>> Pokemon Home VR updates! <<
About a month and a half has passed since Pokemon Home shook up the new tier, dropping a variety of new Pokemon at the traditional DUber power level. This metagame is far from settled, but with the help of Lord Death Man, Yuichi, Smudge, zee, DaAwesomeDude1, and laptops, new viability rankings exist to help you get an idea of the strength level of various Pokemon in the tier. You can see the full updated VR in the first post of this thread. Feel free to make your own nominations in this thread!>>Tier 1<<
Arceus - Arceus's raw 720 BST and wide movepool give it extreme versatility. The standard "Ekiller" Swords Dance ExtremeSpeed set offers a powerful tool against any team, bypassing major forms of Speed control and hitting the majority of the tier for 2HKOs, as well as some OHKOs. Arceus can be combined with Chien-Pao and Tera Normal to push its ExtremeSpeed damage to ridiculous levels; for example, after a Swords Dance, 252 HP Groudon faints to that combination. In addition to natural STAB ExtremeSpeed, Arceus's Normal-type gives it an important immunity to Calyrex-Shadow's spread Astral Barrage. Its wide movepool gives it a myriad of setup options including Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, Cosmic Power, and Recover. It also can effectively run many support moves, including Trick Room, Will-o-Wisp, Taunt, Stealth Rock, and Tailwind.
Calyrex-Shadow - Calyrex-Shadow was already a great Pokemon last generation, but Terastallization gives it a huge buff compared to just about any other DUber. Calyrex's high-damage spread Astral Barrage is now complimented with a potent coverage option in Tera Blast, something it was previously lacking. Calyrex commonly Terastallizes to a Fighting-type to resist Dark-type attacks and have a strong attack to hit Arceus, but Normal-type also sees play to become immune to Astral Barrage in the mirror, and Ghost can push an Astral Barrage sweep even further. Although it lost Expanding Force, it still has powerful support options in Imprison Trick Room or fast Will-o-Wisp, and can use Psyshock to hit Assault Vest Pokemon trying to tank Astral Barrage.
Kyogre - Kyogre is relatively unchanged from previous generations - Water Spout is a 150 BP spread move boosted by Rain, and that will never not be good. It excels both as a Choice Scarf user and with a boosting item on Tailwind offense teams.
Koraidon - Koraidon matches up fairly well into tier 1. Orichalcum Pulse limits Kyogre severely by setting up Sun, and thanks to Orichalcum Pulse boosting attack in Sun by ~1.3333x, very little investment is required for Koraidon to pick up a clean OHKO on even 252 HP Normal-type Arceus with Collision Course, its signature move that gains an extra 1.3333x damage multiplier when the attack is super effective. By using an Assault Vest, it can avoid a 3HKO from Calyrex-Shadow's Astral Barrage fairly easily. AV Koraidon has plenty of moves to pick from, including Breaking Swipe, Flare Blitz, Flame Charge, U-turn, and Dragon Claw. Collision Course is typically preferred to Close Combat, since the power difference is low and defense drops suck, but it can be used for extra breaking power vs targets that Close Combat is not super effective against (e.g. neutral Arceus forms). Quad weakness to Fairy sucks since you usually want to commit your Terastallization elsewhere, and Koraidon can also be exploited by switching in the opposing Kyogre to turn off its attack boost.
Magearna - Soul-Heart is still one of the best Abilities ever created, giving Magearna a boost any time a Pokemon anywhere on the field faints. Unlike last generation where Magearna had to deal with extreme role competition in Zacian and a lack of good alternate Trick Room setters, both downsides are less relevant now. Many viable alternate Trick Room setters exist, including Arceus, Lunar Blessing Cresselia, and a new Dialga, and old mainstay Calyrex-Ice is still present too. Underestimate the snowball potential of Magearna at your peril - it's not likely to OHKO anything immediately, but with a partner pressuring heavy damage and passively gaining Sp. Atk boosts, an unchecked Magearna will wreck you. At the same time, Soul-Heart counterplay has been more thoroughly developed as the years went on - understanding board states vs Magearna, such as when is appropriate to take a knockout, is vital counterplay that is relatively unchanged from last generation.
Miraidon - Occasionally presented as "more broken than old Zacian-Crowned or Mega Rayquaza", Miraidon doesn't quite live up to the hype, but is still extremely solid. Unlike Koraidon, Miraidon's Hadron Engine activates Electric Terrain, which stacks its Sp. Atk boost on top of the Electric Terrain base power boost. If Electro Drift is super effective, that mon is dead - even max HP / max Sp. Def Assault Vest Kyogre will fall to a Life Orb Electro Drift. Of course, Electro Drift will not always be super effective, so you'll have to settle for around 75% damage on say, max HP Arceus. Electric Terrain also tends to be more useful than the sun Koraidon provides, giving Iron Bundle a free Quark Drive boost and providing Spore immunity for allies. Volt Switch can be used for momentum, and Draco Meteor chunks would-be checks like AV Groudon for ridiculous amounts of damage. It's worth noting that Miraidon is not often getting raw OHKOs - it's normally chunking Pokemon for 80+%. Don't get me wrong, that's really good, but it means it's often susceptible to damage trades, where you survive the hit and do something impactful back. That's why Choice Scarf is also viably used, to still get 2HKOs while gaining an advantage in Speed over Pokemon like Zacian. I personally think Miraidon is likely to rise to tier 1 status, but time will tell.
Tornadus - Prankster Tailwind was really good last generation, but it's even better in this generation thanks to Covert Cloak and Bleakwind Storm. Thanks to Covert Cloak, Fake Out isn't a great way to stop Tailwind. If you're not worried about Fake Out, classic items like Focus Sash or Mental Herb will also serve you well. Bleakwind Storm is a spread move that can potentially lower Speed, giving Tornadus something very meaningful to do beside Kyogre in Tailwind. Icy Wind and Taunt are still useful support moves too. Tailwind offense is always great in high power level formats, and Tornadus is far and away the best Tailwind setter.
Zacian-Crowned - Zacian's nerf turns it from a tier-defining, use it on every team staple to a really good Pokemon that has a bit more counterplay. Unlike last generation where Zacian had more flexibility in its move choices and EVs, in this generation it pretty much always wants Jolly nature with Behemoth Blade, Play Rough, and Close Combat. It's much harder to get away with Adamant with how important outspeeding the bike legendaries to OHKO with Play Rough is. Close Combat gives you a way to pressure a knockout on Arceus, whose ExtremeSpeed Zacian importantly resists. Overall, it's much easier to predict Zacian's set, and its inherent value of being a check to Dynamaxed Pokemon has made its overall value decrease, but it's nevertheless very solid.
Arceus-Ground - Arceus-Ground's advantage over Ekiller is initial STAB Earthquake. All the Pokemon we've looked at so far, except Tornadus, don't resist Ground-type moves. After a Dragon Dance, Arceus-Ground threatens KOs on many of tier 1/2. One downside with all alternate Arceus forms is that their typing is now revealed at Team Preview, which removes the surprise value it had in past generations. As stated, there aren't many Flying-immunes in DUbers right now, which also means there's not a ton of partners to EQ by - you may have to spend Terastallization on a Flying-type Tera to facilitate Earthquake.
Amoonguss - Even with Miraidon, Spore, Rage Powder, and Pollen Puff are still good moves. It doesn't appreciate that Arceus can bypass its Rage Powder with Extreme Speed (assuming Trick Room's not up), as well as the generally higher power of the tier, but it still serves as both an effective way to get up Trick Room as well as an effective check to opposing Trick Room.
Calyrex-Ice - Glacial Lance now has 2 new Dragon-type Pokemon to snag OHKOs on, and Terastallization gives Calyrex a way to get rid of its awful typing or push Glacial Lance even further with Tera Ice. Like usual, it is heavily dependent on Trick Room, and also comes at the opportunity cost of not running the extremely busted Calyrex-Shadow.
Chien-Pao primarily serves the purpose of powering up already great physical attackers, but it also serves as a soft check to many valuable Pokemon. Sucker Punch forces Calyrex to not click Astral Barrage or else Terastallize, Ice Spinner does heavy damage to the bike legendaries (although it shares the same 135 Speed stat with them), and Taunt prevents status moves, which tends to be more valuable than the comparably weak Sacred Sword.
Groudon - Groudon's Precipice Blades continue to be solid offensively, hitting the majority of the tier for at least neutral damage. It suffers from competition with Koraidon, though, and although it does technically trade into Miraidon, I wouldn't call it a favorable trade. Still, an Electric immunity is valuable, and forcing Miraidon to take a -2 Sp. Atk drop can neuter it for allies to help.
Indeedee-Female - Indeedee's traits give it plenty to consider over Amoonguss as a redirection role, with an important immunity to Astral Barrage and Psychic Surge, stopping Ekiller's main form of damage output (and sometimes both if it runs Shadow Claw), and neutering Miraidon. It can even use Trick Room now. Unlike Amoonguss's Spore, though, it has almost no offensive pressure whatsoever. You wall Arceus, sure, but you better have a good way of actually knocking it out, or else it'll just set up a free Swords Dance and switch in its ally Miraidon whenever it's ready to attack.
Rayquaza - Rayquaza offers a number of attributes that other Pokemon lack - it can immediately turn off both sun and rain, including Protosynthesis boosts, and offers a Ground resist in a format desperate for one. Still, it has significant hurdles - it no longer has access to V-create, it doesn't like the bike legendaries' ability to outspeed and OHKO it, and Flying STAB is not as spammable as in previous generations. It does have access to Stealth Rock and U-turn in this generation, but it faces pretty severe competition as a physical attacker with Arceus.
Ting-Lu - Ting-Lu works well as a hard stop to Calyrex-Shadow, taking almost nothing from Astral Barrage and laughing at Tera Blast. It also serves as an soft check to Miraidon, being one of the Ground-types actually able to tank 2 Draco Meteors from Life Orb Miraidon, though it doesn't threaten a KO in return with Stomping Tantrum. It's going to typically be used to set hazards, halve Pokemon's HP with Ruination, and check special attackers the best it can otherwise.
Zamazenta-Crowned - Zamazenta importantly lost Coaching between generations, though it did gain a much more reliable STAB in Body Press. Zamazenta still has excellent utility with Wide Guard and Snarl to slow down special attackers, and its passiveness last generation is somewhat mitigated by Body Press's more immediate damage. Last options include Howl to copium about Coaching being gone, as well as Iron Defense to boost Body Press's damage.
Arceus-Dark - checks Calyrex-Shadow immediately. Going to be used more as a support role with possibly Trick Room or Will-o-Wisp. Struggles with offensive pressure on the board.
Arceus-Ghost - Ekiller that starts off as default Ghost. Pretty mid if you ask me.
Arceus-Water - Another support Arceus for getting off important status conditions, with a solid starting Water-type, which only Miraidon really exploits. A Kyogre with Recover is not always easy to beat.
Chi-Yu - Chi-Yu powers up the special attackers like Calyrex-Shadow or Miraidon even more. It struggles solo vs the much faster tier and with Kyogre, with Choice Scarf and Focus Sash both having their own problems.
Cresselia - Difficult to KO without Calyrex-Shadow, and Lunar Blessing can keep sweepers healthy to prepare for a second Trick Room. Ally Switch buys sweepers occasional free turns.
Dialga-Origin - Bulkier Dialga. A sort of midground between a Trick Room setter that's hard to quickly KO while also having solid damage output in TR.
Dondozo + 
Tatsugiri - Although Dondozo despises Miraidon, +2 omniboost Unaware can still trade effectively with many powerful Pokemon; standard SD Ekiller, for example, does only 15% with Extreme Speed. Much harder to commit two slots to the combo since Tatsugiri is extremely useless in most matchups.
Eternatus - Cosmic Power + Recover + Terastallizing out of the Dragon weakness can allow Eternatus to wall whole teams, with the right counterplay available to its faster checks. Very passive, but high reward if setup is possible.
Flutter Mane - Protosynthesis gives Flutter Mane a free Choice Scarf in a tier with bike legendaries to Moonblast and a natural immunity to Extreme Speed. Struggles to keep up with the power level.
Grimmsnarl - Screens are good. Prankster Parting Shot is good. It's pretty difficult to KO Grimmsnarl in a single blow with Zacian less ubiquitous.
Iron Bundle - Free Quark Drive with Miraidon frees up Focus Sash, a requirement to tank the massive special attacks being thrown around. Fast Icy Wind serves as an alternate form of Speed control to Tailwind, and Freeze-Dry + Hydro Pump hits most of the tier for reasonable damage. Outspeeds a Kyogre in Tailwind if Quark Drive is active.
Iron Hands - Best Fake Out Pokemon available for Trick Room, and gets a free 1.3x Attack boost if Miraidon was on the board. Bulk is not as impressive by DUbers standards, but can still get the job done.
Kingambit -Threatens Calyrex-Shadow with Sucker Punch while being a sturdier switch-in than Urshifu or Chien-Pao.
Palkia - Kyogre resist that isn't committed to a particular item. Works better in Trick Room.
Palkia-Origin - Kyogre resist that works better out of Trick Room. Has a lot of competition with other, faster Dragons.
Regieleki - Benefits from Miraidon's Electric Terrain and functions like a more offensive Iron Bundle.
Urshifu-Single-Strike - More offensive than Kingambit, and has Close Combat to smack Arceus for more damage. Unblockable contact moves courtesy of Unseen Fist are never going to be bad.
Ursaluna - Amoonguss-proof Trick Room sweeper. Takes advantage of Ground weaknesses, immune to Calyrex, but requires a lot of setup to be most effective in Trick Room.
Iron Leaves - Don't ask. I don't know why, but this has consistently worked for me. If played into sunny weather, it immediately checks Kyogre with Solar Blade. If played into electric terrain or psychic terrain, Psyblade gains extra damage and can check Koraidon. If given the Booster Energy and a decent EV distribution, it can outspeed a life orb Miraidon. Additionally, you can give it Sacred Sword so it can hit Arceus fairly hard.
Regidrago - Under the protection of Wide Guard, this absolute gem can create destruction among non-fairy and non-steel types. A more VGC-esque build with tera steel and Tera Blast creates a scenario where it can even break through flutter mane.
Enamorus-T - A nice bonus trick room option. I think it should be included specifically on teams with Dialga's Origin forme so you can safely swap it in after setting your hazards and/or trick room. Alongside Calyrex's Ice Rider forme, this thing can win wars.
Walking Wake - Funny sun counter lmao. Benefits from both rain and sun. Stupidly annoying to watch your Ground-types/Fire-types go down in one hit to this thing.
Iron Moth - Why the heck is this thing not in Tier 4 at the least? On a sun-oriented team, Iron Moth's Heat Wave can devastate Magearna, Calyrex-Ice, Brute Bonnet, Amoonguss, and Kingambit.
Brute Bonnet - A bulkier Amoonguss. Loaded Dice + Bullet Seed + Protosynthesis on its Attack stat + 0 Speed IVs + Spore = Kyogre OHKO, quick work of Dondozo, and a good way to check Ursaluna. Now this might seem like a multitude of conditions, but with proper setup, this thing makes Amoonguss look like a cupcake.
Annihilape - I can't be asked to explain this one. Scarfed Max HP Final Gambit Abuser.
Thundurus - Tired of getting your butt kicked by tailwind? Well, I've got just the Pokemon for you. Not only can he Taunt a non-tera dark Tornadus, but he can just Thunder Wave the Kyogre or whichever dumb legendary is at his flying-type brother's side if you know it's tera dark. Also, Wildbolt Storm deals supereffective damage to both of them if his ally doesn't finish them off. Assuming Kyogre does in fact die, then Tornadus can be swept away by Volt Switch.
Gastrodon - By golly, this Pokemon is freaking annoying. Not only can it tank a Collision Course, but Storm Drain makes it every Kyogre's nightmare. It can reliably use Yawn to shut down Pokemon that are using set-up moves. It can also be used to force a switch, which can work out quite well.
Landorus-T - Great for Earthquake and immune to Electro Drift.
Coalossal - If you allow it to setup, which doesn't even require one turn, you are doomed if its moveset and tera type are good.
Oranguru - Better than Cresselia. Immune to ghost. Better than Indeedee-F. Has Instruct. If you allow it the space to instruct, it's game over. Only dark can OHKO it and only Chi-Yu does that reliably.
Armarouge - Definitely won't survive a whole match, but it's useful alongside Indeedee-F.
Murkrow - WHAT DO YOU MEAN "MURKROW'S NOT VIABLE?!!"
Garganacl - The epitome of silliness. Salt cure creates not-so-medical miracles (even though it has "cure" in the name) in Trick Room and even with the lack thereof, it serves as a good Wide Guard puppet.
Abomasnow - It's the pinnacle of VGC talk at the moment, and with an optimally vested Calyrex-Ice who has tera'd out of its horrible typing, you now have a crazy Pokemon fit for literally any encounter.
Glimmora - Great hazard setter. Great alongside Hex. Nothing else to say.
Rillaboom - Psychic Terrain? No, I don't think so.
Zoroark-Hisui - You don't realize until it's completely disregarded your Astral Barrage and sent out an Icy Wind, leaving both your Pokemon pretty much useless next turn.
- 
UR -> Tier 3
Arceus-Fairy UR -> 4
Lunala - This is definitely the Pokemon I'm most excited about that we got from the new DLC. Lunala not only has all the utility moves under the sun and a cool typing, but it has a pretty good matchup into the bikes thanks to Shadow Shield and its raw stats. Tera works great with Shadow Shield too, meaning Calyrex and Arceus don't just get to freely launch their Ghost moves into it. The quad weakness to Grimmsnarl's Foul Play hurts, but I can think of worse things.
Dusk Mane Necrozma - This is probably the second best Trick Room setter in the format next to Ice Rider Calyrex, and I think TR in DUbers has needed a power boost for a little while. Resisting Extreme Speed is a huge boon, but a bad matchup into bikes hurts its playability. Still a good addition!
Whimsicott - idk it's a Tornadus that doesn't die to Volt Switch lmao
Terapagos - I'm not really sure how to feel about the turtle. I think it's a super cool Pokemon with a lot of potential, and I really like the ability to stop the bikes in their tracks, but beyond that I'm not sure how effective it'll be. I think this is the kind of Pokemon that will excel in the hands of dedicated players who can figure out what it needs to succeed, but I don't think it'll be super splashable and I expect a lot of Terapagos teams to feature some similar Pokemon.
Ho-oh - I have always thought Ho-oh is cool, and I think it's pretty close to having a niche in the format; while Dragon Claw hurts, Ho-oh resists all of Koraidon's other moves and can take advantage of the sun. It's also - FINALLY - a Ground immunity on an Uber power level Pokemon! We finally have a Precipice Blades switchin! I think Ho-oh struggles against some other top threats like Ekiller and Miraidon though, so I don't expect raw offensive sets to do well.
Incineroar - I think a lot of people are excited for this, but uh... let me know when you can fix the Specs Electro Drift problem. I'll be waiting. At least it matches up well into Calyrex, Zacian, and now Lunala.
