View attachment 474446
B- ->
B or higher
I feel Fire-type Paldean Tauros is better than everything currently in B- right now. It has direct competition with Skeledirge as a defensive Fire, but having access to Intimidate, Bulk Up, Body Press, Will-o-Wisp, and a solid Fire/Fighting typing gives it a solid physically defensive presence in its own set of ways. It's one of the tier's best Chien-Pao answers, unlike Skeledirge, and naturally handles other mons such as Roaring Moon, Dragonite (especially Tera Normal Dragonite), Kingambit, and Breloom (watch for Spore). Tera-Flying only expands this mon's checklist, annoying the hell out of the Paradox Donphans, Garchomp, Quaquaval, and Ting-Lu. The Grounds can't touch it with Earthquake / Headlong Rush and it now resists Great Tusk's Close Combat and only neutrally hit by Aqua Step. Being significantly faster than Skeledirge with its Base 100 Speed is also notable as it lets it creep on targets like Breloom to avoid the Spore or extremely fat Tank Chomp builds. It's also not as crippled by Knock Off as Skeledirge is, being only neutrally hit by SR and resisting Knock Off itself.
Its signature Raging Bull move is crucial for letting you deal with the many Screens HO teams running around while also just being a strong attack for it overall, especially after some Bulk Ups. Protect is also a decent option on it, letting it rack in Leftovers recovery and scouting Choiced attacks.
I do like Tauros fire and you make good points but its really held back by the fact it doesn't have a switch move imo. In my opinon Skeledirge is objectively the better OU defensive fire in the current meta though because.
-Skele has a way better HP stat with around the same defense and sp. def. 5 point difference each but same total amount of SpD/Def making it take neutral hits better.
-Huge Defense stat pokémon most notably dondozo, garganacl and Defense stat boost moves like Iron defense + Bulk Up are all super popular and pretty much on every team meaning they can set up on taruos but not skele typically in most cases although depends on the scenario. Calm mind exist too but with Unaware it doesnt matter to skeledirge so you can deal with alot of special walls too.
-Skele also has a better movepool for its role with torch song, a move that increases all of his other stab moves with each hit. Yawn for phasing and forcing switches, WoW, roar, etc. Yawn/WoW + Hex is also very strong. This makes Skeledirge hit way harder in 2+ turn trading in most cases where as close combat will make u weaker and worse in extended trades or cause a situation making u switch out where skele can stay in and potentially sweep.
-Insanely better recovery with slack off. You can run rest + chesto on Tauros but then you cant use heavy duty boots or any other item where skele can use slack off + left overs.
-Huge Defense stat pokémon most notably dondozo, garganacl , Iron defense + Bulk are super pretty much on every team. Calm mind exist too but with Unaware it doesnt matter to skeledirge.
-Tera fairy is really popular too from what ive experienced so both your attacks are resisted
-Tauros also has really steep coemption as a fighting type slot where there are way stronger fighting types rn like annihilape, tusk, valiant etc. With wider movepools.
-Tauros is definitely better in the memes department with endure + cud chew + liechi/salac berry though.
In term of the b- rank i feel most those picks def deserve higher than tauros because you can either fit them on more teams as they have more sets that are viable, less competition for the slot or fufill their niche better than tauros fufills his.
-Gyrados has more options for sets to make it work in more teams + setup
-Hawl hits harder + can set up and has the type you would be tera into already to deal with the pokemon you mentioned.
-Hippodown has the sand thing going for him. better hp/def and roughly same sp.Def
-Iron Jugulis doesnt pack enough firepower to sweep alone but has u turn, fufills its roll better but imo still trash cause the competition is stiffer for the slot
-Orthworm has shed tail +spikes + stealth rock + ground immunity letting u switch into ground attacks
-Pelipper hits like a like a fucking truck in rain
-Silterwing has first impression, higher att stat, and a switch move. uturn alone makes it better.
overall tauros is fun but skele is def better.