Rate of the Week V2: Week 10

[Enki]

Rate of the Week
​

Welcome to Rate of the Week! This is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognizes the hard work of unbadged raters. Here's how it will work:

• Each week, official Team Raters will be paying close attention to the RMT forum and reading the rates posted in their respective tiers. They will then shortlist a few which will be in contention for the Rate of the Week award.
• From the pool of shortlisted rates, one will be chosen which most exemplifies the qualities of an excellent rate. That rater will be the winner for that particular tier!
• A post will be made by an official TR who specialises in that tier, explaining how and why the particular rate won. This will allow aspiring raters to gain an idea of what constitutes high-quality rates, and hopefully incorporate those aspects into their own rates.
• There will be multiple winners every week, one from OU and a couple from other tiers depending on the quality of the rates posted. We hope that in this way we can expand rating activity in less popular tiers, while maintaining a weekly OU winner.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but not more than once. Unbadged raters can win the award multiple times.

So what's in it for the winners? Well, they will earn a place in the Hall of Fame, which will be kept in the OP of every thread, and their rates will be announced on Twitter. Winners also earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, which will consequently increase the quality as well as the quantity of rates in the forum. Good luck to you all! :)

Hall of Fame

Week #1 - Nedor (OU) and fran17 (LC)

Week #2 - shui3 (OU), YABO (UU), and 49 (RU)

Week #3 - celes (OU), Serapis (VGC)

Week #4 - FlamingVictini (OU)

Week #5 - Albacore (OU), dodmen (UU), 49 (RU), and Corporal Levi (LC)

Week #6 - MrAldo (OU) and Kreme (UU)

Week #7 - Miridy (OU) and Minority Suspect (Ubers)

Week #8 - littlelucario (OU)

Week #9 - Team Pokepals (OU) and Raiza (PU)

Week #10 - Mur (OU) and Rapture. (NU)

 

[Enki]

This week's OU winner is Mur! Mur's rate shows us how simple fixes can give a team the upperhand against specific threats drastically changing their matchup, for example, giving 12 speed EVs on Metagross now allows it to outspeed defensive Politoed, Choice Band Scizor who wants to creep Skarmory, Skarmory itself and Choice Band Azumarill. Technically offensive Dragon Dance Ataria is a much better fit than defensive dd Altaria in this metagame, however as we can see from Mur's rate that does not mean that an inferior set does not have its means that can differentiate itself from another, in the case of dd altaria, the added bulk in order to better check Alakazam and the addition of Refresh which gives the team a way to "tank" status moves from threats like Slowbro, Starmie, Mega Sableye etc without too much problems, it is also no coincidence that said set exploits the special "star" from this team, expert belt tyranitar, as it happens to take on majority of threats that dd Altaria have troubles like Scizor, Skarmory, Ferrotorn, Talonflame and Empoleon.

The last change is giving Choice Scarf to Keldeo, while a simple item change, said change now gives BL more coverage against normal Gyarados and having more coverage against Alakazam, since Keldeo is now able to bring Alakazam to Bullet Punch ko range.

Thanks to his great formatting and the good way he showed to improve the team, Mur was able to provide a great rate, and has earned himself a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congrats!

 

[Blast]

Even later than PU, we have our first NU winner in Rapture. ! His rate was capable of greatly optimizing the team in question with only some set changes, being able to avoid drastically changing the playstyle or opening up any big holes. Starting with the smaller changes, he's able to fix up the sets on Piloswine, Vivillon, and Hitmonchan with simple fixes to their EV spreads, natures, and unnecessary moveslots, making them much more suited to the current metagame while not really sacrificing anything important. Rindo Berry on Samurott is another great suggestion that helps out the team with minimal cost; the team now has a solid bait for massive metagame threats such as Ludicolo and Lilligant while retaining pretty much all of Samurott's utility. Most importantly, however, are the switches to the final two members, Mismagius and Pyroar. In Mismagius's case, he suggest switching the original Choice Specs set to a bulkier stallbreaker set, providing the team with a much stronger matchup against bulky cores as well as a bulkier Fighting resist, which is important seeing the team's limited switchins. For Pyroar, he suggests changing its former Choice Scarf set to the standard Life Orb, as Choice Scarf Pyroar is both mediocre in general as well as unnecessary to the team in the first place, seeing as the team already had 3 forms of priority and a Focus Sash Pokemon to make up for the team's lack of Speed. In return, the team gains a powerful special attacker that can wear down walls to allow Samurott and Vivillon to sweep.

The formatting is also well done, with clear and to-the-point explanations on the changes for each Pokemon. Congrats on earning a place in the HoF!