Resource SV PU Viability Rankings

[Aurist]

Welcome to the SV PU Viability Rankings!

Here we will rank every viable Pokémon in PU as a community. This is intended to be an aid to teambuilding and a reflection of the current metagame, as well as a spark to discussion on these things.

Now that we have progressed to letter rankings, we are accepting nominations for rank changes and newly ranked pokemon. The VR council will now be voting on nominations from posts here rather than large sweeping votes on the whole tier. Please ensure your nominations are well considered and backed up with evidence as this may sway the votes!

Tiers are currently ordered alphabetically, this may also change as the tiers get more nuanced over time.

Our current VR council is made up of the following members:

VR Council

asa
Aurist
avarice
Bella
DripLegend
DugZa
fish anemometer
ishtar
Morge
MZ
plznostep
Scarf Kricketune
zS

FULL TIER LIST - VISUAL VERSION

S tier

• 
  Bellibolt
• 
  Slowbro-Galar

A tier
A+

• 
  Arcanine
• 
  Delphox
• 
  Florges
• 
  Inteleon
• 
  Skuntank
• 
  Tauros-Paldea-Aqua

A

• 
  Bronzong
• 
  Flamigo
• 
  Gastrodon
• 
  Gligar
• 
  Golurk
• 
  Kilowattrel
• 
  Milotic
• 
  Mudsdale
• 
  Rotom-Heat
• 
  Scrafty
• 
  Staraptor
• 
  Tauros-Paldea-Fire
• 
  Toxtricity
• 
  Wo-Chien
• 
  Zoroark

A-

• 
  Altaria
• 
  Articuno-Galar
• 
  Bombirdier
• 
  Decidueye
• 
  Emboar
• 
  Goodra
• 
  Grimmsnarl
• 
  Houndstone
• 
  Pawmot
• 
  Salazzle
• 
  Sandslash-Alola
• 
  Scream Tail
• 
  Scyther

B tier
B+

• 
  Ambipom
• 
  Bruxish
• 
  Coalossal
• 
  Duraludon
• 
  Electrode-Hisui
• 
  Hariyama
• 
  Heracross
• 
  Meloetta
• 
  Minior
• 
  Oricorio-Sensu
• 
  Rotom-Mow
• 
  Tatsugiri

B

• 
  Abomasnow
• 
  Decidueye-Hisui
• 
  Dudunsparce
• 
  Farigiraf
• 
  Froslass
• 
  Glastrier
• 
  Grafaiai
• 
  Hitmonlee
• 
  Palossand
• 
  Qwilfish
• 
  Sandaconda
• 
  Tornadus
• 
  Virizion

B-

• 
  Avalugg-Hisui
• 
  Braviary-Hisui
• 
  Exeggutor-Alola
• 
  Kingdra
• 
  Lycanroc
• 
  Mesprit
• 
  Qwilfish-Hisui
• 
  Regirock
• 
  Sandslash
• 
  Snorlax
• 
  Whimsicott

C tier
C+

• 
  Alcremie
• 
  Hoopa
• 
  Sceptile
• 
  Toxicroak
• 
  Vikavolt

C

• 
  Charizard
• 
  Ditto
• 
  Drifblim
• 
  Floatzel
• 
  Frosmoth
• 
  Jolteon
• 
  Lanturn
• 
  Magneton
• 
  Mismagius
• 
  Muk
• 
  Orthworm
• 
  Poliwrath
• 
  Porygon2
• 
  Rhydon
• 
  Smeargle
• 
  Sneasel
• 
  Thwackey
• 
  Uxie

 

[Aurist]

This post is reserved for VR council voting history. Find the voting histories below:

VR COUNCIL VOTING

April 2024 - First Shifts
May 2024 - Lettered tiers

 

[Aurist]

We have an update for the SV PU Viability Rankings! This update progresses us from preliminary "Top/High/Mid/Low" tiers to more specific letter rankings as are standard for a more developed VR. The voting has changed ranks as follows:

Top

Flamigo -> A
Florges -> A+
Slowbro-Galar -> S

High

Altaria -> A-
Arcanine -> A+
Articuno-Galar -> A-
Bellibolt -> S
Bronzong -> A
Delphox -> A+
Emboar -> A-
Gastrodon -> A
Gligar -> A
Golurk -> A
Goodra -> A-
Grimmsnarl -> A-
Inteleon -> A+
Kilowattrel -> A
Milotic -> A
Mudsdale -> A
Pawmot -> A-
Rotom-Heat -> A
Salazzle -> A-
Sandslash-Alola -> A-
Scrafty -> A
Scream Tail -> A-
Scyther -> A-
Skuntank -> A+
Staraptor -> A
Tatsugiri -> B+
Tauros-Paldea-Aqua -> A+
Tauros-Paldea-Fire -> A
Toxtricity -> A
Wo-Chien -> A
Zoroark -> A

Mid

Abomasnow -> B
Ambipom -> B+
Bombirdier -> A-
Bruxish -> B+
Coalossal -> B+
Decidueye -> A-
Decidueye-Hisui -> B
Dudunsparce -> B
Duraludon -> B+
Electrode-Hisui -> B+
Glastrier -> B
Grafaiai -> B
Hariyama -> B+
Heracross -> B+
Hitmonlee -> B
Houndstone -> A-
Kingdra -> B-
Meloetta -> B+
Mesprit -> B
Minior -> B+
Oricorio-Sensu -> B+
Palossand -> B
Qwilfish -> B
Regirock -> B-
Rotom-Mow -> B+
Sandaconda -> B
Snorlax -> B-
Tornadus -> B
Virizion -> B

Low

Alcremie -> C+
Avalugg-Hisui -> B-
Braviary-Hisui -> B-
Charizard -> C
Ditto -> C
Drifblim -> C
Exeggutor-Alola -> B-
Farigiraf -> B
Floatzel -> C
Froslass -> B
Frosmoth -> C
Hitmontop -> UR
Hoopa -> C+
Jolteon -> C
Lanturn -> C
Lycanroc -> B-
Magneton -> C
Mismagius -> C
Muk -> C
Orthworm -> C
Poliwrath -> C
Porygon2 -> C
Qwilfish-Hisui -> B-
Rhydon -> C
Sandslash -> B-
Sceptile -> C+
Smeargle -> C
Sneasel -> C
Thwackey -> C
Toxicroak -> C+
Uxie -> C
Vikavolt -> C+
Vulpix -> UR
Weezing -> UR
Whimsicott -> B-

The full VR council voting for this round is linked here.

As an additional note, you may notice the creation of the C+ tier despite that tier not being a category for voting on. Due to C tier being very large and there being a significant enough number of pokemon with split votes in the area of B- to C, this tier was created.

Now that we have progressed to letter rankings, we are accepting nominations for rank changes and newly ranked pokemon. The VR council will now be voting on nominations from posts here rather than large sweeping votes on the whole tier. Please ensure your nominations are well considered and backed up with evidence as this may sway the votes!

 

[658Greninja]

Snorlax being a B- mon in PU is kinda wild. What happened to my boi?

 

[MaahirMomtaz12]

Snorlax being a B- mon in PU is kinda wild. What happened to my boi?

Most of the A rank Pokémon are Fighting-types

 

[Aurist]

I'd like to kick off with a couple nominations in the hopes it inspires others to make their own noms.

Naclstack UR -> B

Naclstack is currently the only Unranked pokemon present in our sample teams, which I think is argument enough to include it in our VR. Naclstack is quite well matched into this tier, with its high bulk/status immunity/Salt Cure being a nuisance for our fat mons, and it being a specially bulky mon that can still prevent an Arcanine sweep (and win vs it in the case of curse sets) is a very clear role for it in teams.

Hoopa C+ -> B

Hoopa has been quite clearly underrated in the last vote IMO, with the general increase in viability of Scarfers with Trick, Hoopa emerges as the hardest hitting option for this while still outspeeding our fast unscarfed mons and also providing teams with a temporary backup Sdef switch in to lessen the pressure on our special tanks like Florges/AV Glowbro/Gastrodon/etc which are subject to quite a lot of chip. I think Hoopa is much easier to slot into a team than its current C tier status conveys.

Decidueye A- -> A

I think that Decidueye has been far too prominent for too long in the current meta to be as low as A-. Decidueye is seen commonly in offense, balance, hyper offense and bulky offense alike, matches very well into top mons in the tier and always gets value. It's one of the most splashable mons in the tier, it has top 10 usage last month and saw common use in PULT. It's a mon that is a flexible slot being able to check top offense mons like Tauros-Aqua, threaten faster sweepers with stab priority, break a variety of top tier fat mons (Glowbro, Bellibolt, Gastrodon, Florges, Milotic etc) while being immune to contact effects, and act as a late game cleaner/wincon and this is with the same set. It also has set variety as it's a passable physdef mon/defogger but this is significantly lesser to the SD set. I don't think it needs to push as high as A+ but it's also not that far off either. Easy A for me personally.

I think there's more we can adjust but I'll leave it to others as people on discord have had some strong opinions on some of these placements.

 

[competitiveZero]

Meant to write this last night oopsies,
But without further ado I'd like to make some noms of my own

UR ->B tier

As previously stated Naclstack is the only unranked pokemon on a sample team(and a rather potent one at that), it is not just for this reason but also for the many tools at its disposal such as salt cure,status immunity, surprisingly valuable pure rock typing and access to recovery. That I believe this pokemon should be ranked. Not much else here.

Now for my more original noms...

B- ->B

Avalugg hisui or Havalugg has long cemented itself as a spinner with great attack to threaten numerous blockers, (Noteably Decidueye, golurk and even palossand) I personally think the splashable nature and unexpected reliability of this pokemon are undermined by its current rank
With tools like impeccable coverage, access to recover, the devastating mountain gale signature move and the aforementioned spin, avalugg has always leaned towards more offensive teams and in the current meta I feel it fills that role very well.

B -> A- or B+

Talk about a sleeper pick, dudunsparce cements itself as an absolutely devastating calm mind sweeper in the PU tier, with near infinite coverage, The insanely high powered boomburst, surprisingly good invested bulk, and a nice anti-knock/intim tech ability in rattled aswell as reliable recovery this behemoth of a snake can be quite a pain to take down and even harder to take a hit from, with the rapid downfall of former normal type rival in snorlax, dudunsparce has a pretty easy time sealing it's slot in teams, that's not to say its without flaws as it has the same struggles as other set-up sweepers, a strong dislike for moves like trick and toxic.
However these issues are things most teams are already planning for before even adding dudunsparce
Overall I think B is far too low for this powerhouse.
[Edit] all noms beyond this point were added after the posts may 25th post date.

A- -> A

Bombirdier looks like it would struggle to set itself apart from the omnipresent skuntank but, using its flying typing,access to pivoting moves, and superior attack
This pokemon has had little trouble making a name for itself in sv PU, bombirdier has the fun ability to keep most fighting types off the field using its stabs, as well as serving as a natural deterrent to heracross, a pokemon that usually doesn't care about skunktank. And of course we can't mention bombirdier w/o bringing up its other utility options, with moves like Stealth Rock/Roost/parting shot to name a few this pokemon finds itself very customizable to exactly what your teams needs.
It is for this reason I personally feel it meets all the criteria of an A tier threat

B -> B+

Seems weird to nom palossand up after singing bombirdiers praises but wtv
I was not a believer at the start of this meta because we got several new ground types which have all quickly become meta staples, but access to recovery, an amazing typing and weirdly perfect MUs into several offensive threats, mainly toxtricity, i believe this pokemon deserves to be moved up a rank.

A- -> A

This pokemon is extremely versatile, naturally the first instinct is to use its incredible wishpassing ability, and this instinct is not wrong, it is incredible at this job, infact it's by far the best at it imo
It has also shown itself to have promise as a set up sweeper, it's great bulk and extensive movepool allow it to execute a Sub CM set with dangerous efficiency
Using high base power moves like boomburst and Stored power/Fire blast to make up for its low base offenses. And other non- sub tools such as encore/disable/etc.
As has been said before, I think as this meta evolves we will continue to see more and more scream tail.


A -> A-

I really do not see the hype
It's worse at its main sets than waterbull, and it has next to 0 utility compared to emboar. It's main boons are its access to will-o-wisp, intimidate, base 100 speed(which rlly isn't very remarkable) and decent enough physical bulk, this bulk is sort of sabotaged by the moves its forced to run and fire/fighting simply doesn't hit even close to the targets water/fighting hits, it's for this reason I think it only being 1 tier below its twin is incorrect
So I think we should demote redbull.

B -> C+

The terrain teams this pokemon have called home are no longer at the forefront of controversy or viability and as such I believe it should be rated pretty low as a mediocre abuser of a niche playstyle, infact I am moving it to be on-par with sceptile. Who does alot of the same things,
Now I kinda have to mention non-terrain hitmonlee, who is just outright bad, it has the hilarious honor of being the worst hitmon at spinning, it has an okay scarf set and more traditional offensive sets using reckless and occasionally white herb unburden.
Overall I don't think this pokemon is nearly as strong as the pokemon in B tier and as such does not deserve that ranking.

That's all I have for now but if it'd allowed I may look into more, (not rlly spellchecked well sorry)

 

[Scarf Kricketune]

A short post on some of my nominations:

Rises

A -> A+

Very strong setup sweeper that does make progress in various stages of the game while having excellent bulk, abilities and a great typing.
This mon has many ways to approach winning and can fit on various playstyles including Hyper Offense, Offense, Bulky Offense and even Balance, making it a very versatile mon that can make use of any of its three excellent abilities to become a win condition or to support the team via knock off and staying healthy with rest + shed skin while functioning as a status absorber. On BO and balance, Scrafty's excellent bulk allows it to come in on more passive mons such as Slowbro-Galar, gastrodon and even milotic and threatening to knock off an item or setting up. On HO and offense teams it can go much more offensive with either poison jab or iron head and the corresponding tera to deal with fairy types. Can also make use of other support moves such as taunt and encore to ease its setup.

B+ -> A-

This mon offers excellent role compression in addition to being one of the only spinners effectively able to dissuade houndstone from spinblocking. While its typing is not amazing i dont find it too hard to pair coalossal with teammates that can deal with water, ground, and fighting moves, making its job easier. It has become many players go to hazard control on bulkier teams which to me indicate a slight rise on its viability. Also flame body can straight up win you games.

Drops

A -> A-

While on paper this mon has a great defensive profile due to levitate cancelling out its quad weakness and water/rock moves having some great switch ins such as gastrodon and mudsdale, this mon has some points that in my opinion hinder its viability quite a bit. I find this mon hard to fit in teams because defensive fire types are honestly not that amazing at being walls or pivots. Offensively, It has an awkward speed tier but it also needs all the speed it can get, mainly to outspeed mons like tatsugiri, skuntank and heracross making it unable to run full bulk most of the times. It can be decent at breaking and keeping mons low via Nasty plot 2 attacks and pain split, however, gastrodon will hard shut you down eventually if it is packing surf. Also the moment this mon gets knocked off its performance drops off significantly. I’ll keep it at A- for now because I do believe it is overall better than rotom mow.

A -> A-

I understand that initially this would be regarded very highly due to it being the only real steel type in the tier (being able to tank quite a few hits). However, I do think that theres many issues that bronzong has that don’t make it a desirable pick in my teams. Bronzong becomes easily abusable by a lot of setup sweepers due to its awkward stabs and flat out not pressuring offensive mons enough to make them switch most of the times. Also, Skuntank being as common and highly rated means that it can come in on Bronzong quite easily and force progress on the opposing team. Getting knocked early is significant enough and it will most likely play happen due to bronzong usually having the role of Stealth rocker. This mon does offer you a bulky steel that can be good but it can potentially hinder your team more than what it offers.

 

[sufys]

a very short post
A+ -> A

while delphox is really powerful, it's hard to fit in practice - it stacks weaknesses with a lot of common picks such as slowbro-galar and arcanine, which makes it somewhat difficult to include on a team, it also is quite vulnerable to priority and has a pretty awkward speed tier which also holds it back. overall i think a slight drop is warranted

UR -> C
this should probably be on the vr, has a nice niche as a scarfer with knock + u turn, and having eq means it doesn't struggle as much with bellibolt as similar scarfers like flamigo, here's a replay of it in action from ssnl grand finals:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9pu-766690

 

[Morge]

Oh right we can make noms now

A- -> B+

A- was definitely too high for this mon, its not really done much since shifts from what I've seen and definitely doesn't feel on the level of the other mons in its rank. Yeah its a scary wallbreaker on paper but it offers little else beyond that which makes it much less appealing compared to other wallbreakers that are either faster or offer better defensive utility, even if they may not hit as hard. Like what walls does this actually safely come in other than wo-chien.

B -> C

Is snow actually a teamstyle people use post cetitan ban? Even if it is B rank for a mon who's only real purpose is to enable 1 niche teamstyle feels wrong. Like maybe I'm wrong and snow is a sleeper broken archetype or maybe specs is real but C rank feels right for what it is given that thwackey is similar in that it enables one archetype and does basically nothing else, and terrain feels slightly more prevalent than snow at least.

A- -> A

It was either this or moving skunk down a rank and I feel like this is more reasonable. I feel like this being a full 2 ranks below skunk is kinda wack when they bring a lot of the same positives (stab knock, stab sucker, dark type good) and bomb has some notable positives over skunk with utility moves like rocks and pivoting, even if I think bomb is overall worse the gap isn't that large.