GoldCat
BOSSARU CUP WINNER
I didn't get to play as much BW as I had hoped in this RUSD, but I had a lot of fun building and playing BW at a higher level of competition and enjoyed watching everyone elses' games after my team got eliminated.
First of all, I strongly believe there should be an S- rank with Durant, Sceptile, and Qwilfish. No other Pokemon has the same impact as Druddigon and it just feels wrong to have any other share its spot at the top, let alone 3 Pokemon! Remember historically, the S rank has been reserved for Pokemon such as Snorlax in GSC, Tyranitar in ADV, and Latios, Ferrothorn, and Tyranitar in BW and Druddigon fits right in, while the others are arguably a cut above the rest but nowhere near as impactful. Now I probably should explain why I added one Pokemon while excluding one previous S rank.
I'm a big Qwilfish spammer (outside of RUSD, apparently), so I guess I'm biased but I have found Qwilfish to be of value in every single game. Whether it's laying Spikes, spreading paralysis or burn, preventing hazards with Taunt, removing something with Destiny Bond, or even just sacking it for the Attack drop and Rocky Helmet chip, it always does something useful game to game. Not to mention Qwilfish switches into half of the tier and while it isn't a great long-term answer on its own, it pairs up nicely with other better checks. Qwilfish is just a super consistent and high-value Pokemon.
One key aspect of any S rank caliber 'mon is consistency and Moltres sorely misses that with its Stealth Rock weakness and Hurricane as its main wallbreaking tool. It's dumb but only every other game or so, and in some, it outright does nothing, which is almost never the case with the others. With such glaring flaws, it's much more of an A+ 'mon than S rank material.
Quick thoughts on the rises and drops:
I mainly want to talk about Crawdaunt, as I think it rising all the way from C+ to B+ is too ambitious, especially when Samurott and Feraligatr are all the way down in B-. Crawdaunt had a lackluster showing this RUSD, in two out of the three total games it showed up, it didn't achieve much. In eifo vs etern, on paper, it was super threatening with it outspeeding 4 / 6 'mons but after taking 50% from Cryogonal's Ice Beam, it wasn't left with much room to do much more. Similarly, in Clementine vs Spl4sh it didn't do much after taking a Volt Switch from Lanturn and would've done less without the flinch. And in the third game, it did end up sweeping but Feraligatr would have done the same. Crawdaunt's low Speed and poor bulk are such massive flaws in BW and it's really hard to make up for but to be fair if you do it's really strong. In all honesty, I don't think Crawdaunt should rise at all, but if it has to then B- at the highest. Still cool mon though.
should drop further to C+, without Spore it's really hard to justify over Omastar as a hazard stacking lead on HO. Even Crustle has Sturdy + Custap over it to basically guarantee Stealth Rock + 1 layer of Spikes. Though, it does have a lot of cool stuff like Glare and Taunt, but generally not to make up for the loss of sleep.
should be UR, it has no niche whatsoever and isn't RU by usage, please delete.
Quick nominations:
B+ to A-
Clefable's versatility alone warrants a rise, it can effectively run such varied sets like offensive lead with Focus Sash, Toxic Orb, Calm Mind, Tank sets, Sp. Def with Wish, and much more. It also fits on any playstyle; offense, balance, and stall. You can do a lot of really cool stuff with Clefable.
B to B+
Manual rain teams have seen steady usage and good results in most if not all RU team tours throughout all of gen 7-8, so I think ranking Ludicolo, a staple on any rain team, should be in B+ to better reflect this.
D to B- / B
See Luna's post. I think it's fair to rank it around where Drapion is (B rank).
UR to C+
Sawk is definitely viable and should at least be ranked alongside Primeape in C+.
This is less of a nom and more of an excuse to just talk about Cacturne (though seeing it rise would be cool). I've used Cacturne for a good bit now and I think it's really solid. It's an offensive Spiker with some real nice defensive utility and checks standard SuBCM Uxie and Rotom, and Dark Gem boosted, or just Life Orb, Sucker Punch revenge kills so much in the tier. This is what I really love so much about BW, is that really anything is viable. It's a shame I didn't get the chance to bring it this RUSD. Here are some replays: 1 / 2 / 3.
Finally, here are some teams that I like a lot. The former two are older teams I have used a lot to great success and the last one is a recent team I built for RUSD but didn't end up using. I'm really satisfied with where BW is headed and I'm looking forward to RUPL and RU Classic this year.
First of all, I strongly believe there should be an S- rank with Durant, Sceptile, and Qwilfish. No other Pokemon has the same impact as Druddigon and it just feels wrong to have any other share its spot at the top, let alone 3 Pokemon! Remember historically, the S rank has been reserved for Pokemon such as Snorlax in GSC, Tyranitar in ADV, and Latios, Ferrothorn, and Tyranitar in BW and Druddigon fits right in, while the others are arguably a cut above the rest but nowhere near as impactful. Now I probably should explain why I added one Pokemon while excluding one previous S rank.
I'm a big Qwilfish spammer (outside of RUSD, apparently), so I guess I'm biased but I have found Qwilfish to be of value in every single game. Whether it's laying Spikes, spreading paralysis or burn, preventing hazards with Taunt, removing something with Destiny Bond, or even just sacking it for the Attack drop and Rocky Helmet chip, it always does something useful game to game. Not to mention Qwilfish switches into half of the tier and while it isn't a great long-term answer on its own, it pairs up nicely with other better checks. Qwilfish is just a super consistent and high-value Pokemon.
One key aspect of any S rank caliber 'mon is consistency and Moltres sorely misses that with its Stealth Rock weakness and Hurricane as its main wallbreaking tool. It's dumb but only every other game or so, and in some, it outright does nothing, which is almost never the case with the others. With such glaring flaws, it's much more of an A+ 'mon than S rank material.
Quick thoughts on the rises and drops:
I mainly want to talk about Crawdaunt, as I think it rising all the way from C+ to B+ is too ambitious, especially when Samurott and Feraligatr are all the way down in B-. Crawdaunt had a lackluster showing this RUSD, in two out of the three total games it showed up, it didn't achieve much. In eifo vs etern, on paper, it was super threatening with it outspeeding 4 / 6 'mons but after taking 50% from Cryogonal's Ice Beam, it wasn't left with much room to do much more. Similarly, in Clementine vs Spl4sh it didn't do much after taking a Volt Switch from Lanturn and would've done less without the flinch. And in the third game, it did end up sweeping but Feraligatr would have done the same. Crawdaunt's low Speed and poor bulk are such massive flaws in BW and it's really hard to make up for but to be fair if you do it's really strong. In all honesty, I don't think Crawdaunt should rise at all, but if it has to then B- at the highest. Still cool mon though.
should drop further to C+, without Spore it's really hard to justify over Omastar as a hazard stacking lead on HO. Even Crustle has Sturdy + Custap over it to basically guarantee Stealth Rock + 1 layer of Spikes. Though, it does have a lot of cool stuff like Glare and Taunt, but generally not to make up for the loss of sleep.
should be UR, it has no niche whatsoever and isn't RU by usage, please delete.
Quick nominations:
B+ to A-
Clefable's versatility alone warrants a rise, it can effectively run such varied sets like offensive lead with Focus Sash, Toxic Orb, Calm Mind, Tank sets, Sp. Def with Wish, and much more. It also fits on any playstyle; offense, balance, and stall. You can do a lot of really cool stuff with Clefable.
B to B+
Manual rain teams have seen steady usage and good results in most if not all RU team tours throughout all of gen 7-8, so I think ranking Ludicolo, a staple on any rain team, should be in B+ to better reflect this.
D to B- / B
See Luna's post. I think it's fair to rank it around where Drapion is (B rank).
UR to C+
Sawk is definitely viable and should at least be ranked alongside Primeape in C+.
This is less of a nom and more of an excuse to just talk about Cacturne (though seeing it rise would be cool). I've used Cacturne for a good bit now and I think it's really solid. It's an offensive Spiker with some real nice defensive utility and checks standard SuBCM Uxie and Rotom, and Dark Gem boosted, or just Life Orb, Sucker Punch revenge kills so much in the tier. This is what I really love so much about BW, is that really anything is viable. It's a shame I didn't get the chance to bring it this RUSD. Here are some replays: 1 / 2 / 3.
Finally, here are some teams that I like a lot. The former two are older teams I have used a lot to great success and the last one is a recent team I built for RUSD but didn't end up using. I'm really satisfied with where BW is headed and I'm looking forward to RUPL and RU Classic this year.