Toxic spikes, so there is some hope for this mon to make a comeback.

B -> C

Used this mon during the core challenge and was not impressed. Iron Leaves' main selling points are the speed, water resistance, and grass STAB. That is where the good points end.

Swords dance sets get revenge killed by too many threats (flutter, pult, any fast mon with uturn or first impression, etc) and suffer from four moveslot syndrome (needs Leaf blade + CC; without night slash you lose to Gholdengo, without Psyblade you lose to toxapex/amoonguss/sneasler/Volcarona/Tauros/etc). I would not recommend using a swords dance set.

Scarf sets hit a fantastic speed tier but lack power; outspeeding +1 Volcarona is nice but you don't KO even with terrain support (252 Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona in Psychic Terrain: 241-285 (77.4 - 91.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO) and honestly even has problems killing frail targets like Flutter Mane without support (252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Flutter Mane: 237-280 (94.4 - 111.5%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO), and also doesn't kill many important targets you'd really like to kill (252 Atk Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spectrier: 232-274 (68 - 80.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery, 252 Atk Iron Leaves Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 248-294 (64.2 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery, 252 Atk Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 194-230 (61.1 - 72.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO). In addition, as good as the speed tier is it still gets outsped by +2 cloyster and Polteageist, so you'll need another answer to these if you don't want to lose to them. Overall while the scarf set is useable it has many flaws and needs a lot of support to shine.

C -> D
If I'm looking for a mono psychic with Calm mind and stored power with Fairy coverage, I'm using a certain oversized turkey before ever touching this thing. Not nominating to UR because Trick room + lunar dance is cool, but that playstyle is really niche and doesn't justify a C ranking.

Also, lastly:

Grass:


C -> UR: Watching Arch play over 180 games on his alt and fail to make bronze has convinced me this is unviable. Does nothing that grass really needs while taking up a valuable teamslot. In architect's words, using this is like playing 5v6. Grassy terrian is nowhere near valuable enough to justify using this; please unrank.

Agree with pretty much all of these proposed changes, but just wanted to comment that with regard to Scarf Iron Leaves' power issues, I found running an Adamant nature over Jolly to be much more successful. Compared to Jolly, you don't really miss out on outspeeding too many things besides +1 Volc, Zapdos-G, Staraptor and Urshifu-R, and the rise in power is very noticeable. The aforementioned Flutter Mane calc becomes a guaranteed OHKO with Adamant, and you can do things like 2HKO Sp Def Corv with Wild Charge (252+ Atk Iron Leaves Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Corviknight: 206-244 (51.6 - 61.1%) -- 94.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery). I have to say I abandoned the Psychic CLC fairly early on because it felt like every other match on the ladder was against Dark, but I found it to be a fairly decent late-game cleaner, being particularly useful against Water, and Psyblade hitting really quite strong against neutral targets under Psychic Terrain with an Adamant nature (e.g., 252+ Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spectrier in Psychic Terrain: 282-333 (82.6 - 97.6%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock; 252+ Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult in Psychic Terrain: 237-280 (74.7 - 88.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes). I do think Gallade is generally much better as a Scarfer on Psychic which is why I don't contest Iron Leaves dropping, but maybe give it another look using Adamant Scarf.

 

[pikachu<3]

Agree with pretty much all of these proposed changes, but just wanted to comment that with regard to Scarf Iron Leaves' power issues, I found running an Adamant nature over Jolly to be much more successful. Compared to Jolly, you don't really miss out on outspeeding too many things besides +1 Volc, Zapdos-G, Staraptor and Urshifu-R, and the rise in power is very noticeable. The aforementioned Flutter Mane calc becomes a guaranteed OHKO with Adamant, and you can do things like 2HKO Sp Def Corv with Wild Charge (252+ Atk Iron Leaves Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Corviknight: 206-244 (51.6 - 61.1%) -- 94.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery). I have to say I abandoned the Psychic CLC fairly early on because it felt like every other match on the ladder was against Dark, but I found it to be a fairly decent late-game cleaner, being particularly useful against Water, and Psyblade hitting really quite strong against neutral targets under Psychic Terrain with an Adamant nature (e.g., 252+ Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spectrier in Psychic Terrain: 282-333 (82.6 - 97.6%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock; 252+ Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult in Psychic Terrain: 237-280 (74.7 - 88.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes). I do think Gallade is generally much better as a Scarfer on Psychic which is why I don't contest Iron Leaves dropping, but maybe give it another look using Adamant Scarf.

Hi, thanks for the reply and support!

Unfortunately, running an Adamant Nature costs more than just +1 Volc, Zapdos-G, Staraptor and Urshifu-R-- you also get outsped by Scarf Thundy-T, Scarf Hydregion, Scarf Lando-I, Scarf Lando-T, Scarf Garchomp, and Modest Specs Regieleki. Overall I'd say the speed is the main selling point of this mon, and it's better off to accept the power issues as part of the mon to be solved with teambuilding; a core such as Scarf Leaves + Scarf Hoopa-U, for example, could work despite the double x4 bug weakness.

Also have a general comment on the Fire rankings: These rankings don't seem very useful to new players as fire has 2 very different playstyles (sun and sunless), so it's not entirely clear if a mon is at a certain rank because it's good on sun teams or sunless teams. Maybe split the VR in half to accommodate the 2 styles? IDK food for thought.

Anyways, some ranking updates for Fire:

A-> S:

I believe this requires no explanation; Sun is the main playstyle of most Fire teams and Torkal offers both Sun and hazard control, while not being a momentum sink thanks to Yawn. Not mandatory as Sunless is viable, but nothing on Fire is so that's fine.

S -> A:

On sunless squads, this has a hard time doing its main job (setting up QD and sweeping water/ground with giga) due to its water weakness; on sun teams, it faces competition from Scovillan who also provides Fire/Grass coverage on a faster speed tier, and even Iron moth who absorbs Toxic Spikes. As a whole, this mon also tends to get walled by every single dragon type in the tier, and dragons are pretty common atm. The wisp/morningsun monofire coverage is cool for beating flying but is nowhere near S rank worthy. Overall I believe A rank is a better estimation of this mon's capabilities.

A -> B:

This mon is unviable without sun support, and even with sun support it faces competition from other users of Fire/grass coverage such as Volcarona and Iron Moth. I know this didn't see anywhere near 100% usage on Fire even pre-home where every Fire build ran Torkoal, so it definitely should drop considering there is much more competition for a team slot.

A -> S:

I hate this mon and I hate myself for nominating this to S, but it's really useful on all fire teams. The Dragon resist is always appreciated, and it provides Stealth rock to Sunless squads (making it near-mandatory on such squads) while also being a nice sun abuser with Magma Storm. In addition, it wins the poison matchup which is always nice.

 

[TheRealBigC]

Unfortunately, running an Adamant Nature costs more than just +1 Volc, Zapdos-G, Staraptor and Urshifu-R-- you also get outsped by Scarf Thundy-T, Scarf Hydregion, Scarf Lando-I, Scarf Lando-T, Scarf Garchomp, and Modest Specs Regieleki. Overall I'd say the speed is the main selling point of this mon, and it's better off to accept the power issues as part of the mon to be solved with teambuilding; a core such as Scarf Leaves + Scarf Hoopa-U, for example, could work despite the double x4 bug weakness.

Forgot to reply to this yesterday but of these Scarfers you've listed, I've only seen Scarf Lando-T and Scarf Chomp used with any degree of frequency. Iron Leaves isn't exactly a good answer to them even if it outspeeds them (only 3HKOs Lando-T after Intimidate and gets U-Turned on; 3HKOs Chomp and hurts itself against Rough Skin), so I don't think these examples are particularly relevant. Timid Regieleki is standard these days to outspeed Scarf Valiant also. I think the only mons Adamant Scarf Iron Leaves misses outspeeding are the ones I mentioned in my original post (+1 Volc, Zapdos-G, Staraptor and Urshifu-R), but overall I think the trade-off for the extra power is worth it. I personally wouldn't run double Scarf on Psychic because none of its Scarf options are particularly great (Hoopa-U is outsped by pretty much every other common Scarfer and gives up a lot of raw power to run Scarf over Band), and you have Espathra and Armarouge for extra speed control if needed, but to each their own.

 

[zebbygene]

NR -> B:
Scyther has always been a good pokemon because of its 105 speed and 110 attack, access to technician, and an overall good lead, with stab technician aerial ace taking out the main threat type, fighting, and dealing with other bugs or grass, close combat killing its main weakness of rock, scarfed scyther outspeeds most anything, banded scyther can guarantee an ohko against most pokemon, and access to other moves like x-scissor, u-turn, and trailblaze, it can quickly become a great starting lead.

 

[wkxkevin]

View attachment 541436NR -> B:
Scyther has always been a good pokemon because of its 105 speed and 110 attack, access to technician, and an overall good lead, with stab technician aerial ace taking out the main threat type, fighting, and dealing with other bugs or grass, close combat killing its main weakness of rock, scarfed scyther outspeeds most anything, banded scyther can guarantee an ohko against most pokemon, and access to other moves like x-scissor, u-turn, and trailblaze, it can quickly become a great starting lead.

I don't think band is a good option at all. You are 4x weak to rocks so unless you run eviolite, HDB is mandatory. With HDB you do nowhere near enough damage to justify it over other bugs. Hence, I agree with the NR.

 

[pikachu<3]

Forgot to reply to this yesterday but of these Scarfers you've listed, I've only seen Scarf Lando-T and Scarf Chomp used with any degree of frequency. Iron Leaves isn't exactly a good answer to them even if it outspeeds them (only 3HKOs Lando-T after Intimidate and gets U-Turned on; 3HKOs Chomp and hurts itself against Rough Skin), so I don't think these examples are particularly relevant. Timid Regieleki is standard these days to outspeed Scarf Valiant also. I think the only mons Adamant Scarf Iron Leaves misses outspeeding are the ones I mentioned in my original post (+1 Volc, Zapdos-G, Staraptor and Urshifu-R), but overall I think the trade-off for the extra power is worth it. I personally wouldn't run double Scarf on Psychic because none of its Scarf options are particularly great (Hoopa-U is outsped by pretty much every other common Scarfer and gives up a lot of raw power to run Scarf over Band), and you have Espathra and Armarouge for extra speed control if needed, but to each their own.

Sorry for being a bit late to reply to this, was busy doing the weekly core challenge

Anyways-- Even if the 1v1 matchup isn't good, its still good to outspeed these threats as during mid/late game a lot of mons aren't at 100%, so just because the mu isnt good initially, its still nice to be able to clean them when they are weakened instead of being forced out. Outspeeding these also limits how often these mons are able to switch into you--this is particularly relevant with scarf lando-T and scarfChomp since ground might want to switch into iron leaves's leaf blade multiple times in a game. Also i have seen scarf lando-I seen plenty of use on ground to help beat fighting, so it's reasonably common. I also don't find the adamant calcs that alluring as they require terrain to be up, and if I'm abusing terrain I want a much better abuser than iron leaves.

I don't think band is a good option at all. You are 4x weak to rocks so unless you run eviolite, HDB is mandatory. With HDB you do nowhere near enough damage to justify it over other bugs. Hence, I agree with the NR.

While I'm not sure if Scyther deserves a rank myself as I haven't used it at all, this seems a bit harsh on Scyther. IMO posts like these are the reason why people think smogon isn't receptive to new ideas. Would you have reacted the same way if someone like Mushamu was making the nomination?

The first thing that pops out when looking at Scyther is its speed. Base 105 is not just fast--it is the fastest bug allowed in the format. For context, the second fastest is Volcarona at base 100, and the third fastest is Loxix at base 92, and the 4th is Venomoth at base 90. The speed stat means Scyther can do things no other bug can do. For example, it is the only Scarfer that can outspeed opposing Offensive Volcarona and KO:

252 Atk Technician Scyther Aerial Ace vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Volcarona: 372-438 (119.6 - 140.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Technician Scyther Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Volcarona: 372-438 (99.4 - 117.1%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
(note that offensive volcarona outspeeds and OHKOs kleavor at +1: +1 252 SpA Volcarona Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kleavor: 303-357 (107.8 - 127%) -- guaranteed OHKO)

and it also outspeeds scarf Arcanine (base 90) deals massive damage:

252 Atk Scyther Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Arcanine-Hisui: 282-332 (85.1 - 100.3%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

In addition, it naturally outspeeds Urshifu-Rapid-Strike (base 97) and deals massive damage.

252 Atk Technician Scyther Aerial Ace vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 264-312 (77.4 - 91.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (note that SD urshifu with punching gloves can easily 6-0 bug with jet for volcarona + kleavor)

Note that all of the above mons are massive threats to bug that natrually outspeed the vast majority of the type.

I'm not sure if Scyther should be ranked because there are massive liabilities to running a scarfer 4x weak to Stealth rock (not to mention Scyther's limited offensive movepool), and you might be better off running webs to mitigate speed issues instead. However, to say that Scyther has nothing to offer bug is a clear exaggeration imo.

Anyways. Time for some noms of my own:

Poison:

D->C

Used this mon during my core challenge run and was pleasently surprised. A ground immunity is always nice, and it's almost never deadweight because it can spread burns and set Toxic spikes, and has a excellent defensive typing. This is too consistent for a D rank mon and should be ranked higher.

Normal:

B -> C
Used this mon during the core challenge run and was not impressed. It's way too inconsistent; almost every type has a built in check (garchomp, flutter, flame body heatran/moltres, band scizor, band dnite, sableye, flutter mane, bpress goodra, static zapdos), and even ignoring this there are a ton of helmets in the format (helmet pex, corviknight, fortress, quagsire, etc). Needs a ton of support to do reliably do anything IMO and even then its fairly inconsistent.

C -> A
It's a ground immunity that also provides defog support and a slow pivot; this makes it super splashable on every normal team. It's actually kind of hard to justify keeping this off a 6 mon normal squad.