Hi! Corvy, Crystal, Phil, Tom, Vy and I have all recently been working on a SV PU research project over the last week, and weve managed do work on two mons. Essentially, what were doing is voting on a mon to analyse, analysing it, sharing our findings and writing analyses and gradings on the mon. The grading system we are using is the same as they VR council uses, except with2 differences. Difference 1 is that we will be using C-, D+, D, D- and E as grades. We are doing this because we will be analysing alot of UR and lower tier mons, and being C- is very different to E even though they are both classed as UR. Difference 2 is that we will be doing grading for individual categories on the mon, specifically: offensively, defensively, utility and overall. Our overall ranking is not our average, since there are other factors to take into account, and we will also give a proper VR S - UR nomination aswell. The reason why we did these gradings was due to us doing a lot of research on these mons, and we know enough about them to give specific gradings in each category. The two mons that we have done this week are
Pyroar and
Porygon2. Without further ado, here is our analyses on pyroar!
Pyroar
Ok, so overall our vote for pyroar was UR. Our average gradings were as follows:
Offensively: C-
Defensively: D
Utility: C
Overall: D
Here are our analyses (Crystal was not in the project at the time of the pyroar analysis so he will not be included in this section.)
Tom: Pyroar at a glance looks like it could have potential thanks to certain advantageous elements such as its base 106 speed and its anti decidueye typing. However, in practice it fails to deliver. It feels like a jack of all trades that you end up replacing with a different fire type when all is said and done. Taunt+WoW feels like a generally worse salazzle in practice. Choice specs is unfortunately hard to justify over delphox or salazzle, and throat spray iin practice is inconsistent, and lacks proper coverage without using tera, which is hard to justify. Anyways, pyroar is cute and fierce but unfortunately UR to me.
Phil: So... Pyroar, after doing thorough testing with this Pokémon, I've concluded a few things. Its speed tier is great, but not in a class of its own; its damage output is unimpressive as well. Overall, Pyroar seems very hard to justify over other fire types. This Pokémon is strapped with bad matchups, such as Goodra, Naclstack, and Meloetta, to name a few, and horrendous bulk to boot. Overall, while I think Pyroar is an interesting threat, I do not believe it to be viable in SV PU or worth choosing over other fire types in the tier. This is a UR from me.
Oof: Pyroar is an ok-good mon in a vacuum, but currently, i think that it is super outclassed and overshadowed. Particularly by 2 mons, k9 and lazzle. Both of these mons are in the top 10, and in my opinion, even lazzle is in the top 5. Arcanine is undoubtedly the best mon by a long shot according to like, 90% of people, and lazzle is a great sweeper and acts well as a breaker. The issue between this and arcanine is that you want to run k9 with it, but you also dont want to run 2 fires (also k9 has much better stats and way more versatility). The real problem for this mon, is lazzle. Lazzle is an insane sweeper, with both a higher speed stat, special attack stat and a better movepool and typing. Lazzle also gets nasty plot and much better coverage moves; imo there is no reason to use this mon over lazzle. Its a definite UR from me.
Vy:
Pyroar is a great example of good potential that will never see usage, when you look at the base stats, you would think that it's quite usable and could be viable in some niche situations, having a decent spA and a really nice speed tier, outrunning Zoroark and Pawmot, which could be crucial; you end up with a pokemon flawed to its core and not capable of going as strong as you would like to.
Pyroar has only 2 less spA than salazzle, being one of the most prominent fire types in the tier, and it is also slower, making it already a problem if you're outclassed by one of the best mons in the tier.
Its measly movepool makes it so hard to actually get uses of it, being walled by Rock types, forced to tera into Rhydon or Coalossal for example, not even guaranteeing the ohko on the former, it seems as it is no use to build around it, you'll end up willing to play salazzle if you want a fast utility pokémon with better speed, movepool and stats, or k9 if you want a strong fire attacker that can be easily splashed into many more teams.
The final nail in the coffin is the lack of good setup moves, having only work up can't make up for that poor movepool, it having nasty plot would be at least a saving grace in some cases, but Pyroar ends up in the depth of UR, where it will most likely stay.
Corvy:
After trying desperately to find upsides to this shitmon I've decided that it's ok, but outclassed in every way by other mons of its archetype. If you want an offensive SpA fire type, you go Lazzle. If you want a utility fire type with offensive capabilities you have Arcanine. Outside of these two niches Pyroar only offers very little. As a setup sweeper it gets nuked before it can get going. Even at +1 it struggles to kill things reliably and gets outsped by a bunch of mons, albeit having a relatively fast speed tier. As a utility mon in fat teams it lacks the recovery to be a reliable nuisance, while also lacking the bulk to stay on the field for long. Outside of these two roles it also holds niches against Houndstone and Decidueye, which are neat, but not good enough to get it out of UR for me.
That being said, if you are really determined to play with this mon in your team I'd suggest teaming it with Uxie, as Uxie complements the typing weaknesses excellently and isn't a bad mon on its own. However by doing so you'll either be relying on Uxie as a setup sweeper, which is risky, or having 2 rather passive utility mons, which can break the balance of your team.
All in all I wouldn't recommend this mon as we have Arcanine and Salazzle in the tier which outdo it tremendously. And even without them we'd have Charizard and Houndoom which both also outdo it in almost every aspect.
Here are all our individual gradings!
Corvy:
Offensively: C
Defensively: D
Utility: C+
Overall: D
Oof:
Offensively: D+
Defensively: D
Utility: C
Overall: D
Phil:
Offensively: C
Defensively: D
Utility: C
Overall: D
Tom:
Offensively: C-
Defensively: C+
Utility: B-
Overall: D
Vy:
Offensively: D
Defensively: D+
Utility C-
Overall of each category:
Offensively: C-
Defensively: D
Utility: C
Overall: D
Alr, thats it for pyroar, now on to p2! (Tom unfortunately couldn’t participate in this due to being sick)
Porygon2
Overall, our vote for p2 was B+, here are all our analyses.
Oof: In my personal opinion, i think that porygon2 is a great mon. It has extraordinary bulk with eviolite, a great defensive typing, a nice spatk stat and great utility. It pairs super well with very common mons like arcanine and gastrodon, and can fit on to basically any core. This mons utility is super nice with recover and twave all adding to this mons bulk and the annoyance of it. Tera fairy just makes it even harder to kill and cant be caught out by a stray cc or focus miss. This mon, especially with max Spa investment, can dish out huge damage, especially with its abilities analytic and download boosting its damage alot. Its other ability trace, fits super well onto a defensive team and can steal some really nice abilities, specifically sticky hold, so it can keep its eviolite no matter what. Some issues with the mon is that its very status weak, and is insanely knock weak. Other than that, it is a great mon and for me lands itself in B+.
Vy:
Porygon2, what an interesting pick, I've tested it with all of its abilities and came up to a conclusion :
It's truly a good mon on its own, having reliable recovery option, disrupting moves such as thunder wave, and enough coverage and moveset flexibility so you can actually splash it on most of your teams. I've really enjoyed testing Porygon2.
Each ability has its own place and its own integration into diverse structure, trace p2 would be the best defensive version of all 3, while analytic would be way more offensive oriented, download being the middle ground, you have such versatility in the way of playing it that it almost feels like it's a different mon from team to team
Though its movepool is quite limited, it doesn't need much more, having already what it needs with the moves aforementioned, you'll need to build your team accordingly and change the set in regards of what you have to deal with.
Having tera blast and access to good defensive and offensive teras makes it even more reliable on both sides, the offensive sets can truly turn the tides if played correctly while the defensive can bring back tempo in the game
It seemed niche to me at first glance, but I truly think that p2 has all the things it needs to become a staple, and if not, a highly regarded pokemon in the tier.
It's fair to say that even B would be too low for what it really can do, but I can't say it's great enough to be in the A tier, hence why I'd place this little guy in B+ tier and I hope when the shifts arrive, it will rise even higher
Crystal:
Porygon2 was a pokémon that I was always curious how it would play and after trying it out I was really impressed by it and most definitely enjoyed using it. The set I am most fond of is 3 atks recover with max sp. Atk modest and download with Tera fairy. P2 is a naturally decent special attacker but with download it could really start racking up truly amazing damage. Tera fairy Tera blast for instance could utterly ruin a scrafty thinking it is safe to setup and good mu into fighters in general while tbolt is great to ohko the irritating cramorant. Ice Beam is useful into grass types like shaymin and virizion while pre stab Tera blast is great into heattom. Thunder wave and foul play are other options I really enjoyed. Then there is trace which fits beautifully on defensive teams and steal useful abilities like sticky hold (rip gastro) Intimidate static and so on. However it also struggles to really wall a lot of the times as it is pretty easily forced to Tera vs a fighter and is extremely weak to knock off. Offensive P2 also struggles to truly wall things and constantly has to spam recover 8pp can bite In lengthier mu.P2 is also extremely vulnerable to status as all of them mess with P2. P2 is also passive at times against bulkier mons like arcanine and especially florges. However the positives P2 has far outweigh the negatives of P2 imo and is overall a great Mon that fits onto a variety of teams and the sheer utility P2 brings is truly phenomenal.
Corvy:
Porygon2 is an interesting mon imo. On one hand it has everything it could possibly want in offense and defense, but on the other has a few glaring issues. It has amazing bulk with eviolite, but no consistent way of keeping said bulk. Likewise it also has amazing coverage, but no move that reliably deals good damage. That isn't to say it is a bad mon, because it's not by any metric, it's just missing something to claw its way into A tier for me.
As the others have said before me, every ability on this mon is valuable. Trace less so, now that gastro is gone. Imo its best ability is Analytic as it allows it to do any amount of consistent damage in most of my games.
The moveset I ended up running with was Twave, recover, ice beam, tblast. I did dabble with Foul play sets as well, however mostly on super defensive sets.
There is also an argument to be made for some utility sets, like gravity and trick room, but I feel like I'd personally need to dabble more into those archetypes to decide if they're worth exploring with this mon.
Phil: Porygon 2 is a surprisingly solid defensive pokemon, boasting a plethora of good matchups and an incredible movepool. The main thing, to me is that it's hard to choose between making this mon a physical or special wall, and oftentimes wishing it had been the other while using it. My go-to moveset ultimately ended up becoming Thunder wave/recover/Foul play/ice beam but I believe there's alot of variety available with this pokemon. All in all I do think this pokemon got harder to use with recent shifts, but has remained solid.
Here are our individual gradings!
Corvy:
Offensively: B
Defensively: A
Utility: A
Overall: B+
Oof:
Offensively: B+
Defensively: A+
Utility: A-
Overall: B+
Phil:
Offensively: B
Defensively: A-
Utility: B
Overall: B+
Vy:
Offensively: B
Defensively: A
Utility: A-
Overall: B
Crystal:
Offensively: A-
Defensively: B+
Utility: A
Overall: A-
Overall of each category:
Offensively: B
Defensively: A
Utility: A
Overall: B+
Alr! Thats all for now! If you want to join the project DM me (oofhixd2792), bye PU! <3
