Having finals to procrastinate is a great motivator to get this post out that I've been sitting on for a while. I drafted most of this within a week of PL, but after some casual games I think my views on certain mons have changed and evolved. Regardless, I think this captures my thoughts on UU pretty effectively. If tier shifts do happen in the next year or so then a lot of these thoughts will be outdated of course, but that’s just the way it goes ig. I don't know if I would necessarily call this my viability rankings or anything, but these are my views on the tier rn. This post is gonna be long and some things may be wrong, so that's my bad. Also my ass is
NOT proofreading this so sorry if there are any inconsistencies or whatever
TIER LIST BB
~~ S Tier ~~
Mega Kangaskhan is the consensus best pokemon in the tier, and best mega along with that. It’s bulky, strong, and has the coverage it needs to be a beat stuff. At worst it goes 1 for 1 with just about everything, and it usually does a lot better than that. I think the best set at the moment is probably fake out, eq, ice punch, brick break. It has some other options though. I specifically think there are worlds where you could drop moves for facade and sucker punch.
The only mon that I think kang clearly loses to is mega slowbro. It does have to look out for the occasional primeape and superpowers from kabutops and pinsir. Regardless, there’s a reason everyone used this in LGPL. It’s goated.
Ohhhh woah heyyy loooook it’s Mr. UU. I originally had Tauros at 4, but I think number 2 suits him better.. Tauros is cool. He’s fast and strong and sexy and he has big strong arms and I want him to hold me in them. Being able to come in and click massive damage against so much of the tier is awesome. He has such a wide movepool and can really take advantage of it. I always ran double edge, earthquake, outrage, and facade, but honestly there’s room to change stuff around. I saw surf Tauros in tour to mess up golem, thrash is very common, and I think if there’s a mon in this tier that would be scary behind a sub it’s probably this guy.
Tauros is bulky enough to make do as an offensive mon, but that doesn’t mean he’s super bulky. Most of the tier 2hkos him, and physically bulky mons are basically a complete halt to your progress. If you rely on double edge for stab then it’s very easy to be worn down especially since the mons in this tier are all obese (double edging into lapras and kangaskhan is a sad time). Earthquake also just often doesn’t hit as hard as you would like. These limitations don’t stop tauros from being an easy top 5 mon for me, though.
Not sure if lap at 3 is controversial or not.
Lapras is insane. It’s so fat and so strong. It has all the moves it could want. I personally think that surf, ice beam, tbolt, and ice shard is all it needs, but I can see why one would sub one of these moves for waterfall, or maybe even sing and body slam. Like kang it matches up positively into a lot of the tier.
I think lapras loses to electrode and kabutops. Probably victreebel too. has to make sure to watch its health v pika but you can kill it with stab into ice shard. Like Kang this mon has big numbers and unlike kang it has big moves. I think it contributes well to every team it’s on.
~~ S- ~~
I originally had this mon at #2 but I think that's a bit high. Regardless, mega slowbro is a fucked up pokemon. In the deep recesses of my mind there lives an old man who tells me that this is the secret best mon in the tier. Mega slowbro beats so much. It beats the other megas 1v1, it has the moves it needs to kill just about anything. I think 4 attacks with shadow ball, ice beam, surf, and psychic is the best set here. With fewer kangs running facade you might be able to get away with scald but i don’t think the power trade off is worth it. Bro actually has a lot of silly moves so it would be cool to see if anyone takes advantage of those options (yawn, screens, calm mind, disable, substitute, and thunder wave are probably the most worth considering).
Slowbros biggest downfall is the fact that every team has an electric type. And it’s slow as balls which makes the grasses a problem. Barring sleep, slowbro can beat these threats down anyways as they are usually chipped down a bit by the time slowbro hits the field. They are all also cleanly 2hkoed by bro, and don’t ohko the guy, which means switching in isn’t really an option. Pidgeot can also do big damage to the slow guy but has the same issues as the electrics and grasses, exacerbated by its stealth rock weakness. Like I said I think this might be the actual best mon in the tier but there wasn’t a lot of usage for him, so it’s kind of hard to say that. I do think slowbro is probably the most important mon to consider in the teambuilder (either bro or electrode). You need to have a plan for bro bc you cannot just hit him until he dies like you can with mega kang.
~~ A+ ~~
I really do think all 3 of the main megas in the tier are top tier threats. They each bring big value to their teams and have valid and strong reasons to use them. Pidgeot is awesome. It’s ridiculously fast, crazy strong, has u-turn, and has healing. I think air slash, heat wave, u-turn, and roost is the best set. But, if you’re feeling fun and flirty you can drop roost for hyper beam to get big, potentially game winning damage against pokemon like lapras and kang in the endgame. Besides that i think its moveset is practically set. Maybe there’s a world where you run substitute or quick attack? Don’t do that.
I think pidgeot’s biggest problem is the fact that it has 0 accurate moves. Air slash and heat wave are great 95% of the time, but 5% of the time air slash hits a little bit to the left and you realize that rent is due in 5 days and you have 3 homework assignments that you should probably be working on. Slowbro would never make you face reality like that. Pidgeot also struggles with the electrics. It technically outspeeds pikachu but it technically doesn’t matter because zippy zap will have you scrolling indeed.com worrying about your future career before you can even think about clicking heat wave. It also doesn’t appreciate the fact that lapras ice shard does as much as it does. Things might be looking bad for the big bird but at the end of the day pidgeot is a cool guy mega for cool guy gamers. It does big damage and it is a really threatening pick 95% of the time.
Trode should probably be ranked higher than this. This dude is fucked in the head. Fastest mon in the game duh. Thunderbolt is strong, foul play for exeggutor and pikachu-s. From here I have seen a lot of stuff. It has access to screens which could be great to pair with substitute mons. Twave is great especially if people are dropping facade on their normals. Taunt is good for stopping rockers. Boom is probably not the best idea but it’s still good damage! I think teleport could even be silly since this guy often forces switches but you probably just want to do damage on those switches instead.
If you aren’t using mega kang you’re probably going to have a pretty hard time vs electrode. Tauros eq only has a 6% chance to kill after rocks. Golem and sandslsh are hard stops to trode, which is probably their best traits as rockers. Electrode is scary in the teambuilder and you should definitely be asking what your plan is vs this mon. Which isn’t easy since it can do a lot of things.
Pikachu is cool because game freak wants it to be cool. I think the reason you use this over electrode is because you want to use an electric type that can ohko golem? Zippy zap is a really cool move. I think when you use pika you want to use zippy zap tboly splishy splash and floaty fall. Brick break is useful as well but I don’t personally think it’s more important than the other moves.
Pikachu struggles because everything can kill it. It struggles to ohko a lot of the tier, and the tier does not have the same issue in return. In my experience pikachu is a good cleaner with zippy zap, and more importantly it can do important damage to threats like lapras to pave the way for tauros or pidge. I used to think the electrics are tied but I think trode is def better.
Pinsir should probably be above pika? Pinsir is the best rocker. This guy is way faster than he should be, and is also super strong. I think x scissor and superpower are mandatory. Outrage is a good option bc of dnite but I also think eq and rock slide are usable for their own reasons. It also gets moves like bulk up, swords dance, and brick break, but can’t really take advantage of them here.
Pinsir loses to fire types and flying types. You die to arcanine, moltres, and mega pidgeot. You aren’t ohkoed by dodrio, however. Not sure what else to say. Very straightforward mon. You get up your rocks and do big damage. Pinsir threatens exeggutor in big ways, which is great. Pinsir has a mega form that we will talk about later.
~~ A ~~
Kabu is a mon that has gone up my personal rankings a lot recently. I think kabutops is the second best rocker because of how stupid strong it is. It doesn’t offer the utility or bulk that wigglytuff can through thunder wave, but it can nuke certain mons if given the opportunity. It has a lot of set variety. My favorite set is rocks, superpower, aqua jet, and rock slide. The set has a lot of blind spots in terms of coverage, not really being able to do anything into sandslash, the grasses, or mega slowbro. However, superpower is insanely valuable coverage, and I like pairing it with aqua jet to kill tauros after rocks + superpower. Obviously you can run waterfall over jet (i think this is probably a better set overall), and other scary options are swords dance and leech life, though these do limit you a bit.
I think it falls short as a rocker compared to pinsir because of how common the electrics are. If you find yourself head to head with an electric you often end up having to just get your rocks up and either die, or switch a mon into pika or trode, which isn’t very fun. It also has a harder time being versatile than pinsir does, and doesn’t offer utility the same way wigglytuff does. Still a really good mon in the tier.
Arcanine is a fast dog that has really big numbers on its stats and its moves. The fact that its stabs and its common coverage options are all 120 base power is kinda crazy. I typically opt for a physical arcanine with blitz, superpower, outrage, and wisp, but I know some players see fire blast as mandatory, but I really think that flare blitz’s accuracy is worth the recoil. It also has a lot of other options like play rough, substitute, and agility, but I’m not sure how much you’d want to use those (play rough especially, and I think if you run agility you need fire blast not flare blitz). It outspeeds and kills both grasses, and it threatens obscene damage on most of the tier, threatening 2hkoes on kang, lapras, tauros, and electrode.
The big problem with arcanine is that it dies faster than it can kill things. Kang EQ kills after rocks if you account for flare blitz recoil or superpower defense drop. Lapras surf into ice shard also threatens to kill after rocks, made worse by flare blitz recoil or superpower drop. Still, this is another pokemon that I see rising more in the future as people use it more. It is really frail and is absolutely rocks weak, but I think its strength and speed make up for it.
I have exeggutor over victreebel for now but I can possibly see that changing. I like that exeggutor threatens ohkoes against victreebel who can’t really do the same in return. Exeggutor’s special bulk is also useful in helping it face pokemon like pidgeot, lapras, and electrode. Mega drain helps it get really nice chip healing when it’s able to click the move, which along with the aforementioned bulk means that it can be sneakily difficult to take down. Of course the main reason you use exeggutor is for sleep. Because of its bulk, exeggutor is better at spreading sleep than victreebel is. I also think it’s better at punishing pokemon for existing once they are asleep because it is stronger than victreebel. I think usually with egg you want to run mega drain, psychic, sludge bomb, and sleep powder. It has access to other moves like leech seed, but I really think you’re throwing if you are using those, since you miss out on really important targets by dropping any of its attacks.
Exeggutor does wish it had victreebel’s speed. Timid egg outspeeds neutral lapras, but is outsped by timid lapras. This speed means that there do tend to be some situations where it feels like egg is kind of just a dead slot. Sleep is absolutely worth it though, as it can just kind of end up being a free kill against a lot of mons that might want to switch into egg. A well positioned egg forces your opponent to pick which pokemon they want to sacrifice, and because LGPE UU is such a trade heavy tier, if egg is able to sleep something and do big damage to something else, you’ve made huge progress.
I think exeggutor is a really strong sleep user, and a decently strong grass type, while victreebel is an extremely strong grass type and a decently strong sleep user. Unfortunately for victreebel sleep is more broken than being a grass type. It’s faster than lapras, and because it has a good attack stat power whip is a very threatening move. It outspeeds and kos lapras after rocks, and it threatens really big damage against most of the tier. When I run vic I typically run mega drain, power whip, sludge bomb, and sleep powder, but I don’t actually think this is the best set for it. Somalia showed me that substitute is incredibly threatening, and it gets access to options like swords dance, sucker punch, and leech life. The mon is incredibly threatening and I only see its stocks going up in the future.
Of course it isn’t perfect. I think its frailty is probably its biggest downfall. Along with that, while it is faster than lapras and exeggutor, it is still slower than most of the tier. This, combined with its frailty, means that it gets worn down quickly by most pokemon on an opponent’s team. It is threatened immensely by kang and pidgeot, which outspeed it and carry threatening super effective moves. It also can’t exactly switch into lapras because of how strong ice beam and ice shard are into the whole metagame. I still super believe into this mon, and if the meta becomes more popular and the skill ceiling becomes higher, I think this mon goes up the list.
I haven’t used wigglytuff very much, but I know others have to decent success.It’s pretty bulky, which is cool. Being a normal type from gen 1 means it can learn whatever special moves it wants. If I were to use it I would probably use stealth rock, tbolt, ice beam, and twave. Being able to slow down the opponents mon and possibly get free turns is huge, and I think wiggs is more at liberty to click twave than other mons that get it (if you have electrode out you probably are wanting to click tbolt or foul play depending on the situation). Its bulk means that it’s pretty much guaranteed to get rocks up AND do one other thing, which is really really cool. Very few mons have super effective damage for it (iron tail tauros when?) which contributes to its bulk a fair bit. I think other moves worth considering are dazzling gleam and screens. If screens in general grow in popularity it also gets brick break.
Wigglytuff’s speed is a big problem for it. If it gets taunted then you kind of have an unmon sitting on the field, which is not good. Along with that, its damage output is bad. Stab dazzling gleam is incredibly unimpressive, as it doesn’t hit anything meaningful in the tier. Still, it stands clearly in my eyes as the 3rd best stealth rock user.
~~ A- ~~
When I first put this list together I I had dragonite higher than this but I genuinely do believe that all of the mons above it are a great deal better than it is. Its most popular set at the moment is probably agility, outrage, earthquake, roost, but I don’t think this is its best set. In the midgame it doesn’t really break anything with outrage, and I feel like it’s outclassed in the late/endgame. I personally think special is its best set, with flamethrower ice beam thunderbolt and roost. Great coverage that lets you threaten big damage on a lot of the tier. I also think sets with dragon tail and roost have potential to be annoying. I also think there might be potential for a mixed attacking set that can run a combination of superpower, bolt beam, roost, outrage, earthquake, thunder wave, whatever. It also technically gets access to less useful moves like aqua jet, brick break, and screens, but I don’t think you should use those.
Dragonite dropping was a big deal when it first happened, and I think that initial panic made it pretty clear that this mon is actually stupid easy to cover. Mega Kang outspeeds and ohkoes with ice punch after rocks, mega slowbro lives any hit and kos with ice beam, same with lapras. Even if dnite has an agility against these mons, it has to chose between clicking roost, which doesn’t really make progress, or clicking superpower/outrage, which won’t kill and will end up with a dead dragonite. I just don’t think this mon really beats any of the top mons in a meaningful/impactful way.
~~ B ~~
From here I think the mons see a slight dip in quality. Sandslash represents this by being pretty mid. It can guarantee to get rocks up, which is important, but it can fail depending on the matchup to do anything beyond that. It feels like it’s always just a little bit slower than I want it to be, a little bit weaker than I want it to be, and a little bit frailer than I wanted to be. Still, it can do good things. I like rocks, eq, rock slide, and x scissor. It’s strong enough to threaten a good amount of mons and when I use it it does contribute.to making progress.
I don’t like golem. I think I’ve used golem more in ou than I have in uu. I don’t like that it dies so easily to so many good pokemon. It definitely has its strengths. It’s really physically bulky, which is cool. If I were to use it I would probably use rocks, eq, slide, boom, but it also gets superpower, which hits really hard. Idk man. It's a golem.
~~ C ~~
MEGA PINSIR BABY LETS GO LOVE MEGA PINSIR. Ok so I have different feelings about mega pinsir from most. Common knowledge says that you should probably definitely never mega your pinsir, unless there is a very specific situation that calls for it. With this, you run a standard pinsir set. But I don’t care about that. I think it’s good to keep in mind, but I want to talk about SOLO MEGA PINSIR.
The problem with solo mega pinsir is that it isn’t very good. If you use it you have to acknowledge that you are using neither the best rocker nor the best mega. But it does have its strengths. It has an absolutely bonkers attack stat that lets it annihilate anything it wants to. It outspeeds and demolishes a chipped mega kang. It ohkoes lapras after rocks, it ohkoes tauros after rocks, it ohkoes electrode with earthquake. It is bonkers strong and really fast, and as such it works best later in the game. It requires a lot of team support, however. You need to use another rocker and you need a team that can break things down for pinsir to kill. I think with proper support, though, it might be the next big thing in UU.
Of course another reason you want to save pinsir for later in the game is because once you mega you are in. If you switch out you are essentially dead as you will be taking 50% from rocks on the next switch in. While it can beat slowbro, it cannot beat pidge, as it outspeeds and messes you up, so be mindful if you face a pidge (by be mindful I mean be mindful of the fact that you will probably lose sorry).
Speaking of the next big thing I think persian should be used more. The set I really like is foul play thunderbolt u turn taunt, but it has so many different options. Fake out is good, I can see sets with nasty plot being successful, and it might even be a decent substitute user. I haven’t used it enough to know for sure but I think this mon is definitely something to keep your eye out for in the future.
Dodrio on the other hand was used a lot in this tour but I feel like it’s a bit of a disappointment. Swords dance sounds sooooooo good but it gets revenge killed very easily. I think it probably works best as a lead. Swords dance against their pinsir as they get rocks up, then drill peck. Electrode and pika both outspeed and kill it after rocks, but those attacks aren’t guaranteed kills from full so you can click a neutral move and almost go 2 for 1. I think a big problem I have with dodrio is it has too many moves that can maybe make it threatening but it can’t run all of them at once. If it could run SD, drill peck, facade, jump kick, quick attack, and roost, then it would be pretty great. It can’t though, so you have to make a lot of unfortunate limiting decisions.
Omastar would be cool if it weren’t outsped by electrode at +2. It isn’t strong enough to be threatening in my opinion. I think a stealth rock set would be cool and worth exploring.
I think kingler is really scary but I haven’t used it so I don’t have much to say about it. If poliwrath drops soon then it will probably not be scary anymore, so I hesitate to say it should rise with the next tier shifts. It outspeeds the whole tier at +2!
~~ D ~~
Primeape has been a semi hot topic of discussion lately. It’s fast and has u-turn which is cool, but I feel like it’s a little too frail and weak to contribute very much. In the hands of a good player it can do good work, but so can a lot of different mons. I especially don’t like that mega Pidge can just outspeed and ohko it. Still, it has a lot to offer and I can see why people rate it highly. I just don’t.
Alolan Sandslash would be cool if Dnite was better, but I think game to game it just doesn’t accomplish as much as I would like. I also think the fact that 100% of the time it just gives slowbro a free switch in is not great. It does get mirror coat though, which is nuts and can catch slowbro by surprise if you’re not gonna die, but then you’re using mirror coat on alolan sandslash, which is kind of fishy in my opinion. Slowbro can also run flamethrower if this ever catches on, but then your opponent is using flamethrower instead of better moves.
~~ END OF UU ~~
Alolan Ninetales is weak and frail. It can be scary with nasty plot but it still isn’t strong enough to threaten the pokemon that it wants to threaten. Still, it’s fast. It also has hypnosis, and I think if you were going to use Alolan Ninetales it should be with something like hypnosis, nasty plot, ice beam, gleam.
Rei used Chansey in week 1 of pl and won with it, so maybe I’m not giving Chansey enough credit. I don’t really believe in this mon because I think it’s kind of bad at making progress. It can use a set with thunder wave, seismic toss, teleport, and softboiled, and it can do things, I just don’t think I would ever use it over another mon in the tier. It’s not really how I build and I don’t see it as a mon worth using over other mons in the format. If it does rise in popularity it doesn’t beat slowbro because they can start running brick break and 2hkoing it.
Dugtrio is weak and frail. Maybe in the future it might see some innovation but I really don’t think there’s any reason to use it over the other rockers.
Man idek with this one. I've tried using it in casual games and maybe it can stay UU? Probably not though I really don't think it's good. I will say that it's speed and bulk are a lot more serviceable here than in OU. It doesn't literally get OHKOed by everything. I do think if you're using it you have to be dedicating an entire team to it, and I'm not sure how reasonable or viable that is.
Vileplume is just objectively worse than the other grasses. I don’t think there’s any reason to use it over Egg and Victreebel. It was used once in PL where all it did was miss a sleep powder.
Idk about Tentacruel man. Maybe it could be cool but I don’t think it does anything meaningful and I don't think it has any moves worth clicking.
And yeah those are my thoughts on UU atm. Hopefully the tier stays active. I might make a post about a solo mega pinsir team later but I have exams to study for first.
- Not really as hyped on this as it appears others are, I feel like it might be a tad overrated to be honest. I understand it has an awesome set of moves and great bulk but it just felt to me like there were plenty of teams stacking Fighting weaks and this being weak to rocks on top of that kind of limits it a touch. Still definitely a top-5 mon but I don't know if I'd put it #1 personally.
- Maybe the true #1, absurd offensive presence and STAB Fake Out is massive for cleaning. I skewed towards using more Tauros than this because of the Speed but this is just so bulky and threatening with a solid Speed tier itself.
- Sneaky good mon in my opinion. I mentioned stacking Fighting weaks and this getting U-turn to punish Exeggutor and Slowbro is really nifty. Not a top tier mon but something I felt was easy to build with and had a lot of upside as it can also threaten Taunt on stuff.
- I love this thing, it just eats every physical attack and can run Modest to bolster an already impressive 130 SpAtk stat. I tried CM and Rest but never really got to use either, think it's better to just go four attacks or maybe TWave last.
- Really strong rocker that can run plenty of coverage (like my Persian-A getting nuked by Superpower against Somalia). STAB Jet + Rock Slide is great too.
- I like this thing a lot, I didn't get to utilize all of my ideas but it's bulky and strong and has Roost which is massive. I think DTail support might be functionally better than Outrage since it's a tad slow and easily revenged by Lapras or Slowbro if locked into Outrage but this is one of those mons that can run any set well without making concessions.
- Sleep is kind of broken in LGPE in my opinion and this is an excellent abuser of it. Between Leech and Sleep Powder, along with great STABs in Giga Drain and Psychic, this thing handles a lot of the tier well.
- I tried this thing and it seems broken on paper but I wasn't as high on it. Really strong breaker with pivot and recovery seems so good so maybe this was just a skill issue on my part...
- Last but not least, one of my favorite mons to use. Excellent Speed tier, great bulk and power, and access to several high BP attacks like EQ/Thrash/Outrage. Felt like I used Rock Slide every time I loaded this to blow up Lapras or Dragonite while also fishing for flinches. Top tier mon to me.
- Agility Hitmonchan seems really cool, can set up on Lapras and threaten to sweep late after Tauros/Kanga chipped into range.