Resource VGC 2022 Viability Rankings [Updated for Worlds Metagame]

[zee]

original OP by yuki || thread ran by zee

These are the official Viability Rankings for VGC 2022. In this thread, we as a community will be ranking each and every usable pokemon into different tiers based on how viable we believe them to be. We encourage you to post your thoughts and opinions on on the various usable Pokemon in VGC and what tier you think they should belong in. Posts in this thread will be taken into consideration when deciding changes to the VR.

The general idea of this is to rank every usable Pokemon in VGC into different rankings that will go in descending order. Since we are evaluating the entirety of the metagame, we will not be splitting Pokemon based on their roles within teams - supportive and offensive Pokemon will be ranked based on their impact that they have on the meta and the teams they will be brought for. For example, a Pokemon like Incineroar will be ranked highly for its supportive presence and Kartana for its offensive presence. While these examples are definitely present in the current Viability Rankings, as the metagame progresses and evolves so do Pokemon's utility and viability, so the Council will approach this with an open mind as we move forward.

Finally, there will be a Council of experienced players who will discuss and vote on the ranking of each Pokemon. As the Series tend to be fairly short, we will be attempting to keep this up-to-date based on what's going on in the tournament scene and adapting our list based on both tournament results and ladder success as the metagame evolves. Keep in mind, your posts and insights are still very valuable to us and will be a factor in any changes that we make. This thread would be nothing without the community and all of your input, so if you feel you have a good grasp on the metagame and fully understand the forum rules, then don't be hesitant to post.

VGC Series 2022 Viability Rankings:

Restricted:

For now the restricted VR is in terms of single Pokemon, but we do plan to add a restricted cores VR after some more time for the metagame to develop.

S-Tier:
Zacian-C

A-Tier:
A+:
Kyogre
Groudon


A:
Calyrex-S

A-:
Lunala
Palkia
Calyrex-I

B-Tier:
B+:
Dialga
Yveltal

B:
Kyurem-W
Reshiram

B-:
There's nothing here right now!

C-Tier:
C+:
Solgaleo
Eternatus

C:
Ho-Oh
Rayquaza
Xerneas

C-:
Necrozma-DM
Zekrom
Zygarde

D-Tier:
Lugia
Zamazenta-C

-------------------------------------------------

Non-Restricted:
S-Tier:
Incineroar

A-Tier:
A+:

Amoonguss
Charizard
Grimmsnarl
Regieleki

A:
Rillaboom
Thundurus

A-:
Gastrodon
Venusaur
Whimsicott

B-Tier:
B+:
Kartana
Landorus-T
Porygon2
Tornadus
Zapdos

B:
Indeedee-F
Mimikyu
Slowbro

B-:
Blastoise
Bronzong
Coalossal
Ditto
Urshifu-S
Shedinja
Tapu Fini

C-Tier:
C+:
Cinderace
Clefairy
Dragapult
Dusclops
Gothitelle
Umbreon

C:
Ferrothorn
Moltres-G
Sableye
Urshifu-R
Weezing

C-:
Celesteela
Kingdra
Regigigas
Torkoal


Please post intelligently or your post will be deleted and possibly infracted. If you disagree with a Pokemon's ranking, show evidence or make a strong argument to have it changed, "lol pikachu in A tier" will not be counted as an acceptable post. Thanks!

 

[gephicka]

Blastoise definitely doesn't deserve A tier. While it does have good offensive and supportive options (yawn, helping hand, cannonade), it is definitely not as consistent as the other mons in that tier. Venusaur and Tornadus are both staples on sun and rain respectively and both get extremely good and potent tools and have seen good results. Blastoise has yet to actually see extremely good results and doesn't support the viability of an entire archetype like the other mons in the tier do. The only Blastoise in top cut of Victory Road was 38/41, whereas multiple other water types (Seismitoad, Gastrodon, and even Rotom-Wash and Lapras) got much higher results and are ranked lower.

In my opinion, Gastrodon outclasses Blastoise and deserves A tier. Gastrodon can fill a similar role to Blastoise, but it's significantly better into the meta at the moment. Gastrodon hard walls Kyogre, gets off really important yawns, has an electric immunity, and has actual recovery moves to take advantage of. All of this adding on to the fact that multiple Gastrodons have results (one of them even getting third in victory road) leads me to say that Gastrodon should move up to A tier while Blastoise moves down to at least B+ tier.

 

[JoeUX9]

Zamazenta over reshiram in the restricted list and blastoise in A tier for non restricted list is mega cap. Also, where's Rilla?

 

[gephicka]

I would like to nominate Rillaboom to A- tier at a minimum. Rillaboom has been a consistent threat across multiple SWSH formats and while it has definitely taken a hit due to the rise of Venusuar, it's still quite good. The combination of STAB priority grassy glides, terrain control, good coverage, fake out, and the ability to check Kyogre are fantastic. Rillaboom was at #12 in usage with 6 top cutting Victory Road. Overall Rillaboom is still a fantastic mon and should definitely be ranked as an actual meta threat.

 

[zee]

Blastoise definitely doesn't deserve A tier. While it does have good offensive and supportive options (yawn, helping hand, cannonade), it is definitely not as consistent as the other mons in that tier. Venusaur and Tornadus are both staples on sun and rain respectively and both get extremely good and potent tools and have seen good results. Blastoise has yet to actually see extremely good results and doesn't support the viability of an entire archetype like the other mons in the tier do. The only Blastoise in top cut of Victory Road was 38/41, whereas multiple other water types (Seismitoad, Gastrodon, and even Rotom-Wash and Lapras) got much higher results and are ranked lower.

I was pretty surprised to see Blastoise this high in the vote when I made the thread, turns out it wasn't supposed to be here at all, the votes from our council actually have it in A-, so I'm going to make that correction.

Rillaboom and Torkoal also seemed missing from the sheet when I made the thread, those have been placed into B and B-, respectively

Zamazenta over reshiram in the restricted list and blastoise in A tier for non restricted list is mega cap. Also, where's Rilla?

See my response above re: rilla and toise. You're gonna have to give more evidence as to what reshiram can do for us to seriously consider moving it higher.

 

[Helios of Sun]

Gonna put some of my thoughts on some of the replies here, as an individual and not as a member of the Council.

Blastoise definitely doesn't deserve A tier. While it does have good offensive and supportive options (yawn, helping hand, cannonade), it is definitely not as consistent as the other mons in that tier. Venusaur and Tornadus are both staples on sun and rain respectively and both get extremely good and potent tools and have seen good results. Blastoise has yet to actually see extremely good results and doesn't support the viability of an entire archetype like the other mons in the tier do. The only Blastoise in top cut of Victory Road was 38/41, whereas multiple other water types (Seismitoad, Gastrodon, and even Rotom-Wash and Lapras) got much higher results and are ranked lower.

In my opinion, Gastrodon outclasses Blastoise and deserves A tier. Gastrodon can fill a similar role to Blastoise, but it's significantly better into the meta at the moment. Gastrodon hard walls Kyogre, gets off really important yawns, has an electric immunity, and has actual recovery moves to take advantage of. All of this adding on to the fact that multiple Gastrodons have results (one of them even getting third in victory road) leads me to say that Gastrodon should move up to A tier while Blastoise moves down to at least B+ tier.

For some of the parts, I think zee addressed how Blastoise was meant to be an A-, and for the most part, I still think that's a bit of a high rating considering the other non-restricteds around. I think I rated it A-, but in hindsight it wasn't a very smart rating considering that Blastoise isn't exactly the greatest bulky water around. However, I do think it is still pretty good and probably is a solid B+.

On Gastrodon, I think it is crazy good right now but it is definitely not ready for A tier. This is primarily due to its mediocre base stats that is pulling it down slightly, despite having a great movepool and ability. It is destroyed by more or less any grass type that is able to touch it (due to Rindo not being an amazing item for it) and move choices such as Giga Drain Amoonguss or AV Ferrothorn being rather commonplace in the meta and being too much of a pest for it to deal with (particularly with Fire Type not being strong right now). All in all, I'd say its a solid A-, but is not ready for a rank up to A.

Zamazenta over reshiram in the restricted list and blastoise in A tier for non restricted list is mega cap. Also, where's Rilla?

I agree with both of these points so I'll digress. Rillaboom was added to the VR as a B-tier non-restricted.

I would like to nominate Rillaboom to A- tier at a minimum. Rillaboom has been a consistent threat across multiple SWSH formats and while it has definitely taken a hit due to the rise of Venusuar, it's still quite good. The combination of STAB priority grassy glides, terrain control, good coverage, fake out, and the ability to check Kyogre are fantastic. Rillaboom was at #12 in usage with 6 top cutting Victory Road. Overall Rillaboom is still a fantastic mon and should definitely be ranked as an actual meta threat.

On Rillaboom, I think it's a fine Pokemon, but I consider it a bit of a one trick-pony - being able to hit mons such as Kyogre, Gastrodon, or Seismitoad for heavy damage but it doesn't do too much apart from that, in addition to Kyogre/Seismitoad's stock dropping in the meta [imo]. With the meta slowly shifting away from Kyogre being the premier water type in the metagame, Rillaboom's effectiveness has only continued to dwindle due to the omnipotence of Pokemon such as Zacian-C or Yveltal in the metagame, as two restricted ideas. Even on the grass-type end, its stock isn't exactly fantastic right now, due to the hype surrounding picks such as AV Ferrothorn, or Amoonguss being crazy good right now. With that, I don't really see how it should be ranked A- at minimum, because I really don't see how it is that amazing right now.

 

[Namuko Pro]

For some of the parts, I think zee addressed how Blastoise was meant to be an A-, and for the most part, I still think that's a bit of a high rating considering the other non-restricteds around. I think I rated it A-, but in hindsight it wasn't a very smart rating considering that Blastoise isn't exactly the greatest bulky water around. However, I do think it is still pretty good and probably is a solid B+.

As an individual and not as a member of the council I want people to know Blastoise is very meh and I gave it a B and thought that was generous :^)

Zamazenta over reshiram in the restricted list and blastoise in A tier for non restricted list is mega cap. Also, where's Rilla?

Zamazenta is also too high (I voted it D lmao) but I think Reshiram is in a fine place otherwise, it's roughly as good as Xern (and also Rayquaza which I think is too high as well, and maybe Lunala which I think is probably the true C+ restricted) in the tier of maybe could win a tournament if you got the right MUs and a good player tried but it's not particularly amazing and a cut below all the mons above it.

Besides those things I just mentioned I think I was more or less in line with the rest of the voters on everything except for Zamazenta/Zygarde/Eternatus/Lugia/Zekrom which all suck and should be D if not UR, and Ho-oh which is better than everything in C- even though it also sucks, so it should be C- at the very least if garbage mons like Lugia are. Also, Regigigas is probably better than D-tier since it can definitely be a problem for teams since no one is prepping for it, although it's still probably just somewhere in low C-tier since the skill ceiling is so low that it limits how well it can really do without getting lucky with guesses and MUs, and you should honestly only really consider it if you're not all that good and can't play a more skill intensive team (no shame in that I suck too).

 

[Ultrarowlet]

Where is tyranitar?

 

[Namuko Pro]

Where is tyranitar?

It's just not very good so it's unranked. It's complete Zacian fodder, has no niche against weather since both Kyogre and Groudon demolish it even if the weather gets changed, and given the similar typings it has too many overlapping weaknesses with Grimmsnarl and especially Incin, which are two of the top Pokemon in the format. Even some of the few Restricteds it actually has a typing advantage against can still beat it, mainly Caly-S, Kyurem-W and Caly-I, which with a bit of setup can run through it with Max Quake. It also doesn't even wall some stuff like Thundurus that it should be able to beat since Thundurus can can a free +1 attack and knock it out with Max Knuckle.

Really you'd only be using it to hard beat like... Yveltal, Lunala, Ho-oh and Lugia, and there's better ways to answer those and you don't need dedicated checks to any of them really since most well built teams already handle all of them (with the exception of maybe Yveltal which can be tougher for non-Zacian teams to answer), and half of them are pretty bad. It's just a mon you can't bring to 80% of MUs and it's not that good in the 20% you can bring it in. You're better off using Incineroar, Grimmsnarl or even Umbreon as a dark type.

 

[rinagram]

Would like to nominate from UR -> B- at a minimum due to its ability to effectively spread status, lower stats with Struggle Bug and sometimes String Shot, and redirect attacks while still wreaking havoc into an opposing sun team. It also currently stands as one of the best defensive checks to Zacian.

I also have no idea why is ranked, could someone explain that to me? As it stands, sand is in an atrocious spot and better dragons rule the meta…

should be in C-/C imo due to Prankster and its amazing movepool, including screens, Fake Out, Yawn, Trick Room, Imprison, Helping Hand, Thunder Wave, Quick Guard… there’s just a lot to unpack, though I understand its current (un)ranking.

 

[Evelyie]

Urshifu-Single as a B+ tier is a bit of an oversell. With the huge proimence of Zacian-C (also Play Rough Zacian-C is legit) and Incineroar, this thing simply cannot click. Considering Calyrex-S has been downfalling as well and Lunala although powerful isn't very present, this thing is a bit more niche and comparing it with Landorus-T feels very unfair, and in my opinion it should be around B- or C

 

[Grandmas Cookin]

-> B / B+
budget yveltal, but its actually good. assault vest sets sit on so much stuff and surprise weakness policy can be terrifying. has the same issues as yveltal at a reduced cost for using since it doesn't take up a restricted slot. definitely a sleeper pick in the format.

edit: apparently this being unranked was an error. you can disregard this then

 

[Helios of Sun]

Would like to nominate from UR -> B- at a minimum due to its ability to effectively spread status, lower stats with Struggle Bug and sometimes String Shot, and redirect attacks while still wreaking havoc into an opposing sun team. It also currently stands as one of the best defensive checks to Zacian.

I also have no idea why is ranked, could someone explain that to me? As it stands, sand is in an atrocious spot and better dragons rule the meta…

should be in C-/C imo due to Prankster and its amazing movepool, including screens, Fake Out, Yawn, Trick Room, Imprison, Helping Hand, Thunder Wave, Quick Guard… there’s just a lot to unpack, though I understand its current (un)ranking.

Volcarona does do those things, but are these niches particularly useful? When Zacian is often times paired with a restricted such as Kyogre, Palkia, or Yveltal, the other restricted has very easy access to supereffective moves that hit the Volcarona and often times one shot it, while Zacian can just easy set up a Substitute and waste a turn as the other Pokemon kills it, or just switch out entirely. For the other things it does, it just doesn't do Struggle Bugging as good as a Zapdos Eerie Impulse or a Spectrier Snarl, or does Speed Control as well as Eleki. I can't justify putting it that high.

Dracozolt being good is not a byproduct of Sand being a thing, but due to its power level with a Hustle boost. With appropriate Speed Control or with a team that uses Dracozolt as a great bait (a hustle Dracozolt cannot be ignored on the field), the power level of Dracozolt is actually quite crazy. It is able to be a fairly reliable dynamaxer or be a Pokemon used to trade damage in order to allow other Pokemon such as Calyrex-Shadow to cleanup.

Meowstic doesn't have enough bulk to really stay on the board long enough for meaningful supporting actions.

-> B / B+
budget yveltal, but its actually good. assault vest sets sit on so much stuff and surprise weakness policy can be terrifying. has the same issues as yveltal at a reduced cost for using since it doesn't take up a restricted slot. definitely a sleeper pick in the format.

I personally don't think that it is a great idea shifting G-Moltres to a higher rank, or really compare it to the strength level of Yveltal as the boost from Dark Aura, a greater Physical and Special Attack stat, and access to the healing Oblivion Wing, make for a lot of Yveltal's strengths and why it is better than Moltres. Those strengths mean that Yveltal wins a far greater number of endgames that Moltres cannot, and while you can run another restricted by using Galarian Moltres, I don't think that it ends up amounting to much as there are better supportive options in the non-restricted slot such as Grimmsnarl or Incineroar. Maybe C or C+ would be a fine place for it right now.

 

[Ultrarowlet]

It's just not very good so it's unranked. It's complete Zacian fodder, has no niche against weather since both Kyogre and Groudon demolish it even if the weather gets changed, and given the similar typings it has too many overlapping weaknesses with Grimmsnarl and especially Incin, which are two of the top Pokemon in the format. Even some of the few Restricteds it actually has a typing advantage against can still beat it, mainly Caly-S, Kyurem-W and Caly-I, which with a bit of setup can run through it with Max Quake. It also doesn't even wall some stuff like Thundurus that it should be able to beat since Thundurus can can a free +1 attack and knock it out with Max Knuckle.

Really you'd only be using it to hard beat like... Yveltal, Lunala, Ho-oh and Lugia, and there's better ways to answer those and you don't need dedicated checks to any of them really since most well built teams already handle all of them (with the exception of maybe Yveltal which can be tougher for non-Zacian teams to answer), and half of them are pretty bad. It's just a mon you can't bring to 80% of MUs and it's not that good in the 20% you can bring it in. You're better off using Incineroar, Grimmsnarl or even Umbreon as a dark type.

Thx so much

 

[jonas]

Would like to talk about some mons i've seen on the rise recently/why they've been so good


gastrodon has cut itself out a really solid niche in the meta, super countering ogre and being really good into zacian aswell. It splashes really well with the lack of good grasstypes and is incredibly difficult to kill for some teams. It goes well on yveldog, csr zac, and really anything that needs a zacogre check. It has been one of the best early meta mons/ metagame calls so for that reason I would like to nom it to A/A-


to ones surprise, thundurus is really good in s12. it pairs well with zacian, counters intimidate, has a splashable itemset/moveset and can fit as a splash maxer on any team especially a team with zacian (all of them). It also has a strong support set which puts it a step above of all of the mons in a- and arguably the mons in a aswell. for that reason I want to nom to A

a- tier looks really off with these mons but restricted formats r really weird so I am struggling to see whats wrong with it. some smaller noms I dont feel like explaining
-> A-/B+
-> B+
-> B+

 

[GalaxianGG]

Would like to talk about some mons i've seen on the rise recently/why they've been so good


gastrodon has cut itself out a really solid niche in the meta, super countering ogre and being really good into zacian aswell. It splashes really well with the lack of good grasstypes and is incredibly difficult to kill for some teams. It goes well on yveldog, csr zac, and really anything that needs a zacogre check. It has been one of the best early meta mons/ metagame calls so for that reason I would like to nom it to A/A-


to ones surprise, thundurus is really good in s12. it pairs well with zacian, counters intimidate, has a splashable itemset/moveset and can fit as a splash maxer on any team especially a team with zacian (all of them). It also has a strong support set which puts it a step above of all of the mons in a- and arguably the mons in a aswell. for that reason I want to nom to A

a- tier looks really off with these mons but restricted formats r really weird so I am struggling to see whats wrong with it. some smaller noms I dont feel like explaining
-> A-/B+
-> B+
-> B+

wanna talk about thundy too since i think it's really good. I think at minimum it deserves A- or higher (i'd go as far as S- tbh). Both of it's common sets (defiant AV, prankster) are extremely different and create lots of mindgames in just team preview alone (especially adding in the fact that it's universal what types of teams these sets could be run on viably). Also the counterplay to both variants is extremely different since the prankster set's main checks such as fake out users like incineroar, or electric / ground types like regieleki or landorus-t dislike taking various moves from the defiant set (potentially with boosts too), while defiant thundurus' main checks like calyrex-i, solgaleo or coalossal won't like getting slowed by thunder wave or having stats dropped via scary face or eerie impulse.
and, of course, it can take a behemoth blade in a pinch too :)

 

[Evelyie]

Anomus's sussy


These 2 Pokémon should be inverted. Yveltal has been nominating the metagame as one of Zacian-C's premier partners. Considering some Pokémon like Solgaleo and Palkia are on the rise, bulky AV Yveltal is a great Pokémon fullfilling sweeper and support roles; whereas Calyrex-S been struggling a little bit with Incineroar, Grimmsnarl and aforementioned Yveltal being so predominant. This can be proven in tournament stats, where Zacian-C + Yveltal has way more usage / winrate compared to Calyrex-S oriented teams

Maybe A-?
I think this Pokémon has a lot going for it, but people have been underexploring it, so I guess it has a reason for A-. Its good physical bulk makes it a good Zacian-C wall, strong into Thundurus and not caring about Incineroar its a puls on its own. It has Wide Guard for weak matchups like Kyogre and Calyrex-S, which is neat, plus some other interesting support options like Trick Room and Thunder Wave.

quick moment that I endorse Thundurus to A (very hard to play around with 2 great sets)

A-
Groudon felt alot off the charts, which means Venusaur also did. Its not a bad Pokémon, but in the current metagame it simply does not connect well with all the Kyogre, Tailwind, Incineroar, Prankster Thunder Wave. I do think it may rise again soon or later, but meanwhile Kyogre + Seismitoad is favoured so it should be a bit lower.

A-
I think its funny that we got to the point where Seismitoad is a metagame staple, but here we are. It's 4 times weak to Venusaur yeah but it offers so much with its Electric-immunity, great damage output and of course, one of the fastest Max Airstreams of the metagame.

B / B+
Speaking of weather abusers, it seems Charizard has been picking some popularity up, maybe even being more popular then its Grass counterpart. Charizard's ability to completely maul Zacian-C and even AV Yveltal paired with its residual damage makes me want to nominate Charizard up. And yeah, Max Airsteam.

edit the last 3 ones could be kinda wild ig so im open for discussion

 

[Microwave Raccoon]

noms

C --> C+ or higher
ditto takes advantage of the rising caly-s and zacian usage since it can beat them in most endgames. definitely better than spectrier and tapu koko which are mostly outclassed

B --> B-
a staple on ice rider teams and nothing else. Isn't even always the best for the job as some ice rider teams opt for dusclops or porygon2. theres no reason for this to be in the same tier as rilla and rotom-h which fulfill actual unique roles.

B+ --> B-
this shouldn't be 2 tiers higher than rapid strike and definitely shouldn't be in the same tier as gastrodon and lando-t.

B- --> C or lower
there are airstreamers with better defensive utility. Thundurus specifically matches up better into calyrex and kyogre. thunder wave spam becoming more and more prevalent in the meta also hurts it.

restricted noms

A- to A
better than everything else in A-. compresses multiple roles very well. appreciates the rising caly-s usage. its also pretty versatile, being able to run av, lorb or wp sets effectively.

A- to B+
extremely linear and matches up poorly into the best restricted and best non-restricted in the format. getting this thing in is hard enough and actually sweeping with it is harder.

other noms I agree with

A-
I think its funny that we got to the point where Seismitoad is a metagame staple, but here we are. It's 4 times weak to Venusaur yeah but it offers so much with its Electric-immunity, great damage output and of course, one of the fastest Max Airstreams of the metagame.

maybe not all the way to A- but it definitely deserves a rise

gastrodon has cut itself out a really solid niche in the meta, super countering ogre and being really good into zacian aswell. It splashes really well with the lack of good grasstypes and is incredibly difficult to kill for some teams. It goes well on yveldog, csr zac, and really anything that needs a zacogre check. It has been one of the best early meta mons/ metagame calls so for that reason I would like to nom it to A/A-


to ones surprise, thundurus is really good in s12. it pairs well with zacian, counters intimidate, has a splashable itemset/moveset and can fit as a splash maxer on any team especially a team with zacian (all of them). It also has a strong support set which puts it a step above of all of the mons in a- and arguably the mons in a aswell. for that reason I want to nom to A

a- tier looks really off with these mons but restricted formats r really weird so I am struggling to see whats wrong with it. some smaller noms I dont feel like explaining
-> A-/B+
-> B+
-> B+

agree with all of these

other noms I disagree with

These 2 Pokémon should be inverted. Yveltal has been nominating the metagame as one of Zacian-C's premier partners. Considering some Pokémon like Solgaleo and Palkia are on the rise, bulky AV Yveltal is a great Pokémon fullfilling sweeper and support roles; whereas Calyrex-S been struggling a little bit with Incineroar, Grimmsnarl and aforementioned Yveltal being so predominant. This can be proven in tournament stats, where Zacian-C + Yveltal has way more usage / winrate compared to Calyrex-S oriented teams

This comparison doesn't seem very fair. Yveltal somewhat struggles with incineroar and potentially struggles more with grimmsnarl than calyrex does. Sash wisp calyrex is great in the meta rn and provides very strong defensive utility against physical attackers, something yveltal cannot do. yvel also struggles with zacian more than calyrex as it cannot take a play rough out of max and does little damage back when maxed unless it has heat wave.

Maybe A-?
I think this Pokémon has a lot going for it, but people have been underexploring it, so I guess it has a reason for A-. Its good physical bulk makes it a good Zacian-C wall, strong into Thundurus and not caring about Incineroar its a puls on its own. It has Wide Guard for weak matchups like Kyogre and Calyrex-S, which is neat, plus some other interesting support options like Trick Room and Thunder Wave.

matchup fishing zacian is cool but yvel, caly-s and paralysis spam are all rising which hurts it a lot. also competes as a steel with the best restricted.

wow i didnt nom guzzlord this time crazy ik

 

[zee]

we're gonna vote soon, instead of doing noms I'll just post my VR. I'm gonna double post so I can talk about the restricted list and the non restricted list in separate places. it's my section and my thread gg

S-Tier:
Zacian-Crowned

Zacian staying at S is no secret. In general it feels like your team is worse off without Zacian on it. Its stats all around are just really unmatched, it's ability to check Dynamax Pokemon is incredible, typing is amazing defensively and has great offensive coverage. It's just insane. Easy S rank.

A-Tier:
A+:
none

A:
Calyrex-Shadow
Kyogre

A-:

Groudon
Palkia
Yveltal

Would you be shocked to see that most people's take on the 5 best Zacian partners are the 5 next highest restricteds? Moving Kyogre down because there's been an increase in [rillaboom/gastro/electric] backbones popping up.

B-Tier:
B+:
Dialga
Kyurem-White

The other two dragons, these are two explosive restricteds that you've probably ran into a handful of times on ladder. Using them typically relies on making aggressive reads to get the most out of your three turns, but they're solid for sure, and often experience some good matchups.

B:
Solgaleo
Calyrex-Ice

Calyrex-I and Solg take a peg or two down here. Super max heavy but their ability to sweep is reliant on boosting. They can do other things like set TR or get a bunch of boosts but there's a lot of times where that's just not enough to power through.

B-:
Lunala
Reshiram

Lunala's one of the stronger trick room setters. It's mostly paired with groudon. rock moving incineroar is pretty good for it. reshiram is really fat and hits for a lot of damage, has the nice quake/wyrmwind combo that the better dragons enjoy and the same 150 spatk.


C-Tier:
C+:
Ho-Oh
Xerneas


C:
Eternatus
Lugia
Rayquaza
Zygarde


C-:
Necrozma-Dusk-Mane
Zekrom
Zamazenta-Crowned

pretty much just my lower tier reordering. C+ guys all have the ability to dunk on certain teams which I think is slightly important to think about in your building process, C guys are some bulky fellas that you might not be able to muscle past (or are rayquaza, and hit fairly hard but is just a pretty subpar choice of a dragon), and C- are mostly outclassed things that you could probably lose a ladder game to at 3 am.

post 2 coming tomorrow probably, revote will be weekend/early next week

 

[yuki]

Hi everyone!

zee is currently on leave for a bit, so I've taken over the VR for a while. I've updated the VR and will use this post to eventually give some of the notable updates. Glad to be back!

 

[Prinz]

Some thoughts:

Rotom-h from B+ to B: on paper it's a very good check to sun and to zacian but on practice i feel like it's very overrated. Zacian's best friend is kyogre and that doesnt help rotom at all, but mostly rotom itself needs a nasty plot to be a major threat and it's very hard to pull off

Regarding C+ tier: Seismitoad, Barreskewda and dusclops are a bit better than the rest... I never saw a good pult, clef, moltres or umbreon team so far in series 12 so that may say something... Seismi and barreskewda aren't top tier either but seismi is nice in some teams that are actually strong (Seismi/zacian ogre/rilla stuff) and barreskewda won 1 IC. Dusclops saw a lot of success in the IC too and it's good in palkia caly ice teams.

Shedinja should be C+ at least, it fits very well on zacian ogre teams and saw a lot of success in the ICs.

Venusaur should go in B+, sun teams don't run it (the most common and strong one is zard/don/grimm/zac/incin/gastro) and zacian ogre teams prefer having rilla/kartana/amoon/ferro as a grass type. Venu was v v good in past series but rn it's just outclassed and it doesn't have much usage. It could gain more usage in the future because on paper it's always strong, but for now it hasnt seen much light

On restricted list...

S

Zacian
Kyogre ppl can try to adapt vs it, but kyogre will always do its job. also its best partners (incin, zac) are v good against the things supposed to counter it... (rilla, kartana). and ofc it is v strong as non dmax too, which is an important bonus

A+

Yveltal the life orb hits v hard, av can be a good support in coal teams
Palkia
Groudon
Calyrex ghost

A
Calyrex ice ppl forget how strong this thing is, and it's one of the few restricted that it's also good when not dynamaxed (zacian ofc, both calys and ogre and to some extent groudon)

B+

Kyurem Dialga Solgaleo they all suck when not dynamax so they aren't as flexible but theyre strong, solg is the worst of the 3

 

[TheEeveeAnimations]

My thoughts so far:

Charizard from A- to A+
This mon is a monster. Sun teams are no longer running Venusaur, Charizard is their best friend now. The sheer amount of damage output it produces is insane. Wildfire is honestly dumb strong as a mechanic, and its coverage isn’t half bad either. Every team needs to tech against Zard or it will overwhelm them with sheer damage in the sun. For Sun teams, 95% of the time Zard is the second name on the team sheet after Torkoal Groudon. You can even tech it on non-Sun to check opposing Sun. It’s a core part of the best archetype in the format, and I think it has earned its spot amongst the best.

Ditto from A- to B
Ditto’s niche. There, I said it. It does nothing on its own and is entirely reliant on fortuitous positioning of you and your opponent. In certain situations, especially vs Zacian, it’s insanely strong if it can copy Zacian and steamroll the opposition. But that’s a big if for a mon that is supposedly better than most of the metagame. I’m not sold on this mon being anywhere near A-tier.

Bronzong from C to B-
Zong’s neat. Pretty reliable Trick Room setter, hard walls Calyrex-Ice, and Iron Defense/Body Press is never a bad option. It has a cute niche with Skill Swap, and can tech Gyro Ball to beat some of the faster mons. Hates Yveltal and Caly-Shadow, but what TR setter doesn’t? It’s not meta-breaking, but it works on certain comps as a way to beat TR modes.

Lunala from C+ to B-
This one is controversial, but I truly think Lunala teams have positive matchups into most weather teams. Groudon, Kyogre, and Calyrex-Ice all hate Lunala thanks to four (five?) words: Wide Guard and Trick Room. Gen 8 took some of its best tools in Tailwind and Menacing Moonraze, but it gave it a near-surefire way of deleting Incineroar: Meteor Beam (also an emergency option versus Yveltal). It’s not incredible, I can admit. It needs a turn of set-up to start outputting those big damage numbers, and it is still horribly weak to Calyrex-Shadow, even with Shadow Shield. But I believe that it needs to start being included in the conversation.

 

[Evelyie]

Pretty much the VGC metagame right now.
These nominations are pretty much some opinions but mainly "hey this thread is not updated sun is the best team!"
​

My personal VR for the restricteds:
S Rank:
S:

A Rank:
A+:

Groudon

This thread is not updated for Salt Lake City. So we know how this will go, don't we? Sun is the best team right now. It's the only thing VGC players are looking into; how it works, why is it so good, and most importantly, how to solve it. Groudon has been centralizing the metagame due to its amazing bulk with its bulky Assault Vest set.

Kyogre

I don't want to nominate Kyogre, but rather put it in an interesting situation, because I think that Kyogre is not stronger neither as strong as Groudon right now, but it could very well be the key to solving the ZacDon issue. I think we should pay attention on it toward EUIC

A:

Yveltal

tHe GiRL tHaT ruNs ThE pLaCe tOp cUt wiTh iT!!!!! (she has quite more property to talk about it then me but I'll go). Yveltal as the solo A tier represents to me that its more versatile, playing Life Orb or AV and fitting to more teams then the rest under Yveltal. Its only weaknesses right now in my opinion is the rise of Play Rough Zacian-C and Charizard being 1 point faster then it

A-:

Calyrex-Shadow

Calyrex-S has been a let down for me, in my opinion. It's a one-trick pony that has been struggling against the plethora of Incineroar and Grimmsnarl. It's a Pokémon that needs to get it going, which is struggling to. Although it has cut both SLC and Liverpool so it should be taken with a grain of salt

Calyrex-Ice

Calyrex-I has been using Babiri berry alot, and its working well allowing it to beat Zacian-C much more reliably, but just like its ghost brother, it's a one-trick Trick Room pony which could stay in B tier as well

Palkia

Palkia has been stabilishing itself as a great Trick Room setter, not only with Calyrex-I. Palkia Zacian-C and PalkiaRex has been getting consistent top cuts since Brisbane and I doubt it will change going into EUIC

Other opinions:
this thing deserves a rise for sure, but I don't quite know to where. pretty much dynamax zacian that is very good with kyogre and groudon.
this thing sucks please remove it from the VR (dies to zacian, needs hyper offensive team to work meaning caly is kinda better but in ice type coverage caly is also better)
Top Cut SLC and still in the same tier then ZYGARDE.

Non-restricteds!
hey uhhh tier A is empty... these guys are cool.. okay for real. you know these guys. charizard spams its thing and gastrodon supports the heck out of it. won 2 regionals, vamos charidon
wild take but it should be s. or s-. for real it has so many sets, the classic one, trick sets, focus sash fake out sets. its versatility, immediate damage control, immediate speed control, fake out and other support moves are solid arguments why this thing should be in s-.
indeedeez has been proving how much valuable follow me and psychic terrain are. follow me protects anything from zacian-c, and the terrain shuts down grimmsnarl. ive been opting to use this pokémon alot and its very useful.
tornogre is dying, enter whimogre. whimsicott has been quite better overall due to its bigger movepool of support options, like fake tears, sunny day, helping hand, trick room, cotton spore, trick, encore, charm. did you know whimsicott learns hurricane? so yeah drop tornadus
why use venusaur (get twaved > get airstream >dead) when you can dynamax charizard (wildfire > win)? with venusaur being much more dependent on sun, dying to charizard, and struggling against the other options of speed control, sleep powder spam is just not much as valuable as it was, specially with the huge spam of incineroar.

I know this was a painful read. I'll put all my formal and more objective metagame thoughts as soon as EUIC is finished. See you guys and good luck solving sun teams.

 

[Yourwelcomethanku]

A to A+
The Rinya sun team is arguably the most defining team in the format currently, and as such I feel Groudon should be ranked more highly

A- to A
I'm not sure how relevant LO Veltal was the last time it was voted on, but with that set in its arsenal I think it should rise, others have also expressed wanting it to rise.

A- to A+
I doubt it's much of a question of if zard should rise at this point with the incredible success it has had, rather how high? I personally lean towards it being A+, in part because it has some strong applications even on non-Groudon teams.

A- to A
I think these can all be considered to fill the empty A tier. Indeedee-F, Rillaboom, and Gastrodon fit onto more types of teams than other Pokemon in the tier like Zapdos, which is used on rain, and Whimsicott and Ditto which fit on HO, which is alright. Indeedee-F fits on Kyogre teams and Calyrex-I + Palkia, Gastrodon fits on plenty of bulky offense builds, and Rillaboom can be slapped on various teams to improve Kyogre and Gastrodon matchup

B- to B+
I think single strike is notably better than its rapid counterpart currently. The strong check Calyrex-S on Hyper Offense teams is pretty practical, whereas Urshifu-R is almost if not entirely specific to Coalossal teams.

A- to B+
Venusaur can often turn into an inconsistent Sleep Powder bot, as it's not that good a Dynamax option. Players have strayed from its inconsistency with good reason

A- to B+
Kyogre teams have moved from Tornadus's power and ability to threaten Grass-types to Whimsicott's extra utility. With mons like Zapdos and zacian-c you don't really need to threaten Grass-types with the Tailwind setter.

Nominations I agree with (at least in terms of placement)
Ditto to B and Lunala to B- TheEeveeAnimations
Rotom-H to B Prinz
I also agree with the point Prinz raised about the C+ tier

 

[Gross Sweep]

I'd like to join the G-Max Charizard echo chamber, and say it should rise past A- to either A or A+. Sun is in a really good place right now, and Charizard is at the archetypes forefront. G-Max Wildfire is an incredible move, combined with a hard hitting Max Airstream makes Charizard an offensive juggernaut.

Is it just me or does B+ feel a little low for Lando-t? Every game I play with or against this mon it feels like the best non restricted Pokemon on the field. It makes great use of Dynamax, but at the same time is perfectly fine taking a back seat on that front. It can run very offense focused sets, or go with a bulkier approach thanks to a great ability in Intimidate + being a solid Assault Vest carrier. Overall Landorus-t is a very splashable mon with upside that I believe outperforms a ranking of B+.