Sun / Moon In-Game Tier List

[Banryu]

As someone who made the effort to collect as many of the cells as possible as quickly as possible, I would say Zyg-50 isn't that bad, you only have to backtrack on Melemele since you can pretty much find them as you go on the others (with the exception of the night/day ones).

I haven't gotten much further since grabbing him, but he was able to deal with the bulk of Aether with no problems; I forgot to go back for Rock Slide but if I did he'd have probably been able to sweep Guzma with no problems. Didn't use him against Lusamine though.

 

[Nysyr]

Backing up Magnemite being S for sure. He's been basically soloing my playthru atm without even using Eviolite (amulet coin because I'd rather grind cash for TMs while I play...). Charge Beam isn't great, but anything it hits SE it will OHKO except for the most bulky stuff. Once you get Discharge you really only need to switch out vs Alolan diglett/dugtrio. Everything else Flash Cannon/Discharge/Triattack will generally OHKO. If I turned off exp-share and used eviolite he would solo even the prior mentioned. Seriously.

Honestly Decidueye's use is in being a Ghost type that can learn false swipe. That's about it. Everything else has sucker punch or bite/crunch to hit him.

 

[LunaStik]

As someone who made the effort to collect as many of the cells as possible as quickly as possible, I would say Zyg-50 isn't that bad, you only have to backtrack on Melemele since you can pretty much find them as you go on the others (with the exception of the night/day ones).

I haven't gotten much further since grabbing him, but he was able to deal with the bulk of Aether with no problems; I forgot to go back for Rock Slide but if I did he'd have probably been able to sweep Guzma with no problems. Didn't use him against Lusamine though.

How often did you go out of your way to get those cells? I am not doubting his battle ability, as my complaint with Dog was bulk, and 50% has bulk to spare. I played somewhat linearly with Zydog, and even now after the E4 don't have 50 cells.

And with Lusamine, it's on paper can do something. I don't know where he would though.

 

[Sefk26]

How often did you go out of your way to get those cells? I am not doubting his battle ability, as my complaint with Dog was bulk, and 50% has bulk to spare. I played somewhat linearly with Zydog, and even now after the E4 don't have 50 cells.

And with Lusamine, it's on paper can do something. I don't know where he would though.

I definitively got over 50 before E5. In fact I think I reached 50 shortly after arriving on Poni Island. Note that this is a play-through with what I believe to be a normal amount of backtracking: I only backtracked to pick up rare battle items and TMs.

To do a quick math, there are
14 cells + 2 cores on Melemele, 3 are day exclusive, 3 are night exclusive;
18 +1 on Akala, 4 day exclusive, 4 night exclusive;
30 +1 on Ula'ula, 7 day, 7 night;
5 + 0 on Aether, 1 day, 1 night.

Suppose that you only play during a fix time each day (say nighttime only), which means that you are not getting any of the day exclusive cells (or night, if you play Moon), then you should have
13 Melemele + 19 Akala + 24 Ula'ula = 56 cells and cores, which is plenty.

Note that a few of the cells requires sharpedo, which is fine given the truck comes after. Some of them might require machamp, but I think that for cells pre-poni that's very very rare.

 

[Dragontamer]

Caterpie / Butterfree need a much higher placement than mid. 395 BST is very weak for endgame, but in the early game it is monsterously stronger than the competition.

The moveset of Sleep Powder / Gust / Silver Wind / Psybeam is incredibly potent at early / mid game, utterly crushing every Team Skull battle single-handedly. 4x Resisting Grand Trial #1 (Fighting Types) is a bonus.

By level 30 or so, your moveset upgrades to Sleep Powder / Psychic / Bug Buzz / Gust, and by level 41 you reach the endgame of Air Slash. Now you crush Grand Trail #2 (Dark Types) with Bug Buzz. If you're slightly overleveled, Butterfree will OHKO Salazzle with Psychic (Plumeria and Totem match)... so don't worry about that STAB Flame Burst.

Boss Guzma is always owned by Butterfree. Sucker-puch can eat 90+% accurate Sleep Powder (Thanks CompoundEyes), and the rest of his Bug Pokemon can take Gust (early game) and Air Slash (late game).

On occasion, you will swap out Psychic for Shadow Ball. Its just a TM, so you can do it anytime between battles. (Ex: Shadow Ball for Elite Four Ghost fight, then swap back to Psychic for the Elite Four Fighting-type fight).

Aether Foundation is not quite as one-sided, but Bug Buzz the Psychic Types is great. There are random rock attacks on pokemon you wouldn't expect (ex: Mismagius's Power Gem), and Butterfree doesn't like that.

After that, Butterfree plays more of a utility role as you enter the final island and battle the Elite Four. Its still one of the fastest high-accuracy sleep users available in-game thanks to Sleep Powder + Compound Eyes, which is useful for post-game catching and cheesing a few battles with X Sp. Attack / X Speed.

 

[Siggu]

Caterpie / Butterfree need a much higher placement than mid. 395 BST is very weak for endgame, but in the early game it is monsterously stronger than the competition.

The moveset of Sleep Powder / Gust / Silver Wind / Psybeam is incredibly potent at early / mid game, utterly crushing every Team Skull battle single-handedly. 4x Resisting Grand Trial #1 (Fighting Types) is a bonus.

By level 30 or so, your moveset upgrades to Sleep Powder / Psychic / Bug Buzz / Gust, and by level 41 you reach the endgame of Air Slash. Now you crush Grand Trail #2 (Dark Types) with Bug Buzz. If you're slightly overleveled, Butterfree will OHKO Salazzle with Psychic (Plumeria and Totem match)... so don't worry about that STAB Flame Burst.

Boss Guzma is always owned by Butterfree. Sucker-puch can eat 90+% accurate Sleep Powder (Thanks CompoundEyes), and the rest of his Bug Pokemon can take Gust (early game) and Air Slash (late game).

Aether Foundation is not quite as one-sided, but Bug Buzz the Psychic Types is great. There are random rock attacks on pokemon you wouldn't expect (ex: Mismagius's Power Gem), and Butterfree doesn't like that.

After that, Butterfree plays more of a utility role as you enter the final island and battle the Elite Four. Its still one of the fastest high-accuracy sleep users available in-game thanks to Sleep Powder + Compound Eyes, which is useful for post-game catching and cheesing a few battles with X Sp. Attack / X Speed.

A small extra part of Butterfree's utility is that it's the earliest Pokemon that can have Compound Eyes and Thief, so you can get valuable items with surprising ease (such as Cubone's Thick Club) after you beat Hala.

 

[LunaStik]

I definitively got over 50 before E5. In fact I think I reached 50 shortly after arriving on Poni Island. Note that this is a play-through with what I believe to be a normal amount of backtracking: I only backtracked to pick up rare battle items and TMs.

To do a quick math, there are
14 cells + 2 cores on Melemele, 3 are day exclusive, 3 are night exclusive;
18 +1 on Akala, 4 day exclusive, 4 night exclusive;
30 +1 on Ula'ula, 7 day, 7 night;
5 + 0 on Aether, 1 day, 1 night.

Suppose that you only play during a fix time each day (say nighttime only), which means that you are not getting any of the day exclusive cells (or night, if you play Moon), then you should have
13 Melemele + 19 Akala + 24 Ula'ula = 56 cells and cores, which is plenty.

Note that a few of the cells requires sharpedo, which is fine given the truck comes after. Some of them might require machamp, but I think that for cells pre-poni that's very very rare.

Pre-Poni Machamp cells I think is 2 (I know for sure Lush Jungle is post-Machamp). Meanwhile, I wasn't adverse to going off the beaten path, but I did very limited backtracking. The only backtracking I did was to get the cores at your house and in Iki Town (I did mention somewhat linearly, after all).

In my initial playthrough, I did full backtracking and got ~65 cells by E4.

So the question is: how much backtracking is considered normal or efficient? In an efficient run, do we need any backtracking? Did we even need any backtracking to Melemele other than to pick up cells? (Just looked, only two reasonably crucial TMs need backtracking: Rock Slide and maybe Thief, the latter of which you can backtrack for before you leave Melemele). And I don't think there are any critical battle items that you actually need via backtracking, considering I wasn't missing them. I had Expert Belt, Muscle Band, and an Amulet Coin which can pretty easily power your journey without the need to backtrack. While you can argue X items, you can also buy them faster and with some ease if you use the amulet coin wisely.

Caterpie / Butterfree need a much higher placement than mid. 395 BST is very weak for endgame, but in the early game it is monsterously stronger than the competition.

The moveset of Sleep Powder / Gust / Silver Wind / Psybeam is incredibly potent at early / mid game, utterly crushing every Team Skull battle single-handedly. 4x Resisting Grand Trial #1 (Fighting Types) is a bonus.

By level 30 or so, your moveset upgrades to Sleep Powder / Psychic / Bug Buzz / Gust, and by level 41 you reach the endgame of Air Slash. Now you crush Grand Trail #2 (Dark Types) with Bug Buzz. If you're slightly overleveled, Butterfree will OHKO Salazzle with Psychic (Plumeria and Totem match)... so don't worry about that STAB Flame Burst.

Boss Guzma is always owned by Butterfree. Sucker-puch can eat 90+% accurate Sleep Powder (Thanks CompoundEyes), and the rest of his Bug Pokemon can take Gust (early game) and Air Slash (late game).

On occasion, you will swap out Psychic for Shadow Ball. Its just a TM, so you can do it anytime between battles. (Ex: Shadow Ball for Elite Four Ghost fight, then swap back to Psychic for the Elite Four Fighting-type fight).

Aether Foundation is not quite as one-sided, but Bug Buzz the Psychic Types is great. There are random rock attacks on pokemon you wouldn't expect (ex: Mismagius's Power Gem), and Butterfree doesn't like that.

After that, Butterfree plays more of a utility role as you enter the final island and battle the Elite Four. Its still one of the fastest high-accuracy sleep users available in-game thanks to Sleep Powder + Compound Eyes, which is useful for post-game catching and cheesing a few battles with X Sp. Attack / X Speed.

While being outclassed doesn't equate to lowering a tier, I am going to make a comparison to see how well Butterfree does compared to something available at the same time with similar typing: Toucannon.

Butterfree:
Trial 1: No advantage
Hala: wins
Wishiwashi: No advantage
Salazzle: While you have SE psybeam, I still do not like the idea of matching it v something faster with its own STAB SE attack. Unreliable
Lurantis: 50/50. If Castform is summoned you lose thanks to Synthesis spam while Castform Weather Balls you to death. Unreliable (Immune to Sleep Powder)
Olivia: Outright lose
Vikavolt: Lose, unless you get lucky with sleep turns
Mimikyu: Who knows. You can sleep Mimikyu, but you have to depend on it not waking upon the turn you break its Disguise. If it does, you get counterslept thanks to summon Hypnosis.
Guzma: I guess it's a win with Sleep Powder.
Nanu: can win
Lusamine: a mess for everyone
Hapu: Probably lose.
Kommo'o: Turn 1 protect to summon a helper spells disaster for Butterfree.
E4: Win 1, lose 2, even matchup 1

Toucannon
Trial 1: Access to Brick Break swings this in his favor.
Hala: Wins
Wishwashi No advantage
Salazzle: about the same as Butterfree. While no SE attack, doesn't take SE damage.
Lurantis: Has a better advantage than Butterfree, as no weakness to summons.
Olivia: lose
Vikavolt: 50/50. Has SE coverage for this battle which Butterfree lacks.
Mimikyuu: Z-Steel Wing gives you a direct edge, if you can get lucky with Haunter Hypnosis.
Guzma: Win
Nanu: Brick Break wins
Hapu: SE coverage again
Kommo'o: Wins regardless.
E4: Win 1, lose 1, even 2

Butterfree is ultimately a one trick pony relying on hax. Over the course of a run, you can count on getting min sleep rolls often enough that you lose Butterfree consistently even with optimal play. Mid Tier sounds right, even with the utility offered, which many high tier mons provide as well, but with even better offensive utility.

 

[Stellar]

Completely disagree... Butterfree was an excellent Pokémon that could hold its own for the first 80ish percent of the game. You are vastly underestimating (almost) no-miss Sleep Powder and Quiver Dance in the late game.

I agree with essentially everything Dragontamer said, and I actually used Butterfree.

 

[hypno28]

I've used both, and Butterfree was much better than Toucannon, which has more built-in power but is so slow and frail that it needs help all the time.

Edit: I just looked at the list, and Pikipek in B with Caterpie in C is pretty ridiculous.

 

[Big_Isaac]

I've used both, and Butterfree was much better than Toucannon, which has more built-in power but is so slow and frail that it needs help all the time.

Edit: I just looked at the list, and Pikipek in B with Caterpie in C is pretty ridiculous.

Slow? Butterfree is ahead by 10 base speed. It's not 0, but hardly something to write home about, especially with how slow Alola is in general
Frail? I'd argue it's the exact opposite. While 'Free has 5 more Special Defense, 'Cannon has 20 more base HP and 25 more Defense. Granted 2 of the bug's resistances are x1/4, but in exchange the bird has 2 fewer weaknesses and doesn't die from brushing past a stray pebble (read: rock)

 

[Siggu]

Frail? I'd argue it's the exact opposite. While 'Free has 5 more Special Defense, 'Cannon has 20 more base HP and 25 more Defense. Granted 2 of the bug's resistances are x1/4, but in exchange the bird has 2 fewer weaknesses and doesn't die from brushing past a stray pebble (read: rock)

Toucannon may be bulkier, but it lacks Butterfree's staying power AKA Sleep Powder, whereas Toucannon can burn something after being hit at best.

 

[Dragontamer]

Sleep Powder is an exceptionally good attack. It stops SOS-calls (even in Totem-battles) and provides setup opportunities for X-Sp. Atk and X-Speed. Sleep is also now guarenteed to last at least one turn (no more turn-0 wakeups). So Sleep Powder is only harmful to your `mon on the turns it misses... which Butterfree's Compound Eyes almost entirely prevents.

While being outclassed doesn't equate to lowering a tier, I am going to make a comparison to see how well Butterfree does compared to something available at the same time with similar typing: Toucannon.

I feel like you're being slightly unfair to Butterfree, but I appreciate the rundown. Nanu is completely owned by Butterfree's STAB Bug Buzz. Sleep Powder + X. Speed means you OHKO all of Nanu's pokemon. Sableye is setup bait, even-more so when its sleeping.

Lurantis Totom doesn't like Silver Wind and Sleep Powder on the Castform is the easiest way to stop the Sunny Day. I don't think any `mon can OHKO Castform unless you're grossly overleveled. IIRC, I three-hit KO'd Lunantis with Silver Wind.

A sleeping Mimikyu doesn't summon anything. Sleep on turn one, X-Speed on turn 2. If Mimikyu wakes up immediately and summons Haunter, OHKO Haunter with Psybeam and then sleep the Mimikyu again to prevent more summons.

90+% Accurate Sleep Powder + X-items wreaks the game. Feed two rainbow Poke-beans for the free Endure and stat-cures and you get an unstoppable monster.

Completely disagree... Butterfree was an excellent Pokémon that could hold its own for the first 80ish percent of the game. You are vastly underestimating (almost) no-miss Sleep Powder and Quiver Dance in the late game.

I agree with essentially everything Dragontamer said, and I actually used Butterfree.

Because of how early X-items are in this game, I'm not sure how relevant Quiver Dance is. Honestly, I don't believe that Quiver Dance is worth a slot in-game. Especially now that X-items give +2 stages per use.

Very early on, its a bit expensive to buy lots of ~$1000 X-items. But after Aether Foundation (roughly the time when Butterfree gets Quiver Dance), you're probably sitting on a pile of money without any idea how to spend it.

Quiver-Dance is equivalent to three individual +1 stages, but Sleep Powder + X-items means you can run three attacks AND still stat-up crush the entire game.

 

[hypno28]

Slow? Butterfree is ahead by 10 base speed. It's not 0, but hardly something to write home about, especially with how slow Alola is in general
Frail? I'd argue it's the exact opposite. While 'Free has 5 more Special Defense, 'Cannon has 20 more base HP and 25 more Defense. Granted 2 of the bug's resistances are x1/4, but in exchange the bird has 2 fewer weaknesses and doesn't die from brushing past a stray pebble (read: rock)

Nearly perfect-accuracy Sleep Powder and Quiver Dance mean Butterfree's speed is much less of a liability. (And, admittedly, I had a Timid Butterfree and a speed-neutral Toucannon.)

 

[LunaStik]

I'm surprised so many people used Butterfree in game already, considering her trend to mediocrity the last several gens. Practice always beats paper, though, so if this many are saying practice is winning, I'll quiet down.

 

[Sefk26]

Pre-Poni Machamp cells I think is 2 (I know for sure Lush Jungle is post-Machamp). Meanwhile, I wasn't adverse to going off the beaten path, but I did very limited backtracking. The only backtracking I did was to get the cores at your house and in Iki Town (I did mention somewhat linearly, after all).

In my initial playthrough, I did full backtracking and got ~65 cells by E4.

So the question is: how much backtracking is considered normal or efficient? In an efficient run, do we need any backtracking? Did we even need any backtracking to Melemele other than to pick up cells? (Just looked, only two reasonably crucial TMs need backtracking: Rock Slide and maybe Thief, the latter of which you can backtrack for before you leave Melemele). And I don't think there are any critical battle items that you actually need via backtracking, considering I wasn't missing them. I had Expert Belt, Muscle Band, and an Amulet Coin which can pretty easily power your journey without the need to backtrack. While you can argue X items, you can also buy them faster and with some ease if you use the amulet coin wisely.

Good question. Also, note that there are, IMO, two ways to play with Zygarde 50%.

1) One is to try to collect as many cells as possible before the truck, and thus getting a Zygarde 50% around Po Town. This will involve backtracking to Melemele Island, but not Akala Island (need to check this).

2) The other one is to get a Zygarde 10% first. Then wait until early Poni Island to upgrade to Zygarde 50%. This should involve 0 backtracking. Zygarde wont be able to do much against Guzma and Lusamine, but then Guzma is a pushover and Lusamine just requires a different pokemon anyway because of Clefable. Against Nanu, Zygarde 10 can always run Break Bricks against Krokorok and Persian; Sableye is annoying but its stats are garbage. Then once you reach Poni you get a Zygarde 50 which will do pretty well except against Kommo-o and Acelora's Froslass.

 

[Dragontamer]

I'm surprised so many people used Butterfree in game already, considering her trend to mediocrity the last several gens. Practice always beats paper, though, so if this many are saying practice is winning, I'll quiet down.

Its fine, contributing the contrary opinion is still helpful for the discussion. The main thing is that the list currently has Caterpie at "C" but your comparison "Toucannon" is at "B". At very least, the similarity between the two in the major fights shows that Caterpie is at a similar power-level.

I've found Butterfree to be > Zygarde 10% even (which is also in B-tier). Looking at the `mon in A-tier... I'm not sure if Butterfree makes it there due to relatively lackluster E4 fights, but damn, that Butterfly owns the early game very hard. I'd definitely prefer Butterfree over the vast majority of the A-tier mons for the first three islands.

-------

What's the argument for Zubat in A-tier btw? I at least see the argument for all of the other A-tier pokemon, but I'm not quite understanding Zubat's position or role.

Is it all about STAB Acrobatics spam?

 

[Sefk26]

What's the argument for Zubat in A-tier btw? I at least see the argument for all of the other A-tier pokemon, but I'm not quite understanding Zubat's position or role.

You get it pretty early, and Crobat is good enough for late game. Also leech life is now a power 80 move so you can run Leech Life + Cross Poison + Fly/Toxic + Coverage/U-Turn/Protect.

Edit: Early game zubat might be a dead weight, but suppose you evolve it to a crobat at level 23-24, you get early a pokemon with base 90 atk, base 130 speed, and with a moveset like Cross Poison + Confuse Ray + Bite + Air Cutter, which is pretty solid.

 

[Banryu]

How often did you go out of your way to get those cells? I am not doubting his battle ability, as my complaint with Dog was bulk, and 50% has bulk to spare. I played somewhat linearly with Zydog, and even now after the E4 don't have 50 cells.

And with Lusamine, it's on paper can do something. I don't know where he would though.

Twice for Melemele once I got Charizard fly, and a sweep over the next two islands once each for the time of day that I didn't play through it. IDK if we're factoring in online guides that tell where to get the cells and whether they're time-of-day specific, but it didn't take me that long to grab everything available using a guide. You definitely have to go out of your way, but no more than for TMs like Rock Slide and the like.

 

[LunaStik]

Good question. Also, note that there are, IMO, two ways to play with Zygarde 50%.

1) One is to try to collect as many cells as possible before the truck, and thus getting a Zygarde 50% around Po Town. This will involve backtracking to Melemele Island, but not Akala Island (need to check this).

I did check before posting. While you don't need to backtrack in Akala, you will have to wait for the day/night switch because you do need at least some time exclusive cells.

Twice for Melemele once I got Charizard fly, and a sweep over the next two islands once each for the time of day that I didn't play through it. IDK if we're factoring in online guides that tell where to get the cells and whether they're time-of-day specific, but it didn't take me that long to grab everything available using a guide. You definitely have to go out of your way, but no more than for TMs like Rock Slide and the like.

The thing is i question the time aspect. I at least currently don't have anything else going on which makes it convenient to wait for hours for the time to change. Hence it means it is inefficient for me to stop and wait for the time to change as I could be advancing in the game for those same 6 hours. Alternatively, there are people who canonly play at certain times and can't access the opposite time cells until post-game rift. Not that I don't believe it is easy, but it is a question of efficiency. And compare rock slide which only requires back tracking to a certain route, as opposed to an entire island for the cells. While both are backtracking, one is certainly shorter than the other. It is why I asked after my second playthrough which required significantly less backtracking, and I didn't come close to 50%.

Its fine, contributing the contrary opinion is still helpful for the discussion. The main thing is that the list currently has Caterpie at "C" but your comparison "Toucannon" is at "B". At very least, the similarity between the two in the major fights shows that Caterpie is at a similar power-level.

I've found Butterfree to be > Zygarde 10% even (which is also in B-tier). Looking at the `mon in A-tier... I'm not sure if Butterfree makes it there due to relatively lackluster E4 fights, but damn, that Butterfly owns the early game very hard. I'd definitely prefer Butterfree over the vast majority of the A-tier mons for the first three islands.

To be fair, I was arguing for Zydog to drop to C tier the last couple of pages, so it would make sense to me for Butterfree to be at least on par xD

 

[Banryu]

The thing is i question the time aspect. I at least currently don't have anything else going on which makes it convenient to wait for hours for the time to change. Hence it means it is inefficient for me to stop and wait for the time to change as I could be advancing in the game for those same 6 hours. Alternatively, there are people who canonly play at certain times and can't access the opposite time cells until post-game rift. Not that I don't believe it is easy, but it is a question of efficiency. And compare rock slide which only requires back tracking to a certain route, as opposed to an entire island for the cells. While both are backtracking, one is certainly shorter than the other. It is why I asked after my second playthrough which required significantly less backtracking, and I didn't come close to 50%.

There you might have me, in an efficiency run played through all at once, getting them all efficiently would require one to start playing late enough in the day that the time comes in around late Ula'ula so they can all be quickly grabbed once the day changes. Point conceded.

 

[SimicCombine]

I'm using a shiny Butterfree, and it is fine in Mid. It's a great early-game nuke, but it really struggles to KO anything in the midgame before the opponent wakes up, and since it has the physical bulk of a wet paper bag and lousy resistances, any physical STAB is enough to 1HKO it. Late-game, it can sweep entire teams, but ONLY if it can come in against a somewhat weak special attacker and get a little lucky with the sleep rolls. Luckily, Lusamine's Clefable fits the bill. It does have good utility preventing calls for help (although Magnemite does it better), but its pitiful physical bulk and mediocre attack really hold it back. Butterfree's best use before Poni Canyon was as a scout to put something to sleep so I'd have a 66% chance of safely switching in something that could actually beat the opponent.

 

[LunaStik]

Also, looking through the list, I believe we should move Snorunt (Frosslass) from untiered to F-Tier, because it is technically obtainable. You can get Dawn stones through Poke Pelago, but it does require that you capture a whole bunch of pokemon you are not going to use n your run, and then still wait hours for a chance (not a guarantee), to get a Dawn Stone. So she is available prior to post-game, but is level 13 Salamence levels of inefficient to obtain.

 

[Sefk26]

Should we move Mimikyu up to A? I am curious to hear what you guys think.

It has a low encounter rate and an annoying catch rate. That said, it's effectiveness doesn't depend much on it's nature, so you can do fine by just catching one. Once you have one it is pretty much the most straightforward set-up sweeper ever, and if you put a ghostium-z on it can pretty much OHKO anything (not normal type) after one sword dance.

 

[LunaStik]

Should we move Mimikyu up to A? I am curious to hear what you guys think.

It has a low encounter rate and an annoying catch rate. That said, it's effectiveness doesn't depend much on it's nature, so you can do fine by just catching one. Once you have one it is pretty much the most straightforward set-up sweeper ever, and if you put a ghostium-z on it can pretty much OHKO anything (not normal type) after one sword dance.

I'd be fine with it, but I don't know if it is that great. I used one in my Moon playthrough, but since I did full backtracking on that first playthrough, I was also horrendously overleveled so I can;t make a fair judgement. But on paper, it does do really well from then on. Disguise guarantees the bulk to set up, so frailty is a non-issue.

Swords Dance>Shadow Claw>Shadow Sneak goes very well.

Guzma: Swords Dance (possibly twice if Golisopod goes for its own SD) > Shadow Claw destroys him in most encounters.
Nanu: Might not have Play Rough yet, but Sableye is set up bait, enabling +4 Shadow Claw to finish it off, and Slash finishing the rest.
Lusamine: Clefable is set up bait. Shadow Claw will eventually crit and break through her buffing. Sweep the rest.
Hapu: An OK matchup. Setup helps, but you aren't doing much to each other. Her Dugtrio means that you may want a U-Turner to keep Disguise intact after you kill Dugtrio if you really want to use Mimikyu here.
Kommo'o: You probably just got Play Rough. And you just got a shiny Fairium...
Lusamine rematch: Same as before. Waiting game until Shadow Claw crits, then sweep. Bewear is very physically bulky though, and is a slight threat.
Hala: Play Rough
Olivia: Should win, but is very annoying. Relicanth yawn prevents you from setting up too much; depending on how much you can set up against other threats, Probopass threatens you back.
Acerola: Might be outsped by Froslass, everything else is a cake walk due to outspeeding.
Kahili: Crobat and Toucannon can stop your sweep if you are very unlucky (Confusion or Beak Blast Burn), otherwise you should win.
Kukui: Actually depends on your starter. Incineroar is a horrid matchup, Primarina can be broken, and Decidueye gets destroyed.

So it actually has very good matchups if you do get it. At the same time, its rare appearnce isn't bad by any means. It's an average of ten minutes of hunting, where we go about as far out of our way for certain TMs. It's not a bad encounter rate at all compared to Bagon's 1%

 

[DHR-107]

Should we move Mimikyu up to A? I am curious to hear what you guys think.

While it has a good movepool and can be useful in the remaining fights, that in itself is the problem. There really isn't enough game left at that point to consider putting up to A. I'd expect a mon that late to totally steamroll the rest of the game, and I am not sure Mimikyu can do that. Sure it has lots of options, but does it make that much of a difference (considering its likely down a few levels) to the end of the game? It NEEDS setup to work (which is fine) but does hamper its efficiency somewhat.