Weavile can't run Icicle Crash until ORAS since it's illegal with Knock Off, which is one of the main reasons to use it in the first place. If ORAS were out right now you'd have an argument (which I would fully support), but it isn't and this is a reflection of the current meta so it doesn't matter.
Oh, didn't know that. Haven't played XY since ORAS ladder was up so my mistake.
Crawdaunt is not niche at all and an excellent wallbreaker. If you think it's outclassed by Azumarill you probably have been using it wrong.
Of those pokemons that you mentioned that Weavile struggles against, the only one that Lucario does not also struggle against is Clefable. With that set you named, the rest all beat him before he beats them. So in this scenario you presented, Lucario is barely better than Weavile. And without CC, it's even easier to check. Heatran and Ferro are extremely common.
Lucario has no trouble with Mega Scizor, Mega Venusaur, Azumarill, SpD Mega Char X, Rotom-W, Talonflame, Alomomola, and Skarmory, because at +2 it OHKOes most of them with the help of Stealth Rock and a set of CC / Iron Tail / Extresmpeed. Other checks such as Gliscor and Lando-T can be beat with either Ice Punch or a Nasty Plot set.
This is true, but this only happens if Lucario gets a free turn to set up. The things Weavile is good at, he doesn't need a free turn to achieve them. A lot of these pokemon have super effective coverage on Lucario. The only ones that he can easily take advantage of and set up on are really passive mons like Alomomola and Skarm.
I'll chip in a bit in Weavile's favor. I'm not sure it's necessary to raise it a rank or not, but I'll go ahead and put my two cents in on some of it's more useful capabilities. Weavile's main niche for me is as a stall destroyer. Stuff like slowbro/mew/cresselia that are common on stall teams don't like STAB knock off doing severe damage and removing their items, which stall can't function without very well. It also knocks off chansey's eviolite, even though it wouldn't appreciate getting hit with toxic or t-wave in the meantime. It also functions as a decent wallbreaker, albeit a frail one. It can put big dents in some bulkier threats and pave the way for your sweeper to come in and clean up. Even though it's extremely frail and SR weak, weavile usually gets to do some good damage in any given match due to it's stellar speed tier which allows it to move first most of the time, and if not, there's always priority ice shard. I've actually had a lot of success with SD weavile myself, as after a SD boost, there's little that can survive weavile's boosted onslaught. Of course, it isn't easy to find weavile free turns to boost, so it's a high risk/high reward kind of thing. Weavile is pretty versatile too, being able to wallbreak, stallbreak, sweep, or revenge kill all in the same set, so it's not exactly hard to find a use for him, either. Really, I don't care whether he ends up in B or B-, but either way, weavile is a good poke who everyone should consider using.
Rhyperior: This was mentioned in the initial post by Alexwolf, but I don't remember any discussion on it. Rhyperior is one of my three most used/standard mons (the others being Victini and Latias), and it's not just personal bias for why I use it so much. Basically any physical attacker that lacks a Grass/Water move, in addition to some special electric types, finds itself checked by Rhyperior (including EQ users like Chomp + Landog); in using Rhyperior, you gain a reliable rocks setter, a Charizard-X counter, a BirdSpam (barring Hawlucha) check, a Manectric check, a (Mega) Tyranitar counter, a Victini counter, etc. It covers so much and is really effective at what it does, thanks to its excellent 3 move coverage and jaw-dropping physical bulk. I'd say A- would be plausible, but its bad special bulk probably would prevent it from ever being considered that good. It's absolutely on par with other B+ mons, and better (imo) than some, like Chansey, Skarm, and Hippo, so a rise to B+ makes sense.
Mega Ampharos: I totally disagree with dropping this. First, it has a really great RestTalk set. This set abuses Ampharos' godlike defenses, special attack, and defensive typing in order to check/counter a lot of common OU threats, including but not limited to: Keldeo, Charizard-Y, Mega Pinsir, Talonflame, Thundurus, Gyarados, Mega Manectric, Rotom-W, Slowbro, Stallbreaker Mega Aerodactyl, Magnezone, Manaphy, Breloom, Raikou, Victini, and Starmie. In a more compressed list, using RestTalk Ampharos gives you a reliable answer to bulky waters, birdspam, fire-type wallbreakers, water-types wallbreakers, and electric-types, capable of taking massive hits and dealing an impressive amount of damage. Next, Ampharos has its Agility set, and when paired with either a NastyPasser or Politoed, is able to easily sweep weakened teams. This set needs a lot of support, yes, but it isn't its main set or its best set, so the amount of support it needs shouldn't warrant it dropping. The argument for its dropping was that its use is very rarely warranted over any other mega. I disagree with this, because the selection of threats it walls is extremely unique. If using it on a stall team, it only really competes with two megas: Venusaur, which can be replaced with Amoonguss with relative ease, and Charizard-X, which, from my experience, isn't that great anymore on stall because of its Psychic, Fairy, and Fighting neutralities (ie. Victini works better nowadays as a fire type). If you're using Ampharos only a bulky offensive team, the amount of competition it faces does drastically increase, but not because of its role - merely because of its taking of the mega slot. This argument is valid, but it also shouldn't warrant a drop from B-, a rank of mons with high potential but held back by certain qualities (ie. Weavile is frail and relatively weak, Mega Garchomp takes the mega slot and is slower than base 100s, Empoleon is a bulky water neutral to Fire, Doublade is heavily reliant on its item, Houndoom requires the mega slot, Sylveon is a worse clefable in most scenarios, etc. Ampharos' bulky offensive set alone fits in this category well, since on paper it's A worthy, but its prohibiting you to use any of the other megas slightly devalues it, not to being comparable to Blastoise or Aggron, but instead to Houndoom and Sylveon.I think you are missing the point of using Zard X on stall. Zard X is a hard check to stallbreaker Mew, being immune to Will-O-Wisp and unaffected by Knock Off, and while Taunt is not fun, Zard X can work around it. Victini is much more Knock Off prone because not only is it weak to it, it also can lose its item, unlike Zard X, which makes it unable to switch into Mew as well as Zard X can. Also, Victini has no reliable recovery and gets worn down really easily, whereas Zard X has access to Roost, meaning that it is not that dependent on Wish. The resistances you mentioned are definitely useful, but there is a reason why Zard X is good on stall.
Mega Scizor OHKOes with Superpower while surviving +2 CC.
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Lucario Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Mega Scizor: 309-367 (89.8 - 106.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
Most Mega Scizor are OHKOd by a +2 Close Combat.
Granted Weavile is much better than what alexwolf is stating, although it's not necessarily a case for it moving up, but the logic you're using to describe Lucarios inabilities to handle this stuff is not good at all. People used Sleep Powder M-Venu like at the beginning of this year lol so I don't see how that's an argument. It's already been established that Lucario is designed to clean up mid-late game. Every single scenario you presented is going off of some sort of fact that everything is miraculously at full health. How is speed a factor on Lucario when it's running priority to mitigate this issue? The inaccuracy logic can only go so far considering that a majority of the sets used by many top tier threats which include Focus Blast on M-Gardevoir, Hydro Pump on Greninja and Keldeo, Focus Blast on Landorus-I and so forth doesn't change the fact they are still extremely efficient and necessary or very viable options for said mons.
Lucario is meant to sweep when the opposing team is weakened, and while a +2 Espeed failing to KO most Pokemon can be a huge drag, it is not as big of a problem as you are spinning it to be.
Idk, I calc'd Jolly. In regards to Weavile, I agree that SD is bad, but it generally does a better job than SD Luke against offense due to much higher speed and Knock Off.
But if Iron Tail is your best option against Pokemon who resist Close Combat, you'll basically have a 75% chance to win? Against Mew, Lati@s, Azu, Clefable, Gengar, Gliscor/Lando-T and so many other things? Especially when you have STAB on it?
Is that any worse than using focus blast for coverage? Because that's what iron tail is, coverage. It isn't a primary STAB move, and if it lets Lucario bypass it's most common counters, like what focus blast does for pokemon who use it as coverage, then it is well worth the risk.
Weavile is better against offense throughout a match (although Lucario is good too), but after Lucario sets up late game on a -2 Latios when everything is slightly worn down, it's way more threatening than Weavile can ever hope to be. One is an all-out attacker while the other one is a late-game setup sweeper, they're hard to compare. I think in terms of these two Pokemon, they're fine as they are in the rankings. Weavile is about as good as the Pokemon in B- rank in general, although it's one of the better ones in that rank, while Lucario fits pretty nicely in B because of strong priority + CC, and being a threat to offense or stall after SD.
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Lucario Iron Tail vs. 240 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 454-536 (113.2 - 133.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
The main boon to using Garchomp as a lead is that because of Fire Blast, it doesn't get walled by Scizor and Skarm. Otherwise Mamo and Terrakion are better leads though.
252+ SpA Life Orb Seismitoad Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Gastrodon: 185-218 (43.4 - 51.1%) -- 4.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
