It's been a while since this was updated, understandable with SPL going on. I have nominations to cover. Lots of stuff here that I'll do my best to substantiate in short form so it remains readable.
Rises
Kingambit A+ -> S-/S: Sure, Gambit struggles a bit with Tusk being the best mon in the tier. That's all though. There is nothing else it struggles with. I used 5 Kingambits in my 5 SPL games and I firmly believe it is the 2nd best Pokemon in the tier behind Great Tusk. It is so, so difficult to drop it from offense teams because you just give up so much offensive & defensive utility if you don't have its ridiculous bulk & nuclear Sucker Punch, to say nothing of how silly Supreme Overlord is. Players have gotten better at finding workarounds to the Tusk problem; the good old SV OU handshake where each Tusk chips the other to 20% works fine, but we've seen stuff like Liqudation Iron Valiant, Will-O-Wisp Cinderace and Mixed Garchomp that just brings Tusk into Gambit range soooo easily. It is the most constraining thing in the builder IMO and its ranking should reflect that.
Volcarona A -> A+: As people began experimenting more with Tera types like Ground, Fairy and even Dragon, Volcarona just got better and better. It is honestly pretty broken and is more than likely banworthy, but if that doesn't happen it should be a bit higher on the VR to reflect its dominant builder presence.
Amoonguss A- -> A: Generally more effective with less Gholdengo around, but has been steadily ticking up ever since the Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu bans. Amoonguss is a great check to lots of strong mons like Garganacl, Iron Valiant, Meowscarada and Breloom, which can all be really tough to handle otherwise, and sleep is broken as always. I think it's still a bit flawed in that it can be pretty passive after it Spores something but it has a ton going for it and had an insane SPL winrate to boot. Pretty great mon overall.
Meowscarada B+ -> A+: Yes, all the way. Meowscarada is incredible. It is so versatile and effective. Knock Off is so annoying to switch into, Flower Trick is incredible STAB, its Speed tier is absolutely beautiful in this metagame filled with Roaring Moon, Cinderace, Greninja and Iron Valiant, Spikes are an enormous asset, and it can easily tech for bad matchups with stuff like Low Kick for Kingambit, Play Rough for Hydreigon and Sucker Punch for Dragapult. Lead sets are great, Overgrow pivot sets are great, CB Protean is great, Protean pivot is great. It's a super useful mon that solves so many teambuilding issues and managed to burrow its way into the top 10 most used Pokemon in SPL ahead of high-rank threats like Garganacl, Ting-Lu and Roaring Moon. It is easily one of the best Pokemon in the tier IMO and it should go to at least A, but I firmly believe in A+.
Slowking B+ -> A-: To be clear, Slowking sucks. But weather teams are really good and Slowking takes a dump on those. It has some ok defensive utility beyond that and can be a nuisance with Future Sight backed up by stuff like Meow, Tusk, Gambit. You need to be very careful when building with it bc it's insanely passive and fodder for a ton of mons, but good Slowking teams have proven themselves to be effective.
Azumarill B -> B+: Encore has breathed new life into Azu to some extent and it's got new utility on offense as a way to stave off Speed boosting Walking Wake. It still has the same issues it always had but it's nothing immovable. Overall a pretty solid mon.
Baxcalibur B -> A/A+: The rising star. Honestly one of the most broken mons in the tier. There are
far too many examples of Baxcalibur fucking the whole club up and it's not hard to see why, it's just impossible to defensively counter this thing shy of like, physdef Tera Fairy Garganacl, which still isn't even THAT good against it. I abused the hell out of this mon in SPL and encourage everyone to do the same bc good lord it is ridiculous, imo the 2nd most banworthy mon in the tier behind Volcarona.
Hydreigon B- -> A-: Super underranked mon, another rising star of the tier for sure. SubNP is really good, NP 3atks is solid, and rocks sets have proven themselves decent too. Has a lot of depth to its game thanks to its great coverage so nothing is really a safe initial pivot save for Ting-Lu. Could possibly even go to A but that's too much of a jump for now
Sandy Shocks C+ -> B/B+: Decent mon, I think it's too reliant on Tera to go much higher but it proved itself as a fine option for a variety of teams that's very tough to switch into and could stand to rise for that. Pairs really well with Walking Wake on sun to take a dump on the Storm Drainers and Slowking. I've not used it much myself so I have limited things to say but it is pretty good.
these guys D/UR -> B+: Psyterrain is real and something to be respected, and these guys (alongside Hatt) fuel it. It saw a lot of SPL use and is popular on the ladder too. The playstyle is more than a one-and-done cheese team, too, with options like Volcarona, Baxcalibur and Hawlucha all proving they can make great use of the terrain's effects. It's pretty good as far as hyper offense goes.
Salamence D -> C/C+: Experimented with this mon a bit in SPL, it's really hard to switch into and Intimidate + its typing lets it act as a great check to stuff like Great Tusk, Cinderace, Meowscarada, Breloom and situationally even Floatzel. Here's the set I used:
Salamence @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpA / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Hurricane
- Flamethrower
- Roost
Highly recommend giving it a try, the Speed/power difference it has over Dragonite alongside the physical bulk gives it a very real niche!
I'll make a followup post with stuff that should drop later on, ty for reading o7