Rate of the Week V3: Week 12

[Enki]

Rate of the Week
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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 will earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges. Also, after gaining three places in the Hall of Fame, a rater will be eligible to earn voice status in the RMT room on PS! on the condition that they've shown an interest in getting involved.

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)
Week #12 - Lange (OU), Amaroq (UU)

 

[Tricking]

This week's OU winner is Lange. He wrote an amazing rate with concise and detailed explanations for each change.

He started outlining that the team had only one Pokemon resistant to Dragon- and Fairy-type moves, Heatran, and therefore Air Balloon doesn't provide enough longevity to check both Clefable and Mega Venusaur that threaten all the other members of the team, while beating non-Leftovers variants of Heatran; Lange decided to replace Air Balloon with Leftovers saying that this change would have been helpful to better check Special Defensive Talonflame, though not being enough to deal with it. He thus decided to run Toxic in lieu of Stealth Rock on Heatran to put the annoying Talonflame on a timer.

At this point Lange noticed that the team lacked pure immediate power and a Stealth Rock setter after the removal of that move from Heatran. To solve this problem, he suggested to run Earth Plate Landorus-Therian that allows to 2HKO Clefable, Venusaur and Amoonguss, supporting Gyarados' sweep. After the removal of Choice Scarf from Landorus-Therian, Lange noticed the lack of a fast revenge-killer able to deal with the likes of Mega Alakazam and Mega Lopunny, which are both very fast and have access to threatening coverage moves. So, he suggested to include Choice Scarf Latios in his build that can revenge-kill all the unboosted metagame with its powerful STAB moves and also help against +1 Charizard X and +1 Mega Gyarados.

He finished the rate including some useful suggestions that, although not being mandatory, could help Gyarados sweep the opposing team. For instance he mentioned Poison Jab Weavile over Low Kick to weaken Azumarill and Clefable, which are able to check Gyarados. Moreover, an Adamant nature over a Jolly one is pretty much mandatory on Gyarados and Shadow Ball is certainly more useful than Extrasensory in terms of targets hit.

Thanks to his well-written rate, Lange has earned himself a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations :)

 

[feen]

This week's UU winner is Amaroq! He posted a well written rate with great detail. First, he improved the Salamence set, making it more effective as a Dragon Dance sweeper. He did this by changing the nature to Jolly, as the team was fairly slow, and suggested running Outrage over Dragon Claw. The reasoning for this was that, due to the lack of hazard control, Moxie Salamence would have a hard time switching in and setting up. Thus running a strong STAB move in Outrage would allow it to break through Pokemon much easier, letting it accumulate Moxie boosts.

Next, Amaroq stated how the Florges spread isn't effective in the current metagame and changed it to a more physically defensive variant, which allows Florges to check Fighting-type Pokemon better, while still having a respectable special bulk. Amaroq explained that the other Fighting-type resists were two frail offensive Pokemon, one of which was the win-con, and the other was the wall breaker, which made running physically defensive Florges very important.

Amaroq then discussed the Pokémon that pose as dangerous threats to the team, especially Alakazam, Cobalion, Mega Swampert, Entei, and Mamoswine. In order to mitigate the threats, Amaroq suggested running defensive Swampert over Mega Aggron. This change impoves the team's matchup versus Cobalion, Entei, and Mamoswine greatly, and provides a nice defensive synergy with Florges.

Amaroq finished the rate by suggesting specially defensive Forretress over Empoleon, as it forms a nice core alongside Swampert and Florges. Forretress also deals with Salamence's checks and supports the team by providing Spikes, as well as hazard control. Amaroq also provided an option to run Doublade over Empoleon in order to deal with Chandelure, Alakazam, and Cresselia much better, while making the team more offensively oriented. Doublade also gives the team a priority move, which it lacked.

Thanks to his extremely in-depth rate, Amaroq has earned himself a spot in the Hall of Fame! Congratulations!