Resource 1v1 Sword and Shield Viability Rankings

[Vrji]

I am here to unironically nom the funny penguin. If you choose to laugh at me please do so in a poem.

Eiscue UR -> D
Eiscue @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Ice Face
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Def / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Soak
- Hail
- Iron Defense
(full credit to TSC I think)

We all know what this does, clicks soak (removes stab!!) or id t1, then is very fast in non-ice forme and can chip with hail and id and eventually dreeze fry. This beats pretty much most physical mons (zera, metagross if you don't get tricked, both shifus, etc.).
It's incredibly easy to cheese this with taunt or any special move obviously but a significant enough number of mons don't actually run those that I feel like this can be genuinely useful in a team. It's kinda similar to shedinja and skarm in that aspect while having better matchups against the good mons so I feel like D is a fine place to put it.

 

[zo]

I am here to unironically nom the funny penguin. If you choose to laugh at me please do so in a poem.

Eiscue UR -> D
Eiscue @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Ice Face
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Def / 96 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Soak
- Hail
- Iron Defense
(full credit to TSC I think)

We all know what this does, clicks soak (removes stab!!) or id t1, then is very fast in non-ice forme and can chip with hail and id and eventually dreeze fry. This beats pretty much most physical mons (zera, metagross if you don't get tricked, both shifus, etc.).
It's incredibly easy to cheese this with taunt or any special move obviously but a significant enough number of mons don't actually run those that I feel like this can be genuinely useful in a team. It's kinda similar to shedinja and skarm in that aspect while having better matchups against the good mons so I feel like D is a fine place to put it.

this mon would be good
(spuh-tahk)
if spatk did not exist

please do not rank it

 

[Vrji]

Entei A- -> A

Zyg wasn't always a perfect Entei answer but with DD / Scale Shot / Rest it usually got the upper hand, with that gone and the subsequent rise of steels Entei is an incredibly useful mon to have on any team. Being able to fulfill two distinct roles with Stall and AV respectively while maintaining a good matchup spread with either set is a huge boon, and both sets being flexible enough with 1 or 2 moveslots and EVs make this mon surprisingly customizable (super basic example being bulldoze on stall entei for scarf tran and zera).

Also all the other fire types suck so there's that too.

 

[nolenot]

rock a-a-
paper b+-a imo

 

[clerica]

Waylaid has rejoined the VR Council congrats!!

 

[viet noa]

Metagross: A+ to S-

With there being so many Pokémon to account for in the 1v1 meta, I think Metagross serves as a defacto answer to an insanely large amount of top threats. In my experience using Metagross, it has the versatility that gives it a solid option for almost everything.

We already know why it's A+, but I think its versatility can push it to S tier. I'm particularly high on the AV set, but it can also run Choice Items or Berries. This means that you can never truly feel safe against Metagross, as for example, maybe your Heatran faces an Occa Berry Metagross and dies to EQ. Given the right luck, Metagross can even beat answers like ID Fini.

I made this team that uses some sample sets to crack into the top 250 in the ladder. I know that's nothing crazy, but as someone who sucks at comp mons, it's an achievement that I'm happy about :)

 

[Joker 1v1]

Zubat UR -> S+

252+ SpA Choice Specs Transistor Regieleki Electro Ball (150 BP) vs. Lvl 1 36 HP / 0 SpD Zubat: 2-6 (0.8 - 2.6%) -- possibly the worst move ever

(yes the 36hp on zubat makes a difference)​

Regieleki B -> Cars 4: Electric Boogaloo

 

[Morgan]

Gyarados -> S+
Venusaur -> S+
Mimikyu -> C
Gloom -> S+
Cloyster -> S+
Silvally-Poison -> S+
Every Pokémon Added in DLC 1 or 2 -> Unranked (they are all dogwater and unviable)

fwgbeftirblom

 

[XSTATIC COLD]

Sealeo UR => anything goes

 

[isatrapp]

Alolan persian UR->D
Alolan Persian looks pretty bad at first glance, but it do somethings sometimes. Scarfed foul play allows it to beat zeraora provided that it's running a physical set, along with darmanitan if it isn't banded adamant superpower, and kartana if you don't get crit by banded adamant leaf blade and get rolled. it also has a decent chance at beating bulu if the bulu isn't running dgleam. 88+ Atk Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 48 HP / 252 Def Fur Coat Persian-Alola in Grassy Terrain: 135-159 (47.7 - 56.1%) -- 25% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery If the bulu doesn't get the 25% chance roll, alolan persian will be able to set up a torment and win by simply rest spamming. persian can also beat metagross. You use switcheroo turn 1 and spam foul play.
232+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 28 Def Metagross: 270-320 (74.3 - 88.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
52+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 224 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 242-288 (67.7 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
168+ Atk Choice Band Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 232 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 396-468 (110.3 - 130.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 8 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 234-276 (77.2 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
28 Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 240 HP / 96+ Def Metagross: 182-216 (50.4 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 184 HP / 40 Def Metagross: 270-320 (77.8 - 92.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 48 HP / 252 Def Fur Coat Persian-Alola: 90-106 (31.8 - 37.4%) -- 88.2% chance to 3HKO
If you ever choose persian into a losing mu, just switcheroo and pray they go for a status move. I've managed to beat aromatisse and sylveon this way. Who knows what free wins low ladder will distribute.
give me respect (Persian-Alola) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Def / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Switcheroo
- Torment
- Rest
- Foul Play


ty bilbooo for helping me make it.
I'm also considering making a banded set to beat darmanitan and kart more reliably.

 

[Bruh Wobuffet]

bruh could people stop post memes

 

[HeyMan]

Alolan persian UR->D
Alolan Persian looks pretty bad at first glance, but it do somethings sometimes. Scarfed foul play allows it to beat zeraora provided that it's running a physical set, along with darmanitan if it isn't banded adamant superpower, and kartana if you don't get crit by banded adamant leaf blade and get rolled. it also has a decent chance at beating bulu if the bulu isn't running dgleam. 88+ Atk Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 48 HP / 252 Def Fur Coat Persian-Alola in Grassy Terrain: 135-159 (47.7 - 56.1%) -- 25% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery If the bulu doesn't get the 25% chance roll, alolan persian will be able to set up a torment and win by simply rest spamming. persian can also beat metagross. You use switcheroo turn 1 and spam foul play.
232+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 28 Def Metagross: 270-320 (74.3 - 88.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
52+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 224 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 242-288 (67.7 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
168+ Atk Choice Band Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 232 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 396-468 (110.3 - 130.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 8 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 234-276 (77.2 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
28 Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 240 HP / 96+ Def Metagross: 182-216 (50.4 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Persian-Alola Foul Play vs. 184 HP / 40 Def Metagross: 270-320 (77.8 - 92.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 48 HP / 252 Def Fur Coat Persian-Alola: 90-106 (31.8 - 37.4%) -- 88.2% chance to 3HKO
If you ever choose persian into a losing mu, just switcheroo and pray they go for a status move. I've managed to beat aromatisse and sylveon this way. Who knows what free wins low ladder will distribute.
give me respect (Persian-Alola) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Def / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Switcheroo
- Torment
- Rest
- Foul Play


ty bilbooo for helping me make it.
I'm also considering making a banded set to beat darmanitan and kart more reliably.

no please not this again

 

[bilb owo]

I think bewear needs to be ranked, it has rly good custap and band sets with a usable AV set. I've recently seen it pick up a bit in usage so tried it out and it's felt very strong. I would say it definitely has more viability than the majority of D and C- ranks, though I'd be happy with it just being ranked. Fluffy alongside decent natural bulk and a very impressive 125 atk stat with great dual stab including stab giga impact is imo definitely enough to be ranked. I haven't built a CB set because I feel like custap is almost definitely the better of the two but i'll post that in case people want to try it out.

fluffy bear (Bewear) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Fluffy
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 132 SpD / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Giga Impact
- Superpower
- Endure

Speed to outspeed bulky corv, 252 adamant attack and then bulk to live specs magnezone hyper beam in a way that used all the remaining evs. Obviously this spread could probably be optimised but it has been doing very well for me on ladder.

 

[Here Comes Team Charm!]

Alright it's time for Charm Nomposting (and some set reveals), buckle up bc this is gonna be a long ride.

A+ to A
Steela's supposed advantage over metagross, a ground immunity, is highly questionable. Not only do most grounds have sets that give celesteela trouble (smack down lando and landoT, band fire fang garchomp, band rhyperior's rock stab), but metagross itself matches up versus grounds very well, it turns out. Steela's flying type ends up giving it slightly better matchups against fightings (not insignificant) at the cost of losing to crustle and electrics. It's still a really good steel-type, but it just isn't on par with gross.

A to A+
PZ lowkey has barely any counters, with fast AV urshifu coming closest. Specially bulky mons lose to nasty plot or specs, frail fast answers die to custap, trick deals with a lot of stall, rocky helmet beats things like AV registeel, and even seemingly perfect counters like body press ferrothorn end up losing to trick conversion sets. This mon is a nightmare to predict and a nightmare to counter, and anything less than A+ is ridiculous.

A- to A
The best ground in the game, hands down, with extremely little competition and high customizability. An awkward metagross matchup holds this back from time to time but it's just so good at what it does. Bulky anti-fairy band and AV are probably my favorite sets, but setup, scarf, and even mixed band (sludge wave is a solid bulu answer) all have a ton of potential. Presented here is just one of the many techy landos I ran in PL.

Passho Landorus-Therian

I love AV volcanion, but losing out on setup has always felt like a major flaw to me. Now, with this set, gone are the days of losing to some cheeky counter registeel or avalanche ttar. Passho doesn't only secure the volcanion matchup, it also helps out against surf fini, dracovish, and hydro pump specspult.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Passho Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 8 HP / 96 Atk / 180 SpD / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance

Tanks nonband ttar ice punch, almost always tanks 2 surfs from 0 spa fini so you can beat the draining kiss set, speed for jolly dracovish, rest in attack, can run more attack if the fini matchup doesn't matter, can run more physbulk to beat rock tomb adamant vish reliably.

B+ to A-
Look at the VR: reliable venu answers are few and far between. A lot of 'cheesy' answers to the mainstream subseed set get cheesed back by venusaur's alternatives (scarf volcanion coming in on a supposed subseed can still be blown back by custap). Venu's typing lets it prey on fairies, waters, other grasses, grounds, and electrics, all of which are key types in the current meta. Most hard counters to this tend to lose to fairies as well, making building pretty easy. On top of everything, venu is threatening to popular cores like bulu volcanion or lando fairy.

B+ to B
Zarude's niche of beating pult has been severely limited with the advent of band u-turn, and the necrozma ban further constrained its use cases. I don't think this pokemon is quite worth keeping at B+, as it gains very few reliable matchups over other grasses, and notably suffers from its secondary typing against mons like aromatisse and zeraora.

B to B+
I love arcanine and used it a ton while building this PL. AV entei is straightforwardly worse than AV arc, with only rock stab and a bit more speed (irrelevant for the most part) going for it. Arcanine gets a greater variety of coverage, including relevant fighting, fairy and dragon moves, and a more useful ability.

Fast AV arcanine is particularly interesting for occupying the same sort of niche as Entei does, but now with arc's superior coverage. Pokemon like scarf gdarm, pheromosa, tyranitar, urshifu, and dragapult, all of which threaten AV entei, must actually beware of arcanine, making this pokemon a still-indispensable piece of fire-type glue that doesn't deserve to languish in B-tier.

Fast AV

Quasistellar (Arcanine) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 60 Def / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Outrage / Play Rough
- Superpower / Burn Up

Tanks naganadel, outspeeds adamant haxorus, max attack, rest in defense for the best ada haxorus roll. Beats basically every PZ with superpower into espeed, except timid specs (more speed for that matchup can be ran). Speed helps vs venu, gdarm, lele, and others.

C+ to B-
Diancie's typing is actually kind of relevant again, letting it beat togekiss, drago, pz, and fires all in one coherent package. It competes hard with fairies that, for the most part, are better, but its poison neutrality and access to a surprising amount of coverage all put in a lot of work. I brainstormed a set during PL that greatly improves the matchup versus gdarm and grounds, specifically garchomp, non-iron tail landoT, and rhyperior (that may not sound like a lot, but consider that's about half the grounds ranked B- or higher).

Air Balloon Diancie

Diancie @ Air Balloon
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 12 Atk / 84 Def / 160 SpA
Relaxed Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
- Encore

12 attack lets diancie ohko bulkless gdarm, the physical bulk tanks a band rhyperior rock wrecker, and the remainder in spa helps 2hko pz and rhyperior. You beat most landoT sets with t1 encore, locking them into whatever move they tried to break your balloon with and allowing you to 3hko with diamond storm. Earth Power helps against zeraora (you tank 2 band plasma fists basically always, AV is an issue). Can run more bulk for mental herb crustle but already has a chance to beat that with diamond storm boosts.

C+ to B
I said what i said casuals

Anyway for real rotom-heat is literally everything that you'd want out of a fire type, beating basically every steel or grass, beating tons of fairies, and doing well vs opposing fires (up to and including volcanion), with an additional great togekiss matchup, solid landorus odds, and even a great shot at beating gdarm. All of this is just the scarf set, by the way: specs and stall both provide highly valuable additional matchups, all of them exploiting rotom-heat's great unique typing and ability. Give this mon a try: you will Not be disappointed.

C+ to B-
This is so much more than the quirky necrozma answer it served as in the past. Ninetales is a menace that threatens steels, grasses, and specially bulky mons alike thanks to the combination of Fake Tears and Encore. Solar Beam is highly useful coverage, killing a plethora of waters and the odd ground (even AV rhyperior can't reliably live a hit). On top of that, the mon can still run the same encore disable sets that (supposedly) raised ninetales-a to the same viability rank, but now with a different useful typing and more sets backing it up. Ninetales just does things that no other fire type really can do, so I think B- is a fine place for it.

C+ to C-
No seriously like what is this doing. In a meta with genesect, jirachi, and necrozma, we all considered this barely C+: now this mon is left in the awkward position where it cannot even reliably beat metagross, let alone the other top tiers, and is hard outclassed in every possible way by other fires. Incineroar's utter lack of speed and attacking power, combined with its unfortunately exploitable typing, make me severely doubt whether it should ever be ranked above C-: I am genuinely unimpressed when comparing it to raboot and blaziken.

C to C-
I think quagsire has been losing more and more of its niche to the other Counter-using waters as time goes on. Quagsire finds itself increasingly stuck between pyukumuku and gastrodon, to the point where it has basically no matchups that neither of those mons already offers. While sometimes you might want to beat zeraora and bulk up shifu both with a single water-type, that's hardly the most common occurence.

C- to C/C+
With necrozma gone, durant is free to look beyond Choice Band. I think LO is a very good set, making use of the ability to switch moves to perform better versus metagross, tapu bulu, subseed rilla, stall, and custap mons of all stripes. Beating zeraora and gdarm with priority is really nice, as is beating several key fairies, hard countering metagross, and handling difficult customers like kyurem and cresselia. I admit that unreliability is a factor here, but even so durant deserves to rise.

Life Orb Durant

Durant @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 72 HP / 240 Atk / 4 SpD / 192 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- First Impression
- Iron Head
- Superpower / Screech

Tanks LO dracovish after taking its own recoil, attack for the best dracozolt roll, spd for scarf kyurem, rest in speed to outspeed modest landoI. Superpower for heatran, kartana, steelix and ttar, screech for stall like chansey.

D to D/C-
Seriously guys this is good, it's a worse ursh-rapid but it does beat volcanion and landoI which to me defines more than enough of a niche to keep using this mon. Mostly a call to not unrank it ig.

D to UR
Please people this was a funny meme but there are so many more better grasses, just use venusaur and move on.

 

[XSTATIC COLD]

A+ to A
Steela's supposed advantage over metagross, a ground immunity, is highly questionable. Not only do most grounds have sets that give celesteela trouble (smack down lando and landoT, band fire fang garchomp, band rhyperior's rock stab), but metagross itself matches up versus grounds very well, it turns out. Steela's flying type ends up giving it slightly better matchups against fightings (not insignificant) at the cost of losing to crustle and electrics. It's still a really good steel-type, but it just isn't on par with gross.

You can still use wide guard + leech seed to beats smack down and eq mons.

Anyway, for me celesteela is better than metagross cause it has leech seed which is annoying, has a fire move like flamethrower to beat steels (that metgross doesn't) and has a very good heavy slam which can 2hko some mons with 100% accuracy.

 

[RTM]

C- to A-
hypnogar is insane whether the vr council wants to respect that in their rankings or not. U can run wide lens, life orb, salac or other items to give it different mus
B+ to A-
beats 16/27 mons from A- to S with specs, can run different sets to beat anything else in there (literally)
A- to A+
just better
D to C+
bare minimum, better than all the dogshit mons above it
C+ to S
broken but unironically

Only one of these is a joke

 

[Gross Sweep]

I would like to nominate Steelix for a rise. Between Band and Taunt sets Steelix really puts in work in the current metagame. This thing is run everywhere from the ladder to high tournament usage in tours like 1v1PL. I know Regidrago is falling off pretty hard, but it warped the meta into a place where most teams usually end up having a Fairy or a bulky Steel. While this shift has caused the effectiveness of Regidrago to fall, since it's one of those mons that is just bound to struggle if truly prepped for since it doesn't have much in the way of options to circumvent checks, it has also turned the tier into a hunting ground for Steelix. As it matches up well against most, with a few exceptions like Celesteela and Fini being standouts. I'm also probably overstating just how much Regidrago effected the way people build for SS currently, but what can you do it fits my narritive. Steelix also matches up well against most of the Electric types in the tier thanks to its ground typing. Top all that off with a really solid Defense stat making it hard for some mons to 2hko with neutral moves, and the ever great 1v1 ability in Sturdy and you have a recipe for success. I know this thing was probably going to rise after 1v1PL anyway, but I wanted to get a jump on this nomination, and have it in writing for the next slate.

 

[zioziotrip]

Hey zackary here to talk vr. A lot of these reasonings r gonna be kinda brief because I think a lot of changes should be made because ss has changed pretty drastically over pl.

Belong Somewhere in S/S-
- I'm still pretty convinced this is the best mon in the tier. Between cm and scarf u already cover a majority of mons in the tier but what u can do w cm is what really excites me about this mon. WP, wiki, and the option to run weird id shit lets u cover a ton of shit that u really shouldn't like volcanion and darmg (e-excuse me you can run thrash spdef darmg :nerd:) The typing is just broken as fuck in the tier and yeahyeah prim can do a lot of what fini can but I think the access to taunt+speed+raw bulk gives fini a very noticeable edge.

- I'd say this guy is closer to S- but I still think it belongs up here as the best steel in a tier where steels are broken. scarf, av, and wp are all in their own right very good and it makes the list of consistent gross checks p short. the fact that entei is even slightly dubious into gross is evident as to its diverisity. it's also just a bundle of stats with a very strong (and useful type) stab that carries all its sets.

- This mon is cancer. Kee/fast maranga/mental herb are all insanely annoying w the amount (and diff mons) they cover. Scarf is still as cheese as ever. I honestly hope that any SS player who watched PL won't disagree w this thing up here.

another mon kinda closer to S- I'd say but god is this guy a pain in the ass. Helmet/chople/orb/custap all serve in making type mu less relevant vs pz. Consistent checks to this thing are kinda limited (drago, crustle, zone, ttar, sawk, chilan shit) and while I don't think it's near broken because there is a ton of mons that beat the vast majority of its checks it is def a headache how much of the tier this thing can beat. I'm almost tempted to say most teams have to setguess the shitter just because of how much nonsense it can run. Regardless, I think the versatility of this thing puts it high.

No longer belong in S/S-
- Not entirely sure why this thing was this high to begin w tbh. While I think its versatility does make it a pretty good glue, its inherit typing and attack are really not that great. I feel like w zera outside of waters+toge (which albeit, is important) you don't get much inherently out of it. This leaves its raw levels of MU quite lacking which I would say keeps this mon closer to A than anywhere near S.

Belong in A+
- wee woo wee woo fires are broken (and apparently the only consistent check to ferrothorn) wee wee woo woo look at the usage stats this mon is busted as hell

- fini but slower and w encore. while I think lack of speed/natural bulk is a fairly large downside it's still a broken typing and torrent berries lets it do jank shit.

MY GOAT TAPU BULUING. I don't think society at large is ready for this raise but I would just like a second to discuss how broken this guy is. Well first off, your inherent MUs are water fairies, zera, drago, sturdies, and stall on most sets. This alone is very vaulable but holy god what this mon can do with the move substitute is very scary. Both sub leech and sub disable let it beat a ton of shit that it doesn't usually. Bu shit is also decent but I like beating shit u really shouldn't like zone cele corv and a poorly played spect. I think this mons' inherent MUs are already incredibly valuable, especially with the rise of sturdies, but the versatility it gets is a much appreciated cherry on top.

drop from A+
I don't think "only losing to steels and fairies" is 1) true 2) a light thing to say lol. Losing to the best two types in the tier is a pretty huge fucking deal. On top of that u also lose to stall shit and attackers like darmg and hax which makes it less all-encompassing than people make it out to be. Not no mention that the second you stray from AV it loses shit it really does not want to like pz and half of its special attacking MUs, that being said if u only consider AV this mon is just not that great. I think this mon is pretty close to A-, I do not like it outside of fishing lazy building.

Belong in A
pretty broken yeah not much beats both sets but I will say that scarf is kinda dick penis poop sauce if yk it's scarf which is why I rate it below A+. A lot of this things viability comes from preview pressure which I think is honestly not deserving of A+.

A steel type that actually beats fini/prim is very pogchamp. Beyond that u have a steel which actually beats bulu (Suprisingly rare trait) and grass that beats venu. This typing is broken and has been since the stone age, suprised it took this long to take off.

you know what? fuck you. fundges your token

STURDIES ARE BACK BABY! With the raw amount of attackers in the tier sturdies have seen a huge resurgence in PL and crustle is at the forefront. +2 wrecker just nukes a lot of the tier and having the ability to run an item that is not cb lets u either consistently beat status moves or taunt which are both pretty huge. Also being able to utilize that huge defense is pretty nice, a lot of choice locked sturdies can't. It's also a sturdy that owns shits that other sturdies struggle w like wisp volcanion and celesteela which is huge. Cb is also an option on this mon for consistency into azu and shit idk I think it's considerably worse than smash sets but it's certainly a viable option.

- 80 is surprisingly fast in the tier which makes it an excellent speed trap. even beyond beating most sub 80s it owns a lot of fairies and electrics which is really nice. Custap lets u retain the important core MUs while also claiming free wins vs darmg and pz teams. idk this mon is very straightforward I would def say more people should try it out on non-derek squad. also don't ban it for no reason u bums, might I suggest a mon faster than 80 or perhaps one of various fat mons that own it.

Belongs in A-
- It's lando but quick and a special attacker.Prettygood gets a lot of hate for no actual reason /me farts.

- These mons are all in A- imo for fairly similar reasons. Steels, fairies, and fires dominate the tier rn and these mons all have their own unique tools to owning those 3. Beyond that screwing zera is always a plus.

as charm said somewhere idr arc is mostly better at doing what av entei does as a fire av mon. I think the lack of set ambiguity is kinda big tho also the lack of raw stats fucks it in random places u wouldn't expect.

- between stall and av this mon is lowkey annoying asf to find consistent checks for (s/o venu for doing a fat nothing to stall) but I think its speed and lack of strength makes it p exploitable. If u approach azu w the hit it w very strong physical attacks angle you will no longer being looking night and day for checks. Also shit like bulu doesn't lose to it if it's sub disable which is kinda annoying for building w it.

- this is a low placement for the 10th best mon in the tier but I will settle. you just beat attackers w/o like anti-chansey measures it's very useful. Taunt or setup are often not enough to handle chansey due to raw bulk/charm which is huge compared to other attackers. Yea can lose to shit like entei gross fini more often than not which Bummer! u still beat most of the tier. Chansey is also punish lazy building tier with drago in A-.

beyond A- I honestly either don't care or don't disagree with most of the current ratings, these r the changes I would make that idc enough to explain: whimsi B+ corsg B+ sawk B gastro B raikou B pert B+(yawn sucks, stop running yawn and u will realize how much potential this mon has)
u can also unrank the majority of mons C or below but I don't mind if someone wants their favorite pocketmonster crackhobbler in C- tier

 

[clerica]

Rellia has stepped down from the VR council and I would like to congratulate Blanched for joining in their place!!

 

[Snoms]

hey guys, i think its time to ask about the question (and yes, I know nomming a mon not on the VR kinda makes it look like a shitpost but I am being 100% serious.)
-> D
TL;DR: has many major niches
i was planning to make this post for a while so here goes nothing

Venusaur?

Now about Venusaur. Venusaur has slightly better bulk and the same Special Attack, however, it's a well-established mon that can win a lot of mus, surely Decidueye outclasses, right? Well, Decidueye has one-ups on Venusaur, for one, its versatility in sets. It has access to a variety of offensive moves. If you want to go physical, that is an option, as Decidueye has access to STAB Ghost and Grass moves and a boosting move, Swords Dance. It also can abuse Overgrow for a Nasty Plot boosted Frenzy Plant that can smash through walls. Both mons on the physical side can dish out major pain to commonly used water/faries and walls, and both Venusaur and Decidueye hold merits that make them both unique, and I don't believe Venusaur outclasses entirely.

TL:DR: both have their usecases

Usage stats

Couple while back, Necrozma got banned (damn its already been that long?) anyways, during the Necrozma suspect test, mons like Krookodile and Moltres-Galar spiked in usage majorly. Now, at the moment, there are new usage stats, (they actually release tommorow but I'm an impatient little shit, I'll likely edit them in). Following the Necrozma ban, teams would see less usage for a wall that beats Necrozma, and the mons that beat Necrozma are also threats to Decidueye. Not only that, but if you ever laddered 1v1lt, you can see some interesting advancements. For starters, Landorus is spammed EVERYWHERE, and with this, softchecks like Primirina have been rising in usage, this is great for Decid, it picks on both, the meta is looking good for Decidueye at the moment.

TL;DR: following necrozma ban, Decidueye checks have been falling off of the usage cliff.

Important calcs

252+ SpA Overgrow Decidueye Frenzy Plant vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Darmanitan-Galar: 543-639 (154.7 - 182%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Decidueye: 160-188 (44.5 - 52.3%) -- 20.7% chance to 2HKO
Possible damage amounts: (160, 161, 164, 165, 168, 169, 170, 173, 174, 177, 178, 181, 182, 185, 186, 188)

52+ SpA Magnezone Flash Cannon vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Decidueye: 123-145 (34.2 - 40.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Possible damage amounts: (123, 124, 126, 127, 129, 130, 132, 133, 135, 136, 138, 139, 141, 142, 144, 145)

Sets

Feather Dance (Decidueye) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Toxic
- Skitter Smack
- Feather Dance
- Roost

Toxic stall (Decidueye) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Toxic
- Phantom Force
- Roost
- Feather Dance

Custap NP (Decidueye) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Endure
- Frenzy Plant
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball

Colbur SD (Decidueye) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Leaf Blade
- Poltergeist

Petaya NP (Decidueye) @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 248 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Frenzy Plant
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball

so yeah, decid has a major niche big enough that i firmly believe that Decidueye should be on the VR as a D ranked mon
edit: 5/1/2022, added more sets, planning to calc more and make a hitlist
edit2: 5/2/2022: hitlist added

Hitlist mons (from S- to B)

A+ Rank
Metagross
Regidrago
Tapu Fini

A Rank
Aromatisse
Darmanitan-Galar
Primarina
Sylveon
Urshifu-R
Urshifu-S
Volcanion

A- Rank
Cresselia
Ferrothorn
Garchomp
Landorus-T
Spectrier
Tapu Bulu
Tapu Koko
Tapu Lele

B+ Rank
Crustle
Dracovish
Landorus
Magnezone
Naganadel
Rhyperior
Rillaboom
Venusaur
Zapdos


B Rank
Azumarill
Corviknight
Dracozolt
Kommo-o
Nihilego
Pheromosa
Regieleki
Steelix

What does Decid do over other Grass mons?

Verrsatility in moveset and sets: It can run Feather Dance as an defensive option, stall out walls with Toxic/Force, and dish out major hits with mixed attacking capabilities and it's very solid bulk: 100 SpD is pretty nice, while 75 def is pretty... meh it can take a hit. Overall, an unpredictable mon with solid bulk.

 

[Here Comes Team Charm!]

so yeah, decid has a major niche big enough that i firmly believe that Decidueye should be on the VR as a D ranked mon

Could you share some sets that you think are good, or could be good? A lot of those arguments read to me as 'decidueye can theoretically do things that venu and other grasses cannot' and concrete sets would help put that in perspective I think.

I assume you're advocating custap frenzy plant/shadow ball/nasty plot/endure, based on the calcs? I could actually see that be an interesting twist on venu, and I agree it'd be better vs landorus, but I just don't know if that's a big enough niche to compensate for worse matchups vs nearly all fairies.

 

[Waylaid]

So Snoms, let me go over my issues with your nom. I'll voice them publicly because we often get noms here for unranked mons that follow a very suboptimal format, so hopefully this will not just be instructive for you, but for anyone considering ranking a mon we've never had ranked before.

For starters:

TL;DR: has many major niches

As a VR council member, this is what I love to hear. A lot of nominations here are focused on arguing on ranking for something like Drampa, a shitmon with basically no reason to use it over one of the many other special attacking dragon types in the tier. As soon as you tell me that Drampa has a niche over every other dragon because of some mon it bulks due to its normal-typing that Dragapult can't, or that berserk means it can afford to run a resist berry instead of specs and secure a matchup that Naganadel couldn't you've made a reasonable argument for claiming a mon has some measure of viability in this tier.

Unfortunately, many of us have never used Decidueye before so we can't just guess which niche it occupies over mons like Venusaur or Rillaboom. The instant you give me a hitlist for a Decidueye set that has matchups over some crucial mons that a comparable Venu or Rilla set can't cover, I'm happy. Charm has already mentioned this, but your calcs just show that Decidueye is beating Darm-G, Magnezone, and possibly Landorus-I reliably. Cool stuff, but it's basically what I'd expect from a Custap mon. Custap Venu and offensive Rillaboom can both beat all of those mons, which makes me think they weren't a good choice for relevant calcs to show off.

Decidueye has one-ups on Venusaur, for one, its versatility in sets.

I also like to hear this when reviewing a nom. Set versatility is incredibly helpful in 1v1; it helps both while building and in-game to throw off and get an advantage over your opponent. The issue I'm having with your statement here is that the sets you provided show Decidueye basically does not have set versatility, whereas Venusaur does. You've provided two sets, each with boosting moves and both physical/special stabs, which is exactly what everyone would expect when playing a Decidueye player. Sure, it's hard to guess whether you're physical or special, but that's not really helpful enough to consider it "set versatility". Except for the very rare instances in which you have a mon with very lopsided defenses like Chansey or Doublade, having the threat of either physical or special Decidueye isn't ambiguity on preview. Compare this to genuinely versatile mons like Venusaur or Rillaboom; both have offensive capabilities as well as Leech Seed stall, with the former even having access to the preview potential of sleep moves to scare off slower, bulky mons.

I saw your series against Fragments where Decidueye came out, it looked cool and got a win in tournament so major props to you. I'm not even against potentially ranking Decidueye, I (and the rest of the VR) just need exactly which niche(s) it holds over the other grass types in the tier. I wonder if you could even create some new sets around Feather Dance stall, Acrobatics, Toxic+Phantom Force, etc. Definitely some potential but this nom's got some room for improvement. Hope this helps and keep it up!

 

[bilb owo]

Alakazam UR->D.
Has access to great coverage+trick+utility moves. You can go from a sub disable set to skill swap focus blast or just run 4 attacks. This mon has amazing customisability to be whatever your team needs. I think despite all this it is still only around D because a lot of the time lele is a better option, however, with the combination of very high speed and more utility options I feel like zam is 100% viable.

 

[Waylaid]

Hey Bilbooo,
Loving the nom; trick + disable is always a great option in swsh 1v1. I do, however, want to direct you to the post directly above you, where I explained that nomming pokemon without set(s) or matchup lists will likely result in the nom failing. The rest of VR Council and I have very little experience with Alakazam, so if you'd do us the favor of linking some sets or matchups (you can even edit your original post) so we know what exactly the mon beats and how it does it that'd be the best way for you to get Alakazam ranked

 

[bo_bobson27]

Scizor: UR -> D/C-

y u unrank scizor? :(
bring back pls ;-;

Anyways here's the main set that I've been using.

Band

Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 104 Def / 68 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Dual Wingbeat
- Sand Tomb / Iron Head
bulks adaband shifu wicked blow and specs landoi earth power
alt spread: EVs: 252 HP / 136 Atk / 8 Def / 112 SpD
bulks jollyband shifu wicked, and specs pz hbeam

sand tomb beats magnezone, iron head gives a better mu vs sylv and aroma. can run superpower to beat ttar, and brick break to beat helmet pz if u really want to.

This set alone should be enough to get this mon ranked. Look at some of the garbage in D rank lmao.
What sets scizor apart from the other steels is access to technician boosted dual wingbeat and stab bug type coverage which allow it to reliably win against venusaur, whimsicott, rilaboom, zarude, and some urshifu, while still checking pz and garm.