some noms bc i haven't made a post on this thread in fuckin forever
A- > A
alright, I drank the koolaid on this one, mon's goated. a rock setter that's not a total dud defensively and also not super passive is just hard to find right now, and cobalion manages that while also having a bunch of OTHER super nice traits to boot. volt to keep momentum is solid, especially since most grounds aren't safe into you due to a combination of being faster/threatening them with CC, and specifically being faster than and able to deal fairly solid damage to excadrill is great. the bulk is juuuust serviceable enough without investment that you can get away with switching into some stray neutral phys hits too so it's really effective at keeping rocks up over the course of the game too. too many hazard setters rn are unfortunately kinda one pump chumps which just doesn't cut it in a meta where a top 3 mon is carrying rapid spin 99% of the time. cobalt's built different though and i think it's for sure on par with the other stuff in A.
B- > B
HO teams kinda rely on this mon to function since it's the only decent ghost available and having to reactively tera just to keep hazards up is often not optimal unless it's gonna outright win you the game. even then, HO has a bunch of mons that wanna use the tera instead to improve matchups and close out games like kommo, crown, and greninja. if you're not running a very specific archetype of HO like psyspam, this is
probably worth considering if not just slotting outright because of how capable it is at just keeping your hazard game sustainable. red card sets are also very effective at swinging momentum against setup attempts thanks to disguise and how much the defensive typing has to offer at base. it's also fairly unconcerned with using tera since most of the time you're using this for its base typing, but stuff like tera fire can be cool in a pinch if you want to go for game with it. i don't think B- aptly represents how key this mon is to the archetype tbh.
A > A+
assuming this is still here by the time the next round of votes goes through, this feels like a relatively non-controversial take? the defensive typing is able to take advantage of a good few things and force awkward coverage choices on some teams, which in conjunction with its fair bulk means it's able to force a
lot of setup opportunities. between taunt, sub, tera, and set guessing games, it has a lot of ways to fuck with anything that attempts to stop it before it deals significant damage, and it's not starved for coverage in the slightest either. it can still run into some awkward situations, and teching for it isn't
impossible (if anything i'd compare it to SM scizor where it's so massively present within the tier that every team ends up naturally packing some form of insurance against it), but it's proven itself to be a very effective wincon and i think it's definitely as good as the others in A+.
S- > A+
meta defining mon, just don't think it's
significantly better enough to warrant an entire subrank of its own above the three in A+.
B+ > B
where has this been? no, really, i have seen ZERO on the ladder lately. i get what this does in theory, it's a fat(?) water that can threaten with reasonable chip while still being able to pivot like slowking, and it also kinda helps against sand rush exca? low base hp pain split is also always nice, but man, i am just not seeing what this does in a world where our best ground has mold breaker and slowking exists. you get turbo goobed by kommo too, if that's still here by the time the next slate happens. AV torn makes your life pretty miserable too since you're not carrying an electric move aside from volt switch and it's kinda just free real estate to let it knock/fish for poisons/farm regen heals. ability shield is cool conceptually but unfortunately just ends up being a waste of your item slot on a on that really wants the passive recovery from leftovers and is very likely going to be a prime target for knockers anyway. twave/willo mindgames are cool but i don't think this offers enough compared to the other waters to justify the placement.
nomming mr lurkingtons to C+
