Project SV RU Personal Viability Rankings

[Ampha]

approved by EviGaro
Welcome RU players and everyone else, with the recent metagame shifts introducing more than 30 pokemon to our metagame, we thought it would only be fair to make personal viability rankings now, with everything still being discovered, and people discovering more and more techs, it's the ideal time for the project to become something, the official viability ranking will take a while due to the drastic metagame changes as well and having a place to drop your opinions and thoughts about it is, what we thought would be ideal. You can access it by clicking here.

​

S and S-: The best of the best Pokemon, being extremely splashable and versatile, having high consistency, and shaping the tier’s development. S- Pokemon are Pokemon that are a step above the rest of the A+ Pokemon but may not be as centralizing or potent as another S tier.
A+ and A: great and metagame defining Pokemon that have exceptional prowess and must be accounted for while building, not as defining as S rank Pokemon but still strong Pokemon that most teams should make use of.
A- and B+: These are Pokemon that still have an impactful role in the metagame and should still be accounted for, but lack the consistency and/or potency to be ranked any higher.
B: Generally the lowest ranking of Pokemon considered impactful to the tier, these Pokemon operate decently within the metagame but have enough notable flaws to keep them from being tier staples.
B- and C+: Pokemon in these ranks are without a doubt viable, but have noticeable flaws and restrictions that limit splashability and usage in the tier while not being too consistent either. Pokemon that are staples found in niche but viable playstyles reside here.
C: These Pokemon have roles in the metagame that are generally outclassed for the most part, but still have enough relevance and usefulness in the metagame to warrant a ranking.

Happy Posting!

 

[HaxxSel]

Made with Arcobaleno the goat

There is an order in each tier, from more viable to less viable!
(if I didn't put a Broken tier, Armarouge would be first A+ and Mimikyu would be second S-)

 

[Ampha]

Posting mine as well, some are p obvious but if you have any questions on why I ranked x or y there, feel free to ask

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Posting mine as well, some are p obvious but if you have any questions on why I ranked x or y there, feel free to ask

Only thing I really want a clarification for is the Kilo vs Thundurus placements. (Pom-Pom has a niche distinct from the other two which I why I didn't bring it up)

 

[Ampha]

Only thing I really want a clarification for is the Kilo vs Thundurus placements. (Pom-Pom has a niche distinct from the other two which I why I didn't bring it up)

Killowattrel is the superior electric flying for me, Volt absorb makes it so it can actually be a thundurus check itself if the thundurus user is not using sludge bomb, plus having Flying stab w/o tera is p valuable for me, thundurus is still nice on some teams but killos just on top due to that reasons

 

[Sneakyplanner]

I made this in 3 minutes and barely thought about rankings. Stuff in no data is things I am convinced should be good but have never seen in action.
Some mons I want to specifically comment on:
this guy is still pretty viable, all things considered. It has way more grass type competition but it feels like having a winning matchup vs wo-chien will make any grass type viable.
is there any reason to use this thing now that we have thundurus? Every time I have thought about using it I just realize that thundurus has a 100 accuracy move, a better matchup vs tyranitar and actual moves to use with prankster.
sorry gallade, but gardevoir is still better even here. Both are good but gardevoir can actually switch into attacks.
this thing got better with the new tier shifts, it matches up well vs some new pokemon like slither wing and heattom, still does well vs the bulls and it really loves the fact that all our steels suck now.
Lumping these two together as little stone buddies because they also somehow got better with tier shifts. Palossand has stuff to wall now and isn't just the worst ground and naclstack loves that noivern is good since it can wall many of its sets. Recovery and salt cure gives it a solid niche over diancie.

 

[Rarelyme]

I don't know about you guys but personally I enjoy this meta quite a bit so I wanted to make a quick post here to put all of it in words.

S

To the surprise of nobody, this guy is clearly on top for me. It was already was very good due to it being the only offensive Ground type in the tier with access to enough coverage to threaten countless teams. Knock Off pushed it to the very top as the uncontested king of post dlc RU. It can perfectly fulfill multiple key roles such as support rockers, sweeper/cleaner or wallbreaker making it fit on basically every team.

A+

This guys are to me the top concerns in the builder aside from Krook. If you don't have a dedicated gameplan against these you will get destroyed everytime. Though as they are not as versatile as Krook they deserve a tier lower.

A

Lesser threats but very relevant nonetheless. Some of these get to be in this tier because there are no better options to use atm (removers hi). You can find here top defensive and support Pokemon and extremely scary cleaner able to act as powerful speed control.

A-

These Pokemon, while still being relevant in the meta, either suffer from a minor flaw or from the presence of another top tier Pokemon. They are pretty common but can very well carry if the opponent isn't prepared.


B+

To me all of these have very interesting niches in which they often excel and can be very threatening but also can just be invalidated by A tier Pokemon. I know I probably underestimate bisharp guys but I just don't see it doing things when I face it so it's a B+ for me.

B

We're starting to get pretty low here. They are quite inconsistent as they all have glaring weaknesses which they can sometimes overcome if played well but more often than not the matchup will be hard. On top of these, you are probably better off using other Pokemon than these to fulfill a said role.

B-
:
Despite having a very small niche in the tier, oftentimes they are just outclassed. These are either low ladder staples or worse counterpart of a higher ranked Pokemon (hi espeon).

C

Just wanted to have a C tier tbh, don't use these guys please.

 

[Bice]

here's mine whee, had to add post dlc mons manually so if i missed any lmk
d tier is for stuff i think can have a niche if used properly but you're probably better off not using them
mons i'd consider broken are mimikyu, armarouge, revavroom, and wo-chien

e: i missed alolan sandslash and gligar, they're in c and b- respectively

 

[Sneakyplanner]

My personal rankings, with about a week of relevance left.

Some things I think are really underrated that could use more exploring:
Lucario: This thing just sneakily insta-wins games sometimes. slowbro and hyphlosion are very solid roadblocks but all it takes is one crunch on the switch to knock out hyphlosion and one other threat that slowbro has to 1v1 in order to break them. Any team without one of those two is always a little bit of chip damage and one bad turn away from being swept. And yet for some reason lucario is barely getting used.

Grafaiai: It's being overtaken by all the other fast pivots and everything else going on in ru, but grafaiai is still a solid way to patch up holes in a team. There are lots of annoying sweepers in the tier that hate being encored like revavroom, mimikyu, drednaw/cloyster and bisharp. With revavroom being so annoying I think that prankster has a solid niche, but poison touch is still the better ability. Because with krookodile being better than ever, the pokemon that can bait in and cripple krook or force something other than krook to eat a knock off is very welcome.

Copperajah: If Elephant has million fans I am one of them. if Elephant has only one fan that is me. if Elephant has no fans, that means I am dead. if world against the Elephant, I am against the world. I've seen some hate on copperajah, but I am still a true believer. If you want a steel type with both power and bulk, then you have to go with either copperajah or magnezone, and while zone is mostly better, copperajah has vital utility moves like knock/whirlwind/rocks and has more bulk. Calm mind sylveon is a threat that has kind of fallen under the radar and a lot of teams are now really vulnerable to it, but copperajah can 1v1 sylveon at extremely low health and threaten it in return, which no other steel except revavroom can do.

 

[Elec-ant1234]

Here be me personal tier list, for reference I'm about a 1300 ELO and below player, so take my takes with a grain of salt.

S Tier:
These are the big shots, the tier defining mons

Everyone knows him, everyone fears him. Only offensive ground type, high speed tier, knocks off the competition, needs no explanation.

The greatest defensive wall in RU, leeches anything that isn't a fighting type, and is downright deadly w/ a late game tera available.
Walls Krookodile, and is probably why they're running more gunk shots and CC's

Yes I'm putting diancie here. It's honestly infuriating to try and kill the world's most specially bulky mon when it's "weaker" defense stat keeps getting buffed by diamond storm. Combine that w/ a Tera and Diancie can 6-0 your team with 50% left to spare. And thats just ONE set! it's got so many more, and it gets SR so it can make progress on switches. A well-positioned Diancie is terrifying, and lets not forget that it can run the demon set.

A Tier, but a bit quicker:

These two are always going to be good, one's more offensive, the other is more defensive. One sweeps w/ wave crash, the other WoW's your switch ins. How tauros-fire ever dropped is beyond me, intim + WoW makes this a great burn spreader IMO

I think is slept on, this thing is like Arceus's E-Killer set, but it can muscle past a fairly damaged slowbro before they get a scald off

This mon is honestly fairly good at just doing solid and toxicing, but it does lose massively against taunt krook

good spinner that threatens ghost types and can pick up some KO's

honestly I think might be falling off, but shell smash is always good on it

I would go further but this is long enough already, so there be me thoughts, I'm open to explaining what I think, otherwise each mon is put in tiers based on the descriptors on the left. Feel free to try and sway my opinion, I can always shift pokemon around

Ambipom : B
Overqwil : B+
Scream Tail : A
Vikavolt : C+
Yanmega : B-
Magnezone : A-
Drifblim : C+ (please for the love of god don't use this thing altaria is just better)
Inteleon : B+
Snorlax : B-
Vulpix : C+
Vulpix-Alola : C+ (saw some shmuck use it like once)
Gligar : B-
Shaymin : C+
Victreebel : C+
Leavanny : C

Additional Thoughts afterwards (and also the area where I can explain and such i suppose)

Honestly the best defensive mon aside from wo-chein. Would be worse if you could have more offensive ground types, but it resists and does very well into most of the meta. It's one downside is that it can be crippled by a loss of it's item (usually HDB, so in today's hazard-important meta that's bad, but a loss of lefties always hurts), and it ofc loses to krook. Another less-looked at downside is because it's tasked with taking on so many of the tiers top dogs it gets worn down very easily and requires wish/leech support to be effective long term, and with no way to reduce the oncoming attacks of today's big attackers, it very well could die from both hazard chip + whatever attack comes in and cause your team to lose it's big defensive mon; otherwise adaptability is good, it absorbs t-spikes and toxic, and is generally great at doing what it wants to do. Beats slither wing and forces it out unless it's not healthy and in that case uh, CC kinda kills sometimes.

(Vikavolt moved from C to C+)

 

[Elec-ant1234]

Hey y'all, I'm no Ampha, but thought I'd whip this up regardless for the next 12-ish days!
https://tiermaker.com/create/gen-9-ru-vr-16462282
en joy and I'll release a personal VR soon

(also please contact me on my smogon profile if you want anything added or I forgot anything)

 

[FlamingoPokeman]

Hey y'all, I'm no Ampha, but thought I'd whip this up regardless for the next 12-ish days!
https://tiermaker.com/create/gen-9-ru-vr-16462282
en joy and I'll release a personal VR soon

(also please contact me on my smogon profile if you want anything added)

Heck yeah, been wanting to do this but glad you did it! I'll upload mine soon :D

 

[FlamingoPokeman]

Thanks to Elec-ant1234 for the list; I'll break down each tier after the image!

S Tier:
is the greatest threat to most teams in this meta. I understand it's double weak to rocks, and needs to use Bug Buzz it's first turn to fully capatilize on Throat Spray... but jeez this thing just rips through teams once it gets going. Tera Ground Tera Blast gives it some of the best coverage in the tier and it's by far my favorite mon right now.

S- Tier:
just barely edges out because of the utility it offers with Disguise. While Mimikyu typically runs Life Orb to give it some great power, I like Red Card to get a free switch into a potent sweeper and force them out. It has great utility in Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp, meaning it isn't just a Swords Dance + Shadow Sneak abuser. Iron Jugulis is a threat no matter the set, but Booster Energy with 4 attacks is my personal favorite. It has great coverage, hits like a train and outruns most of the tier after the boost. It's a potent late game sweeper.

A+ Tier:
remains one of the best mons in the tier due to the options it gives you; Scarf Moxie Krookodile can snowball, Life Orb Krookodile can have coverage with Stealth Rocks or Taunt, and Loaded Dice Moxie Krookodile can sweep after a Scale Shot + Moxie boost if it switches in as a revenge killer. is arguably the best defensive presence in the tier and fits onto every team comfortably, given Gigaton Hammer hits hard without Attack investment and it gets Encore, Stealth Rocks, Thunder Wave and Knock Off, among others.

A Tier:
is my choice for most underrated, underutilized mons in the tier. I love this thing as it can spread toxic and/or paralysis, sit on most threats and just be a great defensive mon in general. The rest of A tier is pretty self-explanatory, but seeing as a defensive weapon and as an offensive menace still surprises me.

A- Tier:
A lot of good mons in this tier, starting with and who, after the tier shift, will spread Toxic through Toxic Chain and be nuisances to teams without Steel coverage. and remain great threats in rain without around, but the rest of this tier are defensive checks to a lot of what they want to do. It'll be interesting to see who in this tier rises or falls now that rain is likely to fall in usage.

B+ Tier:
and remain great spinners who can spin and exit (U-Turn and Volt Switch, respectively), with both serving as decent defensive options as well. is high on my list because it will likely see more usage in rain and can generally run Shell Smash on rain or Psychic terrain teams. , and are great Scarf options on any team to break through mons and the rest of this tier provides a lot of offensive threat at the cost of defensive frailty.

B Tier:
is one of my personal favorites in this meta. It can run a lot of builds but Triple Arrows fits onto every set and can really wreak havoc given the multiple rng-events that can happen. , and (who was top 10 in usage somehow...) all round out the top of B Tier as mons that can run multiple sets and provide a lot of immediate damage. Below them are a handful of mons that require a lot of care to get into the game safely and have pretty niche tasks that can be played around comfortably.

B- Tier:
This tier is full of mons that can fit into certain team structures but don't really serve a major role often. gets some good usage as an Aurora Veil or Specs mon, while remains a decent spin blocker. I think this tier should be the cutoff of what you use on most teams as a lot of them have better options available in higher tiers for the role they want to fill.

C Tier:
finally falls to NU after getting too much play in RU. is my guy and can decimate teams, similar to , but again this tier is just too bad at their roles to be higher.

 

[Elec-ant1234]

explanations to come

 

[C0nfiden1 0yster]

S:
A+:
A:
A-:
B+:
B:
B-:
C+:
C:

 

[Hyper bol]

Hey ! This new metagame seems pretty funny for me (although I hate when ladder spams HO), and I wanted to share you my personal VR.
/!\ They are not in order in the tier, if a Pokemon is before another, it doesn't mean it's better /!\

My Viability Rankings

S :
S- :
A+ :
A :
A- :
B+ :
B :
B- :
C :

Explanations

S : Best Pokemon of the tier. I know most of you might disagree, but for me, Cyclizar deserves an S-Tier. Why ? Simply because you can fit Cyclizar EVERYWHERE except HO or cheese, every team like Cyclizar's ability to remove Hazard and pivot with Regenerator.

S- : Top threat and Meta-defining Pokemon. Zarude is probably the greatest threat at the moment, so it's pretty logic it deserves to be rank S-. I also ranked Cobalion here because it is easy to fit and it can counter a lot of physical threat like Zarude, and has a good utility with Taunt, Stealth Rock and Volt Switch. It is also pretty versatile, as you can play it as a setup counter with Iron Defense, a Stealth Rock Setter, Special Pivot, setup with Calm Mind or Swords Dance, etc... Even Iron Defense sets can be very threatening when setup, because Body Press can deal HUGE damage.

A+ : Pokemon that affect teambuilding, very very good Pokemons. Here I put HO staples, as HO is probably the best archetype at the moment, and they are very good in general. I also added other very important threats / walls of the tier, like Hippowdon, Hoopa-Unbound, Gengar and Moltres.

A : They might not be as meta-defining as the A+ Tier, but they are very solid and very good. Not much to say here.

A- : Not as good as A-Pokemons, they are easier to counter or harder to bring onto the field but they are still great and pretty solid.

B+ : These Pokemon have very interesting niche, in which they are very good, but they are still surpassed by A-Tier Pokemons. Good picks in general.

B : Other niche picks, but worse than B+ as they are more inconsistent and have great weaknesses, so you will ususally prefer other Pokemons although they are valid picks.

B - : Still niche picks, but these one are either surpassed by an other Pokemon that does their work better, or its too difficult to make their niche work.

C : Do not use them please.

If you need more explanation of why did I ranked a Pokemon in its rank feel free to ask.

 

[fluff!!]

A+:
A :
A-:
B+:
B :
B-:
C :