casual zu player here, some unpopular opinions
not gonna go over hail stuff since everyone knows they should be nommed and i never used hail myself so i'm not sure how high i would rank those mons
Downgrades
A -> A-/maybe even B+
this thing is not that great anymore imho, tons of stuff check it and it often isn't able to brute-force through his checks, even with cb. king's rock's loss was a huge downgrade but it's been a while since that, and it's speed tier (his best quality) isn't that relevant anymore with all this hail and random scarfers around
A- -> B
really good phys bulk, insane speed, utility... but there's that. i often see it become too passive, its really low atk meaning it can't even abuse knock off to actually do damage, i'm not even talking about nasty plot sets bc they are pretty bad. it's straight up useless against special attackers, it's only decent against physical set up sweepers, with foul play and parting as valuable tech. no recovery hurts it a lot too
B -> C
why is this here. seriously, it's outclassed as a stealth rocker, cb/lo set deal a ridicolously low amount of damage, subtoxic sets kinda work but why use such a frail mon then. the only valuable things i can see are its insane speed tier and his ok ability. that's it. doesn't even check scarf rotom: 252 SpA Rotom Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Dugtrio-Alola: 142-168 (51.8 - 61.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
C -> UR
why should anyone use this. bad typing, slow in sun, outclassed in tr, unexpectedly low bulk, terrible coverage. i think everyone can agree that this thing is absolute trash and has no reason being on the vr
there are also a few more that i would personally downgrade (namely ninetales, thievul, lapras and leafeon) but i think i can't express an opinion about them without analizing them more.
Upgrades!
(grass) C -> B-/even B maybe
ppl who say it's bad/outclassed never tried
its true power. this mon is one of the best late game cleaners i've ever used. it can hit anything in the tier for at least neutral damage, if not supereffective. especially on webs this mon is insane, but even outside of that after the opponent's team has been weakened (and maybe removed their rapidash) this mon can seriously ko anything.
C -> at least B
oh. my. fking. god. do i hate this mon. this thing shuts down most of my teams just by existing, and with the rise of hail and breakers like alolash and beartic becoming more popular priority will-o is just busted. taunt and encore are also a pain to deal with, not to mention priority recovery and utility in knock off and foul play. i'm not even kidding, use this mon
C+ -> B
my boy the birb. pair this with any defogger and you've got one of the best scarfers in the tier. outspeeding both scarf sawk and scarf rotom is amazing, and with 115 base atk you're gonna fire off some really strong bravebirds. decent coverage (even if not really needed, you're clicking brave bird 99% of the times) + uturn + super luck to increase crit ratio make this mon a really powerful attacker. it has also the option of going banded if you already have a scarfer on your team, skyrocketing up your damage output (252 Atk Choice Band Unfezant Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Tangela: 236-278 (70.6 - 83.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO); although unfezant without scarf finds itself in a very sad speed tier just below the vallys.
B- -> B/B+
the low ladder staple. although for people who come in the tier for the first time throat spray + unburden can seem the best set, it's heavily outclassed by sticky hold specs, but that's not even why i'm nomming this mon. sticky hold boots with spikes + final gambit is such a great mon in all kinds of offense/hyper offense teams, not only as a lead but also as a mon who can come in later in the game to provide that last amount of damage needed to eliminate a check. other utility moves like yawn and encore are also pretty good for messing up your opponent's strat.
A+ -> S
i said i wasn't gonna go over hail stuff, but my god is this mon good. hail offensive sets are of course super strong, but even outside of hail his "old standard" spikes set is still really good, being one of the best spikes setter in the tier together with qwilfish (
and accelgor). physdef rapid spin is also massively underrated imo, with
this stupid set i found (edit: use slush rush not snow cloak i mistabbed) you're able to beat other hail abusers, outspeeding jolly alolash after 1 rapidspin and 2hkoing with earthquake, but before attacking him set up an iron defense to be able to live all of its hits. we can all agree that this mon is one of, if not the best mon in the tier.
A+ -> S
bit of an odd pick here, but wishi has proven itself to be the best bulky pivot in the tier, expecially in this hail meta. resisting both of alolash's stabs and beartic's stab + liquidation is really good, and with its really high physdef and hp it's able to live a lot of stuff before dying. even if it usually runs leftovers, i've been enjoying boots and rocky helmet too, with the second one being able to punish even more the hail abusers. it can also run spdef to check some special attackers better, if the team already has a physdef tank (i.e. tangela). resttalk provides constant recovery, scald can provide burns and min speed uturn to get your frail attackers in is always useful. the only problem with this mon is that it overlaps the water type with qwilfish, but if i had to choose i would probably choose wishi, since there are many pokemon that fulfill the same role as qwil, while wishi is the one and only zu bulky pivot.
UR time!
UR -> C
this. mon. should. be. experimented. more. with rapidash "losing" its recovery move under hail, coalossal dying to anything supereffective and ninetales being bad, zu is missing a decent fire type to beat all the hail abusers and setters around. heatmor is a really odd pick that can surprise your opponent with a ton of different sets. i've used it: special scarf, mixed scarf, mixed boots, physical boots, physical air baloon in a team missing a ground immunity, and special specs. and there still are life orb sets, utility sets, set up sets that i haven't tried yet. this mon's main resource is its insane number of different sets, and so it can be very ambiguous on team preview. fire lash is one of the best moves in the game (see centiscorch) and this mon is one of the few mons with access to it, making it actually viable in this tier. try this mon out, you won't regret it.
UR -> C-
the king's back. well, kinda. steel types have always been a missing resource in zu
except for alolash, and adding stab knock off + good prio + one of the best abilities in the game make this mon actually some what decent. it's steel (badumtss) kinda frail even with eviolite, and its attack stat isn't the best, but i think that it could fulfill an interesting niche in some teams.
UR -> C-
this is a bit of a blind pick, but a friend of mine told me that he tried an agility guts flameorb set and that it actually was pretty good. i guess that with its base 120 atk stat boosted further by guts it's able to break through a lot of stuff, and with agility it can outspeed not only scarfers but also the hail abusers, OHKOing alolash with fire fang. i trust my friend so i decided i could try to nom this.
aaaand that's all, feel free to tell me your opinions about these noms and sorry for any eventual grammar mistake.