Resource NU Viability Rankings

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I didn't mention this mon in my last nom post bc I thought that the flaws it had were pretty evident and spoke for themselves but apparently I was wrong, so here I go on a (hopefully) small rant.

:Copperajah: A+ -> A
I mentioned most of the big reasons that I find this mon unimpressive in my last post with its major themes, namely how hazards-focused the current meta is. Copper was able to do a lot more stuff last gen bc wearing it down with only Rocks was significantly more difficult. Well, now we're in gen9, and we have a plethora of good Spikes setters, including one of the best mons in the tier and a huge pain to Copper, Gligar. Spikes make wearing down Copper much much easier, which really sucks for Copper bc it is tasked with switching into a ton of mons, so that chip racks up really fast. It doesn't help that Copper matches up poorly into a number of our good Spikers, which brings me to another point. Sure, Copper could run EQ to slam Qwil and Klef or Knock to cripple Gligar, but in the game of mons, we only get 4 moves on a set and Copper is very very starved in this regard. You want Rocks for obvious reasons, but you also want Knock for Gligar and overall utility, Protect to rack up Leftovers recovery, EQ for good coverage and a way to hit some of the aforementioned Spikers (even though Copper won't get out of those matchups unscathed). That's 4 moves right there, and we don't even have STAB and that's not counting recent meta developments. You want Sheer Force Iron Head to not get set up on by the rising threat Glastrier but you want Heavy Metal Heavy Slam for basically everything else. Some people have proposed Earth Power to pack a better punch against certain targets like Qwil. There's a lot of moves seriously worth considering, and missing out on any one of them means you're missing out on something, and this is certainly not a problem exclusive to Copper, but the 4mss is much worse on it fs. But surely all of these flaws are made up for by Copper's otherwise superb matchup spread, right? Wrong, most of the best-case scenarios for Copper involve making at best a risky switch. Thought you were eating a Goodra Draco Meteor? You got Fore Blasted instead and now you gotta switch. Even in the instances where Copper can do its job like against Guno, Tatsu, or Mesprit, the aforementioned Spikes damage is going to pile up quick and lend a lot of crucial chip, not to mention the possibility of Tera. Thought you were gonna scare out a cm Florges? You're 2HKOd by +1 Tera Blast Ground/Fire easily, same logic applies to Specs, except they'll just do it to you on the switch and you won't accomplish anything.

TLDR: Copper does not have the consistency to justify its placement amongst such staples as Brux, Goo, and Hari, and the meta has only become more and more hostile to it. I'm not saying it's bad by any stretch, after all how bad can a strong, bulky Steel in NU really be? But it certainly deserves to be dropped a bit to reflect the tougher times it's fallen on.

Thanks for coming to my unhinged TED Talk!
 

plznostep

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hey, won't be a long post but I realised there are just some Pokemon I feel like were missed on the VR.

:eelektross: probably B-
Eelektross isn't really that amazing so I'm not really surprised people forgot about it but AV is still okay since Eelektross has good special bulk still with it. Knock Off was really nice buff for it and it can still check mons like Jolteon, Articuno-Galar, and Magneton fairly okay, so it probably deserves to around here. Levitate + Terastallization is still good, and Eelektross can still do that to be annoying to Pokemon like Piloswine. Coil sets are kinda dead though because Eelektross has a lot of competition for a bulky setup sweeper. I can also see this being C tier but I think Eelektross has just good enough traits to be around B-

:beartic: B-
I want to mention another Pokemon here who also probably deserves to be ranked. Snow is viable now, and Beartic fits fairly okay. Now Beartic is outpaced by most scarfers in the tier but its workable because Beartic is much more threatening then Sandslash-Alola usually because it has perfect coverage and a very attack high stat while Tera Ground can mean that you can catch Electric scarfers off guard and take them out in Hail, possibly eliminating the one mon who actually can outrun you. In Hail, it also has some really nice bulk so scarfers such as Bruxish won't be doing too much damage to it which is perfect because Beartic will be outspeeding everything else in Hail anyway (except Electrode-Hisui who kinda acts like a scarf mon anw). Full Snow is rather niche though since it does have some problems, so B-/C i'm fine with for Beartic but I feel as if this mon has some notable traits that it deserves recognition for.
 
Just a few updates, two mons I didn't previously discuss and an adjustment in opinion on one mon I briefly discussed.

:hariyama: A+ -> A. I genuinely don't get the hype behind this mon. I was silent on it before since while I face it a ton, I myself have seldom used it. I decided to give it a fair shot soon after my last post and... it just feels very underwhelming. Even when facing it I've almost never struggled to wall it or pick it off after some prior chip. And using it a lot myself lately, it's had only 1 game where it's impressed me. I've tried the bulk up lefties set, belly drum, guts and assault vest sets and none strike me as A+ material. It does have the rare Fighting typing, a trait only commonly shared by :heracross: which plays differently from Hariyama anyway, and it does in fairness eat the Chansey/Avalugg core for breakfast, but it doesn't feel as blanket as the other A+ mons. It's good, but not amazing.

:electrode-hisui: A- -> A+. I would argue it's just as good if not better than :jolteon:. Sure, Jolteon has a higher special attack and can set up with Calm Mind, but Hisuian Electrode has so many good traits to differentiate it. I would say the biggest thing is the set flexibility. Jolteon is very rarely changing up it's usual set of Thunderbolt-Tera Blast-Volt Switch-Calm Mind. You might see the odd Shadow Ball or Substitute, but that's about it. With Hisuian Electrode, the only real mandatory moves are Leaf Storm and Volt Switch, and then you can add what you want to the rest. Need a Taunter? It can do that. Want Foul Play for Swords Dancers and BD Hariyama? It can do that. Thunder Wave? Sure. Want to try to cheese with Substitute + Leech Seed? It can do that. And of course there's nothing wrong with running Thunderbolt or Tera Blast. Plus, being able to threaten Ground types with STAB Leaf Storm and even take massive chunks off of :gligar: is massive since Jolteon can't touch said Ground types without Terastalizing. All that said, Jolteon is definitely better as a sweeper, but Hisuian Electrode can provide such good support between the options in its movepool and having Static for an ability while still being able to act as a great offensive pivot like Jolteon tends to do. In my eyes they belong in the same tier.

:articuno-galar: A -> A-. This is a weird one in that you'll hear a lot of people praise it, but you rarely ever actually see it. What's the issue? Well, it kind of suffers from Four-MoveSlot-Syndrome. It's most often a setup mon, so it often packs Calm Mind and/or Agility. Then for a Psychic STAB move it usually runs Psyshock, but Stored Power isn't uncommon. Then for coverage it either runs Hurricane or Tera Blast (usually Fighting or Ground). It also wants recovery, so then it tries to fit in Recover. Problem is, no matter the set there's always a glaring issue. It wants to run all of Calm Mind, Agility, Psyshock/Stored Power, Hurricane/Tera Blast and Recover but can only run four of those moves. If you run something like Calm Mind-Psychic STAB-coverage-Recover, you find yourself settling for an awkward speed tier without priority. But it hates giving up any of those moves for Agility, because then it either lacks STAB, coverage, setup power or longevity. :florges: gets away with not being very fast because it has an excellent typing and bulk. There's something to be said about Weakness Policy sets, but the Stealth Rocks weakness hurts its ability to setup, and purposefully tanking a super effective hit on a pokemon that isn't terrible bulky makes it seem like it's more of a hassle for a sweeper that's probably getting deleted by a priority move anyway. Even the rare Future Sight sets aren't very scary either. All of this to say too that if you're running a Psychic type, it's likely going to be :bruxish: anyway.
 
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Kushalos

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Just a few updates, two mons I didn't previously discuss and an adjustment in opinion on one mon I briefly discussed.

:hariyama: A+ -> A. I genuinely don't get the hype behind this mon. I was silent on it before since while I face it a ton, I myself have seldom used it. I decided to give it a fair shot soon after my last post and... it just feels very underwhelming. Even when facing it I've almost never struggled to wall it or pick it off after some prior chip. And using it a lot myself lately, it's had only 1 game where it's impressed me. I've tried the belly drum, guts and assault vest sets and none strike me as A+ material. It does have the rare Fighting typing, a trait only commonly shared by :heracross: which plays differently from Hariyama anyway, and it does in fairness eat the Chansey/Avalugg core for breakfast, but it doesn't feel as blanket as the other A+ mons. It's good, but not amazing.

:electrode-hisui: A- -> A+. I would argue it's just as good if not better than :jolteon:. Sure, Jolteon has a higher special attack and can set up with Calm Mind, but Hisuian Electrode has so many good traits to differentiate it. I would say the biggest thing is the set flexibility. Jolteon is very rarely changing up it's usual set of Thunderbolt-Tera Blast-Volt Switch-Calm Mind. You might see the odd Shadow Ball or Substitute, but that's about it. With Hisuian Electrode, the only real mandatory moves are Leaf Storm and Volt Switch, and then you can add what you want to the rest. Need a Taunter? It can do that. Want Foul Play for Swords Dancers and BD Hariyama? It can do that. Thunder Wave? Sure. Want to try to cheese with Substitute + Leech Seed? It can do that. And of course there's nothing wrong with running Thunderbolt or Tera Blast. Plus, being able to threaten Ground types with STAB Leaf Storm and even take massive chunks off of :gligar: is massive since Jolteon can't touch said Ground types without Terastalizing. All that said, Jolteon is definitely better as a sweeper, but Hisuian Electrode can provide such good support between the options in its movepool and having Static for an ability while still being able to act as a great offensive pivot like Jolteon tends to do. In my eyes they belong in the same tier.

:articuno-galar: A -> A-. This is a weird one in that you'll hear a lot of people praise it, but you rarely ever actually see it. What's the issue? Well, it kind of suffers from Four-MoveSlot-Syndrome. It's most often a setup mon, so it often packs Calm Mind and/or Agility. Then for a Psychic STAB move it usually runs Psyshock, but Stored Power isn't uncommon. Then for coverage it either runs Hurricane or Tera Blast (usually Fighting or Ground). It also wants recovery, so then it tries to fit in Recover. Problem is, no matter the set there's always a glaring issue. It wants to run all of Calm Mind, Agility, Psyshock/Stored Power, Hurricane/Tera Blast and Recover but can only run four of those moves. If you run something like Calm Mind-Psychic STAB-coverage-Recover, you find yourself settling for an awkward speed tier without priority. But it hates giving up any of those moves for Agility, because then it either lacks STAB, coverage, setup power or longevity. :florges: gets away with not being very fast because it has an excellent typing and bulk. There's something to be said about Weakness Policy sets, but the Stealth Rocks weakness hurts its ability to setup, and purposefully tanking a super effective hit on a pokemon that isn't terrible bulky makes it seem like it's more of a hassle for a sweeper that's probably getting deleted by a priority move anyway. Even the rare Future Sight sets aren't very scary either. All of this to say too that if you're running a Psychic type, it's likely going to be :bruxish: anyway.
Hariyama is A+ because of its Bulk Up Tera Steel set.
 

Rabia

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Just a few updates, two mons I didn't previously discuss and an adjustment in opinion on one mon I briefly discussed.

:hariyama: A+ -> A. I genuinely don't get the hype behind this mon. I was silent on it before since while I face it a ton, I myself have seldom used it. I decided to give it a fair shot soon after my last post and... it just feels very underwhelming. Even when facing it I've almost never struggled to wall it or pick it off after some prior chip. And using it a lot myself lately, it's had only 1 game where it's impressed me. I've tried the belly drum, guts and assault vest sets and none strike me as A+ material. It does have the rare Fighting typing, a trait only commonly shared by :heracross: which plays differently from Hariyama anyway, and it does in fairness eat the Chansey/Avalugg core for breakfast, but it doesn't feel as blanket as the other A+ mons. It's good, but not amazing.

:electrode-hisui: A- -> A+. I would argue it's just as good if not better than :jolteon:. Sure, Jolteon has a higher special attack and can set up with Calm Mind, but Hisuian Electrode has so many good traits to differentiate it. I would say the biggest thing is the set flexibility. Jolteon is very rarely changing up it's usual set of Thunderbolt-Tera Blast-Volt Switch-Calm Mind. You might see the odd Shadow Ball or Substitute, but that's about it. With Hisuian Electrode, the only real mandatory moves are Leaf Storm and Volt Switch, and then you can add what you want to the rest. Need a Taunter? It can do that. Want Foul Play for Swords Dancers and BD Hariyama? It can do that. Thunder Wave? Sure. Want to try to cheese with Substitute + Leech Seed? It can do that. And of course there's nothing wrong with running Thunderbolt or Tera Blast. Plus, being able to threaten Ground types with STAB Leaf Storm and even take massive chunks off of :gligar: is massive since Jolteon can't touch said Ground types without Terastalizing. All that said, Jolteon is definitely better as a sweeper, but Hisuian Electrode can provide such good support between the options in its movepool and having Static for an ability while still being able to act as a great offensive pivot like Jolteon tends to do. In my eyes they belong in the same tier.

:articuno-galar: A -> A-. This is a weird one in that you'll hear a lot of people praise it, but you rarely ever actually see it. What's the issue? Well, it kind of suffers from Four-MoveSlot-Syndrome. It's most often a setup mon, so it often packs Calm Mind and/or Agility. Then for a Psychic STAB move it usually runs Psyshock, but Stored Power isn't uncommon. Then for coverage it either runs Hurricane or Tera Blast (usually Fighting or Ground). It also wants recovery, so then it tries to fit in Recover. Problem is, no matter the set there's always a glaring issue. It wants to run all of Calm Mind, Agility, Psyshock/Stored Power, Hurricane/Tera Blast and Recover but can only run four of those moves. If you run something like Calm Mind-Psychic STAB-coverage-Recover, you find yourself settling for an awkward speed tier without priority. But it hates giving up any of those moves for Agility, because then it either lacks STAB, coverage, setup power or longevity. :florges: gets away with not being very fast because it has an excellent typing and bulk. There's something to be said about Weakness Policy sets, but the Stealth Rocks weakness hurts its ability to setup, and purposefully tanking a super effective hit on a pokemon that isn't terrible bulky makes it seem like it's more of a hassle for a sweeper that's probably getting deleted by a priority move anyway. Even the rare Future Sight sets aren't very scary either. All of this to say too that if you're running a Psychic type, it's likely going to be :bruxish: anyway.
wanted to respond to this one because I think the nom reasonings aren't so solid

Kushalos put the Hariyama point as succinctly as anyone could: Tera Steel Bulk Up is a really strong set. Think about it compared to Dudunsparce, except Hariyama has Knock Off (broken move), priority, and is dealing damage when it attacks. Those traits in addition to Thick Fat + Terastallizing make it a far more dangerous setup Pokemon than the other slow-paced options in this metagame imo.

Electrode is weirdly overrated at the moment because of the Jolteon hate. The reality is you don't need Tera Fairy on Jolteon anymore. Grimmsnarl is gone, Toxicroak usage isn't too high, and the Choice Scarf users you'd want to have Tera Fairy for aren't really dominating the tier. We're back to a Tera Ice meta, but even Tera Ghost works quite well at the moment to retain a good Close Combat deterrent from something like a Choice Scarf Heracross and to style on Chansey. Jolteon's downfall was grossly overstated even before these shifts, but he's still a top-3 option in the tier. Electrode, meanwhile, is a speed merchant. He's weak as hell and while he does well to dictate game pace through that absurd speed, it pales in comparison to Jolteon as a late-game cleaner and isn't really any better as an early- and mid-game pivot because Jolteon is ALSO absurdly fast. I think A- is a fine spot to keep Electrode at currently; if anything, we can drop Rotom-C to that same tier.

Articuno is a cool pick currently because Calm Mind Florges is rather dangerous, and the standard ChanseyLugg reasoning behind ANY Psyshock booster applies too. On the Florges point: this mirror matchup is super favorable for a few reasons. One of course is Psyshock will smack it after a few boosts, but you also can just switch into it repeatedly through the battle and fish for Moonblast drops to activate Competitive. It makes Florges trading with Articuno a lot less easy. The 4MSS you mention isn't really that, but rather an indicator of Articuno's versatility. Generally, those Stored Power Agility sets are best suited to super offensive teams anyway. More balanced/bulkier builds appreciate the Calm Mind / Psyshock / Hurricane / Recover angle.
 
:whiscash: C > C+

Whiscash stands out as a decent defensive pick right now. It provides a unique niche by resisting both of Salazzle's STABs and being neutral to the BoltBeam STABs of Tera Ice Jolteon, checking both of these Pokémon pretty effectively. Furthermore, it possesses solid bulk, sporting a high 110 base HP with passable 73/71 defenses, and a highly valuable access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock for utility. It also helps that it has a great matchup against opposing rockers and hazard removal such as Gligar, Piloswine, Avalugg (with Surf chipping it down pretty effectively) and both Qwilfishes. Also, possessing the ability Oblivious allows it to have a very decent matchup against common hyper-offensive leads (in a meta where HO is decently common) like Lycanroc and Froslass.

:samurott: C > C+

Samurott is a very versatile Pokémon in the current meta. While SD sets allow it to ravage slower, bulkier cores with the combination of STAB Liquidation and coverage Knock Off or Megahorn, mixed offensive sets with Hydro Pump and Knock Off + Sacred Sword stand out as well by providing an incredibly positive matchup against the new Chansey + Avalugg cores. It is a very valuable pick right now and should definitely be explored a bit more.
 
electrode-hisui.png
A->A+ (fringe S)
yo so I'm not usually one to comment on forums like these bc I'm lazy but I've been pretty outspoken about this mon for the past few months, yet it is still constantly overlooked for god knows what reason. Actually the reasons are frequently and briefly listed above, it's spa is mid. I mean its base 80 in a tier power-crept to hell, why is it so good?

First off, let's briefly note because it hits 399 without a speed boosting nature, you're still hitting close to 300 spa with modest. (its the fastest base pokemon in the tier WITHOUT a speed boosting nature!) Yeah it's still not jolteon levels but jolteon also doesn't have a 130 bp move w very little drawback so is it really that much stronger ? Jolteon also doesn't have access to foul play, an absolutely fantastic midground move into common pokemon like goodra, decidueye, copperajah, and more. Jolteon also doesn't have the insanely good defensive grass typing, or an invaluable ability in aftermath (whose 25% can absolutely be game-changing). but jolteon has volt absorb, it's better! is it? it's certainly not doing a great job switching into most volters in the tier, electrode included. I have an electrode in, I'm certainly not being shy about pressing volt switch w a jolteon in the back, what's it even going to do if it comes in, waste tera?

For reference I'll link the most common set I used in SCL:

Electrode-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Aftermath
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Foul Play
- Thunder Wave

dark is generally nice for very strong foul plays, but it's tera is very customizable. Thunder wave is also basically a free slot for whatever your team needs

to address further points::::::
by the way usually I agree with rabia's takes but this sentence in particular stood out to me as very untrue when comparing electrode and jolteon:

"and isn't really any better as an early- and mid-game pivot because Jolteon is ALSO absurdly fast"

don't get me wrong, despite being one of the jolteon semi-haters myself (not above using it tho, esp the shadow ball set which is quite decent rn) it is absolutely a worse early to mid-game pivot. I cannot overstate how much I disagree with this take. Why? Few reasons
1. it's harder to get in! it's not a grass type, and that means it's not coming in on any ground ever. this includes palo, conda, grass moves (other electrode/rotom), even a few weaker water attacks. because jolt is also often shooting to preserve hp for cm later in the game, its a mon you typically have to play way safer.
2. Leaf storm. I mean its really this simple. threatening a 35 chip on gligar so it can only come in once, ohkos on the grounds, and fp damage on others makes it way way easier to press volt switch. And that's what it does. it's going to get volt switch off and you can't stop it. jolteon in my experience cannot do this as easily, it's good at getting volt off yes, but it just has less chances to do so across games. and by the way it matches up really poorly into electrode considering trode 4* resists jolteon's electric moves. I really do not mean to paint jolteon as a bad mon, it's still very good/decent at what it does. but the discrepancies in the VR do not make any sense
rotom-mow in A?
Jolteon in A+? while electrode is in A-

we are discouraging people from using one of if not the best volt switch option in this tier

let's dive a little deeper:
let's look at scl usage statistics (the most recent high level look at nu gameplay)
rotom-mow: 9 uses (10%), 55% WR (very respectable)
jolteon: 23 uses (25%), 39% WR (average, albeit maybe not indicative of the mon)
electrode h: 17 uses (19%), (53% WR)
looking at these 3 mons electrode had similar usage to jolteon with a /significantly/ higher WR. my dude is still two tiers below jolteon

I think people can argue I inflated it's WR, using it 5 times, and winning, 5 times. But I will link the games below and let people judge how difficult it looks to play in these games (spoiler: it's not, all it does it click and help you positionally)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-731446
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-727653
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-729855
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-732703
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-720844

finishing this off, I know I'm not alone in this opinion, but it still seems contested by other people in VR/in the NU community. I can't see why, it's really not the power imo, bc accounting for storm it's virtually as strong as jolt, less tera reliant, and also just matches up super well into it. Orb is good, try it out, and for the love of god move it above rotom mow (or at least balance them out????)
 
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