Been playing a bit too so might as well tbh.
I find this meta very odd, in the sense that it almost looks like a tier back in an alpha stage rather than settled after nearly seven months. It's pretty stunning to assume all of that is because only of Zarude, but it kinda feels like it? Anyway, the builds going around are so diverse in threats and potential ways of winning compared to the previous meta it's stunning, and sort of exciting really from a global perspective. I'll start with the things mentioned specifically in the survey and then move on to clusters of stuff I find cool
- I have difficulties, like a few people I imagine, to separate Mienshao and Xurkitree when I try to think about their impact on the tier. That isn't to necessarily say that you absolutely need to build with both of them, but their individual strengths work so well together and on paper present a challenge that next to nothing else can realistically achieve. Xurkitree's pool of checks is very, very limited, and most of the special sponges suffer extremely hard against fighting types, which Mienshao can readily exploit or facilitate a pivoting move. On the other hand, most of Mienshao's said counters hate Xurkitree as well, so it's obvious why on paper that seems absurd because on top of it those mons have several strong qualities for the metagame that make you want to put them on your team anyway. The best thing that can sort of counters both is generally Vileplume, since it doesn't take much from any of Xurkitree's moves and can hax Mienshao and all, but it blocks neither pivoting move, realistically. In a situation where Plume is your counter to both and you face both, it's absurdly easy to play a fairly safe game and never give it a chance to actually sap back, forcing you to make several reads on the Xurkitree especially to get in on a grass move or gleam. Now there's some risks to running both, especially since while they for sure have strong qualities for building they are extremely frail and Mienshao without a scarf can be slower than a ton of threats you might be giving leeway too, but I understand why someone opening the builder finds this pairing absolutely ridiculous to plan against. If I had to choose myself, I might prefer going for Xurkitree first since I think its power is a little above and being unable to counter volt switch very effectively is a pain and a half. Yeah Uturn can't be punished, but generally it's a lot more straightforward to hit that uturn, a Xurkitree saying nah I'm going for coverage has a very real chance of nailing that ko with a bit more ease. But really both are absurd to me so lol
- I think Durant is stupid. It's like, totally expected when you've played RU for multiple generations and you see this happen and it's like oh wow who could have expected this to happen again but here we are and it's still dumb. First Impression is silly too, making most offences struggling with counterplay to hit and forcing some serious compromises. I've seen rain with Indeedee, I myself decided to go rain with a Talonflame, or protect on specific abusers, those kind of things. It's not that they aren't unviable techs, it's just blatantly because of Durant. But if it was only that, then Durant would probably be fine, it's just that it also does everything it used to when it was banned in the previous generations on top of it. It has near perfect coverage for the tier, and has multiple moves to tech the rising Talonflame if it ever becomes something it wants to do. Basically, Durant is very favoured in a ton of matchups, has marginally bad drawbacks (you know what) and forces you to gameplan so awkwardly. Buuut at the same time this tier is so chaotic and that priority in building is really clutch so sometimes I also think that it's good for the tier but then you see it the other way so less sure.
- Reuniclus, like most of the time, I generally am more favourable towards than others. I think it's really, really, really good, especially with people finally dropping that AV set for the CM one. But it's also not without flaws either, and I think in RULT it was one of the main threatening wincons that most people ended up adjusting fine to. There's counterplay without having to compromise that hard, it likes a lot of items and sometimes might find its coverage a bit lacking. Probably a S tier mon, but I would be fine kicking that can forward a bit compared to the three others.
Polteageist is weird, really. It has very specific counters, and not all your typical sponges can beat it very well. Something like Snorlax actually struggles hard vs it, which is a bit silly but here we are. However, there's enough dark types that stonewall it pretty well and have been rising with the Zarude rise. It's still an experimenting phase as to where they fit in the metagame, but overall it's been promising, more on that later. On the other hand, teapot also has difficulties setting up safely, so while it can do this sap nonsense after a shell smash, it's not that comfortable immediately doing it vs large parts of the metagame. Something that might be taking advantage of the very loose state of the meta currently, so have to revisit but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was just a decent pick in a few months.
other stuff I wanted to highlight
- Weather is really good now, honestly. I touched a bit on rain and I think it's interesting how the archetype went from that hard HO at the start of the month to this playstyle that actually can fit a ton of different ideas in and counterplay to what you would expect a rain to look like. It ended up being extremely diverse, and there's enough good breakers that you can't just say well here's my Kingdra or fish counter and that's done, because they might actually lose to Ludicolo + Seismitoad, for example. Your flier also doesn't have to be Tornadus, or your electric Raikou. While yes, being forced to run Politoed is a giant meme in itself and it's by far the most useless of all the main weather setters, it's not terrible enough to discard an archetype that can go so many ways. Hail benefits immensely from Ninetales-Alola bring it some utility, speed, and even offensive prowess it was a bit lacking outside of the Arctos, due to in part how fast it is and what it can thus ko + having a strong boosting move. However, Icy Rock really limits Ninetales, so there's that to consider sadly because other hail setters are just forcing in way too many weaknesses. Sun I have seen less off, although I know GoldCat and ywt have used it in their ladder runs, it seems interesting, although a bit more awkward than the other two? It just seems to offer less synergy between setter + support + breakers than rain does and it doesn't have the stupid absurd power of hail mons. Oh ig sand can work too, not talking about that before I create it again though
- The first thing that happened with Zarude leaving seems to have been wtf are we gonna use as a dark type, and so the search begun. Incineroar was already very good so that makes sense, although the bulky set does seem a little easy to overwhelm and it lacks very key attributes, on top of a ton of competition from fire types in this metagame. Obstagoon was also popular, with a lot of obstruct which seems okay-ish but at the same time it makes you even less able to reliably check the types you want if you do it with the burn so unsure. It also just really needs a bit more power to nab some koes, unfortunately, and the speed is hit or miss on top of being forced to take every hazard in the meta. Umbreon is now a reliable pick on balance, which of course ended up being a very unreliable pick in the metagame in general. It's fine really, but very specific to what you use it for. Pangoro is a funny mon I've seen, it's still dummy strong but also has longevity issues and speed.
Expulso talked about Guzzlord and me being a fan of the mon I decided to try it and, well it's not THAT bad really. It's a slow dark type that can with a pray check Togekiss, which honestly is something I'd take to start with but it offers phasing and a strong knock that can get stronger. It's still Guzzlord but like, you know. I haven't seen Spiritomb and I'm sad.
- The other issue with Zarude was the grass type, but that was always I think considered to be less worrying with how many of them already were talked about. Celebi shines in this early stage, I agree with Ampha on that one. Very good speed, reliable setup options, enough diversity in coverage, boots + natural cure + recover offers it a ton of longevity. It's not perfect, but it certainly offers a ton and imo is the clearest winner of the Zarude rise across both types. Roserade was already very good, is so even more now, Dhelmise and Decidueye are more popular picks these days and both seem pretty good. In theory Gourgeist with its speed could offer something similar there but I haven't seen it yet rip. I've tried Tsareena a bit since it has the whip + dark coverage thing going on, and honestly it's not awful It still has too many moves, but those two + triple axel + spin are super annoying, since with some favourable turns you can turn the tables on would be counters like Noivern or Crobat, while also beating a weakened Durant because of the immunity to priority. A fighting move can be missed though, especially since no one laddering scouted it and like oh my god are you kidd-
- Speaking of Celebi, I also agree with Ampha that psychics are big winners now despite the dark types rising in popularity. Necrozma is awesome and regularly claims a couple, with a ton of options to be a pain. Reuniclus is Reuniclus, Starmie is a bit better but Starmie honestly didn't seem to change much. Indeedee to me is a fascinating case, because its ability is honestly so useful in this metagame, and some people who hesitate to pick a dark type for consistency issues end up in a world of troubles vs that mon, and some dark types it just doesn't care too much about on the switch if predicted right, while also just tricking the ones that will always beat it like Incineroar and Umbreon if needed. It's nowhere near what it was before this DLC, but it definitely wins from losing such a centralizing force and like I touched on rain Psychic Surge just adds a ton to this metagame.
- Ghosts also benefitted a lot, I talked about the grass ones but Golurk is still silly, even moreso when now the more reliable darks happen to be slower than it. Marowak is niche af still but honestly it's really rough to counter and deals with key mons pretty decently, especially since Lucario of all things is now a massive threat. Ghosts have always been in mind in RU since Poltergeist was released, and this meta is super kind for them, not surprising to see itemless stuff popping off again even though it's always shaky af consistency wise.
- Yeah Lucario is kinda broke now? Not sure how it happened, but it did, super hard to switch into, stall hates it because it 2hkoes Quagsire, HO hates it because ESpeed is very strong vs those builds (bless Indeedee). It can also varies its sets which might not have been appealing when it was a response to the metagame but if it keeps being such a force it might end up benefitting from its immense movepool to get past would be revenge killers like Cobalion and friends, something to really keep in mind. Also it can run Specs Steel Beam.
- Ban Sharpedo.
Okay I think I am done, if you are here and read this you poor soul. But if you did, notice how I basically talk about only offensive stuff? Sure, there's your Umbreon or Cress that are actually kinda liking this meta, but they are at best response to specific problems. And, well I did say it reminded me of an alpha. There's way, way too many offensive threats for balance to work seriously. I respect the heck out of the players I faced in the rult tour, but facing some players I've seen excel in officials using balance or stall, it was honestly some of the easiest games and it's genuinely no fault of their own, it just doesn't work well at all. Like take Celebi for example. You don't want it for the stall matchup exactly right, you want it cause it's fast and with boots can actually annoy webs builds a ton because 328 speed with boosting power is really annoying. It's also a decent rain check, not a full counter at all, but it will get its koes if you play it well and that's a concern because rain often banks on several mons not being able to do anything to it to facilitate its sweep. You also want it because in theory it beats Reuniclus pretty well, and the bulky waters hate it. However, stall has essentially no matchup for boots + cure + recover with NP, so if you play it somewhat well you win that game almost every time with that mon. And it can't do too much to just fix that matchup because it has to cover so many things at the same time. Before you could at least force recovers with timely toxics and spikes, but now that's essentially gone. Just an example here, and taken from a mon that has such a big upstick recently. That is admittedly, pretty concerning, so I'm really interested to see what happens in the next few months and the speed of what happens there, and that's where the community at large has a big role to play to make their voice heard and I hope to see it clearly stated in this survey and other opportunities to come.
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not locked into U-turn, 
... pretty much any Pokemon that isn't a physical attacker with a super effective move. It forces tons of switches, giving you a free opportunity to Leech Seed or Sleep Powder a new foe. It does not care about getting Toxic'd, and can cure that plus any of the paralysis or poison any of your other Pokemon may care about. It barely cares about rocks, webs, almost always has an opportunity to get a spin off, and while the speed boost doesnt help a ton, it can come in handy on some occasions. Tons of people have try to set up on it, cause they don't know what to expect, but they end up getting Leech Seeded or put to sleep, which causes a ton of problems for them :D. 
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, but it has a ton of great tools that make it actually decent in this metagame!
or 
but spikes + xurkitree is a real threat, the core 
+ xurkitree is a threat because golisopod puts his spikes and yeah the fun can start. Grass types aren't that popular as well and a fire/ ice like ninetales alola. So for me a xurkitree suspect wouldn't be a surprise.
) to play a defensive role when rein is supposed to play a specially defensive role and even when you make rein defensive mienshao always finds a way to break through rein and then break throug your team.
