My opinions on 1) what I like, 2) what I should explore more, 3) what doesn't work and 4) what is still useable (among the old mons).
1) What I think it's good
- Arboliva
is a very powerful and quite bulky grass type that works with AV and Choice Specs: its grassy terrain can also be useful for Belly Drum users (passive recovery) or to weaken
Sandaconda's EQ, so you can set up more easily with some sub mons. Having Earth Power is also amazing and harvest sets are annoying.
- I heavily stan Coalossal
as a utility special wall with spikes/rocks and rapid spin. It is a fire type so you pressure
Houndstone when it tries to spin block you and you prevent
Typhlosion,
Salazzle or
Delphox from spamming fire moves. The biggest selling point is flame body though, which can be a saving grace against the fighting types or
Drednaw even when you're almost dead.
- Copperajah
is still the old steel type we craved with stealth rock and possibly whirlwind for set up mons. Not exactly vital in teambuilding if I have to be honest though.
- Decidueye
is one of my favourite (non-broken) drops: it has a good utility profile (Uturn, Defog, Knock Off...), it can be physical with SD or Special with NP which is huge, as lots of people use Houndstone as their defensive wall, so a strong Shadow Ball can really pressure the opponent: the special set is more effective against Sandaconda
as well. Additionally it walls non-snarl Toxtricity, it can't be burned by flame body or poison point and, being a grass type, it pairs well with Coalossal (more in general, I think that this type is generally useful in this meta for volt switch, water or grass moves and the usual snake's EQ).
- Drednaw
might be the first ban-worthy mon: Tera Dark Strong Jaw Crunch/Shell Smash is hard to deal with (you can't Encore it with
Sableye) and you need a Scarf Inteleon
or Orthworm
to stop it: I think it's very team-restricting.
- Flamigo
is like Drednaw: Houndstone
is the main check, but its Scrappy CC (especially when banded) is insane. Not unconterable, but it heavily restricts team-building too.
- Hariyama
is very powerful and we should keep an eye on it. It's not always easy to set up Belly Drum but, when it does, Tera-Steel Bullet Punch with a Flame Orb has crazy multipliers and it becomes stronger than a Tera Normal Extreme Speed Dragonite after 3 Dragon Dances. In late game, this mon laughs at your resists: you need Queenly Majesty/Dazzling, wear it down with your priority moves or stall its burn (despite the memes, Sitrus Berry is more standard though).
- Heracross
is another powerful Fighting type with scary Guts or Moxie Trailblaze sets (or the old scarf). Throat Chop is good for
Mismagius or
Toxtricity. It has also Spikes in case.
- Houndstone
is in a weird spot, because I think that right now it's vital to deal with the Figthing types, especially Flamigo
, but after some bans everything might change. In any case defensive sets are good (especially in stall) with mandatory Will-O-Wisp.
Body Press, Night Shade and Roar are generally the other moves I see.
- Inteleon
is an incredible mon that it saves you from everything (when it's scarfed), but it might also be broken with its high speed and sp.atk. It has Ice Beam for grass mons, Tera-electric makes this mon tougher to deal with and it can pivot against Blissey
enabling your sweepers. Scope Lens is honestly not bad.
- Meloetta
has lots of sets (scarfed, specs, av, cm...) and I find it very annoying to understand its role. The special bulk can save you against Toxtricity
- Mismagius
is a very reliable and scary CM user (with tera-fairy and Draining Kiss). Definitely "staple-worthy".
- Little Naci
is very good in my opinion (especially in stall) as Salt Cure is one of the most broken moves ever invented, which works even when you die. Other than that, it has Iron Defense, Body Press, Curse, Stealth Rock and reliable recovery in Recover. Being immune to status is amazing against Glare, WoW or TWave.
- Orthworm
looks one of the few checks to Drednaw
. Not stellar, but it might be better if Flamigo
leaves.
- Rotom-Mow
is a good grass type that pairs well with Coalossal
and it's a very nice pivot that can threaten Sandaconda
. I prefer it over
H-Electrode, because it's stronger and can trick a scarf, but unfortunately it's slower than Flamigo
.
-Salazzle
is my favourite fire type and, thanks to its high sp.atk and speed, it's still good as Gen 8. NP or Choice specs sets are standard, but it's worth noting that she outspeeds +2 Drednaw
when scarfed (it might be too exotic though...).
- Toxtricity
is another mon to keep an eye on: specs is powerful, but Shift Gear/Throat Spray Tera Normal Boomburst is scary too, even if it's not always easy to set up. Other moves include Overdrive, Snarl, Sludge Bomb or even Drain Punch for Blissey
but the opponents will definitely tera-ghost then.
- Tsareena
is another good grass type with rapid spin: uturn makes it a good pivot. It can be a staple, definitely.
- Typhlosion
does what it does: it spams Specs Eruption and you need a Coalossal
to take it. Now that we have good hazard control, this mon can be scary.
2) Stuff I should test more
- Guno
looks very interesting and threatening as a CM user but maybe with lots of competition. As special sweepers, we still have some QD mons, Meloetta
, Mesprit
, Mismagius
(which generally always keeps two immunities) or Toxtricity
. I need more time to fully understand its potential
- Delphox
is definitely a good mon with nice coverage, but maybe I prefer Salazzle
or Typhlosion
. Its special bulk can be vital sometimes, but I'm not completely happy about its speed which is still slower than some old stuff like
Scyther.
- I still have to find a purpose for
H-Electrode: it's fast, as I said I like grass types now, it has Soundproof for Toxtricity
(Tox has the type advantage though), but I don't think it reaches
Jolteon's levels. I have to test it more: maybe the Leech Seed set.
- Primeape
looks good to me (with its Rage Fist/BU set), but I haven't seen it much (maybe the reason is Fighting type competition). It has lots of margin for improvement. And it has SR for some reason.
- Pauros (Blaze)
suffers from figthing competion too, I think. The defensive sets might not be a good idea when Flamigo
is around (Intimidate doesn't even work). I need to explore the offensive sets though.
- Uxie
is like Guno, with lots of CM competition. Still a nice utility mon with SR and Uturn. I'm also afraid we can see a
Cresselia wannabe in the near future.
3) Bad stuff
- Simply, I don't think there's a reason to use Passimian
over the bird.
- Glastrier
might be better with tera and can be scary in some situation, but I think that, ignoring weird niches, this mon is never vital in your teambuilding.
4) Old stuff that I think it's still useable
Sandaconda is still the best ground type which can wear down Flamigo
with rocky helmet. Coil sets still look popular.
Despite the competition, Appletun looks fine as a grass type, with a resistance to fire. It's still the main dragon, but maybe things will change with a freed
Goodra.
Blissey is mandatory in current stall and it checks the new special sweepers.
Right now the old sets are not very effective in my opinion, but Parting Shot/Memento can be very good for your set-up sweepers.
I've seen BU Braviary in some semi-stall teams and it's scary.
Bruxish looks actually good to me: maybe people find it hard to build a team that checks both Inteleon (special) and Bruxish (physical).
Cryogonal kinda improved to me: you can afford a full sp.def set now and it can deal with Inteleon (you need 12 EVs in speed to be faster after a rapid spin)
Ditto-stall is evil (with new tools additions like Salt Cure). Of course it's the emergency button of this current situation, but still...
Weirdly Drifblim is a Flamigo
answer as it resists CC and, thanks to its high HPs, Brave Bird is not exactly safe (recoil+aftermath)
Froslass is just very standard in hyper-offense (ghost+spikes)
Both Qwilfish have still their spikes role imho. Maybe the eviolite one is better. Moreover there's always rain with Floatzel.
Toxicroak faces the same fighting competition, but as usual its water immunity is valuable and, like Decidueye
, its special set can be explored , especially with a Houndstone
that thinks you're physical. Vacuum Wave is also nice for Drednaw
(also for tera-dark)
Finally I don't think that the old kings are useless: Eelektross, Mesprit, Muk, Rotom (1 base-point faster than Flamigo though), Scyther and H-Sneasel.
Simply they might be overshadowed by better stuff
/ 
, Indeedee 
, Dudunsparce 
, Grimmsnarl 
, Jolteon 
have all been unbanned from NUBL.
