Rate of the Week V3: Week 22

[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 unbadged raters will have priority since that is the main focus of this project.

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)
Week #13 - all falls down (UU)
Week #14 - Manipulative (UU)
Week #15 - mil (OU)
Week #16 - Tricking (OU)
Week #17 - Hector Hard Mode (OU), Christo. (UU)
Week #18 - p2 (OU), all falls down (UU)
Week #19 - ez (OU), Chakra (RU), S0LID G0LD (LC), Memoric (Doubles)
Week #20 - nv (UU), GradeAGarchomp (VGC), Joshz (Anything Goes)
Week #21 - King Sun (OU), PrinceLucian (NU), GradeAGarchomp (VGC), NOVED (Battle Spot)
Week #22 - ez (OU), fran17 (LC), TONE114 (PU)

 

[busyguy]

This week's OU winner is ez ! The team is build around M-Heracross and Gengar coupled with a solid defensive backbone.
In the beginning of his rate, he listed crucial threats to the team including M-Scizor, Serperior, M-Gardevoir and Alakazam. In the next part, he explained why Heatran over Clefable increases the team's synergy. Heatran deals with both Scizor and Serperior and having another answer to Talonflame supports Heracross and Gengar even more. Also, it can not only switch into status moves like Will-O or Toxic, it can also run Stealth Rock to make room on Ferrothorn so it can run Spikes. Transforming the team's strategy to a hazard stack works very well here, since Tyranitar can trap and eliminate hazard removers like Latis and Starmie, that way Heracross can pressure physical walls even more, paving the way for Tyranitar which can then attempt to sweep.

Thanks his remarkable and concise rate, ez has earned a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations!

 

[Tricking]

This week's LC winner is fran17. His rate was concise with detailed explanations, featuring a great metagame knowledge.

He started off outlining the synergy needed to build a successful Trick Room team without changing too much the original team structure. So, he replaced Munchlax with Timburr: in fact, the team lacked a Knock Off resistor and a solid win condition. Timburr can act this role successfully with its bulk, its coverage, and its access to Drain Punch to recover. Then, he noticed a big weakness to Gastly, which was capable of destroying the whole team with rocks up after the removal of Munchlax, so he thought about replacing Litwick, whose typing and stats aren't good enough for Little Cup, with Porygon, which provides both a good offensive and defensive presence, being able to deal damage with its good coverage, as well as checking the likes of Gastly. Afterwards, he specified that Stun Spore is useless in a Trick Room team, since you don't want the opposing Pokemon to be slower than yours, so he replaced it with Hidden Power Fighting. This move provides a good way of dealing with Pawniard, which is very annoying to the rest of the team. Finally he suggested using Sucker Punch Geodude to get some damage on Diglett, allowing it to break through FletchDig cores.

Thanks to his well-written rate, fran17 has earned a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations!

 

[MZ]

This weeks's PU winner is TONE114. His rate concisely answers all of the team's main issues very effectively.

He started out by addressing the team's weakness to burns by changing Bouffalant for Guts Machoke, which simultaneously giving the team a more reliable way to handle Pawniard and other Knock Off users. He then moved on to the team's Speed control option in Floatzel, and suggested a change to Timid nature to more effectively function as an all purpose revenge killer when Trick Room was not up. Next, he worked on the team's issue with opposing Water-types by suggesting Audino instead of Gourgeist to more effectively handle Lapras and also provide Healing Wish support for the team's sweepers. Finally, he worked on a few more minor set changes, changing Carbink to a physically defensive spread with the inclusion of Audino, adding Magic Coat to give the team extra counterplay versus Taunt users, and changing Fire Punch on Marowak to Swords Dance to support the team better versus stall. All of the changes were summarized below, including the new sets.

Thanks to his well thought out rate, TONE114 was earned a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations!