Namuko Pro
THE Mr. 34.5k
Some of what I would change has already been said by Zeefable or others so I'll gloss over all that I think are pretty obvious. With that being said, here's what I think should be changed.
Tapu Fini/Urshifu-S/Porygon-2: 1 -> 2
People have already touched on Fini and Urshifu-S usage falling, but P2 usage is also a bit on the downswing as well. Between the popularity of Grimm/Incin/Support Spectrier, which all run taunt most of the time, as well as a reduction in the usage of a lot of the stuff that the Eerie Impulse set helped out against near the end of S7, P2 isn't quite the auto include on every defensive team that it felt like at the end of S7. I still think it's the best TR setter in the format, but the gap between it and others isn't as big as it once was.
Coalossal: 3 -> 2
Coal is a legitimate archetype that hasn't seen it's success wane as the metagame develops like some of the other early popular strategies have, and it's still something you need to respect both in ladder and on tournaments more than any of the other Pokemon in tier 3. Using it in Bo1 can also be pretty effective, since you can exploit the fact that people basically need to lead their anti-Coal stuff and just lead your alternate plan in some games for easy wins.
Cinderace/Lapras/Mamoswine/Tyranitar/Tapu Koko/Stakataka: 3 -> 4
None of these are particularly great at the moment. Cinderace is a build around Max that lacks the game-warping ability of stuff like Coal/Spectrier/Charizard. Lapras was good in S8 primarily because you had Zacian to compensate for the fact that your Max wasn't doing much damage, and even then it tapered off before PC3; now it doesn't have big damage dealers to compensate for it's mediocre damage output, and if you really want screens Grimmsnarl is really good and doesn't take your max slot. Mamoswine is cute because it can deal with some common stuff like Incin and Lando, but it has too many weaknesses to be reliable, and is terrible if your opponent doesn't bring at least one (if not both) of those. Tyranitar is actually kind of okay and has seen some success along with Excadrill on sand teams in S9, but I don't think it's that good, and it should probably be in the same teir as Exca, and Exca isn't at the level of the rest of Tier 3. Koko has a cute niche in shutting off sleep, but Eleki is just so good that Koko is hard to justify on most teams. Stakataka has a nice niche in being the only (good) offensive TR setter besides Modest P2, and Max Stakataka can scale quite nicely with Beast Boost, but it's weaknesses are too extreme to be in 3 I think.
Tapu Lele/Tornadus: 3 -> 5
These two just kind of suck. Lele was decent in S8 when you could pair it with Shadow-Rider for HO nonsense, but now you can't do that, and it's a medicore offensive mon that struggles with a lot of common stuff in the format. Tornadus is really good until you get past 1300/Great Ball and people have actual answers to Metagross, and then you realize that: 1) You can't brute force Tornadus/Metagross leads every game, 2) Tornadus is absolutely terrible in every scenario in which you don't lead it next to Metagross, and 3) There are better ways to activate Weakness Policy on Metagross, and if you really need speed control on your activator you can just use Sucker Punch Grimmsnarl.
Politoed/Kingdra: 3 -> 5
These two also just kind of suck, but get a special mention because I used them on my ill-fated PC3 finals team so I know them better than most. There were a few reasons to use them in S8. They had a really strong matchup against both Groudon Sun teams and Zacian teams that didn't use Lapras (Both Coalossal and Sun Variants), which was like 50% of the top metagame by the end of the series. Politoed was also a really good Zacian partner between weakening fire moves, Helping Hand, and using Perish Song to clean up after Zacian ran through teams, and on the flip side Kingdra was one of a very very small group of non-restricteds that could reliably 1v1 an un-intimidated Zacian (it didn't even need to max to win if rain was up!).
The point of that S8 tangent is to show that literally none of that applies now in S9. There's no Zacian to support or beat, and sun teams are no longer made up of 4 mons that Politoed/Kingdra are strong against, but instead are now usually just Venukoal + 4, which limits Rain's efficacy there. What you're left with is two medicore water types that are really bad on their own, not fantastic together, and demand that you build a team around them -- unlike something like Venukoal, where you can use it alongside a lot of different stuff, or Coalossal, which is good enough to justify doing that. Not to mention the increased presence of stuff like Eerie Impulse P2, Tapu Fini, TR teams with Glastrier, Ferro, Kart, etc, none of which Rain wants to face.
Gastrodon/Sylveon/Snorlax: 4 -> 5
None of these are very good, but are probably good enough to still be ranked. Gastrodon suffers from the fact that it loses the 1v1 to the most common water type (Fini), which is... not good when your only job is to shut down water types. Sylveon's only value is being able to set up WP on Moltres or Dragapult and then unlike Comfey do actual damage afterwards, but if you're going all in on WP set-up you probably prefer the healing/ally switch/anti-tr stuff (reversing TR with your own TR or Taunt) that Comfey offers. Snorlax is decent if your opponent has no way to break through redirection and stop Snorlax, but the problem is that nearly all well built teams can already do that without specifically preparing for Snorlax.
Weezing/Regigigas: 4 -> 3
I think you can argue that Regiweezing is still good enough to be in Tier 3, especially as lower usage is making it so people have less specific answers to it, but that's not a hill I'd be willing to die on. They're in a weird limbo state where I don't think they're good enough for 3, but too good for 4.
Registeel: 5 -> 3 (Yes, 3!)
I think Registeel is just as good as Ferrothorn is right now, so it should be ranked wherever Ferro is. It has better bulk than Ferro, especially on the special side, and can also run Amnesia if you want to go all in on the stall. The big issues it has are that it lacks a great way to deal with ghost types, while Ferro can stall them out with Leech Seed, and that the mono-Steel typing means it takes neutral damage from Water/Electric and Super-Effective from Ground -- I think Electric is the only real issue there though because of Eleki, since there aren't a ton of offensive water types and most ground moves are physical so you Iron Defense on those anyway. The 2x weakness instead of 4x weakness to Fire is a nice bonus as well, especially since it makes Incin much easier to deal with. Overall I think it's just as good as Ferro, and is probably the better choice if your team doesn't need the additional support against Regeleki + Ghosts.
(RIP to Regice, the only Regi to not make the list)
Marowak-A: 5 -> 4
Marowak has seen success on a couple different teams in tournaments lately. It has a lot going for it, in that it hits super hard in TR (more immediate damage than Glastrier/Rhyperior/Regirock), doesn't compete with anything for an item slot since obviously nothing else wants to run Thick Club, and if you dynamax it, it can intrinsically boost it's damage output by either setting Sun with Max Flare, or with Phantasm dropping defense on opponents (like a TR Max Dragapult). It's also one of the very few mons that can break through Defense boosted Ferro/Registeel/AV-Celesteela with any consistency, and unlike a lot of pure attackers doesn't fall off that much if you don't dynamax, since it's perfectly fine unmaxed as well. Lightningrod is also a nice bonus given how common Regieleki and other electric types are in this format -- It's also pretty much the only thing can guarantee it's not at all threatened by any Regieleki set, since it's immune to the Hyper Beam that the LO sets run to hit Electric immunities. Overall I think it's quite a bit better than anything that's in tier 5 now (besides Registeel!) and everything I suggested moving down there.
I'm a big Marowak fan if it's not obvious...
Cobalion/Gyarados/Phermosa/Mudsdale/Hydreigon/Rotom-C: 5 -> UR
I think none of these are good enough to be on the list. They either have mediocre gimmicks that aren't reliable with all the strong mons S9 has (Cobalion/Phermosa/Mudsdale), are outclassed by other stuff (Hydreigon), or just aren't good enough in the current metagame (Gyarados/Rotom-C)
And for a couple things that aren't ranked but probably should be:
Porygon-Z: UR -> 5
The fact that it has STAB Max Strike and does more immediate damage than Spectrier is enough of a reason to at least consider it over Ghost Horse on some teams. You should probably still go Spectrier in most cases, but the fact that at least sometimes your answer MIGHT be PZ is probably good enough to make it Tier 5
Blacephelon: UR -> 5
It's seen results on a couple teams in tournaments as an alternative to Dragapult for activating Steam Engine on Coalossal. It's a lot less flexible than Pult is since you basically need to run Choice Scarf , which is why it's only Tier 5, but T1 Mind Blown + Max Move from Coal (or Heat Wave in some scenarios) can just annihilate some teams. And just for funsies, T1 Mind Blown + Max Flare into T2 Sun Boosted Mind Blown + Max Move is probably the best way to farm 2-Turn wins on low ladder.
Everything else that I think should be ranked is either on there already or I forgot it existed.
Tapu Fini/Urshifu-S/Porygon-2: 1 -> 2
People have already touched on Fini and Urshifu-S usage falling, but P2 usage is also a bit on the downswing as well. Between the popularity of Grimm/Incin/Support Spectrier, which all run taunt most of the time, as well as a reduction in the usage of a lot of the stuff that the Eerie Impulse set helped out against near the end of S7, P2 isn't quite the auto include on every defensive team that it felt like at the end of S7. I still think it's the best TR setter in the format, but the gap between it and others isn't as big as it once was.
Coalossal: 3 -> 2
Coal is a legitimate archetype that hasn't seen it's success wane as the metagame develops like some of the other early popular strategies have, and it's still something you need to respect both in ladder and on tournaments more than any of the other Pokemon in tier 3. Using it in Bo1 can also be pretty effective, since you can exploit the fact that people basically need to lead their anti-Coal stuff and just lead your alternate plan in some games for easy wins.
Cinderace/Lapras/Mamoswine/Tyranitar/Tapu Koko/Stakataka: 3 -> 4
None of these are particularly great at the moment. Cinderace is a build around Max that lacks the game-warping ability of stuff like Coal/Spectrier/Charizard. Lapras was good in S8 primarily because you had Zacian to compensate for the fact that your Max wasn't doing much damage, and even then it tapered off before PC3; now it doesn't have big damage dealers to compensate for it's mediocre damage output, and if you really want screens Grimmsnarl is really good and doesn't take your max slot. Mamoswine is cute because it can deal with some common stuff like Incin and Lando, but it has too many weaknesses to be reliable, and is terrible if your opponent doesn't bring at least one (if not both) of those. Tyranitar is actually kind of okay and has seen some success along with Excadrill on sand teams in S9, but I don't think it's that good, and it should probably be in the same teir as Exca, and Exca isn't at the level of the rest of Tier 3. Koko has a cute niche in shutting off sleep, but Eleki is just so good that Koko is hard to justify on most teams. Stakataka has a nice niche in being the only (good) offensive TR setter besides Modest P2, and Max Stakataka can scale quite nicely with Beast Boost, but it's weaknesses are too extreme to be in 3 I think.
Tapu Lele/Tornadus: 3 -> 5
These two just kind of suck. Lele was decent in S8 when you could pair it with Shadow-Rider for HO nonsense, but now you can't do that, and it's a medicore offensive mon that struggles with a lot of common stuff in the format. Tornadus is really good until you get past 1300/Great Ball and people have actual answers to Metagross, and then you realize that: 1) You can't brute force Tornadus/Metagross leads every game, 2) Tornadus is absolutely terrible in every scenario in which you don't lead it next to Metagross, and 3) There are better ways to activate Weakness Policy on Metagross, and if you really need speed control on your activator you can just use Sucker Punch Grimmsnarl.
Politoed/Kingdra: 3 -> 5
These two also just kind of suck, but get a special mention because I used them on my ill-fated PC3 finals team so I know them better than most. There were a few reasons to use them in S8. They had a really strong matchup against both Groudon Sun teams and Zacian teams that didn't use Lapras (Both Coalossal and Sun Variants), which was like 50% of the top metagame by the end of the series. Politoed was also a really good Zacian partner between weakening fire moves, Helping Hand, and using Perish Song to clean up after Zacian ran through teams, and on the flip side Kingdra was one of a very very small group of non-restricteds that could reliably 1v1 an un-intimidated Zacian (it didn't even need to max to win if rain was up!).
The point of that S8 tangent is to show that literally none of that applies now in S9. There's no Zacian to support or beat, and sun teams are no longer made up of 4 mons that Politoed/Kingdra are strong against, but instead are now usually just Venukoal + 4, which limits Rain's efficacy there. What you're left with is two medicore water types that are really bad on their own, not fantastic together, and demand that you build a team around them -- unlike something like Venukoal, where you can use it alongside a lot of different stuff, or Coalossal, which is good enough to justify doing that. Not to mention the increased presence of stuff like Eerie Impulse P2, Tapu Fini, TR teams with Glastrier, Ferro, Kart, etc, none of which Rain wants to face.
Gastrodon/Sylveon/Snorlax: 4 -> 5
None of these are very good, but are probably good enough to still be ranked. Gastrodon suffers from the fact that it loses the 1v1 to the most common water type (Fini), which is... not good when your only job is to shut down water types. Sylveon's only value is being able to set up WP on Moltres or Dragapult and then unlike Comfey do actual damage afterwards, but if you're going all in on WP set-up you probably prefer the healing/ally switch/anti-tr stuff (reversing TR with your own TR or Taunt) that Comfey offers. Snorlax is decent if your opponent has no way to break through redirection and stop Snorlax, but the problem is that nearly all well built teams can already do that without specifically preparing for Snorlax.
Weezing/Regigigas: 4 -> 3
I think you can argue that Regiweezing is still good enough to be in Tier 3, especially as lower usage is making it so people have less specific answers to it, but that's not a hill I'd be willing to die on. They're in a weird limbo state where I don't think they're good enough for 3, but too good for 4.
Registeel: 5 -> 3 (Yes, 3!)
I think Registeel is just as good as Ferrothorn is right now, so it should be ranked wherever Ferro is. It has better bulk than Ferro, especially on the special side, and can also run Amnesia if you want to go all in on the stall. The big issues it has are that it lacks a great way to deal with ghost types, while Ferro can stall them out with Leech Seed, and that the mono-Steel typing means it takes neutral damage from Water/Electric and Super-Effective from Ground -- I think Electric is the only real issue there though because of Eleki, since there aren't a ton of offensive water types and most ground moves are physical so you Iron Defense on those anyway. The 2x weakness instead of 4x weakness to Fire is a nice bonus as well, especially since it makes Incin much easier to deal with. Overall I think it's just as good as Ferro, and is probably the better choice if your team doesn't need the additional support against Regeleki + Ghosts.
(RIP to Regice, the only Regi to not make the list)
Marowak-A: 5 -> 4
Marowak has seen success on a couple different teams in tournaments lately. It has a lot going for it, in that it hits super hard in TR (more immediate damage than Glastrier/Rhyperior/Regirock), doesn't compete with anything for an item slot since obviously nothing else wants to run Thick Club, and if you dynamax it, it can intrinsically boost it's damage output by either setting Sun with Max Flare, or with Phantasm dropping defense on opponents (like a TR Max Dragapult). It's also one of the very few mons that can break through Defense boosted Ferro/Registeel/AV-Celesteela with any consistency, and unlike a lot of pure attackers doesn't fall off that much if you don't dynamax, since it's perfectly fine unmaxed as well. Lightningrod is also a nice bonus given how common Regieleki and other electric types are in this format -- It's also pretty much the only thing can guarantee it's not at all threatened by any Regieleki set, since it's immune to the Hyper Beam that the LO sets run to hit Electric immunities. Overall I think it's quite a bit better than anything that's in tier 5 now (besides Registeel!) and everything I suggested moving down there.
I'm a big Marowak fan if it's not obvious...
Cobalion/Gyarados/Phermosa/Mudsdale/Hydreigon/Rotom-C: 5 -> UR
I think none of these are good enough to be on the list. They either have mediocre gimmicks that aren't reliable with all the strong mons S9 has (Cobalion/Phermosa/Mudsdale), are outclassed by other stuff (Hydreigon), or just aren't good enough in the current metagame (Gyarados/Rotom-C)
And for a couple things that aren't ranked but probably should be:
Porygon-Z: UR -> 5
The fact that it has STAB Max Strike and does more immediate damage than Spectrier is enough of a reason to at least consider it over Ghost Horse on some teams. You should probably still go Spectrier in most cases, but the fact that at least sometimes your answer MIGHT be PZ is probably good enough to make it Tier 5
Blacephelon: UR -> 5
It's seen results on a couple teams in tournaments as an alternative to Dragapult for activating Steam Engine on Coalossal. It's a lot less flexible than Pult is since you basically need to run Choice Scarf , which is why it's only Tier 5, but T1 Mind Blown + Max Move from Coal (or Heat Wave in some scenarios) can just annihilate some teams. And just for funsies, T1 Mind Blown + Max Flare into T2 Sun Boosted Mind Blown + Max Move is probably the best way to farm 2-Turn wins on low ladder.
Everything else that I think should be ranked is either on there already or I forgot it existed.
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