Resource RU Viability Rankings Thread

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To be fair, regular Steelix wasn't ranked for what it can do defensively. It was originally nommed by 49 for its custap / occa sets that could function well in a hazard stacking core w mega glalie, a niche it has over registeel or any ground type. If Tyrantrum stays, regular steelix can still "check" it on offense and set rocks or serve as a standard suicide lead. Registeel has gotten better since the nom but I would never consider it on an offensive team when i can use sturdy steelix who is basically guaranteed to set stealth rocks and do some chip damage with a STAB or explosion. I found that while using Steelix, Taunt is a very interesting tool vs opposing Steelix leads and Flygon. Regular Steelix is definitely not outclassed by Mega Steelix or Registeel because the edge custap berry gives it over these two.
 

phantom

Banned deucer.
updates:

Weezing up to B
Eelektross down to B-
Aggron down to B-
Dugtrio up to B+

discussion points:

Blastoise up to A
Seismitoad down to A-
Sneasel down to A
Slowking up to A+
Scrafty down to B/B-
Togetic down to B-/C+
Drapion up to A
Hoopa down to A-
Uxie up to B
Venusaur up to S
Medicham up to A+

needs more discussion:

Abomasnow down to A-
Steelix
 

Punchshroom

FISHIOUS REND MEGA SHARPEDO
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I feel like most of these nominations should be put on hold until after the suspect test concludes, but I guess I can offer my input on a mon which I feel shouldn't be affected too much regardless of the suspect's outcome.

Remain in A-

Blastoise is easily one of the best hazard removers in the tier, and the most consistent Rapid Spinner as well due to its solid general bulk, good typing with few exploitable weaknesses, and Foresight to ensure the spin. What it lacks in reliable recovery, it somewhat makes up for in Refresh, which makes a notable difference as status ailments are how most hazard setters and spinblockers wear down Blastoise, so Blastoise can usually keep up with them in terms of longevity. However, Blastoise has rather low defensive presence compared to the list of other bulky Water-types one could put on a team. Its lack of reliable recovery means that it is a much shakier check against things like Fire-types or Mega Glalie, whereas the likes of Alomomola, Slowking, and Jellicent can check at least some of them fairly reliably. While Seismitoad doesn't have reliable recovery either, it does have extra resistances and immunities to compensate for this. Even Qwilfish has more defensive worth in comparison with its typing + Intimidate, despite being looked down upon in this current meta. What I'm getting at is that while Blastoise is a great spinner, it's a tad mediocre as the bulky Water of choice (at least in comparison), which can compromise your team's defensive ability.

Also Omfuga is a slug
 

Lord Death Man

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I agree with what Punch said about Toise. Also it keeps you from using a different bulky water which sucks a lot for it, because Slowking and Almomola are incredible and the other bulky waters available are pretty good.

I disagree with dropping Togetic, it has a lot of legitimate reasons to be used over other Fairies; just stop running Defog on it and it improves considerably. It offers a lot of versatility Aromatisse just doesn't have while having the reliable recovery Granbull doesn't have, and it's not any harder to pair a defogger with Togetic than it is with Tisse or Granbull, who I would also say are honestly weaker to spikes than Togetic is to rocks. The ability to thunder wave incoming Venusaur or baton pass out of incoming Steelix, among other utility options, is huge.

I agree with dropping Seismitoad. I just don't see it offering as much as it used to, and I find it quite a bit harder to build a team with than I have in the past. It's defensive typing just doesn't feel all that useful in the current meta, and it struggles with keeping the hazards it creates up.

I disagree with Venusaur. It's good but it's checks are also really good, mostly independent of Venusaur being good. It also doesn't provide very much in the way of defensive synergy, especially when running offensive sets, and defensive sets are just very lackluster. I think the fact that a lot of things it usually comes in on (Jellicent, Alomomola, Diancie, etc.) are so high ranked suggests that Venusaur isn't as meta defining as it may initially seem.
 

MANNAT

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One thing that a lot of people are discounting on stoise is refresh. Usually, all you need to break bulky waters in this tier aside from stoise is a toxic user or two+a steel type to pressure the fairy clerics and you're dandy. Blast pose throws a wedge in this strategy since it has refresh to heal its own status. The lack of reliable recovery hurts stoise, but it's utility in being a spinner as well as being less hurt by status is huge and means that it should move up to A rank.
 

Lord Death Man

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Alomomola and Seismitoad both get refresh and almost never run it, Blastoise only runs it because status, especially Toxic, would make it almost entirely useless. Toise isn't all that difficult to shut down once you're sure of it's fourth move and it has to click it's fourth move pretty often unless it's running Roar, which hurts it considerably since it's whole niche is that it's a reliable spinner. Jellicent and Hoopa both have a pretty good matchup versus Foresight Blastoise (and Jellicent has a good one versus Dark Pulse) which further strains Blastoise's ability to actually spin versus a team that doesn't want it to.
 

MANNAT

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I was just saying that the role compression of being a status sponge+bulky water+spinner makes stoise worth A rank since it has really good role compression and can be a good spinner for bulky offense and balance alike. Additionally, Blastoise has the huge advantage over alo of not being passive as fuck and dealing pitiful damage, even with strong STAB hits. Just looking at damage vs Fletch, one of the frailest mons in the tier, alo is waaay weaker than stoise. Doing 35% more with your STAB moves is nothing to scoff at and certainly an advantage that makes stoise deserving of A rank, when considering that the passive ass alo is A+ rank. Obviously wish is a huge boon over stoise as well as a higher HP stat, but that's where alo's advantages over stoise end and stoise really should be above where it is now, and only a subrank below alo frankly isnt asking too much in my eyes.
0 SpA Alomomola Scald vs. 152 HP / 28 SpD Fletchinder: 138-164 (45.5 - 54.1%) -- 42.2% chance to 2HKO (nice check *sarcasm*)
0 SpA Blastoise Scald vs. 152 HP / 28 SpD Fletchinder: 242-288 (79.8 - 95%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (actually does decent damage)
 

Josh

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Lol? Mola has a better fletch matchup than stoise due to recovery, and fletch doesn't even OHKO physdef Mola at +6 (max /max stoise drops) so you can still drop a toxic or scald, + Mola runs helmet sometimes which helps even more, and tect tox stalls.

Sorry for going off topic but "nice check *sarcasm*" annoyed me. Stoise is still passive as fuck, just less passive, and the extra power over mola rarely helps.
 
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Threw

cohiba
Medicham seriously needs to be A+. Even the Scarf set OHKOes 60% of the tier, and most of the stuff it doesn't OHKO, like Blastoise or Tangrowth, doesn't switch in at all. The best catch-all Fighting-type checks like Venusaur and Weezing either need to win a 50/50 prediction or get straight stunted on by LO. Anything offensive that switches into its STABs well, like Sigilyph (although, again, you need to hope they don't click T-Punch), is nuked by a Pursuit trapper - typically you can bring Medi out, make the easiest double of your career, eliminate its only counter with your trapper and just clean with HJK after that. Ghost-types also fall into this category, and while Fairies that you might see on stall and fat balance like Togetic and Aromatisse do well against Scarf, they straight up drop to coverage moves from LO after SR damage. As long as it's not Absol, which does have a decent chance to OHKO with Pursuit, the fact that it takes neutral damage from this move and therefore can't be trapped effectively at full is a huge deal. Overall, Medicham is, in my opinion, easily the biggest offensive threat in the tier because it's just ridiculously strong, has a very spammable STAB attack in HJK, has great typing, requires little offensive support, and performs well against any playstyle. I think of it as the Mamoswine of this tier, in that it is nearly impossible to switch into but offense has a relatively easy time revenging it for the most part (and even that they both are great checks to the best mons in their respective tiers), although this is made much harder with Medi's Scarf set. It's for that reason that I largely think it should rise on the merit of the Scarf set rather than the LO set.
 
Venusaur: Should not move up. The things that check it are really good even though Venusaur is, and the things it beats (Diancie, Alomomola, Slowking, Seismitoad, to name a few) are also really good, even though Venusaur should theoretically shut them down. All the points in my previous post on Venusaur also stand.

Uxie: Yes, this should move up. Good Bulk + Memento to force switches + Ground immunity is great defensive synergy, and it even has Yawn + U-Turn which somehow pairs well with Exploud from what I've seen. Uxie also is a stealth rocker that's an actual fighting resist, which is good when Fighting types run rampant in the tier. Move it to B.

No opinion on the rest yet.
 

Take Azelfie

More flags more fun
Slowking is pretty great right now. First off it can do multiple roles in one slot being a pivot, twaver, win con while having regenerator to back it up. Not to mention that is has its OTR, AV and Specs set to further enhance its unpredictability. And unlike most Psychic-types can also eat a Knock Off and not care. A lot of people use Hitmonlee's Knock Off to check Psychic but after slacking off right after you use it as set up bait
Basically unless it is STAB it doesn't threaten Slowking. Oh yh it can also pivot into Emboar pretty easy because it resist Fighting and even if you eat Wild Charge you can go into a ground Mon and recover your HP back via regent + Slack Off. Slowking accomplishes a lot in one slot and doesn't have extremely detrimental flaws because of its great bulk and ability.

I support a rise
 

feen

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Seismitoad: Honestly this needs to drop to B+, but let's talk about A- now. It's definitely not the preferred bulky Water-type everyone chooses (Alomomola, Slowking, and Blastoise are more used), and as a Rocker it's also not preferred, as a rocker that gives free switchins to Grass-type is mediocre. The metagame is pretty harsh to Seismitoad, as it has tons of offensive threats it can't check (Fletchinder, Medicham, Sawk, Venusaur, Virizion, Sigilyph, Meloetta), and having no reliable recovery makes it a sub par Pokemon in the meta. I'm on board for A- but I recommend B+ for Seismitoad.

Venusaur: This Pokemon is one of the best Pokemon right now. It's best set in my opinion is Sleep Powder Synthesis dual STABs. Of course, it's checks are great checks and are good Pokemon in general, but you have to keep in mind that Venusaur can put them to Sleep which gives them a free turn. This free turn will be huge in the game if they have a wall breaker like Sawk, Medicham, and Emboar, as you'll struggle finding a check for that. Escavalier, which will get better once the suspects are banned (should be), will be able to counter Sleep Powder Venusaur. But we all know that Venusaurs tend to run HP Fire as well to beat Escavalier, so even though the latter set is worse, it's still a thing which will make the opponent hesitant to switch Escavalier in Venusaur. Yes, Venusaur has good counters, but it can take advantage of those counters, which makes checking it even hard. Venusaur should definitely rise to S rank.

Medicham: One of the best Choice Scarf users in the tier, and will be a better one after Tyrantrum gets banned. It threatens offense, and Life Orb sets threaten balance and stall a lot. Even though its bane is Spiritomb, teams not having Spiritomb risk getting dented by Medicham, as its other checks get hit by its other STAB or coverage. Furthermore, Medicham is seen being used with a Pokemon that can lure Spiritomb to be more effective. A good example is Colbur Berry Meloetta with Dazzling Gleam. On the down side, if Mega Steelix gets banned, we're going to see more of Fairy-types, especially Granbull and Aromatisse, which are good checks of Medicham. This means that even though Medicham will be more dangerous, it still has checks which will be more used. Medicham, for now, should stay in A rank.
 

Blastoise to A

Blastoise is one of if not the best Rapid Spinner's in the RU metagame with great Defenses and a good Defensive typing leaving it 2 Weaknesses and 4 Resistances to Water, Ice, Fire, and Steel. It also gets a good array of support moves like Scald, Toxic, Refresh, and Foresight. It can check mons like Steelix-Mega, Emboar, Ghost types (if running a bulky offensive set or Foresight), Rhyperior, and Pokemon who are Rock, Ground, and Fire.

However, because Blastoise has no reliable recovery, it can't remove status alliments only if it's missing Refresh making Blastoise prone to status. Although you may think, "Flygon outclasses Blastoise in entry hazard removal" its false, Blastoise has good Defensive bulk w/ 79/100/105 bulk unlike Flygon that haves 80/80/80 bulk. Blastoise can also defeat Flygon if running Offensive Spinner w/ Ice Beam. Although Flygon however has Roost you really can't compare it to Blastoise because, Blastoise can remove its Status Condition unlike Flygon who relies on cleric support to remove its status condition. It's also problem is Coverage Electric/Grass moves which are the rampant Volt Switch, Leaf Storm, Giga Drain, ThunderBolt, Energy Ball, and etc and the mons who use these moves all can outspeed Blastoise (except Tangrowth).

Blastoise can reliably remove hazards with its great Defenses and offense thus it should be made A Rank
 

phantom

Banned deucer.
New VR thread will be up in a week at most due to the bans changing a whole lot. Expect quite a few updates.

Also, because Tyrantrum is banned and it was one of the Pokemon featured on the VR banner, this replacement will more than suffice for the time being:

 
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