Time for some
fiery hot takes on how the new shifts are gonna affect the meta. This post will probably be invalidated soon by bans or new meta trends but it's a good idea to give people some sort of idea of how the new Pokemon are gonna affect our beloved tier going in. So without further ado, in order of most to least busted:
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S with Veil,
D without
#VanBeil. Aurora Veil was already broken before we got Ninetales, now it's even worse. What previously was accomplished through Aurorus and Sandslash-A together, is now compressed into one slot. This frees up Veil teams to gain either more offensive fire power, or better patch up defensive weaknesses that could be found when you are forced to run two Ice types to activate Veil. Ninetales has the same tricks Aurorus has such as Freeze Dry and Encore, a Dragon immunity to potentially set up Veil multiple times, as well as other options like Hypnosis to annoy some offensive mons and allow for even more free setup. Please no. Veil also lost one of its best checks in Rotom Wash, making my opinion to ban it even stronger. Without Veil, it's a weak Nasty Plot Sweeper 4x weak to the best priority in the tier, that also has a Rocks weakness and poor bulk. No thanks.
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A+ or Beyond
The wall has been freed. Stakataka is insanely strong, packing the strongest Gyro Ball in the game, Trick Room to heavily fuck with offense, and a number of Z-options to break through traditional checks. Beast Boost, in combination with lowering defense IVs, allows it to quickly snowball with attack raises and sweep through a team in the blink of an eye. It can even opt to keep its IVs intact and use defense EVs to beat traditonal checks by stopping priority from the likes of Azumarill's Aqua Jet and Infernape's Mach Punch. While Trick Room is definitely biggest threat to look our for, a Choice Band set can wallop walls looking to switch in on the Trick Room turn. This would give Staka a way to beat some of it's best answers, fat mons. The final major boon for the Wall can be found in it's massive defense, living things it really shouldn't have a way to live at full.
Stakataka is undoubtedly a monster threat sure to affect the meta, but it's not without answers. It struggles to break through the bulkiest pokemon in the tier. Hippowdon is probably our best answer, with a physically defensive set living any hit with ease, then recovering or killing with Earthquake. Other Pokemon such as Suicune, Quagsire, Mega Aggron, and Mega Steelix will also be solid switch ins. It's main niche will lie in destroying some Offense builds with the Trick Room set, as it has limited means to deal with it's hard counters, something I believe could allow it to stay UU.
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A- to B+
Sei's boy has come. The Wak hits very hard, has a wide array of sets and coverage options, as well as a decent defensive typing with 3 potential immunities. Holding it back are a nasty Stealth Rock weakness, a turtle-like 45 speed, and it's lack of reliable recovery, needing Thick Club to have offensive presence. One Alowak's best uses, as a Scizor check, is hard to pull off because Scir can U-turn, and Marowak takes hazard damage every time it comes in. Hydreigon will also be a prominent offensive answer, taking most of its hits with ease, barring the rare Low Kick or Focus Punch. Defensive answers include Hippowdon (again!),
A Swords Dance set will threaten fat balance heavily, while stall could potentially have uses for a defensive Pain Split set with Leftovers and Will - O Wisp, giving a Volt Switch immunity without typical Ground weaknesses. A Rocks weakness and exploitable typing will prevent it from rising up top with the S and A+ ranks though.
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B+ to B
The former OU titan has dropped once again. Unfortunately, our meta is not very kind to it. Gengar faces a lot of Pokemon it just doesn't have many answers for. Alolan Muk is going to wreck it no matter what, with the most Gengar can do is either running Sub Disable to try and escape Pursuit, or Tricking it a Choice Scarf to cripple it for the rest of the match. Gengar can struggle to break Special Walls like Blissey and Umbreon, but it does have Pain Split and the aforementioned Trick. I think it definitely could have some neat techs though, Gengar still boasts massive coverage akin to Nihilego, a great speed tier, and a wide variety of sets. Scarf sets alone can run annoying things like Trick and Destiny Bond, while Pain Split, Substitute, Disablem and Toxic can really mess with some its checks, allowing team mates to break them more easily. You could also run potential Z-move lures, I haven't really explored this yet though, perhaps Fairium Dazzling Gleam?
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C to C-
Will definitely have a niche as a Rain sweeper, which as an archetype looks somewhat better now? Expect a rise for the King if Mega Swampert ever drops again. Other than Rain, does not have a niche that UU requires. Will probably drop further than UU, but definitely usable in its niche.
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Lycanroc
Dusk
If you want a Tough Claws Rock type, use Mega Aerodactyl. If you want a physical priority sweeper, use Scizor, Azumarill, Lucario, or any other god damn Pokemon in this tier. This thing sucks, it's only unique trait is Accelerock which isn't even worth ranking it. Other priority options will provide so much more to the table than this will.
Now that we've dealt with the drops, we gotta talk about Rotom-Wash, who departed to the realms of OU. This significantly affects our meta, many Pokemon found themselves dropping. I'm too lazy to effort for the stuff that was already in the tier, so i'm just gonna list some stuff that likes Rotom leaving and the new drops coming in, as well as some that don't like the changes.
Trending Up: Hippowdon, Mega Pidgeot, Alolan Muk, Swampert, Hydreigon, Mamoswine
Hippowdon gains the most, countering the strongest two non Ninetales drops, and heavily appreciating Rotom's departure, which gained free switch ins other than Toxic on Hippo. Bird Jesus is free to spam Hurricane once more, with other premier Electrics Mega Manectric and Raikou lacking recovery. Hydreigon and Mamoswine do a good job of offensively checking new drops, while the latter also gains from Rotom leaving. Alolan Muk traps our new influx of ghosts, while Swampert doesn't have to worry about taking Hydro Pumps from Rotom, regaining its niche as an Electric check from Seismitoad.
Trending Down: Seismitoad, Aurorus / Alolan Sandslash, Mega Sceptile, Volt Turn
Seismitoad loses it's primary usage as a Rotom-W hard stop. It still has a small niche as a role compression for a Water immunity and a Stealth Rocker. Veil teams will now run Alolatales, it was (not) fun while it lasted, Aurorus and Sandslash-A. Mega Sceptile will still definitely be a threat, but it was a huge cuck to Rotom-W, and a nuisance to Volt Turn as a whole, an archetype that loses a bit of its luster without the washing machine.
I'm glad we can all finally get to shake things up a bit in the meta! Let's do our best to explore it to the fullest.
