Resource SS OU Viability Rankings

[Clementine]

art by tiki | VR OP credit goes to PK Gaming | thread run by Clementine​

Welcome to the third official (first post-DLC 2) SS OU Viability Rankings thread. In this thread, we as a community will be ranking every single usable Pokemon into "tiers." You're encouraged to post your thoughts and opinions on the various Pokemon that are usable in OU and what tier they should fall under. Posts in this thread will be taken into account when deciding rank changes.

The general idea of the topic is to rank each OU Pokemon under "rankings" that go in descending order. Since this is a tier list for the entire metagame, everything is lumped together. There won't be any segregation between offense, defense, and supportive presences in the metagame within this thread. For example, Slowbro can be ranked in the A+ tier as a supportive presence, Spectrier can be ranked in the A+ as an offensive presence, and Toxapex can be ranked in the A+ tier as a defensive presence. While these three examples can also be found in the initial rankings, the viability of Pokemon and their roles within the metagame can and will change over time, so we will be sure to keep an open mind to this as well and adjust the thread accordingly during each update.

Finally, there will be a council of experienced players who will discuss and vote on the ranking of Pokemon. Depending on how the metagame is developing, we could update the thread every couple of weeks or every month+. Please note that your posts still very much matter and will be factored in to what we discuss and the discussions themselves. This thread is nothing without the posters and every informed opinion that is shared is considered a valuable contribution in my eyes, so do not hesitate to post if you know the metagame well and understand the forum rules. The council will consist of the following users:

• Clementine

SS OU Ranking Tier List

S Rank:

S Rank

Landorus-Therian

S- Rank

Dragapult

Heatran

Melmetal

Weavile

A Rank:

A+ Rank

Clefable

Ferrothorn

Garchomp

Kartana

Slowking-Galar

Tapu Lele

Tornadus-Therian

Urshifu-R

Zapdos

A Rank

Buzzwole

Dragonite

Rotom-Wash

Slowbro

Tapu Koko

Toxapex

Tyranitar

Volcanion

A- Rank

Barraskewda

Blacephalon

Corviknight

Excadrill

Gastrodon

Ninetales-Alola

Pelipper

Rillaboom

Slowking

Tapu Fini

Victini

Volcarona

B Rank:

B+ Rank

Arctozolt

Blaziken

Magnezone

Moltres-Galar

Seismitoad

Zapdos-Galar

Zeraora

B Rank

Aegislash

Blissey

Cloyster

Crawdaunt

Hawlucha

Hippowdon

Hydreigon

Mew

Nidoking

Scizor

Skarmory

B- Rank

Bisharp

Celesteela

Nihilego

Reuniclus

Tapu Bulu

C Rank:

C+ Rank

Dracozolt

Gengar

Jirachi

Kingdra

Kommo-o

Mandibuzz

Regieleki

Rotom-Heat

Suicune

Swampert

Tangrowth

Thundurus-Therian

Torkoal

Venusaur

C Rank

Conkeldurr

Cresselia

Keldeo

Mamoswine

Marowak-Alola

Latias

Latios

Terrakion

C- Rank

Avalugg

Azumarill

Alakazam

Amoonguss

Blastoise

Cobalion

Darmanitan

Ditto

Glastrier

Hatterene

Haxorus

Moltres

Necrozma

Omastar

Polteageist

Porygon2

Primarina

Quagsire

Shedinja

Shuckle

Togekiss

Toxtricity

Xatu

Zarude

Rules - Updated as of 11/30/2020

• Post intelligently. Posts like "I think pokemon X should be in this tier" will be deleted and infracted if it is a repeat issue. Expand on your opinion with actual analysis showing understanding of the metagame and perhaps bringing a unique perspective to the conversation.
• Absolutely no flaming, personal attacks, or general idiocy will be tolerated. Part of this is under moderator discretion and please know that posting in this thread is a privilege, not a right. You'll get warned initially if it is not something overly malicious, but harsher punishments can and will come with repeated behavior or severe offenses.
• Usage statistics may be used to support an argument or a claim, but don't base your ENTIRE argument around them. There needs to be more substance than just this. For example, you can't just say "Pokemon X shouldn't be this tier because they aren't used that often!"
• When nominating a Pokemon to move from one rank to another, do not merely list its obvious qualities such as stats, typing, movepool, etc. If you think a Pokemon deserves to rise or drop, explain what has changed in the meta to cause such Pokemon to get better or worse. I can assure you that the VR Council already knows the obvious qualities and we are far more interested in understanding why you believe it has increased or decreased in viability.
• Unrelated discussion such as talk of (potential) suspects and unproductive one liners that do not greatly contribute to discussion will be deleted. If this becomes a recurring issue for any particular user, then it could lead to an infraction. If you are unsure where to post something, feel free to start a conversation with me on here or discord. Moreover, if you have a general question, then odds are it belongs in the SQSA, not here.
• Being OU by usage alone does not guarantee a ranking. We touched on usage not being the sole reason behind viability of anything before, but this is very true here as a lot of things accumulate ladder usage despite not being the best option. Do not mistake the correlation between usage and viability as stronger than it actually is. If you have any further questions about this, please start a conversation with me on here or discord instead of posting it in this thread.
• When new Pokemon, items, abilities, and/or anything else relevant to the OU metagame are released, please hold off on discussing the ranking of the new Pokemon or the rankings of Pokemon that are impacted by these developments until there is approval to discuss the matter by an OU Moderator in this thread.
• Failure to follow these rules after warning(s) will result in an infraction or possibly a ban depending on the severity of the offenses.
• If you are nominating a Pokemon to be ranked (meaning it was previously unranked), then you need to provide replays of it being used in the metagame and you also should go out of your way to be as thorough as possible in explaining why it has a niche in the metagame (Example of GOOD UR Nomination) -- a vast majority of nominations have been of poor quality historically and we reserve the right to revoke nomination privileges from thread posters at any point in time. If you are in doubt, then feel free to start a conversation with me on here or discord prior to nominating a Pokemon and I will give you honest feedback on the post.

Blacklisted Pokemon: All posts regarding these Pokemon will be deleted (or nominations of these Pokemon will be removed)

• None (for now)

I am hoping for a productive discussion to take place in this thread throughout the generation. I am looking forward to seeing the metagame develop in front of our eyes; I find this to be a very cool prospect and it is one of the main reasons why I elect to run this thread. With this said, I am still only one person and our moderation team only consists of so many people, so try not to make our lives too hard here...post intelligently, lurk before commenting if you are new, and do not expect everything to be moderated super closely 24/7. We are all volunteering our time and effort to maintain threads like these, so we expect a certain degree of respect and understanding of this.

 

[Tungdil]

It looks like my comment is the first nomination.

Corviknight

A- to A
I think the VR doesn't reflect the importance of Corviknight. It's a solid check to dangerous threats like and . Besides being arguably the second-best Defogger in the tier.

Gengar

C+ to B-
It's a niche pick, but if you compare stats with 's, you'll see that is better. Moreover, the Poison type adds a lot of useful resistances. The difference between the two of course is that Gengar has a bad ability. But in my opinion, it should gain more attention, mainly the Choice Scarf set.

The C- sub ranking is a mess, I suggest removing some Pokemon.
, , C- to UR. I can't see these three surviving a tier full of U-Turns, Earthquake, and Close Combat. And I never see them anyway.

 

[cyberacc]

It looks like my comment is the first nomination.



A- to A
I think the VR doesn't reflect the importance of Corviknight. It's a solid check to dangerous threats like and . Besides being arguably the second-best Defogger in the tier.


C+ to B-
It's a niche pick, but if you compare stats with 's, you'll see that is better. Moreover, the Poison type adds a lot of useful resistances. The difference between the two of course is that Gengar has a bad ability. But in my opinion, it should gain more attention, mainly the Choice Scarf set.

The C- sub ranking is a mess, I suggest removing some Pokemon.
, , C- to UR. I can't see these three surviving a tier full of U-Turns, Earthquake, and Close Combat. And I never see them anyway.

Corviknight should move nowhere. The Mon is at most a must have on Stall teams and is one of the most exploitable walls in the tier. Its' terribly prone to chip, its' Body Press is mostly used to revenge Weavile and Lele can and will at any point click either Future Sight or just brute force it with Stealth Rock up. The Mon is good but with how modern SwSh plays it is nowhere near the value it was back during CG. Most good teams are often built to do Corviknight's job without having to be Corviknight, offense and balance would much rather fit another Steel type that dosen't have the propensity for passivity that Corviknight so regularly forces.

Gengar brings a whole litany of issues to the builder that Blacephalon makes up for with raw damage and intimidating stabs or by completely flipping the match in the favour of the user with its hard to account for sets. The power it brings is lackluster, the speed tier is entirely moot due to the benchmark sitting at 350, the targets it tricks are not nearly as good as the ones that Blacephalon nails and the job it does is done better by any of the ghosts sitting higher up in the VR, and the VR itself already has a litany of issues I take offense to. Gengar forces you to run away from every single Knock off in the tier, while being weak to Future Sight, forces you to slot more partners to make up for its weaknesses, does negligible damage to what it is supposed to kill (and often fails to do) and the output you get for the effort in teambuilding is not at all worth the dedication required. At most you see it as an arbitrary "need poison stab that is not GKing 6th that might also revenge kill Pult". The Mon has its uses but B- it most certainly has not earned.