meepsvictory to VR council
The rise mainly comes from the fact he is an excellent team builder and works with or even starts metagame trends before the vast majority of the playerbase catches on - probably the best example is with Conkeldurr’s Flame Orb set and Aurora Veil teams he made months before they became dominant. Additionally, he is an above average player, so a rise to VR council is fitting.
Mamoswine to A from A-
The rise comes for two major reasons, both outlined in the
nomination post by
Sun . Firstly the loss of Xurkitree means jiggy piggy is a better Electric immunity since Xurkitree could previously outspeed and OHKO jiggy piggy with no prior damage. Secondly, the rise of Freeze Dry sets adds to jiggy piggy’s versatility and prevents most Water types from checking jiggy piggy adequately, let alone countering. All of jiggy piggy’s previous strengths remain in place (priority, powerful STABs, good offensive coverage) with perhaps just a small reduction in power because of Freeze Dry sets having slightly weaker STABs.
Hawlucha to A from B+
Hawlucha is one of the most dominant threats in the metagame when paired with Aurora Veil and as a result is one of Aurora Veil offense’s top staples, arguably second only to Ninetales. While this was always true, Aurora Veil is recently cementing itself as one of or the top threat in the metagame and Hawlucha is only abusing this more with a surge in Power Herb sets. Lastly, Hawlucha is very usable on different teams, for example it is one of the best Spikes Offense abusers along with Sharpedo Mega. The flaws are briefly mentioned in Hilomolo’s nomination
post but do not prohibit a top tier status.
Alolan Ninetales to A from B+
The majority of the posts in this thread agreed with the logic of a Ninetales rise, mainly because of its necessity on the popular and dominant Aurora Veil teams. A rank may seem surprisingly high for a Pokemon that doesn’t necessarily win games by itself - instead it relies on teammates like Hawlucha and Terrakion - but this ranking should be justified as a supporting threat. If Aurora Veil really is the dominant playstyles, Ninetales may be even stronger in actuality, but tactics like random Brick Breaks on Pokemon like Beedrill Mega and Darmanitan have not yet been fully explored.
Terrakion to A- from B+
Terrakion is on the cusp of being a top tiered threat again because of an increase in versatility which leads to unpredictability and danger in dealing with it. The newest trends include running Earthquake for Doublade and Nidos, Focus Sash and SR to act as leads, and Choice Band and Life Orb to more effectively break walls like Quagsire. The old staple of double dance Rockium Z is still effective. However, the prior weaknesses of terrible defensive typing and prevalence of Scizor remain, only somewhat mitigated by Aurora Veil.
Sceptile Mega to B+ from B
This nomination saw several posts of debate starting
here. Much of the debate centered on what nature to run and its somewhat questionable defensive typing, while there was also a note on other Grass types like Rotom-C for competition. A few notes on this rise:
Firstly, Modest is entirely viable and although losing to Scarf Togekiss and Chandelure is a real threat (both sets are viable), both sets are uncommon and Togekiss beats Sceptile anyways. Using Timid does not help much overall versus offense as Crobat and Beedrill Mega technically would win 1 on 1 anyways, while your moves get better chances or guarantees to OHKO threats like Latias and Scizor.
Sceptile does have an underrated matchup versus offense which is the main reason for this rise; essentially nothing can switch in because of Leaf Storm plus sufficient coverage in the rest of the moveslots. For example, if it comes in for free on a Mega Blastoise, it puts extremely uncomfortable pressure if the opposing team uses Grass resists like Latias and Scizor, both of which are slower and badly damaged or OHKOd by common moves on Sceptile.
The poor defensive typing and bulk are the reasons holding back Sceptile from a higher position - not competition with Grass types like Rotom-C. The big and obvious advantage Sceptile has over Rotom-C is speed, which in conjunction with coverage, lets Sceptile have a much better matchup with common Dragon types for example.
Abomasnow Mega to B from B-
While Abomasnow is probably not becoming a more popular threat (no stats yet), it is seeing an increase in diversity in sets - everything from mixed Growth and four attacks to purely physical SD and Leech Seed sets have been used. The rise therefore comes mainly because of Abomasnow’s good offensive presence but also because the related fact Abomasnow can badly damage or OHKO “counters” with ideas like Focus Blast and HP Fire for Steel types and SD for special walls.
Quagsire to B- from C
Muddy buddy is not a stall staple on the levels of Blissey, but that may be too high of a standard to judge low Bs anyways and its moderate power and Scald means muddy buddy may be less passive than Blissey in any case. The rise comes in part from metagame changes - losing Xurkitree means Quagsire is a better Electric immunity - and also because it was overdue in any case; Quagsire is one of the only defensive Pokemon that can stop certain set up sweepers like Cobalion and Terrakion and can stop more than other Pokemon. The nomination
post by
Freeroamer goes into a little more detail on muddy buddy’s utility - although it should be noted the mediocre stats and in particular bad special defense hold Quagsire from being dominant, even if it is in mainstream stall.