I’m not very highly ranked, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. This isn’t a critique of any rankings, it’s actually how much I agree with pults ranking.
Hex pult is one of the most frustrating mons for nearly every archtype to account for. Sure, it really only fits on Balance and some fatter Bulky Offense teams-mainly due to its lack of immediate power making it stronger against teams worn down by status/hazards, but if you can fit it there isn’t much that can stop pult from achieving what it wants.
It single handily invalidates or at the very least annoys the most common ways for nearly every archtype to account for it-Kingambit and Ting-Lu. Kingambit especially hates it, half the time it feels as though I have to let it get burnt just so it dosen’t reak havoc on the rest of my team, or stay in against it with whatever I have just so it at least takes some chip before I get statused.
It has very few reliable answers, Flash Fire Heatran is decent-but Pult can simply choose to slot in twave over wisp/u-turn and beat the hell out of it.
Outside of niche picks like Incineroar, the only reliable answer to it is Garganacl.
AND THATS JUST ONE SET. Sure, Specs and especially Band are being shyed away from as Balance and Bulky Offence is now beginning to revolve around breakers that can ignore hazards-like Weavile and Zamazenta, but Tusk is still going as strong as ever along with Hatterene and the innovative taunt Lando-t.
Seriously the only like 100% counter to it is Garg, and even then it can slot in Surf pretty reasonably on its specs set.
Not broken, but seriously annoying.
Hex pult is one of the most frustrating mons for nearly every archtype to account for. Sure, it really only fits on Balance and some fatter Bulky Offense teams-mainly due to its lack of immediate power making it stronger against teams worn down by status/hazards, but if you can fit it there isn’t much that can stop pult from achieving what it wants.
It single handily invalidates or at the very least annoys the most common ways for nearly every archtype to account for it-Kingambit and Ting-Lu. Kingambit especially hates it, half the time it feels as though I have to let it get burnt just so it dosen’t reak havoc on the rest of my team, or stay in against it with whatever I have just so it at least takes some chip before I get statused.
It has very few reliable answers, Flash Fire Heatran is decent-but Pult can simply choose to slot in twave over wisp/u-turn and beat the hell out of it.
Outside of niche picks like Incineroar, the only reliable answer to it is Garganacl.
AND THATS JUST ONE SET. Sure, Specs and especially Band are being shyed away from as Balance and Bulky Offence is now beginning to revolve around breakers that can ignore hazards-like Weavile and Zamazenta, but Tusk is still going as strong as ever along with Hatterene and the innovative taunt Lando-t.
Seriously the only like 100% counter to it is Garg, and even then it can slot in Surf pretty reasonably on its specs set.
Not broken, but seriously annoying.
-> B+/A- 
UR -> D
-> A/A+
-> B+ Rank
-> A/A-
: I will maybe make a longer post about this dickhead at another time but briefly: cudgel + leech + pr + sd lacks consistent counterplay that isn't unviable shitmons (defensive serp or no spore amogus) or banking that you can revenge kill it which is incredibly hard for a mon that can end games so quickly. It finds an obnoxious amount of free entry points with a good defensive typing, solid bulk, the ability to gain +1 spdef at any time, and a fairly common immunity that exploits common walls like mola/dozo. Tera Cudgel in its own right is incredibly strong and very spammable meaning it is an option you have to respect and prevents asshole plays like staying in raw with glis to click tox. Pult and Zama do a solid job of pivoting in and forcing out Waterpon once (hopefully) but they won't be able to come in twice. Quicker mons like Weav just get terad on and die. Is pretty much one progress checkpoint away from winning the game at any point and gets those opprounties very easily.
: I've flip flopped a bit on Kyurem but I think in the end it's a bit too variable and restrictive. Specs "forces" gking or volc onto every balance but since the majority of balance either is already doing this as those mons are incredible or is spamming tect on everything so other ice/ground resists can hit the field I don't think specs/boots 4a are real problems. I think where things get stupid are dd and sub 3a. dd between tera ground/tera can choose to either immediately nuke everything into oblivion or set up on fire types. I think where dd kyurem differs from other physical tera abusers is that you have to respect special so immediately going into skarm or corv is pretty much never an option and a +1 kyurem staring down gking is just far too often game ending. sub 3a (beam + freeze dry + ep) with tera steel defeats everything on its own instantly barring like blissey and gking+dirge (a core which isnt particularly easy to run.) I overall don't think it's a super healthy presence, if you think we "need" it to defeat weather than you don't fundamentally understand that weather loses to a million other things and not every team should have to run kyurem.
: mu moth. not sure what to say that hasnt been said before. capable of beating anything short of tera water dirge/bliss/clod with set variance. I just think people underestimate how consistent most volc sets are too. tera ground beats the entire tier with very little move variance (wisp for dnite, sub for gking, roost for General) and defensive sets can easily afford dragon/steel that both provide useful defensive utility while also beating common answers. its defensive utility is geniuenly great to have so it'd be a bit of a shame to ban it so it's low on my list but it is stupid.
: I don't want to run tinglu on every team or trade multiple mons on preview every game GRAHHHHHH
: Pivot Pult is the most splashable mon in the tier due to its incredible speed tier, solid defensive benefits, good utility with wisp+uturn, and geniuenly quite hard to stop breaking ability. Other sets are okayyyyy. I like sash and dd but I don't think there's much need to mess with perfection, the pivot set on its own is the best mon in the tier. It has zero bad matchups able to spam uturn even in cases where you face garg which is like its only long-term answer.
: when people tell me it's hard to remove in this tier I wonder if they have seen great tusk. this mon can end games instantly with bu while also providing immense utility with spin. this mon can run 3a boots to always spin and also knock half the team in the process. regardless of sets, is a great soft check to any mon using its attack stat. consistently amazing contributor and if this tier didnt have 20 amazing ground types it would be on every team.
: I think this mon is a little overprepared for and people overestimate how much it can overcome with set variance but even with that caveat, it is kingambit yeah. incredible game to game performer with its raw bulk and insanely strong priority making it pretty much always useful. can be ur team's primary breaker or ur team's volcarona answer, what a god. it also makes up 50% of pult's viable counterplay so Gw.
: this mon can run 500000 sets and has no one mon that truly answers it. almost always demands a sacrifice or tera response for np variants. its defensive utility is a little limited and it cant really block tusk spin that consistently anymore but I dont think that slows it down a ton. it's a jack of all trades with its only shortcomings being poor speed and 4mss. if u dont pidgeonhold urself into attempting to make 2024 gholden spikestack work this mon is an incredibly potent progress maker with valuable unique utility.
: I was a hater of this mon for a long time cuz "wahh wahh tera steel or sub own it" but shockingly if u manage to have them dedicate an incredibly valuable resource into a mon that just pivoted on them then maybe it's good. its moveset is pretty flexible if you dont restrict urself to running future sight which I think is very mediocre in this meta. has good options like psyshock/flame/tox/surf that circumvent its linearity and vulnerability. can pretty much hold down the special check down for a team on its own giving it a place on offense and balance alike. good mon!
: defeats offense instantly on its own which is very potent for balance-ho. mildly limited by the fact that u have to be good at the game to use it and triple axel sometimes deciding to be useless but it's easily the best anti-offense option in the tier while only consuming one mon slot.
: stupid ass dog provides the best revenge kill option after pult and weav while also threatening to win itself with id variants. as with weav, finds itself a strong place on balance-ho. it sacrifices winning the game instantly for a large amount of flexibility such as its ability to roar out physical threats. is a bit inconsistent as a wincon but its defensive utility is more than enough to make up for that.
: arguably warps the entire metagame around it with the ability to consistently set tspikes even through taunt/bounce greatly altering how you have to build. this is not to say that it is reliant on tspikes as it is not, glimm is the most consistent lead and getting up + keeping off + getting damage off. it also has decent set variance allowing it to make progress on preview or take matters into its own hands with meteor beam sets. it's the best poison for offense making glimmora often mandate other glimmora.
: has like a lot of sets man. swiss army knife speed control option for teams that only need it to hit the field once. can pretty much pick and choose what vital defensive mon to remove. not that great at being a wincon but I dont think it needs to be as its momentum utility and ability to lure mons is amazing.
: prio is a very valuable tool in this tier and dnite has other great anti-offense tools such as encore to help its status as a great anti-offense presence. other sets such as tera fire dd, encore tera flying, and utility give it a lot of variety while still retaining its core purpose of giving a strong offense mu. not without flaws and stops beating mons that are running coverage or knock but its flexibility outweighs these limitations imo.
: terrain is broken and rilla is a solid pivot/rk mon in its own right. also the only Good waterpon answer for the moment.
: landorus therian on his average beat the entire tier type beat but now it also has taunt and a speed tier which is randomly good at checking tusk/gholden/glimm. legend
: court change is a unique good hazard control option but this mon is lowkey a momentum god and can pick up a lot of suprise kills w coverage. I think no uturn attacking sets r defo valid too.
: this mon was not on my radar at all for the majority of its time in the tier but that has quickly changed. mg sets are some of the best role compression in the tier being able to take on a multitude of physical attackers which also picking and choosing mons to harass w options like knock/cm/twave/sticky barb/etc. unaclef with cosmic power is a very good unaware options that can sweep some offense games a lot more consistently than other unaware options, also not as reliant on tera. can fit a ton of counterplay on one set for bo/balance teams that are strapped on slots and it has some very unique traits such as the ability to actually beat garganacl.
: has settled from its prior status as God because gliscor is really slow in offense mu which is very important in this tier. it's an absolute monster in games against other balance/bo tho and its offense utility isnt so terrible to where as you cant work around it. sd still very hard to deal w longterm and tox/uturn sets give it a lot of valuable game contribution.
: BOOM GOES THE CANNON. very good at forcing kills even into its best counterplay like gking and its amazing typing allows it a lot of natural entry points. options like subcm and psychic noise make it obnoxious to stop from killing shit. its weakness is that it never lasts very long and the games in which it doesnt accomplish much before being blown up by a ballistic missile or die by bashing its head into a gking shaped wall happen more often than you'd like.
: talked about this mon to death so Cba but tldr, decent set variety between breaking swipe and booster with it posing a dangerous wincon in cases where a physical wall has been worn down. breaking swipe. isnt super reliable but booster is pretty much always a free trade minimum.
: mbounce is such an amazing tool for offense even in cases where it's not super consistent at keeping off like glimm/samuh/treads it is an immensly threatening win condition. its job should mainly to be to stop 4 layers anyways, one layer shouldnt be a massive issue for your offense. also provides hwish to a tier that currently has some insanely broken round 2 mons like waterpon and kyurem.
: this mon is ugly but has the best all around lead mu of any mon as well as being very hard to practically deny rocks. atk booster is funny.
: id lets this mon softcheck the majority of physical attackers while also serving as a decent pivot w uturn. uturn also denies some brokens like pult from getting infinite free entry on you which is a massive boon relative to some walls further down on the list. isnt gonna wall the metagame on its own but it shouldnt have to and serves as a good stopgap. plz stop trying to run fog and praying they have no gholden, just run boots tusk or accept that hazards will go up.
: great physical stopgap and wishpassing is pretty indespensible with mons like ting and skarm greatly appreciating it. this mon would be considerably higher if waterpon did not exist. sadly, it does and letting in a broken ass mon every time u hit the field is terrible. still worth using despite this so god knows how good it'd be in a tier w.o pon.
: somewhat inconsistent game to game performance and having to hit spikes is a joke. despite that, it's a very respectable breaker and getting a free spike/potentially some good knocks is nice.
: walls so many guys and can win on its own in certain mus, terrain for example. has to avoid knock and status like the plague but that's par for the course for unaware mons.
: corv prime. it sports mildy better defense and spikes as opposed to corv but lacks uturn which is a considerable trade off. letting in pult and gholden for free every time you hit the field is very bad making its diffuculty of use insanely high but sadly spikes is a good move so I do end up coming back to it a lot.
: im not 100% sure what this mon even does but the knocks it forces are quite annoying and its coverage is very good so even tho it hits like a wet noodle it is incredibly annoying to lead into tho conversly it is odd to build around.
: very consistent breaker with fire spin and water immunity is good. kinda slow for the tier and requires some pivoting/doubling to get in against offense but once it does something usually dies. run tera steel so you trap gking and have a decent chance to beat waterpon :0
: roaring mid am I right. fr tho it hates priority which is present on approximately every team ever and it is incredibly easy to trade down for. despite this, its forced trade targets such as corv and clef are potentially very annoying at enabling other threats like gambit, waterpon, and gouging. it is a little underwhelming on its own but a very respectable supportive mon for ho.
: best poison for offense not named glimmora and it sweeps a ton of offense on preview. hard to fit as keeping rocks off has never been harder and red card can easily invalidate it but worth the effort, not completely useless in terms of team comp either as it is a tremendous tool against webs.
: lunar dance is a very funny tool for some brokens running around like waterpon and kyurem. it's not deadweight on its own able to threaten twaves and trick scarf. can't be slapped on every team but very geniune threat if used properly.
: I can feel in my bones that this mon is broken as hell but it's so hard to use and so unreliable. orb is a terrible item but it needs it and it hates prio even with tera ghost. I'm sure people better than the game at me can abuse this shit cuz man is it strong in a vacuum.
another mon that I feel is fairly underexplored. saw a fair amount of usage on webs but is also pretty good on terrain ime. some stored power shit has to be very good it just isnt super explored.
I think this mon is a few meta shifts away from returning to its prized role as an annoying asshole that limits clicking physical moves while being impossible to swap into. Fortunately for now, glis weav pult rain on its parade but it is still very usable and with the proper support could even go back to ruining the tier!
-> A
C+ -> B
has seen a bit of a surge with the AoA set and Trick Scarf being a good revenge killer while not being useless into fat thanks to Trick. Coverage allows for Darkrai to be very threatening, but it is harder to fit as it is not quite fast enough alone to be a primary revenge killer without Choice Scarf while it does not cover much defensively. I think it barely gets into A rank just because people are still exploring with it and I find it on new, cool teams regularly with sets like EB or NP3a or even Sash lead. I expect it to grow into this spot and potentially to even better places.
