For the most part I agree with Storm Eagle, and it made me think that there does seem to be some cleanup to do in the lower ranks. I think the standard for / distinction between D rank and C rank is relatively unclear. D rank seems to be a place of unmons and memes but has the occasional completely viable mon in it. Do Ho-oh or Beedril deserve the same viability as Blacephalon or Muk?
I think this distinction should probably be between what mons you should take into consideration when building (C rank up) and the mons that you could run in theory but don't really have to consider when building (D rank).
So basically it would be like;
C rank: Aero, The BEE, Cress, Darm-Z, Deoxys, Heracross, Ho-oh, Hoopa, Lunala?, Mag, Palkia, Pheromosa, Sableye, Steelix, Xurk.
D rank: Ampharos, Ash-gren, Blacephalon, Diancie, Lati@s, Lucario, Lugia, Muk, Nihilego, Pidgeot, Reshiram, Scizor, Stakataka, Fini, Venusaur
In terms of rises and drops;
Rise:
C -> D, Garb mon, never used.
C -> D, Walls like 3 things maybe and still struggles against them, useless the vast majority of the time.
Drops:
D -> C, Self explanatory + has seem Competitive success.
D -> C, Good typing + has seen competitive success.
D -> C, That's just a good mon.
Questionable:
Nifty typing but stats not good, has seen competitive success but still a questionable pick.
Strongest U-turn in the game, sees ladder use and is generally kinda good, but no tournament use as of yet
(afaik).
Other things:
B- -> C/D, Draco plate galv doesn't even work anymore, tough claws is good in theory but nobody really uses that mon anymore.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since MAMP basically addressed the same issue as I did, I might as well reply to his post (and other noms too I guess).
B- -> C, Agree. Most of swampert's main niches are essentially gone. For me its main niche in the groudon meta was the ability to wall physical Groudon sets AND mixed Galvanize Shell Smash sets. Mixed Galvanize doesnt really exist anymore (Galv in general is hardly noteworthy), Groudon is banned and the regular red orb groudon sets are typically handled by much better mons on the VR, its an unreliable steel resist at best since Kartana and Dusk manecan both beat it. It's really just a niche mon.
C -> D, Agree. Shit mons.
D -> UR, Agree. Never a reason to use them now.
D -> UR, Disagree. While I haven't used it in recent time, with thousand waves being basically nonexistent on -ates, levitate Nihi is a really potent check to both Diancie and Rayquaza who commonly carry either pblades or V-create to gets past steels. It's also really good against Xerneas, Checks some special attackers like Gengar or Charizard, and can absorb Toxic Orbs / Trick Black Sludge to problematic Poison Heal sweepers. I think this is enough to keep a mention of Nihi in the D rank.
D -> C, Agree.
UR -> D, Agree. Regirock is a good mon.
? -> UR, Agree and Disagree, kinda. It's worth noting that Pikachu is not actually ranked per se, it's listed as an imposter. So in that aspect I
agree with Will that it's worth keeping a mention of it. But its sprite being one of the first thing you see when clicking on "meta rank" and it being accompanied by "marked their impact on the tier" or "impossible to really teambuild without considering them" is slightly misleading.
What I would recommend is removing Pikachu's spite from the main hide tag, but keep a mention of it in the mini overview tag as you did with mega imposters.
D -> UR, Agree. In practice it's really just a worse Arceus and nothing else.
and
Honestly, Pheromosa is probably better than Beedril in teams that aren't Diancie weak. It's superior speed means it can check Sceptile, Beedril and Deoxys-A It's fighting stab means that Pheromosa can run neutral stab and steel coverage in the same slot, making its 4mss drastically better than Beedril's. Its typing grants him a resist to pursuit, knock off and removes the sr weakness. And Phero can run a greater diversity of sets, including mixed sets. Beedril on the other hand can remove T-spikes, switch on fairy moves including Diancie's Boomburst or MMY's Fleur Canon, has a useful stab against fairy types (PH Audino or Xern are less likely to absorb your u-turns), and just deals slightly more damage overall.
Pheromosa's speed and greater diversity of sets are the main point that stand out for me, but mostly the listed advantages are team specific and the two mons remain on a comparable level of power. I Don't know about how I feel with having them in separate ranks.
Not sure on this one either, Blaziken is still very hard to fit on a team imo, and I find that the mons in the B rank generally provide more utility. B- rank is not a bad rank either.
Don't really have an opinion on any of them, Zard saw some OMPL success so that says something, Wak really does not appreciate its knock off weakness imo (even tho it's good for improofing). Groudon is the only one I saw used, last gen, and it was really awful. This gen it's kinda worse because Zygarde exist but at the same time kinda better because Techno Blast doesn't, thought I wouldn't recommend running Groudon, it's not a fantastic physical wall and it a mediocre soundproof.
