Welcome to DPP NU! The last of the non-preview metas where Slowking and Nidoqueen are very common.
This is the resource hub for everything DPP NU. Here, you will find the viability rankings, sample teams, and anything else we include that is of importance. Standard forum rules apply: don't be a dick, stay on topic, etc.
Viability Rankings | Sample Teams
This is the resource hub for everything DPP NU. Here, you will find the viability rankings, sample teams, and anything else we include that is of importance. Standard forum rules apply: don't be a dick, stay on topic, etc.
Viability Rankings | Sample Teams
Last edited:
Magneton
Sharpedo 
Floatzel
Haunter
Nidoqueen
Cacturne
Cradily 
Dusclops
Gardevoir
Jynx
Poliwrath
Sandslash
Shiftry
Ampharos
Articuno 
Gligar
Meganium
Venomoth 
Electrode
Glalie
Golem
Hypno
Linoone
Politoed
Rhydon
Sableye
Camerupt
Dodrio 
Jumpluff 
Lapras
Marowak 
Muk
Quagsire 
Regice
Gastrodon
Mantine
Piloswine 
Pinsir 
Relicanth
Solrock 
Armaldo
Diglett
Golduck
Gorebyss
Grumpig 
Machoke
Metang
Misdreavus
Ninetales 
Porygon2 
Purugly
Rapidash 
Roselia
Sneasel
Walrein
Whiscash 
A+ to S- Hitmonchan's wallbreaking prowess via it's powerful Close Combat, BoltBeam punches and priority attacks makes it an absolute nightmare for teams to deal with, even with an influx of bulky Ghost-types like Dusclops and Sableye. Hitmonchan's decent special bulk and access to Rapid Spin offers it a great deal of utility as well. Hitmonchan also functions as one of the best leads in the metagame, using a Focus Sash to beat many of the most common leads 1v1 like Charizard, Regirock, Tauros, and some variants of Sharpedo.
A- to A Floatzel often functions similarly to Sharpedo as a lead attacker with a positive matchup into common leads like Charizard, Regirock, Tauros, and Sharpedo. It's higher speed makes it less vulnerable to losing some 1v1's that Sharpedo may end up losing, notably being the fastest Pokemon in the tier behind only Electrode. Floatzel may also make use of Bulk Up + Baton Pass sets, facilitating sweeps from the likes of Tauros and Hitmonchan.
A- to A+ Magneton's Steel typing and insane Special Attack makes it feel like both an unstoppable force and immovable object. Using Substitute to take advantage of walls helpless into Steel-types like Vileplume and Articuno, Magneton can set itself up for success. Checks like Nidoqueen and Camerupt lack recovery and still take a huge chunk from Hidden Power Ground, which is also used to nuke opposing Magneton.
A- to A+ Not much has changed for Sharpedo, much like how sharks haven't evolved much in the past few thousands of years. Perhaps they're already the perfect lifeform (Sharpedo was just underrated before). Sharpedo is a dedicated lead that demands progress, using it's insane mixed offensive capabilities, Aqua Jet, and Rough Skin with a Focus Sash to 1v1 nearly anything in the tier. Dancing around the possibility of Waterfall vs Hydro Pump, Crunch vs Dark Pulse. Does it have Ice Beam? Taunt? Almost nothing feels absolutely safe into it. This Pokemon has led to the development of other leads such as Poliwrath and super bulky Ampharos tasked with being able to 1v1 Sharpedo.
B+ to A- Dusclop's sheer bulk + Pressure lets it 1v1 a lot, including the rising star Hitmonchan. Dusclops is an amazing Rapid Spin blocker too and actually can dish out consistent damage via Night Shade / Seismic Toss. Skuntank is honestly not a huge issue for it, as it can easily tank a Crunch, sometimes two, and burn Skuntank with Will-O-Wisp. Dusclops was admittedly just underrated before, and it's been on an upward trend for quite a while now, but it's firmly cemented itself among the A tiers.
B+ to A- As mentioned before, Poliwrath is one of very few Pokemon that can take on Sharpedo's STABs and coverage. Of course this isn't all Poliwrath can do as both an offensive Water- and Fighting-type with great natural bulk. It threatens the likes of Tauros, Regirock, and Charizard with the option to set up Substitute, a great way to wear down any Slowking or Dusclops that tries to switch in, using either Toxic or Encore to mess with them. Lead Water-types in general have seen a big uptick in usage and Poliwrath not only beats them, but also joins them.
B- to B+ Ampharos has a seemingly perfect combination of bulk and power, making it an amazing lead at forcing progress against the many Water-type leads found in the current metagame. Beyond those, Ampharos also beats Charizard, Regirock, and Tauros. Ampharos' bulk often lets it survive any hit on a sliver, making Custap Berry a common choice on it, although Lum Berry is also seen to beat Sleep leads like Jynx and Venomoth and Thunder Wave them.
B- to B+ Turns out being a legendary does mean something, even if you're all the way down in NU. Articuno's raw bulk while also being fast is often enough to overlook its 4x weakness to Stealth Rock. It carries Heal Bell and can use Haze, Toxic, or Roar to effectively 1v1 Slowking, making it an amazing addition to stall teams. Choice Specs Articuno is also worth exploring, as most Ice resists in the tier aren't especially bulky.
B- to B Much like Dusclops, Sableye's Ghost typing is amazing in the current metagame. Sableye has much less bulk than Dusclops, but it's neutral to Ghost and Dark and access to Recover and Knock Off. Knock Off is especially great on the Spikes teams Sableye finds itself on, as removing Leftovers makes Spikes even more effective. Recover means Hitmonchan has no real chance of overwhelming Sableye, which it can do to Dusclops by taking advantage of Pain Split.
S- to A+ In a metagame with S rank Regirock and Slowking and a myriad of Water-types running around, Charizard's life is very hard. Rapid Spin blockers are more common than ever, meaning you can't reliably remove Stealth Rock for Charizard, and while Substitute + Toxic and Choice Specs sets can overwhelm these many defensive checks, Charizard just doesn't have enough turns to make this work as well as it used to.
A+ to A- Jynx is phenomenal in a 1v1 setting, but sadly this is 6v6. Fake Out used to break Focus Sashes is often a wasted effort when most leads are either faster (Charizard, Floatzel, Tauros), have a Lum Berry (Ampharos, Regirock), or are Sharpedo with Rough Skin to break opposing Jynx's Focus Sash. After putting a Pokemon to sleep, Jynx can often find trouble contributing to a battle as it is hard walled by the likes of Slowking and Regirock and drops to a Pursuit even if it stays in on it.
A to A- Cacturne's defensive typing is let down by its terrible stats. Besides this every Water-type runs coverage for it; Floatzel and Sharpedo withIce Beam, Poliwrath's Fighting STAB, Slowking often runs Signal Beam nowadays for the Slowking mirror. Cacturne could be argued to have been overrated to begin with.
A to A- Cradily heavily suffers from 4MSS, needing both Stealth Rock and Recover, it must either drop Toxic, Earthquake, or one of its STAB moves which makes it incredibly passive into multiple threats.
A to A- Gardevoir has a lot it can do and only 4 moveslots to work with. It relies heavily on Focus Blast to get past Dark-types and is walled pretty hard by Slowking and Skuntank. The utility is great but it can only run so much of Trick or Healing Wish while being able to run attacking moves too.
A to A- Manectric has an amazing speed tier and Switcheroo is great utility, but Nidoqueen feels more common than other, and Manectric just generally struggles to net raw OHKO's as a glass cannnon.
A to A- Sandslash is a great Rapid Spin user and physical wall, but in a metagame filled with Rapid Spin blockers, it often can't perform the role it's meant to on a team. It's still great at this role but the metagame is currently quite unkind to it.
A- to B+ Charizard but worse, has Thunderbolt for Water-types but it just doesn't have enough time on the field to make use of it.
A- to B+ Charizard but worse, has Eruption but it just doesn't have enough time on the field to make use of it.
A- to B Similar situation to Jynx where Sleep leads are just more prepped for. Substitute + Baton Pass is really cool but leads are just much more offensive than they used to be.
B+ to B- No coverage
B+ to B Too weak
B+ to B Outclassed by Rhydon
B+ to B Too inconsistent
B+ to B Too passive, decent on stall
B+ to B- See above ^ Damp is nice to wall Regirock and Skuntank ig
B to B- Solid Sleep lead due to its high speed but very passive after the Sleep and again struggles into Lum leads
B to B- Super strong but way too slow
B to C Charizard
B to C Charizard
B to C+ Psychic typing hurts it a ton, often has to run Mono attack to fit Wisp + SR + Morning Sun
B- to C+ similar boat as Marowak
B- to C+ Anything you could do with this there is something better at doing it
B- to C Vulnerable to Toxic and can be a bit passive
C+ to C Rapid Spin and Rock Blast are epic but being a SR weak and Water weak is so bad
C+ to C Cool bulky Psychic attacker but a bit too slow and is Pursuit weak
C+ to UR lol
C+ to C funny DD Pokemon but too slow and weak
C to UR why were these ever ranked
C to UR why were these ever ranked
C to UR why were these ever ranked
C to UR why were these ever ranked
C to UR why were these ever ranked
C to UR why were these ever ranked
C to UR why were these ever ranked
C to UR why were these ever ranked
DPP PL Stuff 
- I really like Mane despite its flaws of being frail or occasionally lacking the power necessary for its role. Despite that, Electric is a broken typing in lower tiers, especially earlier gens, so I found myself always considering Mane for its ability to just spam nearly unresisted attacks. Choiced sets were what I was familiar with, but I really liked the idea of just clicking STAB, Magnet-boosted attacks with the potential to greed for boosts via Charge Beam. Outside of that dogshit move having a 7% chance to proc instead of 70% (skrimps can testify), it would occasionally pick up a boost and just tear into teams that didn't have anything faster to pick it off. Magnet Rise looked cool as well but never brought it in practice. I always go HP Ice > Grass because I'd rather hit Nidoqueen and Gligar (technically Cradily too but it does peanuts, better with Charge Beam boosts ig) than the more uncommon Rhydon, Gastro or Quag.
- I really like Garde despite its flaws of being physically frail or occasionally lacking the speed necessary for its role. Despite that, it has massive Special Attack and Defense, which naturally make it a problem to deal with. Trick for Choiced sets and Taunt on non-choiced, often Colbur, sets give it ways to mess with bulkier mons no matter which set you're running. Trace is underrated in specific MUs that can work wonders in a pinch.
- I thought physical with BU was gonna be the set I liked most since it could threaten Slowking via Crunch, then I realized how irrelevant that was realistically since they're generally all Colbur anyway. Special sets naturally deal more damage with Surf and Ice Beam vs Waterfall and Ice Punch. The mons you want to be clicking attacks into tend to be physically bulkier, like Regi or Magneton, and you avoid having to deal with Tauros' Intimidate or Skunk's Aftermath. More importantly though, I request something be done about the damage calc set for floatzel which fsr is this:
- and this too
