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Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Hi everybody! It's finally time for this month's usage-based tier update. I appreciate everyone's patience in waiting for this.
For those new to our system, how our tiers work is that they're primarily based on usage (the names of the tiers, OU, UU, RU and NU, literally mean "Overused," "Underused," "Rarely Used" and "Never Used"): Pokemon that are used heavily in the tier above get banned from the tiers below. PU is a pun--in English, "Pee Ew" is something you say when something stinks, like the Pokemon in the lowest tier do.
This 3.41% number is based on stats weighted over the previous three months, with 5/6 of the weighting from the last month, 1/8 from the month before that, and 1/24 from the month before that (ratio of 20-3-1).
Finally, for those who are familiar with how we calculate usage stats know, we weight our stats based on player skill rating, and we're calculating stats using a baseline of 1695 for OU and 1630 for UU, RU and NU. To eliminate some numerical anomalies, we're also throwing out teams where the player's RD is greater than 100 (meaning they've had less than ~5 battles under their alt). This decision is detailed in this thread.
On top of the usage-based tiers we also have "borderline" or "BL" tiers, which are essentially Ubers banlists for the lower tiers. These lists ban Pokemon that aren't used enough in the higher tiers but are too overpowered for the lower ones. BL banlists are not subject to usage stats, except a BL Pokemon can, of course, move into a higher tier (from BL to OU, from BL2 to UU).
Also note that a Pokemon cannot drop more than one tier per update cycle. Say no one used Charizard in OU for the next three months. That would drop it down to UU, even though it had no usage in UU for that period (how could it? It was OU).
Finally, since December 2015, mega formes are counted separately from their base formes.
Further notes: suspect tests were included in the rankings wherever possible, with weight for that given tier and month being split proportional to the number of battles on each ladder. Example: say there were 10,000 OU battles in September vs. 5,000 OU Suspect battles. Then June's OU ladder would contribute 2/24 to the tiering and September's OU Suspect ladder would contribute 1/24.
Celebi moved from OU to UU
Honchkrow moved from UU to RU
Gastrodon moved from RU to NU
Aggron moved from RU to NU
Conkeldurr moved from OU to UU
Alakazam-Mega moved from OU to UU (BL)
Altaria-Mega moved from OU to UU (BL)
Quagsire moved from NU to OU
Smeargle moved from RU to NU
Mawile moved from NU to PU
Sylveon moved from OU to UU
Amoonguss moved from RU to OU
Zapdos moved from UU to OU
Hippopotas moved from LC UU to LC OU
Torchic moved from LC UU to LC OU
Houndour moved from LC OU to LC UU
Skrelp moved from LC OU to LC UU
Anorith moved from LC UU to LC OU
Cranidos moved from LC OU to LC UU
Pancham moved from LC OU to LC UU
Gothita moved from LC UU to LC OU
Mew moved from Doubles OU to Doubles UU
Kyurem moved from Doubles UU to Doubles NU
Lucario-Mega moved from Doubles UU to Doubles NU
Ninetales moved from Doubles OU to Doubles UU
Mamoswine moved from Doubles UU to Doubles NU
Malamar moved from Doubles NU to Doubles UU
Slowking moved from Doubles UU to Doubles NU
Porygon2 moved from Doubles UU to Doubles OU
Latias moved from Doubles NU to Doubles UU
Victini moved from Doubles OU to Doubles UU
Doublade moved from Doubles UU to Doubles NU
Landorus moved from Doubles UU to Doubles OU
Scizor moved from Doubles UU to Doubles OU
Nidoking moved from Doubles UU to Doubles NU
Celebi moved from OU to UU
Honchkrow moved from UU to RU
Gastrodon moved from RU to NU
Aggron moved from RU to NU
Conkeldurr moved from OU to UU
Alakazam-Mega moved from OU to UU
Altaria-Mega moved from OU to UU
Quagsire moved from NU to OU
Smeargle moved from RU to NU
Mawile moved from NU to PU
Sylveon moved from OU to UU
Amoonguss moved from RU to OU
Zapdos moved from UU to OU
Celebi - about time, that thing sucks in OU. Please take Mew with you.
Honchkrow. Oh god run! Well Rhyperior, Mega Steelix and Tyrantrum can check it I guess, but if it's not banned I'll be surprised
Gastrodon - Yeah RU was not kind to the sea slug. Still, should find a good home in NU as a Lanturn counter.
Aggron - Oh hell yeah, meet one of the most frightening wallbreakers you'll ever see. Will it be broken? Honestly, at the moment I don't think so. Torterra, Gastrodon, Claydol and Hariyama can all check it pretty well.
Mega Alakazam and Mega Altaria will likely just be BL, they're both way too much for UU
Quagsire and Amoongus moved up - good, I'm sick of those 2 in NU and RU anyway
Mawile in PU - with Steelix around this was inevitable really. Still, should do well there.
Sylveon in UU - FINALLY! Basically a superior Florges, but I think offensive sets are outclassed by Gardevoir
Zapdos moved up - really? How many Defoggers do you fucking need? Between Latios, Latias, Mew, Skarmory and Togekiss, surely that would be enough for you?
Uh this is also the fact we just had a suspect test and in suspect tests most people just use stall to get reqs. The OU Ladder is also popular in that too many players don't know how to break it, and that 1695 and up range attracts the majority of that playerbase. It's important to note these stats are usage anyways. When you take a glance at the OU stat then see stuff like Terrakion being used less than Zapdos it shows viability is kind of just ignored in some instances because the OU Ladder is so mind numbingly stupid to ever judge merits of someone being good.
Decent players and good player should contribute strongly to the stats.
And then this from the weighted stats thread lol. Amoonguss kind of moved up on its own for its own merit but the fact Quagsire is now OU makes you scratch your head. I know they changed this policy to include suspect tests into the usage stats now and make it the primary ladder when suspects happen but man it just screws up the representation of OU so much. If you wanted a benchmark for viability though you're better off using the Smogon Tour usage stats, even if it's smaller than the ladders usage stats. It's a better representation of OU knowing that it's not filled with a bunch of dudes cheesing the ladder with ABR Stall and w/e dong versions of stall they run these days.
Edit: I think the interest for FU has also came to a halt so not sure why this is included in the OP either other than the copy paste aspect. I know it was made a thing a couple of months back alongside PU but it's ended and I'm sure other people have interest in a lot of other niche tiers rather than FU to justify throwing that usage stat / banlist there.
Edit2: Actually Ok I think I know why Zapdos moved to OU since it just randomly popped up in my head and I know I wasn't the only one going "wtf". Mastermind posted a RMT around the time these stats were taken into account which featured Zapdos in a, surprise, stall team. He was constantly at the top 10 or so spots with it and I'm sure people grabbed the team and got high out of the fact it's just stall even though the team has so many flaws you're just like wtf (no discredit to mastermind but it does and it's a good representation of how messy the OU ladder really is). Out of the fact it's just stall these ladder players normally have some bloated as hell GXE or something along the lines of 90 with higher glicko ratings. This doesn't take into account all the other players using that team who more than likely managed to hit the ranges to make Zapdos become OU.
Aggron in NU is definitely the one I'm most excited for.
Aggron @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Head Smash
- Heavy Slam
- Low Kick
- Ice Punch
1. Click Head Smash. 2. Watch shit die. With recoil taken out of the equation Head Smash is very spammable. Heavy Slam has perfect accuracy, and hits pretty hard since Aggron's quite a fatty. Low Kick 2HKOes Steelix most of the time, as well as offensive Rhydon. Ice Punch OHKOes Torterra on the switch. Max Speed, max power. Choice Band gives you insane power.
Aggron @ Life Orb
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Head Smash
- Heavy Slam
- Low Kick
Rock Polish fixes your low Speed, letting you outrun everything without a Choice Scarf. Head Smash is the main STAB. Use Heavy Slam when you don't want to risk a miss. Low Kick for Steelix and Rhydon, although hopefully they should've been cleared first. EVs maximise Speed and power. No point running a Jolly nature - you still can't outrun any Scarf users you couldn't with Adamant.
Edit: I think the interest for FU has also came to a halt so not sure why this is included in the OP either other than the copy paste aspect. I know it was made a thing a couple of months back alongside PU but it's ended and I'm sure other people have interest in a lot of other niche tiers rather than FU to justify throwing that usage stat / banlist there.
I'm diplomatically and absolutely disagreeing with this... FU still have a decent fanbase (me included), especially with nice PU players... Sadly, we don't have support from PU leaders or enough players to play it without a ladder (let's be frank... It's a little bit tiring making teams having to look at the banlist to see if you are using proper things and having to wait for one or two of the 20 players that are patient enough to build decent teams) and that's why FU isn't a huge thing RN... Probably with a ladder we could make a bigger community, but I guess that will have to wait until gen 7...