VR Update | October 30th, 2022
hi! new vr update time. six of us voted on this one (pix sat it out). overall a pretty large update and one that should hopefully better suit the current metagame!! if you do have any questions, please feel free to hit me up in the pu discord, and i'd be happy to answer any you may have.
also big thank you to
UberSkitty for the halloween themed thread banner. very cool!
rises
B to B+ // strong and potent breaker that has very limited effective defensive counterplay.
B- to B // decent pivot with solid coverage and an incredible speed tier. great at putting pressure on doublade early.
A to A+ // this was a close one with half of us voting s, and the other half voting a+. it is such an important and influential mon in the current metagame. it borderline warps the tier around it.
A+ to S // the big fat boring rock thingy that balance teams struggle to go without. there's not much more to be said about this mon at this point.
C to B- // terrain offense has seen a spike in usage, and effectiveness, and hitmonlee is one of the main abusers.
B- to B+ // really efficient breaker that has benefited immensely from the drop off of togedemaru, lanturn and the omnipresence of gigalith. limited reliable switchins.
UR to C // somewhat solid defensive mon used in scl that fulfils multiple niches. regenerator, tspikes, knock, haze, walls somewhat prevalent threats like centiskorch that are otherwise difficult to handle.
B to B+ // potent hyper offense lead with taunt, spikes and a good offensive typing. sd sets are also seeing usage and prominence.
A+ to S // bzz bzz, the best speed control in the tier while being a really solid splashable soft scrafty check. this mon is incredibly easy to throw on most teams. both qd and specs sets are potent and both have their place in the meta. in terms of the specs set alone, usual checks to ribombee really hate being hit with the switcheroo, and can force teams that rely on their steel type / gigalith a little too much to crumble. by far one of our best mons.
A- to A+ // our best removal & spike setter that has arisen as one of the premier mons in the tier over the last few months. sd sets are also incredibly good and see a fair bit of usage. really shouldn't be a huge shock to anyone who's been paying attention to pu over the last few months seeing the slasher move up this high.
UR to B- // solid sd sweeper, benefits from gigaslash meta, overall a surprisingly solid pick that has seen usage since early pupl.
NEW to B+ // this mon dropped like a month ago and we haven't rankedit yet :sob: but yea it's role compression as a steel type and removal, it can run sd sets somewhat efficiently. glad to have it back.
B to B+ // benefits extensively from the excess of gigalith sandslash cores that plague the metagame. helps a lot especially vs sd sandslash which hasn't got that many reliable answers. defensive grass type with incredible bulk that doesn't rely on synth to get its health back is just amazing really.
C to B+ // thwackey has risen due to the prominence of terrain based ho, but by itself it is also an effective breaker vs giga slash teams. having access to knock and turn is just super nice coverage too.
UR to C // shell smash sweeper that some people think is worth ranking. solid offensive fire type for HO builds that don't want to rely on zard. difficult to revenge.
B to A- // levi helps extensively vs offensive slasher, in general it helps vs doublade and has a favourable matchup against recent emerging trends.
B to B+ // probably just too low a drop to begin with. i'm high on offensive sets, with stabs and shadow ball it can pretty much get through most common mons right now fairly easily. defensive/utility sets are again decent even though they struggle with competition from eldegoss, and scrafty's current likeliness to run pjab.
drops
C to UR // this mon hasn't been good since before the huge mega shift that happened in december 2020, but fsr it stuck around this long. it's seen some sporadic usage since but nothing to justify c rank.
B- to C // decent stall mon but stall isn't great rn so lmao. i wouldn't ever run it on balance, and it definitely didn't appreciate vanilluxe leaving when it could act as a decent check to that using pressure.
S to A+ // with how prevalent gigalith is, in addition to other various meta trends, zard is not the pinnacle of the meta anymore. it's still an amazing mon, but it struggles breaking through defensive cores as easily as it has in the past.
B- to C // with zard's decline in viability and usage, it's even harder to justify using clefairy, which was a perfect wall to special sets previously. it also didn't appreciate scrafty's increased usage of pjab, when in the past it could act as a zard and bu scrafty check in one, and justify a usage slot.
C to UR // does not appreciate vanilluxe leaving, cannot spin vs doublade, walled by doublade which just sets up on it with ease.
A to A- // sandslash is usually a much better option for spike setting, still good but it has just fallen off a lot.
A to A- // struggles to break efficiently with doublade on so many teams. its wallbreaking prowess has fallen off substantially.
B to B- // weezing is the better poison, sandslash and ferro are both better spike setters, have trouble justifying using garbodor atm.
(S)
B+ to B- // not as strong a breaker as of late, doesn't appreciate doublade's presence all that much.
C to UR // hasn't really ever seen usage this gen as long as i can remember. not sure why we persisted keeping it ranked just bc its theoretically removal that has good type matchup vs our setters. it is rarely ever worth it. at least now we can just say, "if you want removal with favourable gigalith mu use sandslash" and delete this sorry excuse of a mon from our vr.
B to B- // doesn't appreciate gigalith's ubiquitousness as it can't wall it and prevent sr from going up. also doesn't appreciate our premier spike setter always running knock.
B- to C // mediocre breaker, scarf sets could be cool but they haven't rly proven themselves.
A+ to A // doublade is a better spinbocker and it is defensively a lot more difficult to justify than it was a few months ago, back when it virtually had a grip on the meta. specs sets have also fallen off substantially in favour of other breakers.
C to UR // not a great breaker, rain teams don't exist. its HO lead sets are arguably much worse than lycanroc / archeops / qwilfish / froslass / etc, and this niche alone doesn't warrant it to be ranked.
C to UR // i've always thought kadabra is a cool mon, it's got a good speed tier, it's got magic guard which is super fire in our hazard heavy metagame, it's got pretty solid coverage especially considering that toge isn't used rn. but that just isn't enough to justify itself over other psychic type breakers like mesprit and guno unfortunately.
B to B- // lanturn has been somewhat middling for a while and this is just reflective of that. doesn't appreciate zard's recent "fall from grace" either.
B- to C // it's still sorta cool but when sand is up this often recovering health, which it relies on a fair bit, is a major issue.
B to B- // there are much better breakers, magmortar isn't the best right now.
C to UR // was a solid vanilluxe answer, and a solid tsareena answer before that. now it's just a middling mon you can sometimes fit on stall, and stall isn't that great right now. can still be used, but doesn't justify a ranking.
B- to C // mediocre bee thing that just doesn't accomplish what you want it to.
B to C // very difficult to justify ever running. even rune is a better ground type. i'd unrank it if i could.
B+ to C // perrserker rly fell off hard. doublade and sandslash being such prominent meta staples has just hindered it to the point of no return. even though it can run stuff like cb crunch to 2hko doublade, there are just MUCH better breakers that have a much easier time, that aren't forced to run an otherwise mediocre move on a mon already struggling to fit moveslots.
B- to C // cb sets don't rly like the current meta all that much. defensive sets aren't that great. i personally liked running bulk up drain punch rest poli at some point to deal with bu scrafty while dealing with specs jelli but that niche's justifiability has obviously not continued into the recent metagame.
A to B // what a drop. doublade dropping and becoming such an important meta staple just ruined it really. it really cannot do anything versus that mon and allows it to set up with ease.
B to C // not great in our current metagame, doublade revenges easily, gigalith takes nothing, sandslash walls one of its stabs. difficult to justify overall.
A to B+ // sandslash is a better ground type that i would run 9 times out of 10. coil sets don't appreciate eldegoss prevalence.
C to UR // trash.
C to UR // not the worst thing ever but it has such a tiny niche that it can't really warrant keeping its rank. i like this mon though.
A to B+ // toge is nowhere near as good as it used to be due to its inability to do anything against doublade. it is not one of our stronger steel types anymore unfortunately.
B+ to B // not as strong a breaker as of late, doesn't appreciate doublade's presence all that much.
as always i look forward to seeing your future noms. i see a few i'd make already so i'll probably make a nom post in the near future. ty for reading!