Rate of the Week V3: Week 11

[Enki]

Rate of the Week
​

Welcome to Rate of the Week! This is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognizes the hard work of unbadged raters. Here's how it will work:

• Each week, official Team Raters will be paying close attention to the RMT forum and reading the rates posted in their respective tiers. They will then shortlist a few which will be in contention for the Rate of the Week award.
• From the pool of shortlisted rates, one will be chosen which most exemplifies the qualities of an excellent rate. That rater will be the winner for that particular tier!
• A post will be made by an official TR who specialises in that tier, explaining how and why the particular rate won. This will allow aspiring raters to gain an idea of what constitutes high-quality rates, and hopefully incorporate those aspects into their own rates.
• There will be multiple winners every week, one from OU and a couple from other tiers depending on the quality of the rates posted. We hope that in this way we can expand rating activity in less popular tiers, while maintaining a weekly OU winner.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but not more than once. Unbadged raters can win the award multiple times.

So what's in it for the winners? Well, they will earn a place in the Hall of Fame, which will be kept in the OP of every thread, and their rates will be announced on social media. Also, after gaining 3 places in the Hall of Fame, a rater can be eligible to earn room voice in the RMT room on PS! on the condition that they've shown an interest in getting involved. Winners also earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, which will consequently increase the quality as well as the quantity of rates in the forum. Good luck to you all!

Hall of Fame

Week #1 - Toon Linked (OU)
Week #2 - Nedor (OU), Arifeen (UU)
Week #3 - Fireburn (Ubers), Do A Bibarel (UU)
Week #4 - AM (OU), Raiza (PU), Kiyo (NU)
Week #5 - FlamingVictini (OU)
Week #6 - Cyndequil. (UU)
Week #7 - BreloomMyHomie (OU)
Week #8 - FlamingVictini (OU)
Week #9 - oml it's too ez (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), MrAldo (RU)
Week #10 - Nedor (OU), Cyndequil. (UU), Cranham (Ubers), Lax (Monotype)
Week #11 - AM (OU)

 

[Tricking]

This week's OU winner is AM. He wrote an insightful rate, featuring great metagame knowledge and optimal suggestions.

He started explaining why Jirachi is the weak point of the team and decided to replace it for the more useful Heatran. In fact, while the former struggles with Sableye and makes the team much weaker to Bisharp and Scizor, the latter provides a good answer to the aforementioned Steel-types and has a better matchup against Sableye. Air Balloon is a minor niche that allows Heatran to play in safety versus the likes of Landorus-Therian and Garchomp with Hidden Power Ice without fearing a possible OHKO from Earthquake.

He continued suggesting some minor fixes to Slowbro's and Gardevoir's EVs spreads. At this point, he suggested to replace Scarf Garchomp with Landorus-Therian. This change is particularly helpful when facing Mega Gyarados thanks Landorus-T's access to Superpower. However, Landorus-T's main niche over Garchomp is its capability of gaining momentum, allowing to get in both Gengar and Gardevoir, which are powerful balance breakers. This is particularly helpful when facing bulky fat cores in balanced/stall teams.

However, the best change in AM's rate is probably the one concerning Bisharp's item. In fact he suggested to use Lum Berry on Bisharp. This is very helpful against the likes of Rotom-Wash, Thunder Wave Clefable, random Scald, etc. He stated that Bisharp doesn't need much power in a bulky offense - as it isn't just a mindless HO - so life orb isn't definitely the best item. This makes Bisharp a much more powerful threat to bulky teams.

The final suggestion AM includes in his rate regards Gengar's set. He suggested to use SubSplit Gengar which, although being underrated in ORAS OU, is very unexpected and useful when facing Scarf Tyranitar, as this helps avoid annoying mindgames. He finished the rate suggesting a few minor variants that could soften the weakness to opposing Bisharp, such as Will-O-Wisp Heatran and Will-O-Wisp Gardevoir.

Thanks to his outstanding rate, AM has earned himself another spot in the Hall of Fame. Congrats :]