Project The Top 10 Titans of the Gen 7 OU Metagame

Ruft

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I think the final ranking is accurate.

If there's one thing I could nitpick about it's that I think offensive Pokémon might be overrepresented. Looking at the list of what are supposed to be the most influential Pokémon overall the vast majority of them are offensively oriented, causing other more defensive Pokémon or ones that bring a wide range of utility to a team to be left out. Some examples would be Ferrothorn, Tornadus-T and Celesteela. For instance there's also only one Pokémon that learns Defog (Landorus-T) while it's pretty much mandatory on every team. I understand why it's mostly offensive Pokémon though as these are the ones that are capable of breaking the tier in half and their dominance stands out much more compared to other less offensive ones whose dominance in their respective fields is much more subtle (but still worth noting imo). I just think some voters might have been somewhat biased towards "powerful" Pokémon rather than "useful" ones.

That is to say I don't disagree with the list, I do see eye to eye with most of it.
 
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The criteria is most influential, not most useful. In that sense, I think the bias towards offense is fair; while Tornadus-T (for instance) provides important utility and is a really good mon to have on a team, it's not quite something that the metagame has to adapt to as much.

The list seems accurate to me, overall. Toxapex at #5 seems low for how many ORAS threats it invalidated in the transition to SM, but the only mon I might put it above would be Ash-Greninja.
 
It's unfortunate to me that rain as a playstyle didn't find the representation I was hoping it would. Despite this, the list is very solid.

I agree with Ruft that offense is over-represented here. Monsters of the metagame like Ferrothorn, Celesteela and Tangrowth missed out. That being said I understand the decisions behind that. I'm still in the camp that mega-metagross wasn't in OU long enough to have a lasting impact on the metagame and does not deserve its spot on the list.

I'm also genuinely surprised by the lack of mega-mawile. Not that it didn't make the list, but in that hardly anybody voted for the thing.
 
To me the greatest surprise of the whole thread is that Clefable is strangely missing. While I don't think it would make the Top 10 (and I don't think it should tbf) lack of a simple nomination is quite weird (I actually wanted to submit it, but then I forgot to lol). Clef had its fair share of influence on the meta, and it also seems to be kinda resurging atm.

Especially since it kinda ruled the meta for a few months, when everyone ran those WishClef balances with Heatran and the others; when the most OU thing to happen was two Clefable trading rocks/Calm Minding to full and leaving the game at the mercy of crits/PP stalls. It also always had those rarer options like Thunder Wave/Knock Off/Encore, which were often useful to stop other Clefable from boosting (although there were useful for other mons too, obviously). It was often used to stop the broken snake from running through many teams. It also had some influence on teambuilding, especially on stall (stall which lost to CM Clef was simply bad). Unaware Clef have always seen some usage and has been a part of the meta as well.

Now with Zygarde gone, Clef is even more annoying – not only does it have many sets, but also different spreads which let it check mons which it could not before. There is also broken LO variant, not to mention other niche sets like the ladder's favourite Charge Beam + Cosmic Power, which can actually defeat some unprepared teams from team preview. Clef simply should be recognized as an important part of Gen 7 OU metagame.
 

Guard

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I agree with the list mostly, though one thing I'd change in my personal list is putting Pex over Ash-Gren. Pex has consistently had a stranglehold on the metagame throughout its entirety whereas Ash-Gren was largely on par with regular Greninja for most of the SM metagame (even being a worse choice at a time when Greninja was ranked S and Ash-Gren was not) and only really began to be the constricting force it is around mid-USM. The fact that Toxapex is the only defensive Pokemon in this list, in the top 5 nonetheless, is not surprising to me since I've always felt like Toxapex was the only defensive mon to actively change the metagame around it whereas other defensive Pokemon primarily changed themselves around the metagame.

The overlooking of Clefable and Chansey seems like an error to me so should there be an honorable mentions list, these should be included. All in all, I believe this is a fair representation of gen 7 OU.
 

Guard

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I think that Lele didn't deserve a spot, it just wasn't as consistently good as other mons like Torn-T, MMawi, Ferro, MZam or even Steela, otherwise really good list.
This is absolutely wrong to me though you are free to disagree. Lele has singlehandedly mandated the use of either Magearna in Bulky Offense or Celesteela in Balance, or else these archetypes evaporate in front of Specs/Psychium Z/Fightinium Z Lele. This in itself is a lot more influential than any of the mons you named. I agree Tornadus-Therian, Mega Zam and Mega Mawile are all very respectable forces in the metagame but neither of them have caused an amount of strain on teambuilders that is comparable to Lele's griphold. It was ranked S for a good amount of time in early-mid SM (which neither of the mons you mentioned have achieved), and has always remained a premier staple presence in gen 7.
 

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