Resource SV LC Viability Rankings

[TheShoddyStrawman]

Making my Own VR as well since the one on the main page is so out of date currently.

S tier:
Toedscool

A+ tier:
Diglett
Pawniard
Crabrawler

A tier:
Zorua-Hisui
Wattrel
Surskit
Mareanie
Voltorb
Mudbray
Stunky

A- tier:
Shellder
Drifloon
Foongus
Glimmet
Gothita
Wingull
Zorua
Nymble

B+ tier:
Quaxly
Houndour
Deerling
Buizel
Psyduck
Larvesta
Shellos
Shroodle
Chewtle
Greavard
Magnemite

B tier:
Mankey
Bramblin
Impidimp
Numel
Sandile

B- tier:
Meowth
Axew
Charmander
Fuecoco
Riolu
Sinistea
Tinkatink

Only S, A+ and A tier are ordered.

Explanation coming soon.

S tier:
Toedscool
Knock Off + Rapid Spin, fantastic stab combination, Spore, and good resistances and immunities. Also has base 100 special defense and a stupid amount of EV Spreads. Unless you get killed by a Tera Ice Tera Blast, it'll do SOMETHING.

A+ tier:
Diglett
Arena Trap + 20 speed, EdgeQuake Combination. Also you can run Eviolite and its somehow good. Its got rocks + a good enough attack stat. Not S tier because of lack of defensive utility outside of the Electric Immunity.

Pawniard
Rocks or Swords Dance + Sucker Punch and a higher attack stat than some fully evolved Pokemon. Also fantastic typing. If it had Knock, it would be S tier. Thats why its only A+.

Crabrawler
Bulk Up sweeper that checks the Top 3 and keeps itself healthy via Drain Punch. Also its got lots of coverage moves. Tera Electric or Tera Fire mean that you tank status moves.

A tier:
Zorua Hisui
Winter League showed how good it is. Knock, U Turn, Will-o-Wisp, Hex, Nasty Plot, Bitter Malice, and Tera Blast make it so flexible in what it wants to do its crazy. Illusion + 17 speed tier is great. Rounds out top 5.

Wattrel
Winter League results show how fantastic this mon is. Mini Zapdos has fantastic STABS and Roost. Its so hard to deal with without using your own. Not bulky enough to deal with everything.

Surskit
Webs are great, especially with Zorua-H. Its the best form of speed control in the tier, especially when so many scarfers feel signficantly mediocre. Also has good coverage and Tera Ghost makes it abhorrent to deal with. Has limited utility outside of setting webs.

Mareanie
Best Physical Wall in the tier, plus has t spikes or haze support. Gets trapped, unfortunately. But also try breaking it, its quite hard when theres so little knock in the tier.

Voltorb
Its Special Electric Diglett with a worse ability. Also Tera means you can break a bunch of stuff if you want to. Not higher because it doesn't fit on every team and needs Tera.

Mudbray
Base 100 attack and Ground typing. Plus you can run scarf or Rocks. Second best Physical Wall due to Stamina being cracked, especially with Will-o-Wisp support. Hard to fit on teams due to its low speed and specific playstyle.

Stunky
18 speed means you check a bunch of pokemon because you want to. Pawniard, Toedscool, Crabrawler, Wattrel, both Zorua forms and Wattrel. You can also take Burns perfectly fine and boost up with Nasty Plot.

A- Tier:
Shellder
Guaranteed Adamant because 18 speed scarfers don't exist. The best wincon in the game by far. A- tier because its not splashable.

Drifloon
Only viable defogger, has Will-o-Wisp support, Destiny Bond is great, and you can technically run a scarf flare boost set. Can trade really well. Rocks weak and not the best Ghost.

Foongus
It got better cause Girafarig left, and can 1 v 1 toedscool. Spore support is cool. Kinda mid because goth can trap and has a lackluster offensive profile.

Glimmet
Auto T Spikes setter is great. Typing is good, but gets trapped. Fantastic Hazard Setter with a great special attack, but lack luster defensively.

Gothita
Thought this was going to broken. It wasn't. Still good and can trap, but worse than Diglett. Can run a scarf set pretty reasonably though. Needs Tera and gets really screwed over by it.

Wingull
Results don't lie, and this mon is good. Roost + 19 speed tier and good stab combo. Also knock, which is good. Relatively frail and rocks weak, so it doesn't fit on most teams.

Zorua
Strong Knock + good mu vs ghosts. Has Sucker and U turn and a great support movepool. Not Zorua-H. Plus worse MU vs Pawn and Crab.

Nymble
Gastly gone, much better. Dies to Gastly, but also it invalidates scarfers and can be REALLY annoying to deal with. Rocks weak and a bit tera reliant, but its gotten results.

B+ tier and below i might get to, but this is already a lot of writing.

Hope this helps.

 

[Éric]

once again i wanna share my thoughts on the metagame since gastly got banned and hisuian zorua arrived

ordered vr

key points:
is the best mon in the metagame. its hard to switch into, it fits into the most amount of teams and it is always making progress in any given game.
second best. it gives you so much, it traps a lot of mons, allows so many other mons to do crazy and can even sweep bc of edgequake coverage w 20 speed (fastest unboosted)
insanely good. checks everything, even the formerly broken voltorb. insanely hard to switch into since nothing resists its stabs and overpowers it at the same time.
really good. it has a lot of utility and sweeping potential. its one of the most commonly scary mons in this tier and can support its team extremely well (dont run defog).
still good idk what are people on. water is a good typing and has a lot of sweeping potential, as demonstrated by many lcwl games. simply a really scary mon. also it has a lot of defensive value w aqua jet.
i think its overrated. its good bc knock and wisp coupled w illusion is nuts, but it checks exactly one pokemon, being itself.
you can argue all you want about whether theyre broken or not, but that doesnt make them consistent or splashable and thus they shouldnt be higher than this.
webs are overrated idg why people keep on spamming them. the best mon in the game is a spinner and the biggest threats are flyings, a mon with defiant and a first impression user. rain also beats you. also your best abuser is crab which doesnt benefit from them that much
everyone knows i was a believer back when there were no fighting resists but guess what? there are now.
im very picky and so i decided to only put in this tier the mons id seriously consider bringing to a serious tournament match, and thus i have less mons per rank and less overall.
cheers

 

[jcbc]

Since our season have finished i can finally do this. So the meta have shifted a lot and i have been having some hot takes here and there but i feel like i have a very great glance on my own of the metagame and so i would like to do some nominations myself.

RISES
Voltorb, Wattrel, Zorua-Hisui, Shellder, Glimmet, Surskit, Greavard, Shroodle, Wingull, Stunky, Numel, Sandile, Psyduck, Axew, Bramblin, Houndour, Dratini, Clauncher, Fuecoco, Maschiff, Wooper, Rowlet, Fomantis, Starly, Meowth-Galar.

DROPS
Larvesta, Mudbray, Mankey, Magnemite, Deerling.

(explanations going up tomorrow i need some zzzs; to note that quite a few of the rises are D tier mons going to C tbh cuz i dont believe in D tier)

Nuke tier D btw.​

 

[Ast0rga]

Hi, OU player here. Question: I'm gonna play some LC friendly matches and for some apparently very personal reason I'm very afraid of Dratini, yet I don't see it here like at all.

Isn't Dratini scary due to Dragon Dance+Extremespeed/Outrage and Shed Skin potentially healing it's status making you waste 1 turn while it setups?

Thanks

 

[Drifting]

Hi, OU player here. Question: I'm gonna play some LC friendly matches and for some apparently very personal reason I'm very afraid of Dratini, yet I don't see it here like at all.

Isn't Dratini scary due to Dragon Dance+Extremespeed/Outrage and Shed Skin potentially healing it's status making you waste 1 turn while it setups?

Thanks

Dratini isn't as good as Dragonite because it has bad stats, no Multiscale and no coverage (no EQ/Fire Punch for example). Some people on ladder will use it but it's really not worth it. If you want a mon that's broken in both OU and LC, Pawniard is who you're looking for,

 

[NotJackewu]

Hi, OU player here. Question: I'm gonna play some LC friendly matches and for some apparently very personal reason I'm very afraid of Dratini, yet I don't see it here like at all.

Isn't Dratini scary due to Dragon Dance+Extremespeed/Outrage and Shed Skin potentially healing it's status making you waste 1 turn while it setups?

Thanks

In little cup most pokemon die in 1-2 hits and there are enough pokemon with priority moves to stop setup from doing its thing which is why most of the dragon types arent that good in this tier.
If you still want to try to make a setup mon work you probably want to go for either Shellder or Chewtle. Both of them get shell smash which makes them an exception.

Shellder has a high defense stat and can one-shot the majority of mons after a shell smash and still live a hit from diglett/pawn sucker punch.
By burning pawniard or letting a pokemon die to diglett you can set up and 6-0 the enemy team with Tera Rock +Skill Link Rock Blasts
Chewtle can completely take over games after it has set up with shell smash due to Strong Jaw + Tera Dark boosted Crunches, this mon needs some more support so something like Impidimp to set up screens would be recommended.

Shellder team: https://pokepast.es/066737504fe892ad
Chewtle team: https://pokepast.es/3b538d966faada4b

 

[TheGreatAppleLord]

Is wiglett any good? It seems to work really well for me on low ladder, and can pull off some convincing sweeps with cband. I assume it isn’t on there as it is identical to Diglett?

 

[NotJackewu]

Is wiglett any good? It seems to work really well for me on low ladder, and can pull off some convincing sweeps with cband. I assume it isn’t on there as it is identical to Diglett?

Besides its high speed stat it has doodoo stats, legit dying to anything in 1 hit.
Move pool is ass also and it doesnt have the strength that diglett has in arena trap. Not being able to reliably revenge kill pokemon makes it pretty bad.

If you REALLY want to use it you could use it with something like this:

Wiglett set

Special
Wiglett @ Life Orb
Ability: Gooey
Level: 5
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 36 HP / 236 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Memento
- Earth Power
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam

Physical
Wiglett @ Life Orb
Ability: Gooey
Level: 5
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Aqua Jet
- Throat Chop
- Memento

Putting Focus Sash instead of Life Orb is also an option, personally not a fan because of all the hazard setters running around

But yeah, it sucks pretty bad and is really just a gimmick mon.

 

[Roldski32]

Hi, OU player here. Question: I'm gonna play some LC friendly matches and for some apparently very personal reason I'm very afraid of Dratini, yet I don't see it here like at all.

Isn't Dratini scary due to Dragon Dance+Extremespeed/Outrage and Shed Skin potentially healing it's status making you waste 1 turn while it setups?

As someone that once used Dratini with Tera Normal frequently, the current meta isn't very kind for this specific Dratini from my experience. +1 STAB Extreme Speed from Eviolite Dratini was only as strong as +0 Life Orb Extreme Speed, which i even had trouble revenge killing effectively, because some mons i'd call frail were commonly packing Eviolite nowadays (i.e. Voltorb, Wingull, Unovan Zorua, etc.), which makes revenge killing a bit difficult, as i'd needed like considerable chip (like 40ish chip damage) in order to picked them off, and its also hurtful that Knock Off users were still scarce. and if its running Life Orb, it can't reliably set-up Dragon Dance, because its so frail it dies to everything, and as a priority revenge killer, Nymble and Pawniard were a lot better imo, and as a sweeper, there's just better options like the Shell Smashers that NotJackewu mentioned

I'd only used it as a fun mon, but Dratini is just not very good.

 

[Baloochi]

Cetoddle might be a good sheer force user. While not the fastest it is able to hit hard and with priority like ice shard or ice spinner. It also have good coverage in earthquake, body slam, play rough, superpower and facade. Not to mention it can set up snow. while the defenses are lackluster the large base 108 hp stat means it can take a few hits. It doesn’t need life orb for sheer force injure an opposing Mon even if it’s resisted. With proper building and the rise in popularity of snover in the posts and possibly meta, this Mon might be valued in the meta. it also might be able to deploy a rare yawn set with threat of belly drum if a switch happens or a Pokémon is sleep.

 

[Shnoz1234]

Cetoddle might be a good sheer force user. While not the fastest it is able to hit hard and with priority like ice shard or ice spinner. It also have good coverage in earthquake, body slam, play rough, superpower and facade. Not to mention it can set up snow. while the defenses are lackluster the large base 108 hp stat means it can take a few hits. It doesn’t need life orb for sheer force injure an opposing Mon even if it’s resisted. With proper building and the rise in popularity of snover in the posts and possibly meta, this Mon might be valued in the meta. it also might be able to deploy a rare yawn set with threat of belly drum if a switch happens or a Pokémon is sleep.

Nice argument, counterpoint. 156 Atk Pawniard Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Cetoddle: 18-24 (66.6 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
20 Atk Iron Fist Crabrawler Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Cetoddle: 18-24 (66.6 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Also pawniard can ko it after iron head with sucker punch and crabrawler can set up bulk ups

 

[PigWarrior19]

Nice argument, counterpoint. 156 Atk Pawniard Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Cetoddle: 18-24 (66.6 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
20 Atk Iron Fist Crabrawler Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Cetoddle: 18-24 (66.6 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Also pawniard can ko it after iron head with sucker punch and crabrawler can set up bulk ups

Pardon the structure I’m on my phone rn rip

That’s not really a good argument to discredit Cetoddle things ok as a belly drum sweeper maddening in snow with its monstrous physical bulk and snow cloak it’s ok in webs because it hits 14 speed and has good prio and decent attack with good coverage and sheer force sure it’s weak to common threats but it is not hard countered by them only answered by them and can definitely do some work onto pawn and crab with eq and play rough and even stuff like fuecoco if you’re tera fire or have tspike support mons definitely not amazing but it can do some things if you really want to use it

 

[TheShoddyStrawman]

Cetoddle might be a good sheer force user. While not the fastest it is able to hit hard and with priority like ice shard or ice spinner. It also have good coverage in earthquake, body slam, play rough, superpower and facade. Not to mention it can set up snow. while the defenses are lackluster the large base 108 hp stat means it can take a few hits. It doesn’t need life orb for sheer force injure an opposing Mon even if it’s resisted. With proper building and the rise in popularity of snover in the posts and possibly meta, this Mon might be valued in the meta. it also might be able to deploy a rare yawn set with threat of belly drum if a switch happens or a Pokémon is sleep.

Suggestions such as these should go into the metagame discussion thread, which is

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/metagame-discussion.3710868/

here.

Reason being that this thread is for the Viability Rankings of Pokemon, not for theory crafting of possible sets to be run. We appreciate the enthusiasm for the metagame, but we want to make sure the threads they are in are on topic.

 

[Greedy_eb]

Umm, actually, about the “doodoo stats” part, it has the same stats as Diglett. So does Diglett have “doodoo stats”? No. No it doesn’t. As for the problem of offense, I run band specifically to make up for said stat. So is it really that bad? Oh also I run facade in case of willowisp, toxic etc.

This is wrong on both accounts. Wiglett and Diglett do not have the same stats, as Wiglett has 20 less points in Special Defense (245 BST). Diglett also has a horrendous BST of 265, a huge difference when the majority of viable mons in LC either have higher BSTs in the 300s range or abilities that make them good in the tier. However, Diglett can make for its poor BST with Arena Trap, one of the best abilities of all time. Wiglett both has terrible bulk due to its poor BST and 3 bad abilities in Gooey, Rattled, and Sand Veil which are gimmicky at best. Two of the three abilities require Wiglett to take hits in order to activate, and because its bulk is so bad it is not surprising that Wiglett will die in one hit to strong neutral attacks.

So yes, Wiglett is that bad. You may get wins with it on the lower ladder but against competent players it will get little to zero value.

 

[TheGreatAppleLord]

This is wrong on both accounts. Wiglett and Diglett do not have the same stats, as Wiglett has 20 less points in Special Defense (245 BST). Diglett also has a horrendous BST of 265, a huge difference when the majority of viable mons in LC either have higher BSTs in the 300s range or abilities that make them good in the tier. However, Diglett can make for its poor BST with Arena Trap, one of the best abilities of all time. Wiglett both has terrible bulk due to its poor BST and 3 bad abilities in Gooey, Rattled, and Sand Veil which are gimmicky at best. Two of the three abilities require Wiglett to take hits in order to activate, and because its bulk is so bad it is not surprising that Wiglett will die in one hit to strong neutral attacks.

So yes, Wiglett is that bad. You may get wins with it on the lower ladder but against competent players it will get little to zero value.

Umm the special defense doesn’t exactly matter considering how bad its hp stats are anyway. The entire point of Diglett/wiglett is that it doesn’t take hits. I understand it has terrible abilities, but aside from that, it’s a slightly worse Diglett with less weaknesses to exploit, meaning that my other teammates magnemite resists both electric and grass. I find it interesting that it has a worse special defense though. Oh and I wasn’t stating it was good, I was stating it had a decent niche and was confused as to how it wasn’t ranked at all.

 

[Eeveeto]

Besides its high speed stat it has doodoo stats, legit dying to anything in 1 hit.
Move pool is ass also and it doesnt have the strength that diglett has in arena trap. Not being able to reliably revenge kill pokemon makes it pretty bad.

If you REALLY want to use it you could use it with something like this:

Wiglett set

Special
Wiglett @ Life Orb
Ability: Gooey
Level: 5
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 36 HP / 236 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Memento
- Earth Power
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam

Physical
Wiglett @ Life Orb
Ability: Gooey
Level: 5
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Aqua Jet
- Throat Chop
- Memento

Putting Focus Sash instead of Life Orb is also an option, personally not a fan because of all the hazard setters running around

But yeah, it sucks pretty bad and is really just a gimmick mon.

Wiglett does suck, but sets provided in this post are not optimal for it. This is the best set:

Water Worm (Wiglett) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Gooey
Level: 5
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Stomping Tantrum
- Ice Beam
- Aqua Jet / Sucker Punch

Wiglett can lure Mareanie and remove it with Tera Ground Stomping Tantrum so that something that stuggles with Mareanie (Quaxly for example) can sweep later.
Adamant Nature is really important on Wiglett, since some rolls do change a lot:

236+ Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Stomping Tantrum vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 18-23 (78.2 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
236 Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Stomping Tantrum vs. 116 HP / 180+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 16-18 (69.5 - 78.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
236+ Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 140 Def Eviolite Crabrawler: 9-13 (42.8 - 61.9%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO
236 Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 140 Def Eviolite Crabrawler: 9-12 (42.8 - 57.1%) -- 12.1% chance to 2HKO


236+ Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 164 Def Drifloon: 17-21 (68 - 84%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
236 Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 164 Def Drifloon: 16-19 (64 - 76%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
236+ Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Liquidation vs. 116 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Mudbray: 18-26 (72 - 104%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
236 Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Wiglett Liquidation vs. 116 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Mudbray: 18-23 (72 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Only things Wiglett misses out by using Adamant are:
Diglett now outspeeds, but you kill it with Aqua Jet unless Sash or Eviolite.
Voltorb now outspeeds too, but its a mindgame anyway if Wiglett is still not Tera'd.
Wingull speedties with Adamant, but Wingull counters Wiglett anyway.

Despite having a bad tour experience with this particular Mon, I would still rank it in C Tier, maybe D.

Hi, OU player here. Question: I'm gonna play some LC friendly matches and for some apparently very personal reason I'm very afraid of Dratini, yet I don't see it here like at all.

Isn't Dratini scary due to Dragon Dance+Extremespeed/Outrage and Shed Skin potentially healing it's status making you waste 1 turn while it setups?

Thanks

Dratini has a lot of potential in this Tier ( I would rank it B), but its not a Mon you can put on any team, you need to build around Dratini and know what you are doing. Some decent sets are:

Tini Draco (Dratini) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Shed Skin
Level: 5
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 28 HP / 208 Atk / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Tera Blast
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed

This one isn,t walled by Pawniard.


Tini Draco (Dratini) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Shed Skin
Level: 5
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 28 HP / 208 Atk / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed

This one has unresisted in LC STAB combination, nothing resists both Waterfall and Outrage. Defensively Water type is also good.

Tini Draco (Dratini) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Marvel Scale
Level: 5
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Atk / 236 Def / 196 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Rest
- Sleep Talk


This one is the one that needs most support (mainly hazards), but its an unkillable force when asleep.

Other options that could be explored:
DD + Fire Tera Blast. Will be killing Tinkatink and also Toedscool without locking into Outrage. Also, Fire means that it won,t be getting burned by Zorua and similar shit.
DD + Ground Tera Blast. This one is also for Tinkatink, but also Mareanie.
DD + Tera Normal Extreme Speed. This set will be needing huge support to get past Pawniard and Tinkatink, but probably can work.
LO + Mixed DM, Fire Blast, Espeed and some other move. This worked in DPP, but Eviolite being a thing makes it worse. Probably can still surprise someone.
Restalk + Thunder Wave + Dragon Tail. With hazards should be fun. Not for the opponent though.


On another topic, Gothita should be an A+ Mon, trapping is broken, especially with all the Tera potential.
Nymble should be somewhere between A and A-. If it manages to switch in and threaten something, I counted 5 ranked Mons (Drifloon, Restalk Mudbray, Greavard, Tinkatink and the trash unviable Croagunk) that can safely switch into it. This Mon is insane, though somewhat hard to use.

 

[Éric]

i wanna make some noms about some low rank mons i think are slightly misplaced.
this thing has been seeing consistent use and success in tournament play, and i think its higher than B-, like B or even B+ rank.

viable sets

Sandile @ Eviolite
Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge

Sandile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Tera Blast
- Stone Edge

Sandile @ Eviolite
Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Tera Blast
- Protect

this thing can fill many roles for offensive teams, be it as an offensive rocker, a scarfer or a lure for toed/nymble/wattrel. all of these while having a good defensive profile, acting as a check to mons such as the zoruas or the electrics. its good offensively too, as its stabs are really threatening and almost unresisted between the viable pool of mons, coupled with broken ability moxie. its also a good partner to pawniard, as both share checks, so they can break for each other.

sandile replays

lcwl semis game from ninja, showing how threatening its scarf set can be with proper prediction.
lc ssnl game from chimp, showcasing its offensive evio set, how it is able to switch into glimmet and threaten the opposing team, forcing two sacrifices.
lc ssnl game from quinn, perfectly showing why its stealth rock set is a good addition to ho, coupling it with pawniard and ghosts to block spin and threaten sweeps.

from C to B.
im just gonna (sadly) have to agree with ace here: if im using pawniard as my rocker, id rather use tinkatink.

set

woomy!! (Tinkatink) @ Eviolite
Ability: Pickpocket
Level: 5
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 196 HP / 76 Atk / 156 Def / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Hammer
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock

this set here allows it to outspeed parad 17 scarfers, while living life orb dig eq from full and ohkoing toed w ice hammer

tink shares lots of defensive traits with pawniard, as they both set rocks up and check the ghosts, albeit tink does so bc of its sheer bulk. added to that, tinkatink has access to knock off (just the best move in the game), which guarantees progress every time it enters the field. it also has ice hammer, which allows it to threaten an ohko on the tiers premier spinner, something pawn can only dream of doing.

replays

this lc ssnl ace game shows how tink is bulky enough to set rocks reliably while being capable of checking wattrel just using sheer bulk (pawn couldnt).
lc ssnl game of mine, showcasing how tinkatink is capable of checking both quaxly and zorua-h at the same time

from B- to D.
who has used this in recent times and done well? this is just a worse nymble. both are powerful priority users trapped by diglett, but unlike nymble, meowth is incapable of hurting the likes of glimmet, pawniard, mareanie or drifloon consistently, while adding no defensive value other than switching into shadow ball (whats it gonna do after that to zorua-h?).
i could see this rising to B-, bc in theory it looks really threatening, given the huge lack of fairies there is, but i havent seen it win consistently, so i wont call it for now

 

[SpyderMarz]

i wanna make some noms about some low rank mons i think are slightly misplaced.
this thing has been seeing consistent use and success in tournament play, and i think its higher than B-, like B or even B+ rank.

viable sets

Sandile @ Eviolite
Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge

Sandile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Tera Blast
- Stone Edge

Sandile @ Eviolite
Ability: Moxie
Level: 5
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Tera Blast
- Protect

this thing can fill many roles for offensive teams, be it as an offensive rocker, a scarfer or a lure for toed/nymble/wattrel. all of these while having a good defensive profile, acting as a check to mons such as the zoruas or the electrics. its good offensively too, as its stabs are really threatening and almost unresisted between the viable pool of mons, coupled with broken ability moxie. its also a good partner to pawniard, as both share checks, so they can break for each other.

sandile replays

lcwl semis game from ninja, showing how threatening its scarf set can be with proper prediction.
lc ssnl game from chimp, showcasing its offensive evio set, how it is able to switch into glimmet and threaten the opposing team, forcing two sacrifices.
lc ssnl game from quinn, perfectly showing why its stealth rock set is a good addition to ho, coupling it with pawniard and ghosts to block spin and threaten sweeps.

from C to B.
im just gonna (sadly) have to agree with ace here: if im using pawniard as my rocker, id rather use tinkatink.

set

woomy!! (Tinkatink) @ Eviolite
Ability: Pickpocket
Level: 5
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 196 HP / 76 Atk / 156 Def / 4 SpD / 52 Spe
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Ice Hammer
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock

this set here allows it to outspeed parad 17 scarfers, while living life orb dig eq from full and ohkoing toed w ice hammer

tink shares lots of defensive traits with pawniard, as they both set rocks up and check the ghosts, albeit tink does so bc of its sheer bulk. added to that, tinkatink has access to knock off (just the best move in the game), which guarantees progress every time it enters the field. it also has ice hammer, which allows it to threaten an ohko on the tiers premier spinner, something pawn can only dream of doing.

replays

this lc ssnl ace game shows how tink is bulky enough to set rocks reliably while being capable of checking wattrel just using sheer bulk (pawn couldnt).
lc ssnl game of mine, showcasing how tinkatink is capable of checking both quaxly and zorua-h at the same time

from B- to D.
who has used this in recent times and done well? this is just a worse nymble. both are powerful priority users trapped by diglett, but unlike nymble, meowth is incapable of hurting the likes of glimmet, pawniard, mareanie or drifloon consistently, while adding no defensive value other than switching into shadow ball (whats it gonna do after that to zorua-h?).
i could see this rising to B-, bc in theory it looks really threatening, given the huge lack of fairies there is, but i havent seen it win consistently, so i wont call it for now

Okay so about the Sandile replays. The only one where Sandile did more than basically exist as a electric/psychic immune was the third one, where it clapped the already weakened gothita and nymble. There’s no reason to use sandile over Quax as a moxie sweeper. The immunities are nice, but there are only 2 viable electric types in the tier, being Wattrel and Voltorb. (Magnemite too ig, but it’s not nearly as good as the others) Same with psychic, with basically just goth since the giraf ban. Having extra defense isn’t useful if ur weak to top tier mons like toed, crab and quax of course. I would say sandiles only redeeming qualities are checking the tier’s ghosts and setting rocks.

 

[Colin]

Okay so about the Sandile replays. The only one where Sandile did more than basically exist as a electric/psychic immune was the third one, where it clapped the already weakened gothita and nymble. There’s no reason to use sandile over Quax as a moxie sweeper. The immunities are nice, but there are only 2 viable electric types in the tier, being Wattrel and Voltorb. (Magnemite too ig, but it’s not nearly as good as the others) Same with psychic, with basically just goth since the giraf ban. Having extra defense isn’t useful if ur weak to top tier mons like toed, crab and quax of course. I would say sandiles only redeeming qualities are checking the tier’s ghosts and setting rocks.

Mostly, Sandile and Quaxly fill entirely different niches. Quaxly is more of a defensive spinner that incidentally has moxie to pair with spin speed boost, while Sandile can either be a threatening, albeit prediction reliant Choice Scarfer, or an offensive rocker as Eric said. I consider it instead to compete with either Diglett or bulky grounds like Mudbray for a team slot, and its dark type is quite the boon in this meta provided you can beat Crabrawler and fast U turn. I think its a bit frail to be consistent and scarfed EQ is a liability vs Tera Fly Diglett, but its for sure worth a slot in the B ranks. EQ + Crunch + Stone Edge is pretty much unresisted coverage as well.

Also, Sandile was very much a factor in all 3 replays. In the top one, there was no dark resist vs Scarf Sandile unless you tera something, and Scarf Drifloon needs tera to be effective. In the middle replay, it might've provided a win condition and was a huge threat if it could've evaded chip, but unless it wants to invest 12 defense (eww, and also it had HP I'm p sure), that's never going to happen bc its so frail into Diglett and chip was forced through sucker punch or hazards. The bottom game was an excellent showcase on how useful its defensive typing is, even if its frail.

 

[Shandeur]

B+ -> A-

This mon is absolutely crazy. Letting it set up can smash a massive through your defenses, or just win the game outright. It's able to setup on many staples of the tier, such as Pawniard or Quaxly. It's easy to just clear with this, and I believe that builds can pressure things that it cannot setup on will be able to break through even more easily.

 

[SpyderMarz]

Mostly, Sandile and Quaxly fill entirely different niches. Quaxly is more of a defensive spinner that incidentally has moxie to pair with spin speed boost, while Sandile can either be a threatening, albeit prediction reliant Choice Scarfer, or an offensive rocker as Eric said. I consider it instead to compete with either Diglett or bulky grounds like Mudbray for a team slot

This further proves my point. The likes of Diglett and other ground types are even tougher competition for a team slot than quax is. I am by no means saying Sandile is a bad mon. There are just so many better options in LC right now. Maybe once home opens up and sandiles typing becomes more useful it could be slightly more viable but for now it’s fine where it is in the vr.

 

[Annomous_89]

I guess glimit’s banned
I wonder how the meta will shift without it

 

[gali]

I guess glimit’s banned
I wonder how the meta will shift without it

Glimmet showing as illegal on Showdown is a graphical glitch due to it getting enough usage to be PU by usage. Since LC is not a usage-based tier, it is still legal.

 

[Annomous_89]

Glimmet showing as illegal on Showdown is a graphical glitch due to it getting enough usage to be PU by usage. Since LC is not a usage-based tier, it is still legal.

Oh thanks

 

[Colin]

A few noms since LCWL is now over, and I won't be actively playing LPL:


S -> A+: This is still an undeniable top 5 and possibly top 2 Pokemon, however I think Diglett deserves a tier of its own, while Toedscool is more in line with the A+ pokemon. I think Toedscool should be A+, since its also gotten slightly worse thanks to the increased frequency of Terablast Flying/Ice Diglett, Drifloon both spinblocking it in the short term and being competition for hazard removal, and general adaptations that limit its progress making capabilities. Its still elite and very flexible, but it will struggle to break past flying types quickly without spore, and it needs all 4 moveslots for stabs + spin + knock the majority of the time. The days where it was a mostly safe Diglett switch in are over as well, but it can still be good at this if Diglett cannot Tera.

: You can't nom an S tier pokemon any higher, but I'm still going to complain about how broken it is. It could probably be an A+ pokemon with only Substitute, Rock Blast, and Earthquake, since it can either trap and take KOes, or bait opposing Tera with Substitute. Its 4th moveslot can be many things, but either sucker punch as priority that beats non Tera Gothita among other things, or Terablast, which can invalidate many checks and is almost impossible to scout without Terastalizing yourself, which might not even save you depending on what Tera type they are and if they subbed or attacked. It has a reputation of being the best enabler and speed control, but I think in this meta Terablast Diglett might be the best wincon as well. Imo I don't think arena trap is fundamentally busted, but Diglett certainly is busted anyway.

and are elite, A+ threats and should stay A+; the former is the best/second best wincon and trades very well, while the ladder can be great utility with rocks and sucker punch, or a threatening SD set.

A -> A+: It might not instantly threaten KOes, but it can disguise itself as something that can and use its arsenal of Wisp + Hex, Knock off, U turn, etc to force major progress. Scarf and Nasty Plot sets are also decent. Great defensive presence against Crabrawler, although it likes making progress early game and not just staying in the back. Disguise + 17 speed tier + knock weak + wisp is designed to force 50 50's lmao.

A- -> A: Drifloon is both the best spinblocker and most reliable removal, and unburden acrobatics + wisp + dig in the back is a big threat to most teams that cannot be ignored. Its last slot can be a lot of things, allowing it to maybe trade with destiny bond, or having more coverage/substitute. its not got great longevity and is rocks weak, and activates defiant pawn, so its not extremely consistent, but the upside is there. Glimmet is severely trapper weak, but it sets up various types of hazards and hits like a truck, and takes neutral hits pretty well. It also needs support vs trappers, grounded poisons, and toedscool, but the upside is there. Both mons are on the edge of A-/A for me but I think A is more fitting.

A- -> B+: Larvesta is a very high upside scarfer, but rocks can't always be prevented, and it tends to either kill itself with recoil + sucker punch, or give turns to shell smashers. Its a decent crab answer if you have backups for tera fire though. Quaxly doesn't hit hard enough to break spinblockers quickly, and its mu spread vs all the way down to B+ are all bad or unreliable. its still okay as a pivot into Diglett from flying types, and encore is annoying. 12 speed Quax is among the saddest shell smash counterplay I've ever used tho, and otherwise you're complete fodder.

B+ -> A-: Shellder is an extremely dangerous wincon that can actually sometimes punish diglett trapping something. Even if many staples can tera to beat it or just live the hit, they tend to get broken down and Shellder's mere presence can dissuade offensive Teras. Wingull got a lot better because many Crabrawler have started to run EQ over Tpunch, and knock + hydro + hurricane is inaccurate but very hard to switch into. 19 speed is good.

and thats what I have to say for the A ranks.