2 -> 1
Nominating rilla for a tier 1 slot once again, as it has only aged better with time since my last post. Rillaboom has boasted the second highest userate of any pokemon every single week of OSDT ever since the Ursaluna ban, never dipping under a rather absurd 40% use rate and always having a positive winrate that exceeds Queen
's every single week as well. Rillaboom absolutely defines the metagame as the central member of the prevailing
bulky balance archetype permeating DOU right now. It's role compression and near monopoly to set beneficial terrain is simply unmatched in terms of team supporting capabilities, and it's wood hammer even allows it to act as a solid threat/breaker in its own right. It's a match made in heaven with
, another top 5 userate mon of late, further compressing utility with it's rocks, intimidate and own u-turning to form an extremely durable and effective core that can enable teams to reposition themselves better than any other in the tier generating
game winning momentum with free turns provided. It's seen a rise in use on
rain teams lately as its pivoting abilities are greatly appreciated on that archetype to bring win conditions like
and
in and out of play safely, absorbing potential spores from the otherwise annoying
and wood hammers from itself for such teams as well. Rillaboom is also useful on
Hazards Stack teams, which again just appreciate the longevity and positioning assistance that the mon provides so exceptionally well.
With Rillaboom being used on almost half the teams in the tier, both on
High ladder and in tournament play, on every range of team archetype from the common
bulky balance to the more offensively inclined rain and sun teams, to the more recent
hazards stack tempo teams and just about everything in between, Rillaboom is clearly a pokemon whose capabilities are appreciated on any team style in the tier right now, and very clearly deserving of Tier 1 status in my eyes.
T5 ->T4
Scizor's seen a rise in recent weeks in OSDT as a a pokemon blessed with a great typing into the current metagame, its bullet punch being one of the biggest threats to T1
in the game, and its bug stab being one of the few ways to OHKO any
set around.The prevalence of fire types in the tier would harm it a good bit, especially considering they also use their type against the aforementioned mons, but Tera water is a blessing for scizor, enabling it to stick around and often times click swords dance and become a priority spamming threat much like a
. Still Scizor's primary selling point is it's ability to massively threaten the two tier 1s in the format, throwing a wrench in Rillaboom's positional capabilities by very often forcing it to switch out, which scizor itself will promptly U-turn into and, being slower, will likely maintain an advantageous position for the scizor player every time this interaction occurs, as can be seen in
this game. Scizor is very much at home on
Hazards Pivot teams where it can act as a threat while leveraging its excellent typing against many would-be problems for such a style of team like Flutter mane and create much needed breathing room for the team to set up hazards with it's u-turns. Overall a solid addition on these styles of teams with limited but valid applications on other teams thanks to its blessed typing and access to useful momentum-grabbing tools into the metagame.
T5 -> UR
The mouse has no real viable niche in DOU, outclassed as a redirector by almost every other option, unable to act as a threat when two of the absolute biggest threats in the tier are ghost types, unable to outspeed the most important speedsters, invalidating it's only above-average stat, and just generally not having solid enough other niches to find a spot on any type of team. It lost every team it was played in OSDT (grantedit was only used 5 times) and while having the potential to use a very good movepool simply lacks the power to use it in any meaningful capacity in this tier.
T3 -> T4
Other noms have called for it to drop, albeit a bit harsher than to just T4. Sun is having a bit of an identity crisis right now, grappling with whether to wantsto play a balanced offense style with tusk and rillaboom on some teams, hazards offense with lando/kleavor on others, Speed Control offense with psyspam and Lillikoal dominating two ends of the speed spectrum, or pre-home style Hyperoffense. Wake is certainly a good mon on sun teams as far as offensive coverage and damage output is concerned, but it's main typing advantage in blocking fire and water attacks has been almost entirely usurped by Volcanion in the metagame while flutter really exploits its dragon typing.
T4 -> T3
As the only viable terrain setter not named Rillaboom, Indeedee can form an important function on many styles of offense teams trying to overthrow many of the bulkier teams relying on rillaboom and priority attacks from Gambit, Pala, and fake outs to deal with faster teams. It's typing and Follow me allow it to be one of the best ways to block
from sweeping a team late game and in general is annoying to deal with next to offensive threats while still being a tried and true enabler of
and trick room as a whole.