Hello everyone. Much like Lily, I wanted to post my VRs after this recent WCoP that I enjoyed a lot. I haven't liked an OU like this in forever, and since I watched a ton of games and played it quite a bit myself in recent months, now's the perfect time to post a recap of my vision of the tier before it takes a new direction with the upcoming DLC.
Fyi, the Pokemons aren't ranked within the tiers themselves. I will just post what I feel like is worth highlighting and won't bother with the very obvious stuff.
Tusk is without a doubt the best Pokémon in the tier in my mind. Insanely good offensive and defensive profile and useful at every moment of the game. I think SR is pretty bad on it and the 4 Atk/Bulk Up sets are vastly superior. I also find it hard to not run Rock coverage atm because you don't wanna be Zapdos/Moltres food.
Gholdengo has a broken ability and is maybe the second most customizable Polemon of the tier after Valiant. The bulky sets with NP Recover, especially Tera Fairy have been polarizing recently. There is a set that fits any team though. Obvious and great synergy with HRott for Offense and TingLu for Balance.
Gambit needs no introduction. I do believe it's very reliant on Tera to be as good as it is. And I don't mean it
needs to Tera to be this good, but you really want Tera to be on the table to use it to its full potential. It's imo the best Tera abuser in the tier. Its bulk is amazing and is one of the best offensive check to many Pokemons, especially Bax in the midgame. Its biggest flaw is that it wanna stay healthy for the late game, and it's not that good early on, which makes it a bit awkward to use at time. Big fan of max speed Low Kick because it handles both Gambit and Dondozo in the late game.
Baxcalibur is the best wallbreaker in the tier. Nothing switches on it safely and it's very good at forcing early defensive Tera against Balance . All its sets are good imo and it can fit into most teams. However it often only has one shot at doing its job and you need to find the right window of opportunity to use it. But in the right hands, it's always a very strong option. I think the Pokemon is Suspect worthy without a doubt. Tera Dragon Glaive Rush is legit not fair, and Tera Fairy is pretty insane to create set up oppurtinities while staying healthy and barely fearing any OHKO back.
All the A+ Pokemons are very good game in and out and you will never go wrong using them. A few notes:
Not much to say about Zapdos except it's solid and good.
HRott is incredible. Early Ceaseless Edge spam isn't all that when most Pokemons nowadays are wearing Boots or are paired with Tusk/Cinderace, but the SD and Knock Off/Taunt sets are both very good depending on what playstyle you're trying to target with them.
Cinderace has a very nice defensive profile, effectively giving you an offensive Gambit check on a fast momentum machine. Court Change is one of the best move in the tier because it protects you against Screens and gives you amazing counterplay against Hrott/Tinglu. Uturn is hella dropable btw because I think all of WoW/CourtChange/Fighting coverage are overall more clutch.
Dragapult is very good and would be S tier no doubt to me if Garganacl didn't exist.
TingLu has Uber level stats and is incredible imo. The best thing to keep in mind is that spamming hazards is rarely super worth it imo. I think Ruination+EQ is strong early game to get great chip against key targets like Tusk. The more offensive sets are also quite good and it has a lot of underrated versatility (all of Taunt, Stone Edge, Heavy Slam, Protect, Rest are strong for example). It also never ever dies to anything so it's pretty much a free get out of jail ticket to get the game started.
Valiant is weird to me because I don't really rate the set up sets as I think they're too Tera reliant to work. Not that they're bad, because Valiant has probably the biggest "bullshit" factor of the tier as an offensive mon, but they're not consistent and I think its too easily stopped by Flying/Poison mons without the Tera option. However, Valiant still has an amazing profile regardless imo, and the best sets will make use of Encore/Dbond/Taunt. It's also one of the best offensive check to late game Gambit.
From then on, for every subrank, the Pokemons get less consistent but remain viable of course. I will say here that the best performers are in A and above. Starting B+, I think the Pokemons become quite flawed but are still great when used to their strenghs. A- is the middle ground of that. I will leave some notes on the individual Pokemons below.
LandoT is very solid. I think the offensive sets are quite good and I like double Ground structures in general (Tusk+TingLu or Tusk+LandoT).
Zamazenta has a ton of good options between all the coverage, Iron Defense and Howl. Bordering on A+.
Garganacl is extremely obnoxious but imo all the non-Curse sets are bad. However Curse works alongside all of EQ/Block/Protect/SR. This Pokemon can command games like no other if it doesn't face the appropriate counterplay (aka a Covert Cloak user).
Dire Claw is fucked up.
Enamorus feels hard to rank. I think it has a pretty weird profile. I don't really rate the choice sets anymore because Poisons and Moltres are ubiquitous. It also very quickly loses its defensive assets after one or two switches into Rocks. Tusk running coverage for Zap/Moltres also often hurt it. However the CM sets are great and it's the most viable Healing Wisher of the tier which is great for many Pokemons. Bordering on A-.
Dondozo has ridiculous stats + ability combo and has Uber tier level of bulk. I think it has the biggest flaws of the highly ranked Pokemons but is way too good in the appropriate conditions, which is honestly just a solid defensive backbone and making sure you don't have to switch it into Knock Tusk early. The Curse sets can also be consistent win conditions.
Walking Wake is Uber tier in Sun and people underrated it for way too long until Vert optimized a good Sun team with it.
Slowking weakness to Uturn/Volt Switch sucks but the Water resistance and lack of Ground weakness makes it quite worthwile in this Sun infested meta. Watch out for Specs Enamorus though.
Torkoal is this high because Suns are in general a strong and pretty consistent playstyle as of late.
Amoonguss is very solid but suffers from Ghold popularity.
Hatto has a great combo of 6-0ing Sweeper + Healing Wish utility. Enables some cheesy structures very well.
Meowscarada has a profile similar to Cinderace except you trade Court Change for Knock Off progress. The birds are annoying though (Protective Pads is a solid option as a result), and Uturn may be droppable/should be explored because it has a ton of cool moves. CB Tera Rock is barely counterable if you predict well.
For the Pokemons below, I will only leave personal remarks when I feel like it:
Not a fan of Iron Moth outside of Sun but it's an absolute menace there and gets to have the best of both world between extra Fire stab and +1 Speed from Booster.
Skeledirge feels broken in the right conditions but its quite awkward to use because the Slack Off PPs go by too quick, and it's also a pain to chose an item and the 2 moves.
Alolan Muk feels underrated for how much disruption it causes by itself without much support.
Cresselia always disappointed me unless it was Tera Fight. Having issues into late game Gambit is awful.
Volcanion has a sick defensive profile and it's hard to switch into strong water stab this gen.
Tinkaton is a lot more consistent than it seems. Pickpocket Air Baloon is very good to cripple Tusk early, meanwhile Mold Breaker Encore is an instant ownage of a lot of cheesy teams. Knock Off + Encore is always useful game in and game out. I advice to run Speed so it can act as a Bax check too.
Sandy Shocks is overrated as fuck. I think it's quite bad outside of Sun because it feels quite reliant on pulling its Tera early to be truely threatening, which is rarely a good play. Hazards are also overrated on Offense when you could just click offensive moves.
Brute Bonnet has felt really amazing on Sun and has no true counter with Tera Fire. Just a bit awkward to use because the Sun needs to be up and you have annoying weaknesses pre and post-Tera but one of Sun's strongest soldier for sure.
Aurora Veil is strong and Aboma can pull off a nice Specs set too.
This Pokemon legit feels terrible to use in this meta. Too many natural stops especially if you can't Tera. And you need to hit to get mileage out of it too.
Feels like it has a nice potential to break balance early with QD sets or pull off a Brute Bonnet-esque role with more speed on Sun. Sleep Powder is the play there by the way.
Honestly doesnt really feel worth it without the Shed Tail support as a DDer, and choice sets are alright at best in Sun.
Priority Encore/Parting Shot + defensive Pokemons with pivoting moves (Uturn/Volt/Chilly) can really lock some game routes. Knock Off is also a constant progress maker when you get free turns. Honestly a neat little Pokemon that is way better than it looks.
All those Pokemons I think are worth using or have shown to be viable but I haven't played with them myself enough to rank them. Some are definitely better than other too in this list.