Resource RU Old Gens Hub MK II (Feat USM RU)

MrAldo

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RU Old Gens Hub

RUOldGenHub.png

ty very much Clementine for the amazing banner

Welcome to the RU Old Gens Hub. Given that RU is a pretty young tier compared to others like UU and NU (RU was introduced on the 5th generation of Pokemon) this thread will contain resources for - Black and White RU. and ORAS RU, and now USM RU. This thread will serve as a place to discuss each of these respective generations. Different posts will contain viability rankings, sample teams, and lists of mechanics with major variations from the current generation. Feel free to discuss your favorite aspects of these metagames, underrated threats, teams you wanna share, if you wanna challenge somebody or whatever.

Basic forum etiquette rules apply.


:blastoise-mega:USM RESOURCES:blastoise-mega:
:venusaur: ORAS RESOURCES :venusaur:
:moltres: BW RESOURCES :moltres:
 
Last edited:

MrAldo

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is a Social Media Contributoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
USM RU

Generation 7 specific changes/mechanics:
Credit to roman and all the people that contributed to this project in the past

S RANK:

Virizion

A RANK:

A+:


Donphan
Mandibuzz
154872
Metagross
Necrozma
Registeel
Roserade

A:

Blastoise-Mega
Golisopod
Nidoqueen
Noivern
Salazzle
mega scep.png
Sceptile-Mega
Slowbro

A-:

Araquanid
Flygon
Gardevoir
Milotic
Mismagius
Passimian
Toxicroak
Zygarde-10%

B RANK:

B+:


Bewear
Diancie
Florges
Houndoom
Ninetales
Raikou
Rhyperior
Sigilyph
Slowking
Tyrantrum
Xatu

B:

Aerodactyl
Bronzong
Dragalge
Drapion
Forretress
Goodra
Machamp
Ribombee
Shaymin


B-:

Abomasnow-Mega
Barbaracle
Gigalith
Hariyama
Lycanroc-Dusk
Palossand
Snorlax
Yanmega

C RANK:

C+:


Arcanine
Cresselia
Dhelmise
Escavalier
175443
Garbodor
Mantine
Pangoro
Rotom-Mow
175442
Tangela
Tsareena
Umbreon

C:

Ampharos-Mega
Cloyster
Espeon
423e.png
423.png
Gastrodon
Golbat
Honchkrow
incineroar.png
Incineroar
Marowak-Alola
Medicham
Porygon-2
Seismitoad
Sneasel
Stoutland
Steelix
Swellow
Uxie
Vanilluxe
Vaporeon
Venusaur
Vikavolt

C-:

Glalie-Mega


D RANK:

Banette-Mega
596.png
Galvantula
Jolteon


https://pokepast.es/6f75a95c827c215f
Roserade @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Leaf Storm
- Sleep Powder
- Synthesis

Slowbro @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 52 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Slack Off
- Ice Beam

Bewear @ Choice Band
Ability: Fluffy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Shadow Claw
- Drain Punch

Noivern @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Roost
- Flamethrower
- Defog

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Houndoom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Toxic


https://pokepast.es/064370c5f817d810
Slowking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 172 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Psychic
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast

Rhyperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Atk / 76 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Growth
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
- Earthquake

Metagross @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Explosion

Ninetales @ Firium Z
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast

Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 164 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Foul Play
- Defog
- Roost


https://pokepast.es/e3a0b187cb1c98c4
Xatu @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Psyshock
- Roost
- Heat Wave

Golisopod @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Emergency Exit
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Aqua Jet
- Leech Life
- Drill Run

Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Leaf Storm

Metagross @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Atk / 48 SpD / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Bullet Punch

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Defog
- Outrage

Toxicroak @ Poisonium Z
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch


https://pokepast.es/56d2a33fbca924ef
Pangoro @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Bullet Punch

Roserade @ Poisonium Z
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Spikes

Blastoise-Mega @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Mega Launcher
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Aura Sphere
- Rapid Spin

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- U-turn
- Aerial Ace

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Protect

Florges @ Pixie Plate
Ability: Symbiosis
EVs: 252 HP / 32 SpA / 224 Spe
Modest Nature
- Moonblast
- Synthesis
- Aromatherapy
- Wish


https://pokepast.es/2009fd2c58981b47
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Psywave
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic

Garbodor @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Stomping Tantrum
- Spikes
- Toxic

Virizion @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Synthesis
- Swords Dance

Zygarde-10% @ Choice Band
Ability: Emergency Exit
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Atk / 96 Def
Impish Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic

Golisopod @ Insect Plate
Ability: Emergency Exit
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Atk / 96 Def
Impish Nature
- First Impression
- Leech Life
- Aqua Jet
- Liquidation

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Healing Wish


https://pokepast.es/e4137c5175e45ad1
Toxicroak @ Poisonium Z
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch

Noivern @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Hurricane
- Switcheroo
- U-turn

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Pursuit
- Bullet Punch

Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 170 HP / 180 SpA / 158 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Toxic
- Power Gem

Golisopod @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Emergency Exit
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 100 HP / 244 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Aqua Jet
- Leech Life
- Liquidation

Donphan @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 76 Def / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Rapid Spin
 

MrAldo

Hey
is a Social Media Contributoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
ORAS RU


Generation 6 specific mechanics:
  • Burn damage deals 12% damage unlike in SM which has been reduced to 6%
  • Hidden Powers are IV dependant unlike in SM where you can have perfect IVs with any hidden power.
  • Crit chance ratio is of 6.25% unlike in SM where it has been reduced to around 4.16%
  • Paralysis status reduces speed by 75% unlike SM which has been decreased to 50%
Credit to phantom and to everyone involved in the building of this at the time

S RANK:
The best of the best. Reserved for Pokemon who shape and define the RU metagame and are a clear-cut above the rest of the tier. These Pokemon are typically very powerful offensive threats that are difficult to prepare for and/or are phenomenal support and defensive threats that provide significant utility or defensive potential, respectively. Also the home of Pokemon who can easily perform multiple roles effectively, increasing their versatility and unpredictability. If the Pokemon in this rank have any flaws, those flaws are thoroughly mitigated by their substantial strengths.


Flygon
Venusaur

A RANK:
Reserved for Pokemon who can sweep or wall significant portions of the metagame and can perform well against most play styles, but require some support or have some flaws that prevents them from doing this consistently. Supporting Pokemon in this rank may give opponents free turns or cannot create free turns easily themselves, but can still do their job most of the time. Pokemon in this rank are also known to define the play styles they fit on or are easy to add on any given team, while being able to carry their weight nearly every match.

A+ Rank

Alomomola
Drapion
Magneton
Registeel
Sigilyph
Slowking
Sneasel

A Rank

Diancie
Escavalier
Glalie-Mega
Medicham
Rhyperior
Scrafty
Virizion

A- Rank

Camerupt-Mega
Gallade
Jellicent
Meloetta
Omastar
Xatu

B RANK:
Reserved for Pokemon who cannot sweep through or wall significant portions of the metagame, but can properly fulfill a given offensive/defensive niche. Support Pokemon in this category have flaws that prevent them from doing their job, are setup bait for dangerous sweepers, or often give too many free turns. Pokemon who are partially outperformed or struggle with taking on the Pokemon in the A or S Rank, but are otherwise dangerous in their own right and aren't difficult to fit on teams, may also fall into this category.

B+ Rank

Barbaracle
Blastoise
Braviary
Delphox
Druddigon
Emboar
Garbodor
Granbull
Hitmonlee
Malamar
Seismitoad
Steelix
Uxie

B Rank

Absol
Aerodactyl
Bronzong
Exploud
Gurdurr
Hoopa
Houndoom
Rotom-Mow
Sawk
Vivillon

B- Rank

Accelgor
Audino-Mega
Jolteon
Rotom
Torterra

C RANK:
Reserved for Pokemon who can be effective in the right setting, but either have crippling flaws that prevent them from consistently executing their strategy or are completely eclipsed by a Pokemon in the above ranks. Pokemon in this rank typically require more extensive support, struggle performing against the Pokemon ranked above, and are difficult to fit on teams.

C+ Rank

Abomasnow
Aggron
Archeops
Cofagrigus
Fletchinder
Golbat
Hariyama
Mesprit
Weezing

C Rank

Aromatisse
Banette (mega)
Clawitzer
Ferroseed
Gourgeist XL
Kabutops
Liepard
Ludicolo
Piloswine
Quagsire
Qwilfish
Samurott
Sceptile
Scyther
Skuntank
Spiritomb

C- Rank

Aurorus
Eelektross
Hitmontop
Jynx
Poliwrath

MERU RANK aka BLACKLISTED aka D RANK:
The worst of the worst. Bad pkmn (RU Pokemon by usage that are bad will be listed here. Everything not listed also falls in here). Unviable Pokemon that have been repeatedly brought up in this thread, whether they're RU by usage or not, will also be listed here. Discussion on these Pokemon often tends to derail the thread, and therefore discussion on them is not allowed.

D Rank

Ambipom
Cinccino

D- Rank

Typhlosion


https://pokepast.es/5d5ec0702bd55d30
Barbaracle @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Aerial Ace
- Razor Shell
- Stone Edge

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 16 SpA / 32 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Earthquake

Drapion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake

Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Energy Ball
- Heat Wave
- Roost

Flygon @ Salac Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Substitute
- Dragon Rush
- Earthquake


https://pokepast.es/ac628c252bfed74c
Druddigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Punch
- Fire Punch
- Iron Head
- Dragon Claw

Slowking @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Thunder Wave
- Calm Mind

Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Toxic

Flygon @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 112 HP / 144 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn
- Earthquake

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 24 SpA / 16 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Sludge Bomb

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 244 HP / 136 Atk / 128 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Toxic


https://pokepast.es/0e993cda6b4515be
Slowking @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 16 SpA / 32 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Scald
- Psychic
- Slack Off

Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Heal Bell

Magneton @ Eviolite
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon

Flygon @ Earth Plate
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Defog
- Earthquake
- Roost

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 16 SpA / 24 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis

Houndoom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 96 Atk / 160 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Ice]


https://pokepast.es/38720c00d2166bb1
Camerupt-Mega @ Cameruptite
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 88 HP / 252 SpA / 168 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 120 HP / 136 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic
- Scald

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 16 SpA / 24 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis

Xatu @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Night Shade
- Psychic
- Roost

Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Heal Bell

Sneasel @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard


https://pokepast.es/f4a2888755654afc
Archeops @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Endeavor
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt

Drapion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poison Jab
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Brick Break

Hitmonlee @ Life Orb
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Knock Off
- Mach Punch
- Close Combat

Omastar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Shell Smash

Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Air Slash
- Calm Mind

Glalie-Mega @ Glalitite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 160 Atk / 96 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Double-Edge
- Freeze-Dry
- Ice Shard
- Spikes
 
Last edited:

MrAldo

Hey
is a Social Media Contributoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
BW RU


Generation 5 specific mechanics:
  • Dark and Ghost are resisted by Steel instead of neutral
  • Sleep turns reset to 0 when you switch out.
  • Hidden Power has a max base power of 70, and the base power depends on the Pokemon's IVs.
  • Grass-types can be affected by powder moves like Spore, Sleep Powder, Stun Spore unless they have an ability to avoid it.
  • Electric-types can be paralyzed by Thunder Wave unless they have an ability to avoid it.
  • Critical Hits deal double the damage instead of x1.5 from Gen 6 onwards.
  • Several other moves had different base power, PP, or accuracy.
Credit to Molk and the rest of the RU community at the time for compiling this.

S Rank: Reserved for the top threats in the RU metagame. These Pokemon are usually able to perform a variety of roles effectively, or can just do one extremely well with little to no extra support. Their use has low risk involved and high reward exerted. Pokemon in this tier have very few flaws that are patched up by numerous positive traits.


Druddigon


Durant


Moltres


Sceptile

A Rank: Reserved for Pokemon that are outstanding in the RU metagame and can sweep, wall, or support the majority of the tier. These Pokemon require less support than other Pokemon to be used effectively, but still perform less consistently than the average S rank Pokemon. A rank Pokemon have few flaws that can be overlooked when compared to their positive traits.

A+:


Aerodactyl


Alomomola


Kabutops


Magneton


Qwilfish


Rotom-C


Sigilyph


A:


Entei


Golurk


Rotom-N


Slowking


Steelix


Uxie


A-:


Aggron


Amoonguss


Cryogonal


Gallade


Jynx


Lanturn


Mesprit


Omastar


Rhydon


Scolipede


Tangrowth


Torterra

B Rank: Reserved for Pokemon who are slightly above average in the RU metagame. These Pokemon have more notable flaws than of those above it that affects how they function in the tier. Their positive traits still outshine their negatives, but they require a bit more team support to bring out their full potential

B+:


Absol


Accelgor


Braviary


Clefable


Crawdaunt


Escavalier


Emboar


Ferroseed


Garbodor


Lilligant


Manectric


Piloswine


Roselia


Seismitoad


Spiritomb


B:


Altaria


Archeops


Bouffalant


Cinccino


Crustle


Drapion


Fraxure


Galvantula


Haunter


Hitmonlee


Kangaskhan


Klinklang


Ludicolo


Medicham


Rotom-F


Sawsbuck


Scyther


Tauros


Zangoose


B-:


Drifblim


Exeggutor


Feraligatr


Gurdurr


Hariyama


Magmortar


Misdreavus


Miltank


Musharna


Poliwrath


Regirock


Samurott


Smeargle


Swellow


Typhlosion

C Rank: Reserved for Pokemon that have notable niches in the RU metagame, but have just as notable flaws that prevent them from being top tier threats. Pokemon in the C tier often require significant support to be as effective as higher ranked Pokemon in RU. C rank Pokemon tend to face a lot of competition with the more commonly used Pokemon.

C+:


Cacturne


Carracosta


Charizard


Dragonair


Duosion


Eelektross


Gardevoir


Hitmonchan


Mandibuzz


Pinsir


Primeape


Shiftry


Zweilous


C:


Electivire


Kadabra


Quagsire


Rotom-Spin


Swanna


Victreebel

C-:


Arbok


Basculin


Butterfree


Camerupt


Gabite


Lickilicky


Liepard


Murkrow


Relicanth


Sandslash


Scraggy


Vigoroth


Volbeat


Weezing


Whimsicott

D Rank: Reserved for Pokemon that are below average in the RU metagame. These Pokemon often require very significant amounts of support with a relatively low reward compared to higher ranked Pokemon.

D:


Ditto


Flareon


Leafeon


Linoone


Marowak


Muk


Riolu


Serperior


Simipour


Skuntank


Torkoal


D-:


Articuno


Audino


Dusknoir


Golem


Gorebyss


Gothorita


Natu


Ninjask


Rapidash


Shedinja


Shelgon


Swoobat


Vileplume


https://pokepast.es/fc514185a30974b2
Uxie @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt

Sceptile @ Flying Gem
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Leaf Blade
- Earthquake

Qwilfish @ Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Spikes
- Waterfall
- Destiny Bond

Rotom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball

Escavalier @ Custap Berry
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Megahorn
- Endure
- Return

Rhydon @ Eviolite
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 108 HP / 56 Atk / 60 Def / 252 SpD / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Megahorn


https://pokepast.es/15929be71e9343ee
Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 184 Def / 44 SpD / 24 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Toxic

Aerodactyl @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Roost

Magneton @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon

Skuntank @ Life Orb
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Sucker Punch
- Crunch

Uxie @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 96 HP / 188 SpA / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Substitute

Sceptile @ Flying Gem
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Acrobatics
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Rock Slide


https://pokepast.es/5cfb4b29f2e12f1c
Galvantula @ Choice Specs
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Bug Buzz
- Volt Switch
- Giga Drain

Magneton @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Flash Cannon

Golurk @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 64 HP / 224 Atk / 4 Def / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch

Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 76 Def / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost

Druddigon @ Choice Band
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Sucker Punch

Kabutops @ Rock Gem
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Stone Edge


Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Energy Ball
- Roost

Absol @ Dread Plate
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Night Slash

Amoonguss @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 52 SpA / 116 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Stun Spore
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Clear Smog

Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Stone Edge
- Superpower

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 44 SpA / 212 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Sludge Bomb

Regirock @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Toxic
- Rock Slide


https://pokepast.es/290fa84efa654b96
Golurk @ Life Orb
Ability: No Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dynamic Punch
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch

Durant @ Lum Berry
Ability: Hustle
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- X-Scissor
- Superpower
- Thunder Fang

Rotom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

Sceptile @ Flying Gem
Ability: Unburden
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics

Omastar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

Feraligatr @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Aqua Jet
- Crunch


Gallade (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Night Slash

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Megahorn
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 204 HP / 96 Def / 208 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Toxic
- Heal Bell

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Roar

Sawsbuck @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Baton Pass
- Double-Edge
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick

Spiritomb @ Black Glasses
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Pursuit
- Will-O-Wisp
 
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Molk

Godlike Usmash
is a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Imagine not having my Drifblim team in the sample teams section for BW even though i made a post about it in the old thread and talked about the team and how to use it at great length.

Couldn't be me :(

Golurk @ Passho Berry
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch
- Toxic / Drain Punch / Fire Punch

Drifblim @ Flying Gem
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Will-O-Wisp
- Substitute
- Destiny Bond

Ferroseed @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Gyro Ball
- Leech Seed
- Thunder Wave

Swellow @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Facade
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Quick Attack

Kabutops @ Lum Berry / Life Orb
Ability: Weak Armor / Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall / Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Rapid Spin
- Aqua Jet

Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Sleep Talk


Molk said:
I thought a good way to end this post would be to post a team that utilized one of the cores that i presented. I have to tell all of you, the team you're currently looking at is, through all generations that i've played competitive Pokemon, one of my absolute favorite teams to pilot of all time. I took the concept of this team and just ran with it back then. Not just did i use Drifblim to soften up Swellow's counters, but i went above and beyond to make counterplay to this team's win condition as difficult as i could. The Drifblim+Swellow core has great synergy with Spikes for various reasons that i already stated above, and seeing this, i decided to build the team so removing them would be as difficult as possible. If you look at the team, you'll see that it utilizes a double ghost core of Driblim+Golurk. This alone makes pulling off a successful Rapid Spin a difficult ordeal, although neither is *too* well equipped to deal with Kabutops or offensive Cryogonal (in all honesty, i added the Passho Berry to Golurk in hindsight to help it deal with Kabutops a bit more effectively, when i used this team it had Leftovers). However, the real kicker here comes in the form of Ferroseed, who not only has the staying power to both set up multiple layers of Spikes and potentially reset them later, but also has a good matchup against both Kabutops and Cryogonal. Kabutops requires Superpower to be particularly threatening to Ferroseed, defensive variations of Cryogonal struggle, and even offensive variations of HP Fire Cryogonal straight up lose to Ferroseed 1v1! (Technically if the Cryogonal is holding LO and SR is up, Ferroseed can potentially get OHKOed if the Cryogonal player gets a good roll, but a little bit of investment should patch that up). As an added bonus, Ferroseed can "punish" the opponent for successfully pulling off a Rapid Spin due to Iron Barbs, and tends to be able to use the bulky Rock- and Steel-type Pokemon that this team aims to weaken as Spikes fodder. Speaking of Rapid Spin, Kabutops was the team's own Rapid Spinner, to try and make sure that Swellow and Drifblim won't have to switch into SR too much. During the time that i used this team, it was extremely successful and an absolute blast to use, very few builds at the time were well equipped to handle this kind of obnoxious, dual "bird" spikestacking offense. However, i eventually did end up retiring this team because i felt like it struggled with certain Pokemon and builds that were becoming more commonplace, mainly augstall style builds due to Alomomola's ability to stomach hits from the team's dynamic duo and heal up the Pokemon the team sets out to weaken (although being Spikes fodder for Ferroseed helped a little), and Magneton due to the team's reliance on Ferroseed for success. However, i think this sort of style still has potential, and i even believe that this team in particular might still be workable in the current meta with a few tweaks to account for these things. If any of you have ideas on how to patch those up, feel free to comment below.
Also we had some discussion on changes to the BW VR and i don't think any of that actually ended up being implemented.

EDIT: sorry if this post came across as rude by the way, "imagine (insert thing here) couldn't be me" is a G&W thing lol
 
Last edited:
Re: Molk's post, there are some good teams and posts in the old VR, which I think would be good to have merged.

Going to quickly share some of my most recent BW RU teams. I have a post in the old VR with my thoughts on the metagame, which have more or less stayed the same, so I'm just going to drop the teams with some minimal explanation. These teams being my most recent have been ones where I've been highly experimental in trying different anti-meta techniques. I think some are in fact very good top tier teams, while others are good but certainty have major flaws which perhaps makes them a few inches short of metagame standard.

https://pokepast.es/4cc3ac3c451eb9bd

This is a rain team. The idea was, in addition to using rain, to abuse the redundancy of Rock / Water physical attackers to break each others checks and sweep. For this reason, spikes were included as well. Banette is a niche pick which ended up being highly effective, being able to spinblock, whilst punishing traditional rain checks like Slowking. I think this is a top quality team.

https://pokepast.es/26b5f0bde14c4772

This is one of my first attempts at building Trick Room, which I think is a strategy obviously underutilized in such an offensive metagame. It trades an abundance of Trick Roomers for added offensive threats, meaning it requires being played somewhat aggressively so as to not run out of momentum. I think it in general is a very strong team, although Steelix (added as a soft durant check) has proved to be underwhelming, and would probably be better replaced with a different Pokemon choice.

https://pokepast.es/4e4ad44524f08717

This squad was developed half seriously at first, although I quickly realized it had potential, and pushed through various iterations. This, being the final version, is designed to abuse the strength of gen 5 T-wave, being 100% accurate and hitting electric types, to play the odds and stall out traditional teams relying on standard balanced offense mons. It is difficult to play with, and can fall apart quickly with simple mistakes, however I think based on the math of the odds, its a sound concept. I think this sort of archetype and variations might be worth further exploration.

https://pokepast.es/2fdd89aa8e632f4f

The idea behind this team was to abuse the explosiveness of the Sun Sweeper Victrebell in this tier, without fully committing to a sun archetype. Regigigas to that end was exploited as an unorthodox sun-setter, to provide an unexpected and potentially devastating late-game combo when paired with other traditional hyper-offense staples. I think this team is very strong.
 
hey y'all, I'm taking over this thread for Aldo.

Old Gens hasn't received much attention lately with the chaos of Generation 8 taking up most of the tier contributors energy, but I would like to start working towards some improvements towards this section of the forum for newcomers and to keep discussion around these metagames active. The first step I want to take is to actually put some sample teams up, and ones of high quality. I am hoping to get 8 - 10 well documented teams for each metagame, from a variety of different players in order to showcase different building styles and takes on each metagame. If you'd like to contribute to this, please PM me. In addition, I am going to try to start adding sample sets for the top Pokemon in each metagame, to which all are welcome to contribute. Thanks!
 

Nat

is a Top Tiering Contributor
UUPL Champion
ehy, I'm here to drop off a quirky & successful SM team I made some time ago.

https://pokepast.es/c831197b2210a2e3

This team was originally an ORAS team in RU WCOP that nobody could win with, so I tried to use the same 6 in SM and it worked out pretty well. The premise is that you annoy stuff with trick gourgeist+weezing, get multi-hazards up and eventually sweep w/ scrafty or barb. I've always found barb to be an incredibly annoying sweeper to a lot of teams & it's usually what wins here.

Weezing+Bronzong have pretty decent defensive synergy. If you want to opt for heatproof on zong to help w/ tales that's also viable, since you have enough ground stops in weezing/gourgeist/flygon. Gourgeist is timid so that you outspeed mega-stoise post trick. I definitely feel stoise is the biggest pain to this team if anything. Scarf flygon is just for speedy utility/support.

I only used it twice in team tours I believe but here it is in action, albeit different gourgeist size.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ru-460573 - RU WCOP where the team was originally concocted
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ru-1024956525 - LTPL

I'd like to wager that if your opponent doesn't know what to expect or missteps it can definitely end really quickly, as partially viewable here.
 
Since this is gonna get rebranded i figured ill make a post. First, heres a team that i wanted to share. Only one cause my builds are mainly cteammy, sry about that :psycry:. Now, i wanted to discuss the overall SM RU VR, as i feel like its very outdated. Gonna remake the entier VR with reasonings if i feel like to give them.

S RANK:

154872
Metagross
Roserade
Virizion

A RANK:

A+:


Golisopod
Mandibuzz
Necrozma
Nidoqueen
Registeel
Salazzle
Sceptile-Mega

A:


Blastoise-Mega
Donphan
Ninetales
Noivern
Slowbro
Toxicroak

A-:
Araquanid
Drapion
Gardevoir
Passimian
Raikou
Slowking
Snorlax

B RANK:

B+:



Abomasnow-Mega
Aerodactyl
Bewear
Bronzong
Cresselia
Diancie
Dragalge
Drapion
Florges
Flygon
Goodra
Houndoom
Machamp
Milotic
Mismagius
:pangoro: Pangoro
Rhyperior
Sigilyph
Tyrantrum
Xatu
Zygarde-10%

B:


Arcanine
Barbaracle
Dhelmise (good mon that checks a lot of relevant threats and hits hard, the trapping set is very annoying too)
Escavalier
Forretress
Gigalith
Lycanroc-Dusk
Palossand
Porygon2
Shaymin

B-:

Alolan Marowak
Espeon
175443
Garbodor
Gastrodon
Hariyama
Honchkrow
Ribombee
Tsareena
Vaporeon
Yanmega

C RANK:

C+:



Ditto
Mantine
154870
Sawk
Seismitoad
Sneasel
Swellow
Stoutland
175442
Tangela
Umbreon

C:

:ampharos-mega: Ampharos-Mega
Articuno
Cloyster
Glalie-Mega
Golbat
Steelix
Uxie
Vanilluxe
Venusaur


D RANK:

Banette-Mega
:galvantula: Galvantula
Jolteon
Rotom-C (this mon realistically never saw usage and for good reasons.)
 
Last edited:

Feliburn

is a Community Leaderis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
RU Leader
Hey, figured it was time that the ORAS VR got a revamp, as I feel it's v outdated:

S -> A/A+
A+ -> A
A -> A-
A ->B+
A -> A-
A- -> B+
A- ->B-
A- -> B+
A- -> B
A- -> B
A- -> B
B+ -> B
B+ -> C+
B+ -> B
B- -> C+


A -> A+
B+ -> A-
B -> A/A+
B -> B+
B -> B+
B- -> B
C+ -> B-
C -> C+
C -> C+
C- -> B
D -> C+


s/o Ajna for helping me w/ some of these

I was gonna put explanations for them but I ended up swapping a lot of mons, so I'll try to make it as general as possible:

Starting with the biggest drop is Alomomola falling to A+, I'd even argue that it is an A rank tier pokemon. Reasoning behind this is how much the meta pressures it, mola is no longer the unkillable wish passer it once felt like, it has become a mon that allows ppl to abuse its passiveness to set up and apply pressure to the mola user. It's still the best wish passer in the tier and one of the best Sneasel answers, however it has for sure fallen from grace as the meta advances. The other mons are just not as great as they were when they were ranked where they are ROFL. If you disagree with me on any of these I'll be more than happy to elaborate on my specific thoughts on the mon.

On to the rises, the bigger one is Gallade to A, probably even A+ considering how amazing it is. It finds so many opportunities to set up in front of common pokemon like Regi, Venu, Slowking, Alomomola, and thanks to its bulk and typing it's able to come on top on exchanges vs common revenge killers like Drapion, Flygon and Sneasel if healthy enough (which isnt hard when u can drain punch half the tier). Next up are 2 bottom ranked pokemon like Cinccino and Cofagrigus, Cofag is easier to explain as it is a v strong wincon with the CM block set, a v matchupy set but it actually gets off blocks vs a good portion of the tier, making it way better than most of the pokemon ranked above it. Cinccino got a smaller boot to C+ from D rank but let's be honest, a pokemon with knock off, u-turn, strong stab in tail slap and bullet seed coverage isn't at least useful in this tier. Rest are just mons that seem to have a bigger niche than they once did in the current meta. Similar to above, I'll elaborate individually if u want me to.
 

lighthouses

Inordinary
is a Tiering Contributor
Just gonna drop some random thoughts/suggestions, not an invitation to debate or anything like that you guys feel free to follow if youd like.

SM
A to A+
A to A+
B+ to A
B+ to A
B to B+ or A-
A to A+


A+ to A
A- to B+
A- to B+
B+ to B-


I also strongly believe that rose should be s rank in place of virizion but i realize that this would be a whole debate and frankly i don't really care enough rofl
I also agree with most of the ORAS changes propposed by the best couple so i won't bother you guys with those
 

termi

bike is short for bichael
is a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributor
Hiii! After a few users posted about the SM VR last year nothing changed which is sad because there's a lot that should be changed around, it's very outdated. idk how exactly VR updates are supposed to happen for old metas but I'm sure something of a vote can be worked out between people who still play the meta in tournaments or whatever. Here's a bunch of somewhat ordered thoughts of myself on things that should definitely be reconsidered.

Metagame staples that are not ranked where metagame staples should be ranked:

:diancie: B+ -> A: The user above me nommed this a while ago but yeah basically Diancie is epic and actually one of the best rockers we have. I've used both bulky sets with Heal Bell and offensive sets and they're great, pairing really well with other staples like Slowbro, mandibuzz, and Metagross, allowing the latter to run more interesting sets than SR Iapapa like CB, Scarf, or more niche sets like Demongross or mixed lure. One thing I love about it is that it annoys pretty much every common form of hazard removal, as Mandibuzz is basically countered by it, other Flying types like Xatu and Sigilyph obviously get smacked by Diamond Storm, and Donphan and Stoise don't appreciate getting chunked by Moonblast. Speaking of, specially defensive Diancie is a solid Stoise check as the latter usually forgoes Water STAB for Aura Sphere, while Diancie also checks a lot of other key threats like Noivern and Salazzle. Very very splashable mon, needs a significant bump in the rankings.

:slowbro: A -> A+: Regenerator is broken, simple as. Although I think a lot of people rate Ice Beam the real danger imo is Toxic, as it fucks with a ton of common checks like Stoise, Mandi, and non-Refresh Milotic and still annoys Ice Beam's targets a bunch. It's extremely good at staying alive and reliably checking physical threats while not being a passive piece of shit. Very essential mon in a tier where teambuilding is as constrained as it is since it gives you a lot of breathing room with the rest of the team.

:roserade: A+ -> S: Kills like 95% of the meta and clicks Spikes on the other 5%. Super versatile, very very hard to check in the teambuilder if you're not opting for passive ass Regi, kinda self-evident imo.

:flygon: B+ -> A-/A: #7 most used mon in RU Snake's latest iteration and the current #1 in RUPL, Flygon turns out to actually be very good and splashable despite it being laughed at as a shittier Zydog throughout most of the gen. Again I have to mention how constrained building is and how easily Scarf Flygon frees up building by having a lot of useful resists (offensive check to Lazzle, Raikou, Nidoqueen) while being a great offensive pivot that doesn't give a shit about hazards in a meta where hazard control is, and I will be saying this a lot, dogshit.

:drapion: B+ -> A-/A: Very tight mon, Choice sets especially do really well because Knock is very easy to spam and there's several things that can be kept real if you Pursuit trap them. Nice mon to put on teams that use a passive rocker since it gives you a way of getting rid of Xatu and Defog Sigilyph, which otherwise just make things really difficult for Registeel teams. Another major target is Roserade which as I mentioned before is hellish to check defensively in a lot of cases, meanhilw if you're CB Pursuit OHKOs on the switch which is nice as hell. Also invalidates Bronzong teams (will get to this later) because as it turns out if your bulky Steel has a tendency of getting trapped you're sorta fucked. The typing and physical bulk also has to be mentioned as it gives this thing a ton of miscellaneous utility, absorbing Tspikes and checking Virizion if Scarf. Good mon.

Things that were mentioned before that I probably would support but don't feel strongly enough about to write on: Noivern to A+, Necrozma to A+, Nidoqueen to A+, Slowking to B+


Fire types suck:

:salazzle: S -> A+: Very annoying, dangerous, possibly broken, but at the same time its SR weakness makes it kind of a pain to build with and its threat level on paper means that pretty much any builder in SM will do their best to cover for this mon as well as they can. Admittedly covering for it is always difficult since between variance in what Hidden Power it runs and the raw power of +2 Acid Downpour there are practically no reliable switchins besides AV Slowking, AV/Scarf Goodra, Dragalge, and Gigalith, most of which aren't the easiest fits on teams. At the same time, thanks to its frailty and SR weakness you only really need to pivot around it with mons like Noivern, Diancie, Scarfed Poison resists etc to keep it at bay as it typically will not be able to come in and threaten things throughout the match more than once or twice. The difficulties it faces are clearly reflected in team tours like RUPL, where Salazzle consistently struggles to make it into the top 20 most used mons. That just doesn't scream S rank to me.

:ninetales: A -> B: For sure unviable. While it's certainly a dangerous breaker on paper and a nuisance in the builder, it's actually rather hard to fit it on teams and get it to work. Building in SM is a very precise affair in my experience and typically your breakers need to pull their weight defensively or at least be very reliable where it comes to breaking the opponent's team. Ninetales does neither of these things as it is weak to SR in a meta with godawful hazard control and cannot switch in reliably to practically anything due to a lack of useful resists. Its main competitor, Salazzle, at least has the benefit of Poison typing and a great speed tier that allows it to decently check things like Roserade and Virizion at least once throughout the match. When Ninetales does manage to come in, kills are not guaranteed, as bulky Fire resists like Slowbro and Diancie and fast Fire resists like Noivern and Scarf Flygon are very common and good. Whether it is Specs or NP, it is therefore very reliant on getting the right predictions during the few turns in the match where it gets to do anything. To me, this mon is more of a "matchup fish" than anything else, which is not to say that it's not very dangerous in the right hands, but absolutely not deserving of sitting in the top ranks despite its power on paper.

:arcanine: B -> C or whatever: See above except it's a bit slower, worse at breaking, walled by Slowbro and Diancie, doesn't have a boosting move, dies very quickly between SR weakness and recoil, don't even bring up defensive. Keeping this thing ranked is already sorta generous but I want to hold out the hope that there's something this mon doesn't suck at, however I doubt it.


Miscellaneous noms:

:bronzong: B+ -> B/B-: I will never miss an opportunity to complain about Bronzong and how ass it is, although I think enough people have other thoughts on this mon that it probably doesn't matter much. It for sure has some very nice abilities that give it more role compression ability than a similar mon in Registeel, allowing it to check otherwise annoying mons like Nidoqueen with Levitate and Salazzle with Heatproof, although the loss in bulk is noticeable imo. However, I really hate that this mon is so easily trapped, as any matchup vs Drapion or Escavalier (kinda bad imo but I digress) leaves you sorta fucked because your defensive lynchpin is constantly at risk of getting trapped and essentially eliminated from play. You can, and in fact should, run Earthquake to mitigate the Drapion issue, but not only does this prevent you from running Protect which imo would typically be a much more optimal set for a mon so reliant on passive recovery, but even this is not enough as unlike Metagross you are too weak to do serious damage to Drap (example: this recent replay of mine from RUPL). Essentially this problem in addition to the general competition it gets from other Steels (and Diancie) leaves it feeling a bit too much like a matchup fish for what's supposed to be a defensive staple of your team. I would rather put Forretress on my team than this thing so you can tell it's a pretty dire situation.

:dhelmise: C or wherever it is rn -> B: Won't really elaborate as Luna already gave explanation but this thing's not half bad and can seriously fuck you over if your hazard control is Donphan.

:shaymin: A- -> B: Not bad but we have too many other Grass types that are quite simply better in a lot of cases. In fact I think the only reason you'd run this thing is for Leech Seed sets which are kinda annoying but hard to justify unless you explicitly build around it. Should see a significant drop.

:yanmega: B -> C or whatever: If you're gonna be 4x weak to SR in this meta you really gotta have something seriously good going on for yourself imo and Yanmega just falls short. Too many good specially fat mons like Registeel and Mandi in the meta for it to do any serious breaking vs a lot of teams whereas it's borderline impossible to sweep with Speed Boost. Meanwhile in order to make this thing work you need good hazard control which does not really, you know, exist. Bad!

As a general point, looking at the size of B+ and the mons in it I feel like this subrank in particular deserves a pretty significant revamp, some of these could easily be A- mons whereas several of these definitely feel too niche and hard to build with to be so high up.


The Unviables:

There's a bunch of things that are ranked when they really just are not good. All of the following should be unranked/go to D rank in my very humble opinion:

:galvantula::ampharos-mega::rotom-mow:: Electric types that are not Raikou are unviable in this meta. Galvantula is bad and you should never run it, as it sucks and I have not seen anyone make a serious attempt at integrating it into a serious competitive team in perhaps a century. If you need Webs you go Araquanid 100% of the time and if you need a breaker just pick literally anything else. Fabio used to be cool and nice and I'm sad to say it but it's absolutely terrible and cannot be justified in practice because it is painfully slow, easily worn down, and not good enough at breaking things to justify being ranked. Mowtom doesn't look terrible on paper until you realize Virizion/Roserade/Mega Sceptile are all very common and prevent it from ever cleaning with Scarf sets while also being way better Grass types to fit on your team than this thing. I excluded Vikavolt from this because it seems like it could be a Virizion check with Roost and Air Slash or something although frankly it's another case where idk when I would put it on my team in practice. Maybe people have experience with it and can vouch for it or whatever.

:emboar:: bigpig

:vivillon:: Between the fact that every team will have a bulky Steel or a Diancie or some shit and the fact that it's not too hard to pick off with priority or a faster Scarfer once weakened (or not weakened at all if Screens are off), is this thing ever sweeping? The answer is no. This mon is bad.

:vaporeon: Someone put this in B apparently so maybe I'm mistaken and this thing has a niche but frankly to me this looks like unviable garbage that should not be used. I don't care that it passes Wish to Registeel or whatever, use Synthesis Wish Florges if you really have to do that and use a bulky water that doesn't suck.

ok whatever im done
 

TailGlowVM

Now 100% more demonic
(I apologise if this is the wrong place to post this, but there is no mention of ORAS RU QC checkers on the Past Generation Analyses forum and don't know who specifically to ask about this, so thought this was the next best place)

I noticed Absol's Gen 6 RU analysis, which heavily mentions the no longer available Tangrowth and Mega Steelix. It seems mentions of these Pokemon were removed in general at some point, but this analysis was left as it requires heavy amendments, if not rewriting, to update (as it appears Superpower and Fire Blast were coverage moves mainly for those Pokemon and the moveslot might be better used for something else now.) Given that the analysis is factually incorrect and the tier is still relevant to tournaments, I would assume updating it would be a priority to whoever does this for the tier.
 
Expulso pmmed me he was gonna CRY if no one was posting here so i guess ill try to start discussion.

USUM

Really enjoyed getting back to USUM, one of my favorite tiers to play and build in. As you can see from my really varied builds, i think Mega Sceptile and Mandibuzz are top tier mons. Mega Sceptile is basically a scarfer for every team without every downside that a scarfer has. Sub + Seed is legit one of the most annoying sets to face, and abusing sacks its really great. SpDef Mandibuzz beats almost entirely everything, Taunt + Toxic + Knock Off makes it stupidly annoying and hard to deal with, and it can always mix it up with Foul Play / Brave Bird. I think Defog sets are bad, you're better searching for another remover. Not gonna make a huge personal VR cause otherwise this post would take too long, but here are some changes i think need to be implemented:
1620585660366.png
A- -> A+
1620585692457.png
A+ -> S

1620585723305.png
B+ -> A-
1620585763047.png
B+ -> A
1620585838692.png
A -> A+
1620585887527.png
B -> B+
1620585807888.png
A -> B
1620585856451.png
A- ->B

ORAS

Not really much to talk about here tbh, tier is extremely solved but there are some vr changes i feel need to be done, mainly:

1620586040516.png
A -> A+
1620586074509.png
B -> A
1620586093840.png
A- -> Preferibly B-, but B works as well.

BW

VR wise here is fine imo, Skuntank in D is criminal and heres a team i have with it, if you wanna add it to the samples. Didnt touch BW at all after that week so hopefully someone else has more to say than me. Hopefully we get the tier unlocked soon and can finally ban the stupid ant and the burning chicken. And Sleep. And Shadow Tag. Please. Lilburr if you wanna say / post anything i would love you doing so.

Hopefully we get more from other people, i didnt partecipate much in old gens since building SS took basically all my time, but the few times i got to work into old gens i really enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.
 

Mac3

im reminded theres no finer place to kiss
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnus
from my small experience in building BW during rupl i think cryogonal should be A/A+, the offensive set is an absolute demon, especially paired with trappers.

gothita should also be ranked somewhere in the B ranks imo.

also dont think moltres should be same rank as drudd/durant honestly but that might come down to inexperience.
 

Lily

wouldn't that be fine, dear
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UU Leader
bw thoughts:

qwil and molt should swap places. I think molt is still broken but you don't really see it as much anymore, probably because lurk and drudd are both pretty damn good at keeping em up so it's harder to make molt work. the payoff is still immense but I think it belongs at the top of A+ rn instead of S. ban it regardless.

qwil on the other hand is phenomenal, excellent spiker w/ a good matchup vs common spinners and also pairs beautifully w/ drudd. really good ant check, solid vs stuff like entei and emboar, overall good mon. belongs in S or S-.

most of a+ is fine but like who??? is sigilyph, drop that shit real far I think. it saw pretty much no usage in rupl and is overall just kind of middling in practice despite being insane on paper because the tier is very focused on strong shit that's faster than it and hits it really hard basically.

it pains me but lilli could probably drop to low a, I think its heyday is really far behind it at this stage. while on the topic of grasses, switch tangrowth and amoonguss around; tang's just better atm since it's much sturdier against lurk/drudd/kabu/aero and can actually switch into durant better than guss which is quite funny. it's a bit worse against the elecs and sceptile but it's worth it imo.

agree with mac3 that cryo should rise. gothita should not be ranked but gothorita on the other hand is ridiculous and most definitely should be. fortunately it already exists at the top of b rank.

finally some misc thoughts that i'm not thinking about too much; aggron could probably do with a drop it doesnt rlly exist, smeargle is bad and should probably drop too, golurk really should be top of A by now, aero maybe too.

don't have much else to say other than please ban ant and molt
 

cyanize

Mantra Good I Casted So Many Spells U Idiot
is a Community Contributor
sm thoughts -
tales/shaymin in b alongside complete "Who's That Pokemon?" type mfers like swellow and p2 would be an absolute travesty; granted yes tales and shaymin have pretty similar issues of just being hard matchup fishes that fall flat if ur opp brings a few specific things, but they also very much have the potential to be intensely game changing w the right lineup and can end up punishing the fuck out of lame uninspired builds which is far more credit than i can give shit like yanmega. they could both stand to be b+, but no lower than that
shaymin in particular is a mon i think is quite unexplored between random lure z moves and actually having freedom of choice in its hidden power; w regi essentially being its mortal enemy there's a pretty valid reason for it's lack of evolution, but its crippling regi weakness is arguably a merit in its own right given that regi has the tendency to let in some extremely fearsome threats (plus subseed absolutely thrashes regi anyways.) something that really only has like one reliable answer on your average team is a perfect catalyst for dynamic offensive builds, and shaymin's bulk + speed means it's not actually all that easy to try and pivot around with offensive checks unlike most breakers since not many offensive mons actually even win the 1v1, leaving it even more liable to dragging in exploitable slow defensive answers for one to gain momentum off of
with all that said i think the issue is moreso that all of the b ranks could use a revamp, not just b+, and i've felt that way for a long time cus there's just absolutely no way yokai like mantine and arcanine are even half as relevant as pokes like aero and lax. it's not in my hands to rank all these pokemon bc i'm well aware most people disagree w/ me, but personally i think that like 90% of the mons ranked in any of the b subranks are inaccurate
similarly the c ranks r super bloated; half of c+ sees maybe two usages a year, and everything below that barring dhelm (needs a rise), golbat (c+), and the stall mons is not even a minute ping on the radar of things people think to use in this tier - p sure a sawk hasnt touched a field and made progress since 2019, and im similarly confident fabio has done a total of like 37% damage in that same timeframe, but feel free to prove me wrong im all for niche shit making moves

as for the actually prevalent beings: mega scept is a top 10 mon and long deserved a+; noivern is similarly good as fuck
rose is s rank and meta is not
mandibuzz is just as overpowered as i told yall it was back when it first hit the tier (s rank)
slowbro is also a giant brick wall of anti progress (s rank)
flygon is the best scarfer in the tier and there's no way it should have ended the gen below a
bronzong is donkey dick and id venture to say forretress is better than it (e: i thought this was a hot take but apparently termi agrees forry is more usable so im not crazy i swear)
and diancie is the 2nd best rocker easily, even if only bc it is one of like two pokemon capable of completely trashing mandibuzz (id honestly go so far as to argue it deserves a+ alongside regi and meta)

edit: i might as well qualify my stance on meta since it's prolly the most likely to cause somebody to post in this ghost town of a thread
meta is your staple jack of all trades master of none mon that's present in pretty much every good tier; the issue arises in that it is more like a 9 of clubs of all trades and is rather inconsistent at all the things it tries to do, on top of universal flaws across all of its sets that hold it back from really making progress
its biggest and most insurmountable issue is that the two hardest stops to it, mandi and bro, also happen to be completely ridicuinsane defensive threats. this in and of itself makes band a sorta shitty breaker bc you basically have to sacrifice breaking power (trick) to ever make headway against two of the most prominent mons in the tier, and that's a bad sign already
band does have a lot of use in being like cb escavalier 2.0; having bp to clean, a higher speed tier, and ground coverage does wonders for the archetype of slow strong utility steel type, but it's a bit constrained bc you want all of bp/suit/tpunch/trick/arguably explosion in your last two slots and dropping any of them either severely hampers your utility or your ability to make progress. i personally think doing away with the concept of making headway vs bro balance and just going mash/eq/bp/suit for max utility is the optimal play, bc ur never winning v tect regi builds anyways even with trick tpunch. it also has the issue of being free turns to quite a few threatening things bc neither steel nor ground are particularly fun types to lock into, but it makes up for it by having the potential to remove other threats and even the playing field. a pretty good set all things considered, but flawed and very far from what id consider s rank.
scarf is a trash set that is literally best used without scarf - both figuratively, in that you should be using actual good scarfers like vern or scept or flygon or hell even drapion instead, but also literally in that the only time it EVER does ANYTHING is by tricking its scarf away and becoming a jolly lefties meta with no defensive investment. the issue with this is as valuable as tricking a slowbro or mandi might seem, slowbro often doesn't care bc a. it pretty often runs z moves meaning u cant trick it anyway, b. bro doesn't even need to click recovery moves, and c. both bro and mandi are often targets of knock off anyway from other pokemon, whoch should not be an issue if you are a builder privy to good decisions but then again if you were a builder privy to good decisions you would immediately rework a team that feels like it needs scarf metagross.
this leaves us with rocks and protox. rocks meta is pretty good at getting them up, all things considered, but it also suffers from a very bad case of impermanence. now this is much less of an issue in a tier where the best hazard control is similarly ephemeral, but when you consider pokemon like registeel that are capable of living till the eventual heat death of the universe through sheer force of will, metagross's lower bulk and general less survivability becomes a lot more of a stark issue. rocks gross also has a pretty similar problem to zong in that it has a tendency to just kinda get removed by suit trappers unless it runs colbur, but colbur kinda blows outside of that specific application + landing toxic on scaldless stoise for free. in addition to these, rocks gross just kinda... doesn't really add a whole lot that you couldn't have gotten by using protox + a different rocker or just using registeel. this is not to say that i wouldn't use it, because it's obviously still good and the faster pace it brings to the table vs regi is valuable for some comps, but it struggles to really do anything definitive in the current meta outside of clicking toxic a whole bunch (which registeel does far better.)
last, but not least, is protox which funnily enough is probably its most prescient set as this point, and the one i most definitively remember actually doing things in rupl. it solves the issue of suit trappers, gives it much needed longevity, doesn't pressure it to click rocks constantly, and still keeps up the higher pace that rocks enjoys over the likes of zong and regi. but this set also has a pretty major drawback that realistically applies to every other meta: it doesn't really counter anything at all. the best mon you could make a case for it beating reliably is mega scept, except not really bc scept just clicks seeds like it always does and sits on you like it always does. to be fair, even regi is not immune to this so it's not even meta's fault, but meta also doesn't really beat much of anything else either. most things have pretty realistic ways around it or just live too long for meta to contest them reliably - both cm and sd viriz boost past it w lo or fight z and lo synth slowly beats it up and outlives it, rose just 2hkos it/spikes up and comes back later once it's chipped/sleeps it and also lives way longer should it pack synth, specs garde blows it the hell up with focus or sball and scarf has multiple methods of crippling it permanently, croak doesn't really like clicking attacks into it perse but can muscle past it and has various diff techs for being it up (np and dark z/lo knock being the main two), and so on. this isn't even getting into the fact that i think protox meta is like an escav sidegrade lol (says more about escav being good and underutilized than meta being mid but i digress)
at the end of the day, meta in all of its various applications just kinda ends up doing something but not a whole lot, and faces huge competition from registeel who is just really really hard to knock down as the chief fat steel that sits on everything. it has a bit of an issue changing the gamestate much w/o band (and band is incredibly short lived) and as such just sorta ends up being an anti-progress wall that's not as good at doing that as the anti progress walls we already have.
id dig up replays to back up my points but i've spent far more brain power on pokemon in the past like 3 hours than i generally try to in the course of a month and i dont feel like spending more if i'm just gonna talk into the void, so if anybody wants to discuss it im more than happy to come around w proof bc this is a good tier and i actually like talking about it! (obviously)

p.s. bulky dragalge beats like all of the top offensive threats it's a crazy good pokemon
 
Last edited:

MrAldo

Hey
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Added some sample teams so none of the samples are empty, much more to come. Feel free to submit your stuff, especially if you played rupl but anything decent to reach samples is welcome. I will be adding more on my own too.

Started with that, still gotta do the big updates to mainly the SM and ORAS VRs so stay tuned for that as well. Cheers! This is gonna look prettier and more up to date very soon I promise.
 

EviGaro

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RU Leader
According to this post, old gens are open for tiering again.

Now, at the moment there's a lot of possibilities this creates but I'd ask to wait a bit before throwing all the ideas. We'll most likely start with looking at BW exclusively and will present our way forward shortly if there's support for it, but we'll proceed a bit differently given the nature of old gens.

(also idk watch out for a sleep ban soon)
 
This month is almost over and with it BW RU as an RoA ladder. I figured I'd share the teams I used since I think I can claim that I had some decent amount of success with them. I don't necessarily remember how I built each of these teams or whether or not they'll look appealing formore experienced players of this tier but hopefully they'll be useful to some people.


Gallade (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Night Slash

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Megahorn
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Lanturn @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 204 HP / 96 Def / 208 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Toxic
- Heal Bell

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Roar

Sawsbuck @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Baton Pass
- Double-Edge
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick

Spiritomb @ Black Glasses
Ability: Infiltrator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Pursuit
- Will-O-Wisp

This team is based around SD Gallade, which can be hard to bring onto the field but can in some matchups get at least one kill if you manage to set up with it. I chose Lum Berry as an item to be able to set up on Alomomola, Amoonguss, etc. without getting crippled by any affliction. The lack of Life Orb means I can miss some notable potential KOs at +2 with SR on against the likes of Mola and Tangrowth, so I added a spiker to alleviate this issue. Scolipede is the one I chose for its speed and ability to damage stuff like Uxie that could possibly be issues for Gallade. Since Moltres could be an issue since it outspeeds Gallade and can manage to switch into it without rocks or SD boost, I thought some insurance against it would be appreciated, so I slapped Lanturn which can also bait things like Amoonguss and Volt Switch to Gallade. Steelix was added to serve as a check to physical threats such as Durant and Druddigon and in practice will often exchange blows with them, on top of serving as a rocker. Sawsbuck might be obsolete since sleep was banned on this ladder but I thought Sap Sipper would still be useful since Scolipede isn't the best Sceptile check and by virtue of its typing can also help against Golurk and Rotom-Mow, among others. It also can pivot with BP, something that can prove useful to bait stuff like Ferroseed and bring Gallade. Finally, I was vulnerable to threats such as Sigilyph, Jynx, Medicham, opposing Gallade, etc. so I added Spiritomb which also give some extra insurance against Sceptile, particularily SD variants, with its strong priority. Be wary of Aerodactyl and Emboar, among other Pokemon, with this team.


Sceptile @ White Herb
Ability: Unburden
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Focus Blast
- Giga Drain

Bouffalant @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Return
- Earthquake

Drapion @ Choice Band
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 144 Def / 116 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Slack Off
- Psyshock

Rotom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Roar

White Herb Sceptile is a great late-game cleaner and a threat for a lot of offensive teams. Like Sawsbuck, Bouffalant might be a bit obsolete in a sleep-less metagame but it served me well and some players were willing to let it set up in front of their Ferroseed stacking up Spikes, resulting in a loss of several Pokemon on their side. My Sceptile can't hit opposing Grass-types so Bouffalant can come and fix that, whereas Sceptile can possibly take advantage of Rotom choice locked on Thunderbolt to break Bouff's sub, for instance. Bouffalant also exploits passive stuff such as Alomomola. CB Drapion Pursuit traps Rotom and threats like Golurk and Sigilyph to support Bouffalant's sweep and the added defensive utility against Grass types and stuff like Absol is beneficial. Slowking checks a lot of scary Pokemon such as Moltres, Jynx, Sigilyph, and Emboar while not being too passive thanks to Regenerator which alleviates the need to heal itself. Rotom provides additional speed control, defensive utility against Durant, and can lure in Pokemon such as Amoonguss, Ferroseed, or Lanturn that can be exploited by Sceptile or Bouffalant. Steelix is the team's rocker that keeps Durant, Druddigon, Aggron, and friends in check.


Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Energy Ball
- Roost

Absol @ Dread Plate
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Night Slash

Amoonguss @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 52 SpA / 116 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Stun Spore
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Clear Smog

Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Stone Edge
- Superpower

Seismitoad @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 44 SpA / 212 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Sludge Bomb

Regirock @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Toxic
- Rock Slide

The gameplan with this team is to lead with Sigilyph and watch one or more Pokemon dying within the first few turns. Seriously though, teams that are very vulnerable to Sigilyph on team previewseem to be quite prominent. Absol offers Pursuit support against some of the few Pokemon that can handle Sigilyph like Uxie and Slowking and can also pressure some non Dark weak checks like Clefable and Spiritomb, on top of pressuring stuff like Sceptile with its Sucker Punch. Amoonguss is a good answer to Volt Switch users such as Rotom-Mow and Lanturn while checking other dangerous stuff like Sceptile. Scarf Emboar offers speed control and can possibly pivot around Durant. Seismitoad was initially supposed to be the team's rocker but I tried SubToxic and it worked decently, especially against some teams featuring Alomomola. Though the main reason behind using it was to check the likes of Kabutops, Aggron, and to an extent Emboar in check. Scald could be added over Sludge Bomb is Aerodactyl proves to be too worrisome. With Amoonguss, Scarf Emboar, and Scald-less Seismitoad, I figured my team gave too many opportunities to Moltres and needed something solid against it, so Regirock was added and became the rocker. It also checks most Normal-types decently, though it's not as good against Druddigon, Cincinno, and some others as Steelix would be, so watch out for them.

I have more teams featuring staples like Druddigon, Moltres, Qwilfish, Golurk, Cryogonal, Durant, etc. that are absent on the teams I shared but I didn't play as much with those so maybe I'll share in the future. In the meantime, I hope the above teams will be useful for some people out there looking to play the metagame.
 
Gonna chime in on the ORAS VR as I feel like it's very outdated and there's a lot that could be changed:

S Rank:
:flygon: Flygon
:venusaur: Venusaur
:registeel: Registeel

A+ Rank:
:alomomola: Alomomola
:diancie: Diancie
:drapion: Drapion
:sigilyph: Sigilyph
:slowking: Slowking
:sneasel: Sneasel

A Rank:
:camerupt-mega: Camerupt-Mega
:gallade: Gallade
:glalie-mega: Glalie-Mega
:jellicent: Jellicent
:magneton: Magneton
:medicham: Medicham
:meloetta: Meloetta
:virizion: Virizion

A- Rank:
:audino::audino-mega: Audino(-Mega)
:escavalier:Escavalier
:emboar: Emboar
:granbull: Granbull
:scrafty: Scrafty
:xatu: Xatu

B+ Rank:
:absol: Absol
:braviary: Braviary
:exploud: Exploud
:garbodor: Garbodor
:hitmonlee: Hitmonlee
:hoopa: Hoopa
:sawk: Sawk
:seismitoad: Seismitoad
:steelix: Steelix
:uxie: Uxie

B Rank:
:aerodactyl: Aerodactyl
:barbaracle: Barbaracle
:blastoise: Blastoise
:delphox: Delphox (actually put this in d rank please, never hits fire blast)
:houndoom: Houndoom
:malamar: Malamar
:rotom: Rotom
:rotom-mow: Rotom-Mow
:spiritomb: Spiritomb
:torterra: Torterra
:vivillon-monsoon: Vivillon
:weezing: Weezing

B- Rank:
:abomasnow: Abomasnow
:accelgor: Accelgor
:archeops: Archeops
:druddigon: Druddigon
:gourgeist: Gourgeist-XL
:gurdurr: Gurdurr
:hariyama: Hariyama
:jolteon: Jolteon
:mesprit: Mesprit
:musharna: Musharna
:omastar: Omastar
:sceptile: Sceptile
:scyther: Scyther

C+ Rank:
:aggron: Aggron
:clawitzer: Clawitzer
:golbat: Golbat
:poliwrath: Poliwrath

C Rank:
:banette-mega: Banette-Mega
:eelektross: Eelektross
:ferroseed: Ferroseed
:fletchinder: Linda
:kabutops: Kabutops
:liepard: Liepard
:ludicolo: Ludicolo
:piloswine: Piloswine
:quagsire: Quagsire
:samurott: Samurott
:shiftry: Shiftry
:skuntank: Skuntank

C- Rank:
:articuno: Articuno
:aurorus: Aurorus
:cofagrigus: Cofagrigus
:hitmontop: Hitmontop
:Smogjynx: Jynx
:klinklang: Klinklang
:lanturn: Lanturn
:manectric: Manectric
:qwilfish: Qwilfish

D+ Rank:
:aromatisse: Aromatisse
:cinccino: Cinccino

D- Rank:
:ambipom: Ambipom
:typhlosion: Typhlosion

Registeel A+ > S
Slowking A > A+
Gallade B > A
Granbull B+ > A-
Xatu B+ > A-
Hoopa B > B+
Barbaracle C+ > B
Archeops C- > B-
Sceptile C+ > B-
Shiftry UR > C

Alomomola S > A+
Magneton A+ > A
Virizion A+ > A
Absol A- > B+
Sawk A- > B+
Aerodactyl A- > B
Blastoise A- > B
Houndoom B+ > B
Rotom-Mow B+ > B
Gurdurr B+ > B-
Jolteon A- > B-
Banette-Mega C+ > C
Fletchinder B > C
Piloswine B- > C
Hitmontop C+ > C
Lanturn C+ > C-
Aromatisse C+ > D
Togetic C+ > UR
Pelipper C > UR
Rotom-Fan C- > UR
Smeargle C- > UR
Lilligant C- > UR

This is, shockingly, not an exhaustive list, and there's some things I wouldn't mind seeing rise (Samurott, Torterra, Hitmonlee) or drop (Seismitoad, Abomasnow, Aggron) that I left off due to having less experence with/for the sake of making this post shorter, so buckle in for a lot of rapid-fire explanations:

:registeel: on just about every team right now, with regi + venu + gon + fat water being by far the most common teambuilding blueprint right now, and with three of those four spots being filled with specific mons it only makes sense to me that regi joins the other two in s. Even things like Xatu that would nominally beat it regi's been adapting to with the likes of tbolt, showing it's got some adaptability to it too

:slowking: just as good as or better than Mola right now since it fits on more teams and has more sets it can run that let it function in and out all game in a way far above anything in A, it can easily be your pivot all game and then be a late-game wincon, block sets are also disgusting vs fatmons like regi

:gallade: SD and SubBU sets both nearly always get a kill every time they come in vs standard teams, I think everybody knows this mon's crazy good so I won't elaborate too much. Should be the same rank as cham imo

:granbull: just better and easier to put on teams than the rest of b+, king + granbull is a very potent defensive core too

:xatu: best non-flygon removal option and it's not close, given that most teams run regi as their rocker and while tbolt regi is becoming a thing, it's not amazingly popular yet. Wouldn't be opposed to this being left in B+ but it also feels better than any non-granbull thing in there too?

:hoopa: Special Cham/Gallade basically, the lower speed hurts but this mon is every bit as hard to switch into as the others. My personal favourite set is sub + 3 attacks to ease prediction a bit, but subNP and Specs are also nuclear. Cool mon!

:barbaracle: literally 0 switchins, capable of owning king/mola with stone edge and regi dies to razor shell and is super easy to wear down, shuca sets give it similar setup to omastar but it hits a lot harder and can actually break king without dying. I brought this to most of my oras cup rounds and it did work every single time

sample replay:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6ru-1362268309-u7xc8ezkq5oqlfmudbc6tz4xsk9xo7apw

:archeops: heads the main ho team everyone uses right now, which is probably enough for it to be above C- at the very least. I think it and Mesprit are comparable leads on that style and probably the only ones worth using outside of maaaaybe Aero, so they should share a rank imo

:sceptile: really nice breaker right now, grass/fighting/ice dents the main core of the tier pretty severely even if it is prediction reliant, you at least always get two attacks off because it's among the fastest unboosted things in the tier. Try it out!

scept replay:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6ru-1364564490-kcm7shu66i8hmewx1sdquyw4s71pw4bpw

:alomomola: still a great mon but directly competes with king on a lot of teams now so they should share a rank

:magneton: Analytic is strong but it has a pretty difficult time coming in, can't do too much vs regi and is put into a weird spot vs venu/gon since flash cannon, despite being strong, lets in a lot of things who just don't care about it. not as dynamic and doesn't offer as much as the other A+ mons imo

:virizion: running this means you're not running venu, which is usually a no go even if the upsides of Viriz are great. Sneasel being at an all-time high also limits it to one kill in most situations. Also please for the love of god stop running SD Synth, that set is ass

:absol: competes with Sneasel and Drap for the pursuiter spot and is solidly the worst of the three due to being both slow and frail, SD sets are still fine but outclassed by Gallade and Drapion overall

:sawk: Still strong but an upswing of Gallade naturally cuts into its usage a bit, lee is also probably better as a mono fighter

:aerodactyl: Speed tier is nice and I guess it's comparable to Archeops as a suicide lead, although not having endeavor is kinda lame. It's really difficult to fit it on teams despite a lot of theoretical upsides to its offensive sets, far more than an A ranker should be imo

:blastoise: this mon sucks, I guess being a spinner is neat since the tier really doesn't have many but it offers nothing besides that, it's passive as hell and you have to baby it to keep it alive because unlike every other fat water in the a ranks, it can't do that by itself

:houndoom: comparable to Delphox imo and should be ranked accordingly, both are only okay right now

:rotom-mow: Drop I'm least sold on, I think this mon is super underwhelming despite its theoretical upsides, you'd think electric would be super good in this tier but all the electrics feel awful honestly. Could stay B+ or could drop, eh

:gurdurr: this being so high is a relic of an old meta, but it can be a nuisance to kingless teams/scald king only teams so B- is as far as I'd drop it. Knock is super valuable in this tier, too.

:jolteon: this mon offers nothing, truly, speed is really nice and I guess hp ice can bean gon and venu somewhat but there's still not much reason to put this on a team, the reward for babying it isn't as high as a sneasel or a hoopa or something and voltturn isn't a playstyle right now

:banette-mega: this mon sucks, even with mega cost being as low as it is this still doesn't fit on any team ever, I'd love to punt it to D rank but I guess it's unique and has some conceivable upside, maybe?

:fletchinder: Scyther is neat and is actually worth the effort to babysit given its strength and ability to pivot. Fletch offers none of that and requires the same amount of effort. It can't even take on Regi despite the fire typing because it's just that weak

:piloswine: relic of an old meta, eq + ice is still pretty neat though, maybe toxic/crash/shard/eq could be neat on the right team? Probably not B- neat though

:hitmontop: intim and spin is cool, but it doesn't really check anything and as with most removal in this tier, you're just better off running flygon

:lanturn: no real electrics to require its services, although water absorb sets could be nice given the presence of mono-scald or scald/fs king. Could come in and pivot/heal on it, maybe? Might be neat and I'll try to build with it but finding matches for this tier is super hard so don't expect results for a while

:aurorus: requires a lucky matchup, which is pretty rare since Regi and even King stop it pretty well, but it can be a headache for Steelix balances at least.

:qwilfish: has a lot of good in theory, but all the best fighters either knock it or just own it with psychic stab, making it a really questionable choice for a water in this meta

:aromatisse: maybe I'm being harsh, but this thing has literally no niche compared to gran, dian, or dino as a cleric due to its lack of a great typing, ability, or regen to make it stand out. I guess, maybe, compressing heal bell + wish + no mega could be nice on very specific teams, which might keep it out of D, but I'm not seeing it. Can't UR it because it's RU by usage so /shrug

:togetic: :pelipper: :lilligant: :rotom-fan: :roselia: :smeargle: relics of a past meta without a niche in this one. Even Smeargle, since nobody in their right mind is running webs.

:audino: :audino-mega: I want to touch on these, since I think (Mega) Audino's pretty neat. First off, I think they should be ranked together because by far the best set is the wish one, obviously, which combines the two of them to have an Audino that sponges Knock and can mega lategame to clean up flygons and stuff with STAB gleam. It makes for a really nice King partner so King doesn't have to exhaust its colbur too early and can save it for pursuits, it checks Flygon endlessly and Sneasel has a difficult time dealing with it too. I'd like for it to stay in A-, since it has less competition with Mola now that Mola's not on every team, but I guess I could be talked into B+. I'd recommend trying a physdef set, as it's really nice and takes a lot of pressure off of trying to deal with knock in a meta that gets more and more run by it.

:shiftry: Lastly, my one nom from UR, Shiftry. As I've mentioned throughout this post a lot, Knock is really really good right now. What Shiftry offers is a Knocker that Diancie, the most common fairy and knock absorber by extension, can't switch into by virtue of getting owned by Leaf Storm. Same with Mola, and while it unfortunately doesn't get Heat Wave this gen, it can still pick between Hurricane and Low Kick to dent Venusaur and Registeel, respectively. It's not amazing, as it requires a lot of babying and isn't particularly fast, but it can force progress with knock vs some things Sneasel or Drapion can't while just generally being hard to switch into once it's in.

It's hard to find ORAS games, so I only have one replay right now, but: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6ru-1386437774-55gjrnbu1pfs7oy1giqru09zzxiwpl6pw

Here Shiftry lands two Knocks on Mola and Xatu out of the gate. If I were playing better I probably should've clicked Leaf Storm on Xatu since in hindsight the Mola switch was pretty obvious, but eh. It also sorta prevented Xatu from roosting, as doing so would've let Shiftry get healed up by Wish so it could live to keep exerting pressure on my opponent's team, which helped long term.

EDIT: Second Shiftry Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen6ru-1387093889-g1pk12tybcd6q9frfpnrbigxmssbtsupw
 
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During July, BW RU was a RoA Spotlight, and I really really liked this tier. During my experimentation, i found that offense was, imo, really good. So I wanted to ask if it is something that is generally recognized or if it's just me.
Sorry for the late response. Regarding your question, offense is indeed quite good. In fact, most players have tended towards using more offensive builds during the past few tournaments, such as bw cup, rupl, and bwpl. However, I would argue that this mostly reflects a current trend rather than offense being superior to more defensively inclined teams. Bulkier balance builds are also pretty good, despite not being used as much. A personal favourite of mine in that regard is a slowking/amoongus/steelix core paired with three more offensive mons. Additionally, although it has not seen much usage recently, Alomomola is a very good mon in this tier. In other words, it would not be surprising if players start opting for more bulky teams in the future. Granted, this also depends a bit on what we choose to do with mons such as Druddigon, Durant, and Moltres.

The tier is currently deciding on whether Moltres and Durant ought to be removed. If they leave, that would obviously affect the tier quite a bit. Druddigon is arguably more broken than the other two, so in theory it could get banned in the future too. I, for one, would be in favour of banning it. The way I see it, not using Druddigon is tantamount to being at a disadvantage before the game has even begun. BWRU without these three tier defining mons would obviously be quite different from the status quo, so it is challenging to say precisely how it would affect the meta. Generally speaking, offense tends to struggle a bit vs Durant, whereas defensive teams tend to have an easier time vs it. Because of this, I would argue that a Durant ban would benefit offense. As for Molt and Drudd, I would argue that offense tends to be better vs them than bulkier teams. Drudd is particularly problematic for bulkier builds, as it has no single counter to all of its sets. Ergo, Drudd and Molt leaving the tier would arguably benefit bulkier teams. That being said, what a future meta without these mons would look like is very uncertain.
 

MrAldo

Hey
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FINALLY, SOME RANKING UPDATES:

FOR BW:

Sceptile moved to S, more than earned at this point
Crawdaunt sent to a big jump to B+ cause it is probably the best option down there, deserves a big bump
Entei from A- to A
Aerodactyl from A to A+
Amoonguss provisionally sitting on A- cause of Stun Spore, Lilligant down to B+, Smeargle down to B-. All drops due to being heavily affected cause of the sleep ban, Tangrowth is still down to observation
Seismitoad from B to B+
Altaria from B- to B
Gothorita sent down to D- due to Shadow Tag ban
Exeggutor from B to B-


Also added some sample teams by to the BW section by Wenderz ty very much

For SM and ORAS I will figure out a way to accurately do a big update that should be coming shortly, will for sure be updated this time. Thank you once more for the feedback and comments, I swear it shall be fixed soon.

Lets say this is like a rise from the grave, stay tuned and cheers!
 

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