Resource SV RU Viability Rankings

[GoldCat]

Scarlet and Violet RU Viability Rankings

Welcome to the SV RU Viability Rankings Thread! Here, we as a community we will rank every viable Pokemon in rankings. Keep in mind that this thread is simply a reference list and should not be treated as anything more than that. Pokemon are arranged alphabetically within subranks. When posting about a drop/rise, especially for unranked Pokemon, remember to talk about how they actually got worst/better, and include replays to support your nomination.

Viability Thread Rules

• Don't discuss anything in the blacklist (D Rank).
• Avoid one liners and flesh out your post, but remain concise. This helps further the discussion and gives your post more credibility.
• Do not derail the thread by asking "why did this move up/down". This is a discussion thread and posts like this don't add to the discussion. If you disagree about X Pokemon's placement, nominate it to move up/down. Similarly, do not derail the thread with other simple questions.
• Should you want to nominate an unranked Pokemon, it will only be ranked if you have at least 3 replays showing the Pokemon being used successfully vs good teams and it must have a distinguishable niche seen in these replays.
• If something didn't move up in the prior update, don't keep nominating it again and again unless a significant metagame shift occurs.
• This thread has nothing to do with tiering. Remain civil when posting in this thread.

The Viability Rankings team comprises of:

• Ampha
• Beraldinho
• cyanize
• C0nfiden1 0yster
• eifo
• EviGaro
• Feliburn
• GoldCat (host)
• gorex
• ishtar
• Mac3
• TheFranklin
• Yourwelcomethanku

Without further ado, here are the rankings!

New Drops
None!

S Rank

Krookodile

Tauros-Aqua

A+ Rank

Delphox

Killowattrel

Mudsdale

Revavroom

A Rank

Barraskewda

Bronzong

Grafaiai

Klefki

Oricorio

Oricorio-Sensu

Salazzle

Tornadus

Weavile

A- Rank

Bellibolt

Brambleghast

Brute Bonnet

Copperajah

Dragalge

Florges

Heracross

Inteleon

Mismagius

Passimian

Rotom-Mow

Sylveon

Tauros-Blaze

Toxicroak

Vaporeon

B+ Rank

Abomasnow

Altaria

Arcanine

Bruxish

Cloyster

Goodra

Naclstack

Orthworm

Primeape

Qwilfish

Tatsugiri

Toedscruel

Tsareena

Umbreon

Zoroark

B Rank

Blissey

Bombirdier

Cetitan

Coalossal

Cryogonal

Ditto

Floatzel

Hoopa

Iron Thorns

Mesprit

Samurott

Scyther

Sneasel-Hisui

Venomoth

B- Rank

Appletun

Arboliva

Articuno

Golduck

Grimmsnarl

Houndoom

Lycanroc

Palossand

Qwilfish-Hisui

Rotom

Sableye

Sandaconda

Whiscash

C+ Rank

Avalugg

Braviary

Dudunsparce

Eelektross

Froslass

Frosmoth

Houndstone

Jolteon

Magneton

Medicham

C Rank

Charizard

Hattrem

Lilligant

Typhlosion

Vespiquen

D Rank

Avalugg-Hisui

Changelog
010323 - Initial VR
020323 - Espeon is removed after it rose to UU in the tier shift. Barraskewda, Floatzel, Kilowattrel, and Tauros-Paldea-Aqua are temporarily added to the "New Drop" section after they dropped from UU in the tier shift.
120323 - Hariyama is removed after it got banned via council vote
230323 - VR Update detailed in the following post (click)
010423 - Alomomola, Rotom-Heat, Tauros-Paldea-Aqua, and Tauros-Paldea-Blaze were removed after they rose to UU in the tier shift. Brute Bonnet and Indeedee-M are temporarily added to the "New Drop" section after they dropped from UU in the tier shift.
240423 - Flamigo is removed after it got banned via the recent suspect test.
010523 - VR Update detailed in the following post (click). Floatzel, Kilowattrel, and Slowbro were removed after they rose to UU in the tier shift. Grafaiai and Iron Thorns are temporarily added in the "New Drop" section after they dropped from UU in the tier shift.
150523 - Oricorio-Pom-Pom is removed after it got banned via the recent suspect test.
240623 - VR Update detailed in the following post (click).
010723 - Avalugg-Hisui, Delphox, and Houndstone are temporarily added to the "New Drop" section after they dropped from OU in the tier shift.
200723 - VR Update detailed in the following post (click).

 

[GoldCat]

reserved just in case

 

[N ™]

I honestly think cetitan is a bit underrated: sure, being weak to many of the tier's top mons isn't great, but it's threat level under snow can't be overstated.

With slush rush active, it easily outspeeds the whole tier and thanks to that huge hp stat and snow's defense buff it's also really difficult to ko, even when hitting it super effectively, and on the offensive it's just a menace, boasting a great attack stat in conjunction with a deep movepool, including ice spinner for solid, reliable stab, icicle crash for a bit less reliability and a bit more cheese with that 30% flinch chance, earthquake and liquidation to hit fire, rock and steel types and ice shard for valuable priority. It's even a decent user of tera blast, having the potential to win games outright with a well timed terastalization, with viable tera types being all of rock, flying, electric, ground, water and to an extent ghost, or having the option of running tera ice for that extra wall breaking capability on its ice stab.

All of choice band, life orb, assault Vest and leftovers I believe to be viable sets, as well as a more gimmicky yet still very threatening belly drum set with a sitrus berry, which is not even that hard to pull off especially with screen support from abomasnow, which you would be running anyway to get up snow, and rapid spin support from the likes of cryogonal or avalugg, natural fits on snow teams, or tatsugiri, if stacking up on those ice types isn't a risk worth taking for you.

In conclusion, cetitan certainly feels way less used to me than it deserves to be, and that B+ ranking, while still totally respectable, is just a bit short of what I would expect it to be, maybe an A- or even A.

 

[658Greninja]

seeing Whiscash find a niche in a tier brings a smile to my face

 

[SentSawTooMuch]

What does

View attachment 495942
seeing Whiscash find a niche in a tier brings a smile to my face

What does this thing do? I've seen it in NU as a rocker thanks to oblivious but not over here

 

[JoeMama]

Hello and cheers for the VR, just wondering what makes Mareanie C? With toxapex being considered passive in OU I can't see this being worth using. Also what puts Bronzong at B+ considering it lost access to toxic and doesn't have much in the way of reliable recovery/ utility. Would love to hear thoughts!

 

[Darristan]

What makes Hariyama so viable in this tier? Knock off? Belly Drum?

 

[Oathkeeper]

What makes Hariyama so viable in this tier? Knock off? Belly Drum?

This question is probably better suited for this thread. But in short, yes. Knock Off is nice for it, Belly Drum can be even better once it uses Tera Steel and hits things with +6 Bullet Punches.

 

[Sneakyplanner]

What does

What does this thing do? I've seen it in NU as a rocker thanks to oblivious but not over here

It's a pretty good hazard setter in RU too for the exact same reason. It also has a typing that lets it counter rotom-heat, which is otherwise very hard to switch into.

 

[GoldCat]

Hello and cheers for the VR, just wondering what makes Mareanie C? With toxapex being considered passive in OU I can't see this being worth using. Also what puts Bronzong at B+ considering it lost access to toxic and doesn't have much in the way of reliable recovery/ utility. Would love to hear thoughts!

Mareanie is a niche pick mainly used on stall teams. It has all of Toxapex's tools and Infestation + Toxic makes it less passive than it first seems in a tier without much recovery. It's very much still a bad Pokemon with its low HP and it barely got ranked but Mac3's stall team has shown that Mareanie got at least a resemblance of a niche in RU.

 

[JoeMama]

Mareanie is a niche pick mainly used on stall teams. It has all of Toxapex's tools and Infestation + Toxic makes it less passive than it first seems in a tier without much recovery. It's very much still a bad Pokemon with its low HP and it barely got ranked but Mac3's stall team has shown that Mareanie got at least a resemblance of a niche in RU.

Alrighty then cheers

 

[hotdog.png]

What is the niche of using in RU?

 

[N ™]

What is the niche of using in RU?

It gets rapid spin, u turn, sucker punch... Overall just a great movepool with good attack, decent bulk and most importantly immunity to status, which is valuable against tauros's will-o'-wisp, numerous twaves and salazle's toxic (I may be forgetting some)

 

[hotdog.png]

It gets rapid spin, u turn, sucker punch... Overall just a great movepool with good attack, decent bulk and most importantly immunity to status, which is valuable against tauros's will-o'-wisp, numerous twaves and salazle's toxic (I may be forgetting some)

Cool. It’s nice to know it’s one of the mon which got better in Gen 9 than in previous Gens, where Komala wasn’t so lucky.

 

[Yourwelcomethanku]

Sandcaconda should be ranked much more highly than what it currently is, I think about B rank is appropriate. A significant advantage of Sandaconda over other Ground-types is Shed Skin. Ground-types don't like Revavroom's Toxic but Sandaconda can shrug it off with Shed Skin and Rest. With Coil and Terastallization it is an alright win condition with Coil too. Here're some replays below of Sandaconda. It's worth noting Sandaconda wasn't critical to victory in either game, I probably won without it, but it did win both games. I feel like Revavroom being a common Haze user is something in Sandaconda's favour. I heard people talking about Glare Sandaconda and I have seen it, it's probably good but I lack experience with it.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-1814268413-swa8xbo3d9uqskxav6l3lafmt3701bfpw Even if this replay isn't the best quality, I hope you can see how Sandaconda has a strong matchup. For the opponent to best deal with Sandaconda, they would have had to have saved their Terastallization for Revavroom (assuming it's Grass like in the sample team). But if they do that, there's no Toxic immunity for Revavroom.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-1814756266

 

[Fabi_ODST]

I've been messing with rain since the new drops, so I want to give my opinions on some of the new mons:

ND --> A

This mon's a Wave crash spamming monster, dropping most unresisted/immune mons in one hit. It also fills a valuable niche in rain as a Garde check when given a choice scarf, given that you can run adamant scarf while still being faster than base 100 mons by 1 point (you only miss Mismagius in terms of relevant scarfers). I'ts mainly hold back by its pitiful bulk and the fact it kills itself when dropping mons, specially high HP ones like bellibolt, mudsdale and blissey. Still, you can't go wrong with this mon if you want a breaker or a cleaner.

ND --> A-

This mon surprised me in terms of how versatile it feels. Outside the obvious rain abuser niche, it's also a really nice pivot with HDB, volt absorb and roost. It also gives offense teams a good bellibolt switch in, straight up shutting down soak variants. Currently we don't have many defogers, so there's not much reason to use Competitive, but that could change with future drops (also PLS don't use wind power ;-;). The main issues holding it back are its bulk when uninvested and the dreadful choice of power vs consistency move-wise when not running it in rain.

ND --> B+/A-

Unlike its fire counterpart, this tauros feels much more offense oriented, sacrificing the utility of WoW for priority in aqua jet. I've not used this mon outside of rain, but in rain it hits like a TRUCK when equipped with a choice band, with even slowbro being a close 2HKO with tera water and rain. Base 100 speed is also really nice in this metagame, where most offensive mons live between base 90 and 100 speed. The lack of versatility still inclines me towards a lower ranking compared to the other tauros, but I'm still not sure how much lower.

 

[Sneakyplanner]

My post-rult VR thoughts:

New drops

to A
Kilo is good, very good. It's the best out of the rain squad in my opinion since it is also a unique pivot and volt immune. It hits hard, it can serve as a volt immune and is very hard to exploit. Its greatest flaw is that despite its good defensive typing and volt absorb it still doesn't take hits too well. But when played well, this thing feels impossible to deal with.

to A
Tauros-water feels very in-line with tauros-fire. It's better in some ways and worse in others. Banded sets really benefit from aqua jet while bulk up sets generally like fire's typing more. Water has a slight edge on scarf sets due to beating the grounds very handily. Both have a very serious Slowbro problem which needs to be accounted for in the builder, but there are a few pokemon that can really exploit slowbro being the only consistent switch in.

to B+ and to A-

I feel like these two are pretty interchangeable. Floatzel has slightly higher main damage thanks to wave crash but Barraskewda has a good chance to 2hko Slowbro with crunch while Floatzel can't. It's tough to rank them, I think that you only need one on a rain team, with Tauros being a better second rain breaker than the one you don't choose. I really don't know which order to put them in and where the lower one should go, but I think that since Slowbro is the single greatest block to rain teams, having a slim hope of breaking past it puts Barraskewda slightly over Floatzel. Overall, rain is strong and something that definitely needs to be prepared for in the builder, but it still struggles because it has to be manually set up and getting a rain breaker in a second time requires sacking something most of the time.

Changes:

from A to A-/B+
Kilowattrel really ruined Bellibolt's viability, pretty much singlehandedly making soak sets risky to use. Bellibolt with only electric attacks can't touch Kilo at all which causes a lot of problems for what used to be Belli's best set. Water coverage doesn't really help vs Mudsdale and Palossand due to their bulk though so now Belli has to make some tough choices for moves. I think [electric attack]+soak+acid spray is the new best set to still keep the benefits of electromorphosis while not losing to Kilo, but now you have to choose only one electric attack and give up on either the ability to slow pivot or the ability to click an electric move and stay in. I might be biased because I relied heavily on Bellibolt in the start of RULT week 4 and then struggled to adapt to Kilo in the tier, but I think it is way harder to put Bellibolt on a team now and it's no longer a reliable way to slow pivot into frail breakers. Bellibolt on rain feels like it has potential though, a generic physical wall that can also safely get Barraskewda in or be a rain setter itself is valuable even when competing with Kilo.

from A- to B+/B
Cloyster kind of sucks with no light clay. It's way too hard to set up since even neutral special attacks will ohko and it really does not like Slowbro ascending to Mega-S tier. tera grass/electric with tera blast is its only viable set and even then there are more consistent HO threats.

from B+ to B/B-
I am hesitant to rank a steel type so low in this tier, but Bronzong is really limited. It can only really fit on fat balance teams with a wish passer, and I think B or B- is a good spot for something that has potential but is limited to specific teams.

from A- to A
I've been mean to the sushi in the past, but it's a much more reliable spinner than I thought in the past. It's not a defensive spinner, but smart play can get it in safely and then threaten to either spin then switch or blow something up with its walking wake STABs.

from B+ to A-
A physical breaker that beats Slowbro is getting even more valuable, and while Bruxish isn't good enough for rain teams, it is a potent offensive anti-rain mon due to having priority and being able to exploit the opponent setting rain with rain boosted wave crashes.

from A to A+
This is just pedantry but I think Mudsdale deserves to be put a small step above Krookodile as the definitive best ground.

 

[ishtar]

New meta post as well as agreeing/disagreeing w some previous shtuff:

to A+

I believe the bird has absolutely cemented itself as a crazy reliable part of the tier. Its a perfect revenge killer, its able to get past would-be-counters such as Rotom-Heat and more specially defensive Grounds and Rock types such as Sandaconda and Coalossal with Tera Water, and ofc, is also a premier pivot thanks to U-turn. This doesnt even account for its rain capabilities and unexplored sets involving Competitive in a tier plagued with Intimidate users.

I agree with sneakys placement of Tauros-Aqua but I definitely find Float way more relevant than Barraskewda. Im also interested in how these latter two could perform outside of Rain since people (im people) keep complaining about our lack of water resists, but thats more of a question mark for sure.

I also agree with Muds to A+ and Bruxish to A-. Thats not to say I disagree with the other noms but Id rather focus this post on other shtuff than to go over someone elses.

Copperajah to B+

It doesnt get much more reliable than Copper when it comes to a pure Steel in RU. It offers vastly different utility than Reva but its access to Rocks as well as much more offensive coverage and phasing makes it somewhat of a nuisance to lots of teams. I think people love to shit on this mon due to what it lost but with our limited options I definitely think that Copper deserves a tiny bit better. Also flying elephant is funny, just imagine him floatin around, isnt that great? Dumbo lookin ass, I loved that movie when I was a baby, Id watch it over and over!

Whiscash to B+

Whiscash is another mon thats been somewhat forgotten I feel like. Spikes are massive and being one of the only reliable hard stops to Rotom-Heat is huge, even if ull get Will-Od, this is still better than most teams way of handling the oven. Also, offensive Sash sets are still neat.

Toxicroak to B

I was a big skeptic of this mon but honestly its offensive prowess with Tera Dark and newly access to Close Combat makes it quite worthwile. You can play around Bro thanks to Tera as well as scouting Psyshock or Future Sight, and +2 CC does plenty to Poison resists such as Mudsdale. Ofc the main selling point of this mon in the current meta is its ability to be an offensive water resist with really cool coverage. I still think Toxi is pretty inconsistent all things considered, but I could see it creepin its lil frog head into the meta and becoming more and more popular hehehehe what a funny guy he is!

:dog:Mabosstiff to B

What the dog doin? Its fuckin u up thats what its doing. After like 8 sandwiches this pupper is rdy to own ur Fairy types switching in, or force your Bro to tera. This thing is mad underrated, mad scary and just outright cute.

to B+

Passimian deserves a lot better than C+ or wherever its at, too lazy to scroll. Knock Off is a great move and its one of the best revenge killers in the tier thanks to Tera Steel beating Yama. USE THIS POKEMON PLEASE!!!

Appletun to B

And finally, my baby. Apple is a great mon in the current meta being a solid counter to both Rotom formes, reliable Water resist, Bro switch in and surprisingly offensive pivot into things. This is without considering its ability to Tera Steel with, in conjunction with Apple Acid, allows you to even beat Pokemon such as the Quiver Dancers with the proper OUTPLAY POTENTIAL. I believe its best set is Recover, Draco Meteor, Apple Acid and either Dragon Tail, Superpower or Recycle with an Eject Pack. This allows you to pivot on switch ins such as Revavroom and Klefki thanks to the drops from Draco and Superpower. These two replays showcase Apples defensive utility against Rain as well as scary breakers such as Toxtricity, Gardevoir, Kilowattrel (just imagine they clicked Boomburst instead of Sludge Bomb, the outcome woulda been the same!!)

Theres also a lot of random Screen abusers such as Farigiraf that definitely should drop but surely ppl already know that.
Thank you for reading and have a woof night!
Ban Toxtricity btw.

 

[JoeMama]

New meta post as well as agreeing/disagreeing w some previous shtuff:

to A+

I believe the bird has absolutely cemented itself as a crazy reliable part of the tier. Its a perfect revenge killer, its able to get past would-be-counters such as Rotom-Heat and more specially defensive Grounds and Rock types such as Sandaconda and Coalossal with Tera Water, and ofc, is also a premier pivot thanks to U-turn. This doesnt even account for its rain capabilities and unexplored sets involving Competitive in a tier plagued with Intimidate users.

I agree with sneakys placement of Tauros-Aqua but I definitely find Float way more relevant than Barraskewda. Im also interested in how these latter two could perform outside of Rain since people (im people) keep complaining about our lack of water resists, but thats more of a question mark for sure.

I also agree with Muds to A+ and Bruxish to A-. Thats not to say I disagree with the other noms but Id rather focus this post on other shtuff than to go over someone elses.

Copperajah to B+

It doesnt get much more reliable than Copper when it comes to a pure Steel in RU. It offers vastly different utility than Reva but its access to Rocks as well as much more offensive coverage and phasing makes it somewhat of a nuisance to lots of teams. I think people love to shit on this mon due to what it lost but with our limited options I definitely think that Copper deserves a tiny bit better. Also flying elephant is funny, just imagine him floatin around, isnt that great? Dumbo lookin ass, I loved that movie when I was a baby, Id watch it over and over!

Whiscash to B+

Whiscash is another mon thats been somewhat forgotten I feel like. Spikes are massive and being one of the only reliable hard stops to Rotom-Heat is huge, even if ull get Will-Od, this is still better than most teams way of handling the oven. Also, offensive Sash sets are still neat.

Toxicroak to B

I was a big skeptic of this mon but honestly its offensive prowess with Tera Dark and newly access to Close Combat makes it quite worthwile. You can play around Bro thanks to Tera as well as scouting Psyshock or Future Sight, and +2 CC does plenty to Poison resists such as Mudsdale. Ofc the main selling point of this mon in the current meta is its ability to be an offensive water resist with really cool coverage. I still think Toxi is pretty inconsistent all things considered, but I could see it creepin its lil frog head into the meta and becoming more and more popular hehehehe what a funny guy he is!

:dog:Mabosstiff to B

What the dog doin? Its fuckin u up thats what its doing. After like 8 sandwiches this pupper is rdy to own ur Fairy types switching in, or force your Bro to tera. This thing is mad underrated, mad scary and just outright cute.

to B+

Passimian deserves a lot better than C+ or wherever its at, too lazy to scroll. Knock Off is a great move and its one of the best revenge killers in the tier thanks to Tera Steel beating Yama. USE THIS POKEMON PLEASE!!!

Appletun to B

And finally, my baby. Apple is a great mon in the current meta being a solid counter to both Rotom formes, reliable Water resist, Bro switch in and surprisingly offensive pivot into things. This is without considering its ability to Tera Steel with, in conjunction with Apple Acid, allows you to even beat Pokemon such as the Quiver Dancers with the proper OUTPLAY POTENTIAL. I believe its best set is Recover, Draco Meteor, Apple Acid and either Dragon Tail, Superpower or Recycle with an Eject Pack. This allows you to pivot on switch ins such as Revavroom and Klefki thanks to the drops from Draco and Superpower. These two replays showcase Apples defensive utility against Rain as well as scary breakers such as Toxtricity, Gardevoir, Kilowattrel (just imagine they clicked Boomburst instead of Sludge Bomb, the outcome woulda been the same!!)

Theres also a lot of random Screen abusers such as Farigiraf that definitely should drop but surely ppl already know that.
Thank you for reading and have a woof night!
Ban Toxtricity btw.

Agree pretty much entirely with this post.

Barraskewda: New to B+/A-
Nice speed tier with good power with CB Liquidation, CC, Crunch and whatever last move is needed. Can't say any higher due to scarfers (unless Aqua Jet range) and protect scouting Skewda's moves.
Floatzel: New to B/ B+
Slightly worse than Skewda in my eyes as Floatzel's coverage is weaker but water STAB is stronger.

 

[CheezSteak701]

Honestly kinda glad to see Gardevior still stick around. Scarf Moonblast can go a long way for viability

 

[gorex]

VR Update (dated 230323)
Note that these reasonings for changes to the VR are rationalizations, we are not interviewing each council member for every single reason. Hariyama also got banned soon before we started voting, so that's something to keep in mind. There's likely influence of a Hariyama metagame whether or not we notice it.

Credits for the write-ups: Yourwelcomethanku Togkey EviGaro
Rises:

A to A+
Mudsdale is the best Ground-type in the tier and putting it above Krookodile is apt. It checks some of the most dangerous Pokemon in the tier like Shift Gear Revavroom and Flamigo, as well as plenty of other Pokemon. Mudsdale provides Stealth Rock, can phaze with Roar, and checks a lot, making it a convenient fit for many teams.

B to B+
Abomasnow has proven to be a phenomenal Pokemon in its own right, on top of supporting incredibly dangerous teammates like Cetitan and Frosmoth with Snow Warning and Aurora Veil. Ice and Grass STABs with Earth Power coverage hits a majority of the defensive staples in the tier incredibly hard. Examples include Altaria, Slowbro, and Revavroom. It has become more apparent, especially without Light Clay, that Cetitan's place is largely with Snow, so we deem it appropriate to have Abomasnow in the same rank.

B to B+
Copperajah has seen more usage lately in RULT and it is pretty good. Being a Steel-type that actually resists Psychic is a notable feature in a tier where Revavroom is the best Steel-type and lacks that. It can phaze out sweepers like Oricorio with Whirlwind, scout choice locks and rack up Leftovers with Protect, Stealth Rock, and it can even run Sheer Force Life Orb sets.

B- to B
Mabosstiff is a great anti-meta pick, preying on top mons like Slowbro and either forcing a defensive Terastallization or insane damage onto something else, even 2HKOing common resists and physical walls like Flamigo and Mudsdale, respectively. Aforementioned defensive Teras, such as Fairy on Slowbro and Palossand can prove quite problematic for Mabosstiff, but it's still a great and unique breaker.
Here are some replays that exemplify that: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

B- to B
Toxicroak benefits from Water-types such as Floatzel, Tauros-Paldea-Aqua, and Barraskewda dropping into the tier for two reasons. Firstly, it can fight alongside these Water-types on dedicated Rain teams, passively healing with its Dry Skin ability. Secondly, it can also be used to deal with these drops, serving as a great Water immunity, and resisting Close Combat from the likes of Tauros and Barraskewda is a nice plus.

C+ to B+
Passimian competes with Flamigo, but its access to Knock Off for Heavy-Duty Boots and Leftovers makes it far more menacing to deal with over the course of a longer game, especially when factoring in Defiant that deters Defog, and other useful moves like Gunk Shot, Quick Attack, Earthquake, and Rock Slide, all of which Flamigo lacks in terms of coverage and utility. The best Knock Off Fighting-type in Hariyama leaving the tier is another point in Passimian's favour.

C+ to B-
Even with the addition of Kilowattrel in the tier, Jolteon keeps its crown as the fastest Volt Absorb Pokemon in the tier, which is a pretty good bit of utility in a tier littered with top tier Electric-types. Jolteon even beats Kilowattrel in a one-on-one. Jolteon can make use of Terastallization and Calm Mind to sweep and break through teams, although this reliance on Terastallization cannot be overstated.

C to B
We didn’t have a great idea of Sandaconda’s worth last time but now it’s ranked much more highly. Although Sandaconda may not have as much raw bulk or power as Mudsdale, it has much more longevity with Shed Skin, and can also easily spread paralysis with Glare or setup with Coil sets, which can get out of control very easily with a proper Tera type.

C to C+
Clawitzer is a very powerful wallbreaker that matches up nicely against various common Pokemon like Slowbro, Mudsdale, Krookodile, and Copperajah. Taking advantage of Slowbro is big and it is generally threatening to Ground- and Steel-types.
Replays of Clawitzer in RULT swiss phase: 1 2

Drops:

A to A-
With how centralizing Electric-types have become in the tier, including the new addition Kilowattrel which hard walls mono-Electric Bellibolt even with Soak, teams have become more prepared for Bellibolt without even directly intending to; Tera Ground on Pokemon like Rotom-Heat and Revavroom, more overall Ground-type and Blissey usage, and people have just learned how to play around Bellibolt. Many Pokemon can just set up in its face without triggering its Electromorphosis, such as Calm Mind Misdreavus, Slowbro, and Sylveon.

A to A-
Primeape was perhaps ranked too highly to begin with, it's hard to point to a particular trend making it worse. Something that could explain its drop is people learning how to play around Primeape as Rage Fist makes it unorthodox to deal with.

A to A-
This drop is simple; Tauros-Paldea-Aqua dropped to RU and is better. Bulk Up sets not being weak to Slowbro's Surf is a huge advantage. Tauros can actually set up on and beat Slowbro. It still should be careful of Thunder Wave but this is a massive boon in Aqua Tauros's favour. Dealing more damage to Heatom, Ground-types, and checking opposing Blaze Tauros surely doesn't hurt either. A Stealth Rock neutrality as opposed to a resist is another disadvantage compared to Aqua Tauros. Tauros-Paldea-Blaze is not completely worse, however. It still has Will-O-Wisp and it threatens Revavroom better.

A- to B+
Hyper offense Pokemon that gets worse with Light Clay now gone.

B+ to C+
Farigiraf gets hit very hard by the Light Clay Ban. Setting up both Agility and Calm Mind and being successful is an extremely tall task without screens. For Cloyster, Shell Smash is very potent and immediate. Setting up Agility and Calm Mind is not nearly as immediate.

B to B-
People haven't been using Dudunsparce and its niche is not well-distinguished. Basically, it's not all that clear why and how you'd use Dudunsparce in the first place and people haven't been using it. It definitely has potential with Calm Mind and Boomburst but people aren't using it.

Additions:

to A+
Kilowattrel is very good. The only ranked Pokemon naturally faster than it is Jolteon, while it speed ties with Weavile.. It will be able to outspeed and pivot out against most Pokemon, especially because it has U-turn, so if it opts for that over Volt Switch, Ground-types cannot block it. Not like Ground-types are great switch-ins to begin with due to Hurricane. Kilowattrel also has decent defensive utility, it can switch into Mudsdale sets lacking a Rock move, it can block Volt Switch in a pinch with Volt Absorb, and it can pivot into Revavroom or Copperajah situationally as well.

to A
You can basically read why Tauros-Blaze fell to see why Aqua rose. Being neutral to ground - almost a resist to most of them with Intimidate - and being Stealth Rock resistant are notable advantages, and yeah the water resist in a tier where rain can come into play is also more important than Slowbro given that it can also threaten to reverse rain pretty easily with setup.

to B+

to B+

to B
Rain is alright. We have tools to handle it like Slowbro, Aqua Tauros, and Choice Scarf Gardevoir. Floatzel 2HKOs just about everything with a Terastallized Choice Band Wave Crash in rain. Barraskewda has good coverage, a strong Close Combat can hit Arboliva hard. Golduck has Grass Knot, which lets it rip past Slowbro better than the other rain sweepers.
Replays of rain in RULT swiss phase: 1 2 3 4 5

to B-
You can refer to ishtar’s post here for Appletun, however I do want to add that specially defensive Dragon Tail is also a good set.
Here’s an RULT swiss replay with it: 1

to C
Hattrem is the best Magic Bounce user with Espeon no longer in the tier. It’s by no means great or even very reliable at keeping hazards off. However, it has seen use by four different players in RULT. Togkey in particular used an Eject Button set that complements their hail team really well.
Replays of Hattrem in RULT swiss phase: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Removals:
None!

 

[Danny]

Noms bc I’d rather do this than my workout:



A- >>>>>A
Controversial Ik but I rank palossand as almost if not better than Mudsdale in its role as a defensive ground type SR setter. I personally don’t believe Mudsdale belongs in A+ but it is such a minute issue that I won’t waste time debating. HOWEVER, palossand is very good. A couple replays of its prowess and ability to check a plethora of the tier’s physical mons, it differentiates itself from Mudsdale and Krook in three distinct ways:
1. Reliable recovery. This one is a bit obvious but it’s recovery is crucial in a tier where the teams tend to be fatter on average. The ability to heal itself is necessary to be able to reliable hold off physical assaults.
2. it’s stabs aresurprisingly spammable for a defensive pokemon. Ghost+ground is essentially only walled by Braviary and it is consistent enough to chip and annoy opponents with SpD drops from both of em.
3. It serves as a spin blocker. This one is possibly some by tera ghost muds, but being immune to rapid spin is really nice regardless of it’s my against the common spinners lol. I will pair this with the ability to check Toxt really well and with Colbur you become a counter albeit a 1 time counter to Snarl(very uncommon).
Replays from rult where palossand played a crucial role in the win:
1 2 3 4 5


B+ >>>>> A- OR A
The premier defogger of the tier Altaria is coming into its own with lots of variety for a linear mon (~~see: dragon dance~~). It is the ONLY defogger fwiw(ori forms are shot at defogging be real). It’s defensive capabilities are very nice in a tier where it’s resists to FWG are very nice. It checks the fighting types really well along with being a soft check to most threats. It can customize its set a lot, running perish trapper, wow, and haze. Definitely worth a bump up in levels.
Replays from rult where alt played a crucial role in the win:
1 2 3 4 5


A>>>>A+
This thing has proven itself to be amazing. I understand that there is a lot of competition from the other fighting types buts it’s breaking+wincon abilities are not to understated. Once again replays later BUT it has won a significant amount of the RULT matches that it participated in. The BU+trailblaze set Is phenomenal in its ability to outright win games against weakened teams, while still being a significant threat before the boosts. The banded set that was popularized by Feliburn’ steam is still a potent threat. It can weakenor potentially remove a Slowbro with Wild Charge along with being extremely powerful vs teams without it. It works well with the other fighting types and also checks rain to an extent. Worth a raise imo.
Replays from rult where bull played a crucial role in the win:
1 2 3 4

 

[JoeMama]

B+ -> A-/A
Fortunately for Weavile, both Tauros forms have left the meta (who were considered very good checks to Weavile). With these gone, while defensive play can still occur it's a lot more difficult and can mainly be out offensed by scarfers like Passimian and the naturally faster Barraskewda.

 

[fireburn2500]

This guy is underrated. Dudunsparce has a lot it CAN do, but I think it is best as a paralysis support/wincon using coil and body slam
B- ===> B.

Arguments can be made for a boomburst calm mind or specs set, but the earlygame paralysis support and lategame win potential is too good to pass up.

 

[Yourwelcomethanku]

Hello. The VR team should be working on a VR update soon. If you have any nominations you want to post, post them soon.