-> Top
Fight me, but Knock Off/Heat Crash Copper is easily part of the big 3. Impossible to switch into, despite the loss of Power Whip (no Muds, no Water types (that aren't weak to EQ)), while being a Steel type, which we all are so desperate for.
-> Mid
Missy feels like the definition of Mid to me. It has many tools other pokemon would kill for, but it falls short in its damage output. Everytime I used it, I pretty much had to dedicate my tera for Missy, which feels a lot harder to justify in the current metagame, where you need to frequently use tera situationally, with so many offensive threats running around (and to be honest, there are just better tera pokemon than a Fairy/Electric Missy). Life Orb Shadow Ball should be so strong, but it always feels like it falls flat when clicking it in battle. Missy not really having many save switchin opportunities doesn't help it very much either. It has never fit the best on my balance teams, but it can be really nice on HO builds.
-> Mid
I was insanely excited for Orthworm to drop to NU, I really was. The thing is, it forces some building quirks that I believe don't make it as splashable as others of the
High-ranked pokemon; fwiw I think it would be "high-Mid", if that existed. Being sort of a fake Steel type on the special side always forces the pairing with a Dark type + special sponge (Grimm/Hilfish + Goodra e.g.) to cover your "lack" of Steel typing on the special side (Dark types mainly feel mandatory rn because of the strong Psyshock Psychic types we have right now).
Despite that, Coil/IronPress sets are super cool lategame cleaners, and every pokemon with an "immunity ability" is an excellent tera user. Little side-complain, but why tf did they not make Orthworm Spikes-immune? .-.
As much as I still like this, it should be in
Mid due to its heavy Fighting-type competition as well as competing with its Johtonian forme which is arguably better than Hisuian thanks to Knock Off. There are also a bunch Fighting-type checks running around such as Drifblim, Houndstone, Sandaconda, and Gligar, all of which heavily threaten Heasel.
Heavily disagree. It should remain in
High rank. Firstly, I don't think Sneasel is better than Hisuian Sneasel at all, and Sneasel being ranked so
High feels like copium because it got Knock Off back. I don't think Sneasel should be ranked
Mid, but I also don't think it would be ranked higher than Hisuian Sneasel in a "real VR". Hisuian Sneasel can still pull off Choice item a lot easier than Sneasel, because its not as weak to entry hazards, and with "just HDB" Sneasel feels pretty weak. There certainly are answers to Hisuian Sneasel, but Houndstone is insanely
Mid (and poop in my experience), Sandaconda is literally 2HKOed and Gligar just gets chipped down by rocks + repeated attacks.
Other than these I feel like the VR team did a good job!
(Bruxish should be SSS+)