Time for some VR noms!
B -> A-
With USUM coming out Zangoose was able to learn a great move in Belly Drum which in conjunction with Quick Attack, turns Zangoose into a devastating cleaner against any opposing offense team lacking good checks like Archeops and Oricorio-Sensu. It can also afford to run coverage such as Close Combat and Knock Off to hit Rock, Steel and Ghost types making it hard for defensive teams to stop too since the only good defensive measures this Pokemon has are Bulky Ghost types with Colbur Berry such as Palossand and Gourgeist. Other offensive checks such as Haunter, Scarf Oricorio-Sensu and Misdreavus are able to be severely weakened or Pursuit trapped by Dark types like Skuntank and Absol. It is also not that hard to set up the Belly Drum when paired with Memento support as the PU tier isn't really short on Memento users or just on passive Pokemon such as Clefairy or Gastrodon. Here I just want to drop a replay of me vs
Aaronboyer who's using Archeops/Sensu-less offense to show how devastating this can be:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pu-665277207
A -> A+
Ferroseed is a really solid defensive Pokemon that can be a huge pain for opposing teams to deal with. Leech Seed + Protect is able obnoxiously wear down teams without Grass-types or Sap Sipper Pokemon whilst in the meantime lay down Spikes which puts a lot of pressure on teams with Rapid Spinners or grounded Defoggers such as Hitmonchan or Skuntank respectively. Ferroseed can also take on a good portion of the tier including Rock-types such as Golem and Drill Run Lycanroc, Water-types such as Carracosta and Kabutops, Psychic-types like Mesprit and Jynx, and lastly, Grass-types such as Z-Hyper Beam Lilligant and Leafeon. When paired with a good Fire/Fighting resists this Pokemon can be the bane of your life. If you go to turn 23 in this replay from PU seasonal you can see how obnoxious it can be:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pu-663825421
B -> B+
I talked about this mon quite a bit
here earlier in the month but I still feel like all the points I made still count and that Haunter can be a very threatening wallbreaker against any team without Skuntank. Its viabilty has also improved due it being able to check Belly Drum Zangoose.
Some noms I agree with:
A+ -> S
Still kinda on the fence about this mon, at first I didn't think it should rise but now i'm leaning towards it rising to S rank. Jynx is probably the best set-up sweeper in the tier and with the invention of Z-Lovely Kiss + Substitute it can be really hard to stop since a lot of teams rely on priority moves to deal with it. It is also a very versatile Pokemon with it being capable of running sets like Sub+Lefties, Choice Scarf and Focus Sash which means it can even be used to bypass different checks and counters with different sets. Here's a replay vs
Many who had to rely on Skuntank as his Jynx check:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pu-663317067
B+ -> A-
Stealth Rock was a blessing for this Pokemon making it one of the best Stealth Rockers in the tier in my opinion. Palossands great bulk allows it to be a solid check to pretty much all of the Fighting-types in the tier which is usually hard to accomplish in one slot. Its bulk also allows it to check things is like Archeops, Raichu-A and Zangoose which are some of the biggest threats in the tier.
B -> B+
Togedemaru is actually a really nice pivot with a lot of key resistances like Ice, Psychic and Flying which allow it to switch in on predicted Ice Beams and Hurricanes and then pivot out. It is in particularly really nice for Z-Lovely Kiss Jynx and Z-Hyper Beam Lilligant who are some of the tiers biggests threats in terms of set-up sweeping. USUM gave Togedemaru the ability to use Iron Head which improves the viability of the Choice Scarf set, and with its really nice base 96 Speed tier it is able to outspeed and revenge kill the threats I previously mentioned in Jynx and Lilligant, but also it gives it the ability to outspeed Choice Scarf Primeape which is also really nice.
B+ -> A-
Eelektross is another mon that can be really annoying to deal with as it has great general bulk and can Volt Switch freely due to it threatening Ground-types like Gastrodon and Palossand with Giga Drain. It is also able to take on Grass-types that resist the Volt Switch such as Ferroseed and Abomasnow with Flamethrower. Eelekross is a great Pokemon for Bulky Offense as its ability to check a ton of things such as Archeops, Oricorio-Sensu and Floatzel whilst getting off slow Volt Switches to bring in your wallbreakers safely.
C+ -> B- (not B)
Defog definitely improves Altaria's viability and it is still a good switch in to Fire-types such as Magmortar but the reason I don't think it should be B just yet is due to it being threatened by a lot of Stealth Rockers such as Regirock, Golurk and Ice Beam Mesprit and it can also suffer from a similar syndrome to Togetic by being pressured easily because it's weak to Stealth Rock itself (although Leftovers somewhat mitigates this).
Some noms I disagree with:
A+ -> S
I think pretty much every competitive PU team should have a Primeape counter and with Palossand also improving in usage it makes it harder for Primeape to function as well as it used to. On top of this, Choice Scarfers which are able to outspeed Primeape such as Togedemaru, Pyroar and Manectric are starting to see more usage so I don't see Primeape rising any time soon.
A- -> A
Good Balance teams tend to now run good measures for Drampa such as Pokemon with Protect paired with Fairy or Ghost types and even things like Carbink getting a slight usage bump. Also, offensive teams prep for it more too by running things like Poison Jab/Explosion on Qwilfish so it doesn't get a free switch in as well as Breakneck Blitz Lilligant being more common than HP so Drampa doesn't check it well.
C+ -> B
Crustle as a Shell Smasher just doesn't have enough of a niche of Carracosta to be used. Crustle has no special options such as Hydro Pump and Ice Beam to beat counters like Costa, it has no priority like Carracosta's Aqua Jet which is able to KO Scarfers like Primeape after some chip at +2 and Crustle isnt able to outspeed these Scarfers so I really see no reason why I would use this over Costa.