As I said in my last post, I'm gonna give my thoughts on some of the recent nominations and maybe add some of mine later:I'll try and give my thoughts on the nominations that have been posted lately but for now I just wanted to make a few noms:
→ B+
Charizard X is a very slep-on pokemon that is actualy a very anti-meta threat that deserves a rise imo. I think the metagame is changing in a way that Zard X appreciates with Balance being the most dominant playstyle and it wrecking through the most common Ferrothorn + Clefable cores. People have been using the 3 Atks set more as it is really good at wallbreaking but I think DD is just its best set. This game from Smogon Tour very well illustrates how underprepared teams are against this set and how threatening it can be with the right support. This set can take advantage of pokemons like Kartana, Tapu Bulu and even Landorus-T and Heatran before mega evolution and use them as set-up fodders, and then proceed to break the most common team structures at the moment.
→ B-
I am making this nomination again, which, I think, should be having more impact now since the metagame is changing in a way it really appreciates and it has been rising a bit in usage on the tournament scene as of late as a consequence. Just like it's X counterpart, it appreciates metagame trends such as the drop in usage of Toxapex and Mantine, the rise of trappers like Tyranitar and Weavile making it easier to check Mega Lati@s and to build around this pokemon, as well as the very high usage of Grass Types like Kartana and Tapu Bulu and cores like Ferrothorn + Clefable + Heatran which Zard-Y can take advantage of. Personally, I don't think Zard-Y should ever have dropped all the way to C+ rank and the Pex usage wasn't enough of a reason to justify that imo. I could easily see that mon rising to B in the future. There are plenty of examples of Zard-Y being effective in recent tours such as this game and this one from WCoP.
→ ranked
Pyukumuku is a key pokemon in the classic Trosko Stall that has seen a huge amount of success in both SPL and OST so I believe it being ranked in the viability ranking should reflect that. What it offers to Stall is a sturdy unaware user that is able to take strong hits but also to trap pokemons with Block and PP Stall them and/or kill them with Toxic + Soak which is what separates it from Quagsire. The Trosko Stall featuring Pyukumuku can be seen in action in this replay from SPL, as well as this more recent one from OST. The last one especially shows how dangerous Pyukumuku can be. As for its potential rank, I think somewhere between C and C- (C- most definitely) would be adequate.
As for other noms, I'll talk briefly about some in this post and make another post later. I agree with most of them, mainly Gliscor, Mega Lati@s, Mew, Zygarde and Weavile. For potential changes, I share Indigo's sentiment about Mega Alakazam and will probably talk about it in my post later. I also think pokemons like M-Pinsir, M-Diancie and Bulu (SD) could rise in the future. Also, does anyone think Ttar should go back to A+? It's been rising a lot in usage lately with Reuni and Mega Latis being so common and also offers insurance against pokemons like Tran and Tornadus-T. Both Band and Scarf are really good and synergize very well with common pokemons like Tornadus-T, Landorus-T and Heatran and is seen on various playstyles including BO and Balance. I wanna hear some thoughts from you guys. more coming.
These are the nominations I wanted to give my thoughts on. I didn't want to touch other noms like Lele and Mamo since I don't think I have enough personnal experience with those mons to provide valuable thoughts even though I think they're fine where they are.
~~
Now, some nominations of mine:
Tapu Fini had already been nominated for a rise in the past but didn't end up rising. I didn't think I would support Fini at any point in the meta because of it's obvious flaws: it being quite passive, not having recovery and not being as reliable as a defogger; but the way the metagame is changing is actually one that favors Fini. Balance being the main playstyle in this meta is pretty good for Fini as it's able to mess with mons like Clefable, Toxapex, Gliscor, Heatran and Zygarde with the combination of it's STABs, Nature's Madness and Taunt. It's actually not a bad defogger sas it can defog on Clefable and Heatran which is very good. It provides amazing utility with Misty Terrain which prevents status on grounded pokemons, making it a great partner for set-up sweepers like Zygarde and M-Scizor, as well as trappers like Ttar and Weavile which I enjoy pairing with Fini to trap bulkier mons like Gastrodon. Overall, it makes for a pretty good choice on Bulky Offense teams to disturb Balance teams while also being able to take on mons like Ash-Gren, Heatran and Zygarde to an extent. It should always be paired with a secondary check to those mons such as Tangrowth for example, to make up for its lack of recovery. This replay (that I already linked above) shows how troublesome it can be to deal with this mon.
I honestly don't know why this mon has stayed in B for this long since litteraly every metagame trends seem to be going against it: Gastrodon being as good as ever, the common use of Grass-types like Ferrothorn, Tapu Bulu, Kartana and Tangrowth, Toxapex still ebing really good, the rise of CM Reuniclus and CM M-Latias, and the recent rise of Tapu Fini are all trends that affect Suicune very badly. As a result, this mon has seen absolutely 0 use in the most recent tours. Personally, I'd just never afford to run this mon on any team since it'd need insane amount of support to even work, and doesn't provide much utility in return.
That's all for my nominations but I also wanted to talk briefly about some mons which, I believe, deserve more discussion.