S Rank
S Rank
Incineroar (Still the best mon in the tier, fits on every playstyle)
Aerodactyl (Exactly what Ren and Rabia said. Best role compression in the tier arguably, with being a normal / flying resist, pursuit trapper, speed control [that doesnt require a scarf!!], fire resist, ground immune, etc. Also the fact that it doesn't just run CB now and has Z-Move roost sets really helped give it some variety that it was lacking during the gen. Easy S rank, and a big reason for why so many ghost and psychics are running protect)
Steelix (Does everything it needs to do and it does it well, quintessential glue of the tier, has a bit of moveset variance that lets it perform different roles (e.g protox vs curse vs roar), and also benefits from Aero's rise, another long overdue S.
S- Rank (this rank shouldn't exist, you're either s rank or you arent.)
A Rank
A+ Rank
Blastoise (premier spinner, 2nd best water (can argue first and it wouldnt be a wild take), pretty one dimensional but it can check softcheck so much with that one set that it doesn't really matter, basically the steelix of water types.)
Garbodor
Sigilyph
Weezing
Passimian (The Passing Monkey has sadly been eclipsed by Aerodactyl for the speed control + incin check role, and w fat poisons being so strong it can struggle to do much other than be a uturn bot in certain matchups. also hurt by the fact that so many things it used to revenge kill are running protect now to scout pursuit trappers.)
Seismitoad (Best Water in the tier now? Can do the standard defensive rocks set which gives so much role compression, can run offensive rocks to blast through xatu, has a ton of utility and coverage options, fun lure sets like subtoxic, he can pretty much do anything.)
Slowking (always been a tad overrated, not a bad mon by any means but far less splashable than seis and stoise who give way more utility. being slower than incin AND weak to knock as a water-type hurts, and as solid as nasty plot sets are, its impossible to cover everything in 2 moveslots. ALSO av is great but all the stuff av switches in on are being accompanied by a pursuit trapper. A+ just makes more sense.)
Scrafty (Not quite as obnoxious as it was in SS, but still flat out invalidates a lot of defensive staples in the tier like stoise, seis, vaporeon, palossand, roar-less lix, etc. It's not as splashable as Incin but it has ridiculous staying power which easily put it towards the top of the rankings.)
Xatu (I cant remember why Xatu dropped but it should def be A+. Helps massively vs fat / stall teams, takes advantage of steelix like no other, has just enough bulk that a pursuit from aerodactyl isn't a death sentence, and a myriad of coverage options to help offensively check stuff like pangoro with dgleam, + general pivoting and twave spreading to support the team. Just make sure you dont run sets walled by Poison types :sob:)
A Rank
Comfey
Druddigon
Dhelmise (Not much to say about dhelm, second best spinner w lots of tricks up its sleeve, can go fully defensive or offensive, deserving of a rise)
Pangoro
Togedemaru
Heliolisk (Helio is still good, I think Volt Switch is pretty mediocre on it and people will see better results swapping it out for a coverage move on Specs, also Z-Move has been seeing some more use to lure checks and although it isn't my favorite set, it def gives helio another dimension to it's offensive prowess. That being said, pursuit being everywhere hurts Specs a fair bit, and Z-Move is kind of weak which doesn't let it take advantage of it's coverage as well as Specs. I think it'll eventually be A+ material again but right now A is probably fair too, not sure what I'd vote tbh, it's on the borderline.)
A- Rank
Delphox (Not a nom, just want to remind everyone that I invented Z-Future Sight in Snake when Rabia was in diapers)
Mismagius (Like everyone has said, missy has been gaining popularity for years now and deserves to rise up the ranks. She only has one set for the time being, but being able to choose between Rockium-Z and Ghostium-Z as well as dgleam vs protect is nice for giving her a bit of maneuverability to pick and choose what she beats.)
Rotom
Rhydon (Still a good mon but I think it needs wish support to properly function, and the lack of recovery hurts a lot in comparison to seis and steelix. Still one of the better flying answers in the tier and pursuit is a cool option on certain teams, wouldn't drop it further than A-)
Sceptile
Vikavolt
Whimsicott
B Rank
B+ Rank
Braviary
Golbat
Magmortar
Mega Abomasnow
Mega Glalie (Glalie's getting more usage and for good reason, he's the best mon in the tier for getting up spikes, and surprisingly has a ton of different movesets it can run depending on what it wants to do and beat, which makes it unpredictable. Freeze Dry can quickly punish stoise, eq nails fires, ice shard can surprise aero, explosion can remove something like steelix to facilitate a comfey sweep, etc. Definitely at least as good as abomasnow.)
Sneasel
Vaporeon (Good on certain structures but hurt by the fact that 3 water-types are better and easier to fit. Definitely shouldn't go lower than B+ since it's a near mandatory teammate for certain mons (e.g Silvally's, Rhydon) and still does it's job well.)
Victreebel (Def agree with Victree rising, still not sure if B+ or A- is the right place for it, because even though it can check a lot through strength sap, it's not particularly bulky and you usually wanna invest in a decent amount of speed which makes it squishier. Being a viable tspike absorber not named garbodor is massive though and it has a fantastic utility + stab combo to be annoying for a lot of teams.)
B Rank
Absol
Alolan Exeggutor
Mega Audino (Could honestly see Audino eventually rising to B+, but for now B is good, it's still the pillar of stall and SpD is just a great pivot in general, as well as being best mismagius counter in the tier. If Audino balance becomes more popular and sees success throughout the next year then she can be revisited again.)
Decidueye
Guzzlord (Sorry Guzz stans, he's still solid but fairy / fighting coverage is super common rn for more threatening stuff like scrafty, pangoro, and incin which backfires for guzz. Also can't run physical sets as well as he does in SS bc scald is so common, and generally just dont find him as good as the other insane dark-types we have. Sneasel is fast and can trap, absol is insanely strong, faster, can trap, and has priority, incin is incin, panda is a much better breaker, and you can prob argue that alolan eggy is the better dragon-type breaker.)
Medicham
Palossand
B- Rank
Aurorus
Clawitzer
Ferroseed
Pyukumuku
Samurott
Vivillon (This might be the hottest take of my post considering how much I despise vivillon, but I think it's a lot more broken in ORAS compared to SM. Still never want to see it at preview, but it really only fits on full HO teams which I dont think are THAT amazing rn, and it's not too difficult to pick it off with priority or scarf toge. B- Feels fair bc it just doesn't feel like the same level of consistency as Medicham, Absol, Guzz, or Palossand.)
Malamar (This got unranked?? LOL? I literally get a free win with this mon every single tour and the passing monkey is worse so it's even better now, it's like Scrafty except it's fast enough to outpace weez AND it doesn't lose to zS's Z-Gleam Xatu abomination. B- EASY. We really unranked malamar when garbage samurott is still ranked :sob:)
C Rank
C Rank
Accelgor
Charizard
Clefairy (we're not in oras, this mon accomplishes nothing other than knocking off a xatu's helmet, haven't seen a clefairy team yet that i think is good, they're almost always complete jank that lose to SD Incin. Also how are you gonna run a fairy-type that loses to pangoro, and loses to scrafty without moonblast :sob: Sidenote, this is NOT a stray at ren, I wrote this before I saw that post!)
Gallade (Not entirely sure on this mon, on paper it should still be fine but I question if it's worth using over Medicham? Probably worth exploring more, particularly non SD sets, not a nom to unrank, moreso just something to think about ig)
Hariyama
Piloswine
Silvally-Poison
Silvally-Steel
Torterra
Typhlosion