There's a few more mono rock mons I want to talk about that I can't make into a multi paragraph rant so I'm gonna list them all in one post because yes.
Diancie D -> C
It's still not good but it forms a perfectly fine trick room core with Stakataka and nothing about it really screams D tier garbage other than it's quad weakness to steel. If you get lucky with Diamond storm, that also gives you pretty good body press damage and enough bulk to withstand a super effective physical attack to activate weakness policy. Trick room still isn't great and Aegislash just hard walls it so it's never getting any higher thanlow C mid C tier.
Carracosta UR -> D
I'm following up on Woofrie's nomination for Carracosta. At first, I said it would fit right in C tier, probably because I had a concussion or something. There's nearly zero justification to use this over Barbaracle or Omastar. Literally any team with a fast pokemon (aka almost every team that isn't hard stall) can beat the shit out of Carracosta. It's main niche over Barbaracle and Omastar is it's weakness policy + sturdy set combined with aqua jet but idk if you're gonna waste an entire team slot to land a single +4 aqua jet. Aqua jet alone doesn't make up for it's abysmal speed. Getting outsped by several non scarfers even at double the speed is just too much of a drawback for a shell smash sweeper. But once again, it still has a niche that isn't worthless so it deserves a spot on the rankings.
Aerodactyl C -> D C (Sorry I've been way too harsh on Aerodactyl. It's actually completely fine.)
Having a ground immunity isn't really saying much when you have like zero bulk and 71.5% of it's users use it as a suicide lead anyways. Shuckle is basically the superior lead in almost every way. It's not unranked because the dragon dance set can outspeed almost every scarfer so ig you could say that it's still a niche which is enough to stay ranked. That's not a compliment tho, it still sucks.
Aerodactyl's ground immunity and good speed makes it an ok sweeper. Not great, but nowhere near D tier garbage.
Crustle D -> UR
Ok I fucking love Crustle so I hate to admit this, but Crustle really doesn't have much going for it. It's a shell smash sweeper that can abuse sturdy like Carracosta, but it's coverage isn't good and it has a worse attack stat too. While it's speed isn't as bad as Carracosta, it still can't outspeed dragapult, zeraora and everything else faster than it. It doesn't even have a priority move to at least try to make up for it's low speed. Crustle is kinda just a worse Carracosta and there's no reason to use it over literally every other ranked shell smash user in mono rock.
Cradily D -> Idk lol I just want an excuse to rant about Cradily
Past me is dumb and this section is inaccurate
Cradily is just barely hanging on to D tier by the skin of it's non-existent teeth. I've wanted to nominate it for UR for a while now since it's supposed niche is actually kinda useless but now, I feel like it has the slightest iota of worth that lets it just barely stay ranked. Unranked or not, I feel like this is something I should talk about for a moment.
Cradily is most commonly used as a storm drain abuser. Rock is weak to water? Just have Cradily cover that weakness. Plain and simple. It's natural bulk isn't terrible either, and it can cripple non poison/steel types with toxic.
It would be so easy to just talk shit about this thing and nominate it for UR but it just barely stays in D tier for one simple reason, and it's not the thing people typically consider when looking at Cradily. It's Cradily's electric resist. Yes, you have Rhyperior as an electric immunity, but electric teams always have coverage against ground types. Cradily is the one rock type that isn't weak to specs Tapu Koko, Rotom Wash or Raikou. It's still shit against Zeraora and Magnezone and what I said about mono rock having to be offensive still applies here, but with good plays, Cradily is actually decent at something that only Cradily can accomplish. This is the sole reason I'm not nominating it for UR.
Future me speaking. Cradily actually is worth nominating for UR. It's electric resist alone can't carry it out of unranked garbage and you can't ignore it's fundamental issue of being too passive and not doing much to justify it's passiveness. Refer to my other post for more Cradily slander.
Cradily is still really bad tho don't use it lol
Diancie D -> C
It's still not good but it forms a perfectly fine trick room core with Stakataka and nothing about it really screams D tier garbage other than it's quad weakness to steel. If you get lucky with Diamond storm, that also gives you pretty good body press damage and enough bulk to withstand a super effective physical attack to activate weakness policy. Trick room still isn't great and Aegislash just hard walls it so it's never getting any higher than
Carracosta UR -> D
I'm following up on Woofrie's nomination for Carracosta. At first, I said it would fit right in C tier, probably because I had a concussion or something. There's nearly zero justification to use this over Barbaracle or Omastar. Literally any team with a fast pokemon (aka almost every team that isn't hard stall) can beat the shit out of Carracosta. It's main niche over Barbaracle and Omastar is it's weakness policy + sturdy set combined with aqua jet but idk if you're gonna waste an entire team slot to land a single +4 aqua jet. Aqua jet alone doesn't make up for it's abysmal speed. Getting outsped by several non scarfers even at double the speed is just too much of a drawback for a shell smash sweeper. But once again, it still has a niche that isn't worthless so it deserves a spot on the rankings.
Aerodactyl's ground immunity and good speed makes it an ok sweeper. Not great, but nowhere near D tier garbage.
Crustle D -> UR
Ok I fucking love Crustle so I hate to admit this, but Crustle really doesn't have much going for it. It's a shell smash sweeper that can abuse sturdy like Carracosta, but it's coverage isn't good and it has a worse attack stat too. While it's speed isn't as bad as Carracosta, it still can't outspeed dragapult, zeraora and everything else faster than it. It doesn't even have a priority move to at least try to make up for it's low speed. Crustle is kinda just a worse Carracosta and there's no reason to use it over literally every other ranked shell smash user in mono rock.
Past me is dumb and this section is inaccurate
Cradily is most commonly used as a storm drain abuser. Rock is weak to water? Just have Cradily cover that weakness. Plain and simple. It's natural bulk isn't terrible either, and it can cripple non poison/steel types with toxic.
First of all, let's establish that Cradily's niche isn't really a niche at all. The idea is that storm drain stops offensive water types from murdering your team, but it takes like 5 seconds to realize that you still lose to water types even with Cradily. Barraskewda, Crawdaunt, Keldeo and Urshifu all murder it with fighting coverage, Azumarill outspeeds and murders it with play rough (it's not like you're switching in on a belly drum anyways) and Cloyster can murder Cradily with icicle spear even without a shell smash. Ok it beats Volcanion, but when 2 really common mono water mons beat the shit out of Cradily along with basically every other mono rock pokemon, that doesn't really matter. You almost always lose to mono water, Cradily or not.
As for bulky water types (that are used in types other than mono water because that matchup is kinda one sided no matter what), Cradily can't touch Tapu Fini (Scarf fini uses trick and calm mind fini walls it), there's zero chance in hell you're breaking toxapex (or any poison type tbh). You do beat Rotom wash although you'd probably get poisoned or paralyzed. And admittedly, you do still beat Gastrodon and Slowbro. Those are the only water types it beats. You're never gonna waste a whole team slot to deal with 3 specific pokemon. Against everything else it doesn't do much better. Literally it's only resists other than water are normal and electric. This makes Cradily unable to switch in to most wallbreakers and it's completely unusable in a lot of matchups. It's like playing russian roulette but there's 5 bullets and 1 empty chamber. On top of that, mono rock is a pretty offensive type. Playing defensively with mono rock doesn't ever go well. You can still add passive mons like Shuckle and Coalossal, but you're still ultimately playing offensively. Cradily is kinda hard to fit in a team because you don't want to be too passive with mono rock. You have to either apply constant offensive pressure, or help your teammates in applying pressure which Cradily just can't accomplish.
As for bulky water types (that are used in types other than mono water because that matchup is kinda one sided no matter what), Cradily can't touch Tapu Fini (Scarf fini uses trick and calm mind fini walls it), there's zero chance in hell you're breaking toxapex (or any poison type tbh). You do beat Rotom wash although you'd probably get poisoned or paralyzed. And admittedly, you do still beat Gastrodon and Slowbro. Those are the only water types it beats. You're never gonna waste a whole team slot to deal with 3 specific pokemon. Against everything else it doesn't do much better. Literally it's only resists other than water are normal and electric. This makes Cradily unable to switch in to most wallbreakers and it's completely unusable in a lot of matchups. It's like playing russian roulette but there's 5 bullets and 1 empty chamber. On top of that, mono rock is a pretty offensive type. Playing defensively with mono rock doesn't ever go well. You can still add passive mons like Shuckle and Coalossal, but you're still ultimately playing offensively. Cradily is kinda hard to fit in a team because you don't want to be too passive with mono rock. You have to either apply constant offensive pressure, or help your teammates in applying pressure which Cradily just can't accomplish.
Even though you're never gonna win the matchup against mono water, coverage against water types is still important. This is the reason I nominated Nihilego for S tier and why it's my pick for the best mono rock mon. Thunderbolt and grass knot coverage is your primary way of beating water types. You can also snowball with meteor beam and beast boost, somewhat improving your matchup against flying. Not to mention it's deceptively high special bulk even without sand. Additionally, you can run grass knot on Barbaracle if you really want to better deal with water types (Although earthquake tends to be the better 3rd move option), you can also run thunder punch on Tyranitar or Rhyperior. It's not much, but that's all mono rock can afford without wasting a team slot on something fundamentally less viable.
Future me speaking. Cradily actually is worth nominating for UR. It's electric resist alone can't carry it out of unranked garbage and you can't ignore it's fundamental issue of being too passive and not doing much to justify it's passiveness. Refer to my other post for more Cradily slander.
I'm not procrastinating on this anymore, I just have to say it before gen 8 ends.
Cradily (Rock) D -> UR
Art poorly drawn by me using ms paint
I don't really feel like writing an intro for Cradily. It's pretty good in mono grass but complete trash in mono rock for reasons you probably already know. And before we move into gen 9, I'm here to put the final nail in the coffin so (hopefully) no one will consider it on their mono rock team again.
View attachment 459881
Unless you're a based Cursedily enjoyer, Cradily is a passive spdef wall that can set up stealth rock and toxic. While in mono grass, it sees use for it's fire and flying resists, it has a tiny bit of usage in mono rock due to it's ground resist combined with storm drain. From what I can tell, people who use Cradily on mono rock just go "ooooo type immunity me likey" when they see storm drain and slap it on without really thinking.
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There are many reasons why this water immune pokemon sucks in a monotype weak to water. First of all, mono rock is strictly a hyper offensive type. Every mon in mono rock has to either apply a ton of offensive pressure, or help set up said mons so they can deal enough damage. Besides setting up rocks (which shuckle and coalossal already accomplish), all it does is giga drain with it's uninvested 81 spatk and use toxic on a few mons, which is hard to properly take advantage of in mono rock because of how fast most mono rock matches are. A passive mono rock team is like trying to run poison hyper offense. Cradily is dead weight in most matchups because if the opponent abuses Cradily's passiveness and regains momentum, your rock team is dead. The 2nd more noticeable reason is that Cradily doesn’t even do it’s job. It’s supposed to be a switch in to offensive water and ground types, but it can't even switch into most of them.
Something tells me dedicating a full team slot to stop 3 offensive threats isn't exactly worth it. Especially since Cradily loses to over half the mons it's supposed to beat. And don't even get me started on it's ability to break bulky waters. Sure, it does it's job against Rotom and Gastrodon but it's still completely walled by Toxapex and are you really gonna use up an entire team slot to deal with a few bulky waters when the types that run said mons have counters that Cradily can't lay a finger on? I could kinda excuse this if Cradily was able to wear down it's counters over time but it really can't. For example, Coalossal is a good option for bulky steels because every steel type gets worn down over time by it's fire + ground coverage. Combine that with will o wisp and support from rock's wallbreakers and you have a viable option for steels like Celesteela, Scizor and Ferrothorn. Cradily just can't do that to water or ground types. Monotype has so many ways of beating it both offensively and defensively that it hurts.Can switch in consistently
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Can switch in but either can't do anything back or can only switch in if not chipped
Can't switch in
I originally held back on wanting to unrank Cradily because I thought providing an electric resist that doesn't die to Koko's grass knot or Rotom Wash was valuable enough but electric has good enough counterplay for Cradily regardless + it doesn't fix the fundamental issue of Cradily killing rock's offensive pressure. And it's not like you'd prefer Cradily over anything else for the neutral matchups. I failed to mention this before but it's only resists/immunities are normal, electric and water. Everything other type deals either neutral or double damage to it which just doesn't cut it for a defensive mon.
View attachment 460018
Mono rock, while not the worst monotype, is still kinda bad. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. And running a bad mon is more punishing in worse monotypes than it is with better ones because worse monotypes aren't able to support said mons as well. The sheer opportunity cost of using Cradily over any other rock type on the viability rankings can't be understated. It's ability to set up hazards and toxic is outclassed by Shuckle, it's ability to deal with water types is outclassed by Nihilego and it's ability to deal with ground is outclassed by Barbaracle, Omastar or even Aerodactyl. Cradily's usefulness in rock's neutral matchups range from "wow you poisoned 1 mon good job" to actively dragging the team down by ruining momentum and acting as set up fodder for your opponent's wincons. Overall, there's no reason to use Cradily in mono rock outside of monothreat. Cradily only puts up a fight once in a blue moon and it's dead weight everywhere else, which is more than enough of a reason to unrank this wretched hentai flower. If you really want to use Cradily in mono rock, at least have the courtesy to run a meme set.
S Tier
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S- Tier
A+ Tier
B+ Tier
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B Tier
C+ Tier
C Tier
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D Tier
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D- Tier
UR
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^ S- Tier
A+ Tier
B+ Tier
^B Tier
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to D. While it may be hampered by Defeatist and its bad bulk, it has one big advantage over Aerodactyl as a suicide lead: Endeavor. Endeavor lets it cripple opposing Pokémon, and Archeops' mediocre bulk means that it will, more likely than not, be brought down to its Focus Sash.
Golisopod C -> B
Orbeetle D -> UNR
Shedinja UNR -> D
Vikavolt C -> B
Bisharp C -> B
Grimmsnarl B -> A
Hydreigon S -> A
Incineroar UNR -> D
Mandibuzz A -> B
Sableye B -> C
Sharpedo UNR -> D
Zarude S -> A
Duraludon C -> B
Kommo-O C -> B
Galvantula C -> D
Raichu-Alola A -> B
Rotom-Mow B -> C
Thundurus-T C -> B
Toxtricity D -> C
Hatterene C -> B
Ninetales-Alola C -> B
Tapu Koko A -> B
Buzzwole A -> B
Cobalion A -> S
Pangoro UNR -> C
Scrafty C -> D
Zapdos-Galar B -> A
Blacephalon A -> B
Darmanitan C -> D
Heatran B -> A
Marowak-Alola C -> B
Moltres C -> B
Rotom-Heat C -> B
Torkoal B -> C
Victini A -> B
Celesteela S -> A
Dragonite B -> A
Gyarados D -> C
Moltres-Galar S -> A
Salamence C -> UNR
Skarmory C -> B
Thundurus B -> C
Zapdos B -> A
Aegislash A -> S
Corsola-Galar B -> C
Dhelmise D -> B
Golurk D -> C
Jellicent C -> D
Palossand B -> D
Polteageist D -> C
Tapu Bulu B -> C
Virizion C -> D
Whimsicott B -> A
Dugtrio D -> UNR
Hippowdon B -> A
Quagsire D -> UNR
Arctozolt B -> A
Avalugg D -> C
Darmanitan-Galar B -> A
Glastrier B -> C
Piloswine A -> B
Blissey C -> B
Braviary B -> C
Diggersby C -> B
Ditto A -> B
Drampa UNR -> D
Snorlax C -> B
Skuntank B -> A
Azelf C -> D
Malamar UNR -> C
Slowking-Galar A -> S
Starmie D -> UNR
Tapu Lele A -> S
Tyrantrum UNR -> D
Corviknight B -> A
Durant C -> D
Magneton UNR -> D
Magnezone C -> B
Scizor B -> C
Kabutops D -> UNR
Lanturn D -> C
Lapras UNR -> D
Swampert S -> A
Suicune D -> C
Toxapex A -> S
