VGC 21

Even though I retired from VGC I still am playing it now once in awhile. I started again on 1-31-21 and probably will continue even though I don't plan on competing. I rather help mentor some people. With that said, onto the tier list and etc.

Note that around 2-15-21 the format suddenly was announced to change back to Series 7 rules by May 1st, 2021, for Series 9. We were previously in Series 8 with one restricted allowed, now none are as of May 1st, 2021. 

My past achievements: 1st at Santa Clara PC 1/26/20, 8th at Dallas Regs 20, 1st in Galar Weekly #4 2019, 2nd at Anaheim Regs 19, 2nd at MSS 19, Top4 in Regs&Nats 2010, Top8World's2010

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Series 8:

First, before going over the tiers I think I should point out some decent combos: 

1. Palkia/Kyurem-W + Abomasnow/Aurorus/9talesAlola for Double Blizzard in Hail
2. Groudon + Charizard for Solar Power 
3. Indeedee-F + Calryrex-Shadow Rider for Follow Me + Psychic Terrain
4. Kyogre + Tornadus for a fast Spout
5. Dragapult Surf + Coalossal for the Steam Engine Boost and both immune to FO if Dyna
6. Dialga + Bulldoze Spectrier/Similar mon for unflinchable fast WP activation
7. Xern + Amoonguss for redirection and Spore for pressure
8. Zacian in back of Lapras lead (Not really a lead combo but they counter each other's weaks)
9. Tapu Fini or Grimm + Zygarde for Misty Terrain and/or screens to keep Zygarde alive
10. A fast Ghost/Inner Focus mon + Weakness Policy ally (Like Spectrier Solgaleo)

Teambuilding Guide (optional): 

1. Tailwinder or some way to halve speed like priority Scary Face or Twave or Quash

2. A very fast mon to take advantage of TW like Regieleki, or a Scarfer

3. Trick Room (P2/Indeedee/Jellicent/Whim/Hat)

4. A way to change terrain (Indeedee/Lele/Rilla/Koko/Fini/Dyna Terrain moves)

5. A way to change weather (Ogre/Groudon/Manual Weather/Dyna Weather moves)

6. A Dyna counter move (Behemoth Blade/Yawn/Ebutton Switcheroo/Wisp/Eerie Impulse)

7. Screens counter (Your screens/Brick Break/Psychic Fangs/Stat doubling moves or activating WP) 

8. Trick Room counter (ImprisonTR/ReverseTR/Powerful spread moves/Slow mon(s)/Screens)

         Soft TR counters (Taunt/Kill TR user/Flinch TR user/TrickScarforChoiceItem/PriorityEncore) 

I will not list every mon, just the most common mons and the new ones (like Zapdos-Galar)

High Tier = good enough in general to be used in a competitive tournament

Medium Tier = not quite good enough to be used in a competitive tournament unless the metagame is centralized enough to justify its niche (high potential mons like with Defiant for example). 

Low Tier = mons that are never worth using in a competitive tournament

Consistent = mons that don't need to rely on moves under 90% accuracy to do well, and are good almost all the time when picked correctly (this takes into account Dusclops for example, which can be taunted, depends on how central Dusclops is to your team winning assuming you cannot pick better alternatives when improvising). 

* = mons I need to test more to be sure it is in that tier 

I will categorize each Pokemon also by whether it is restricted or not, because only one Restricted is allowed and they stand out and cannot be grouped well along with the rest of the other mons. 

Restricted:

Unsure: Kyu-B, Rayquaza, Zamazenta, Reshiram, Zekrom, Zygarde, Eternatus

High Tier (Consistent) = 

Groudon (If Wide Lens or Dyna a lot)

Kyogre

Kyurem-W

Reshiram

Yveltal

Zacian

Medium Tier = 

Calyrex-Ice

• (the burden is getting TR for it to be good and it can get burned or intimidated and is weak to a lot of things), 

Calyrex-Shadow Rider

• (It doesn't super affect much and its 4x weakness is troubling but has high offense, maybe high tier with whim and indeedee but even then speed tie issue) 

Dialga (It doesn't counter much in general besides Torn Ogre)

Eternatus

Ho-Oh

• (4x weak, a lot of works, if dyna it loses the sacred fire burns, and doesn't really counter much )

Kyurem-Black*

Lunala

Mewtwo

Necrozma-Dusk Mane 

Palkia 

• (Seems to be a jack-of-all-trades mon)
• (Doesn't really counter the common Restricteds either)

Rayquaza*

Solgaleo (too many weaks) - Metagross is usually better since doesn't take up Restricted Slot

Xern (too many counters)

Zamazenta* (usually Zacian is better)

(Inconsistent - usually from inaccurate moves) =

Zekrom*

Zygarde* (of relying on not being critted, also gets Intimidated, 4x weak to ice, Wide Guard owns it)

Low Tier = 

Cosmoem

Cosmog

Giratina (both forms)

Kyurem (regular form)

Lugia

Necrozma-Dawn Wings

Nonrestricted:

Unsure: does Nuzzle reduce speed instantly?,  tailwind and gyro ball doubles?, +2 from ditto vs zacian lead?, trick lagging tail doesnt work instantly?, white herb + defiant for superpower?, thundurus urshifu lead combo, Arcanine,  if Burning Jealousy works vs Beast Boost type abilities even if they move last, Stonjourner, Chandelure, Brutal Swing Thundy or something similar with TW + WP Solgaleo or something similar, 

Abomasnow

Aurorus

Amoonguss

Darmanitan-G

Dracovish

Duraludon

Exca

Ferrothorn (With ID BP)

Foongus (to outspeed Torkoal in TR with Sash)

Galar Moltres

Gastrodon - Compare to Pert, main niche is Storm Drain and faster in TR

Grimmsnarl

Hatterene 

Incineroar

Indeedee-F since terrain + follow me

Indeeedee-M since terrain + TR

Jellicent - Good TR and Physical mon counter

Kartana 

Koko

Lando-T

Lapras

Mamo

Marowak

Mienshao

Mudsdale 

Nihilego 

Ninetales-Alola

Politoed

Porygon2

Raichu

• (even tho I think Marowak is the best LR mon defensively due to it walling Thundurus the best and better defensive typing in general and being a powerhouse in TR, unless they got a darkmove like the AV one) 

Regieleki

Rillaboom 

Rotom-H 

Stakataka

Swampert - Compare to Gastrodon, main niche is Wide Guard and higher stats

Talonflame (Gale Wings not working unless full hp is pretty situational for BB) 

Tapu Fini

Tapu Lele

Thundurus with Defiant LO/Band to OHKO Incin

• Counters are: Kyurem-W, Strong physical SE moves, Wisp like Sableye/Salazzle/Pult, Instasleep, Lightningrod, TR, Yawn, 2 mons that wall, Max Steelspike esp if faster, Reflect, Aurora Veil, LO max rockfall + Eweb or from Exca in Sand, them simply not boosting it, Haze

Torkoal

Tornadus 

Tyranitar 

Umbreon 

Urshifu Single and Rapid Strike 

Venusaur without Sleep Powder

Vikavolt - Good in TR

Whimsicott

Zapdos-Regular - Has Heat Wave and Static, but generally replace with Thundy

Medium Tier = 

Araq (Sun makes it inconsistent and relies heavily upon one move and needs TR up)

Arcanine (usually outclassed by Incin)

Bisharp (not good unless its ability gets activated)

Butterfree (Sleep is good and its Gmax move but fragile and not very offensive)

Celesteela (too many mons SE it right now)

Chandelure - Bad defensive typing but good ability and offense

Chansey (Too many mons can Dynamax and hit it or recover hp and stall it)

Charizard esp. Gmax (Weak to too many things, relies on weather, and is outsped by common mons)

Clefairy (just does follow me and dmg suppression) 

Coalossal - It can't take out mons that Dynamax and bad defensive typing and ally is locked into a kinda useless move. Possibly high-tier if used in back well at times.

Cobalion - Only good with Whim Beat Up

Comfey + some mon weak to fairy with WP

• (Indeedee is better for that usually since it is good for other things than just that combo alone)

Conk (Max Airstream is too common and it doesnt SE enough)

Cradily (Decent vs water mons but typically Gastrodon is better, bad def typing)

Ditto (Not enough good things to Transform into and it is somewhat hard to control)

Dragapult (Good for Surf with Coalossal and that is mostly it or Justified boosting)

Ferrothorn (not accurate without seed bomb but is alright with LS or ID body press)

Glastrier (intimidate, mons wall it, and not great def typing)

Gyarados (Electric moves too common and doesn't specifically counter much hard)

Heatran (too many mons SE it and it doesnt get off enough dmg) 

Hitmonchan with bulldoze or MP (gimmicky) 

Krookodile (but could be high-tier with a Yveltal team and Landorus-T generally has better typing and power and STAB max airstream)

Ludicolo (mostly just good vs rain)

Lycanoroc (It is fast in Sand Rush and counters Thundy but not much else)

Mandi (It lacks offense but is a decent Tailwind setter since bulky and Dark type vs Prankster)

Mence (has intimidate but lacks an offensive threat)

Metagross (rarely counters anything hard)

Mimikyu (It lacks offense and is very predictable)

Obstagoon (Not good unless its ability gets activated)

Pincurchin (it has electric surge and is slow, but somewhat fragile)

Porygon-Z (Fragile and not worth using Dynamax on, lacks Z Conversion too)

Regigigas (somewhat gimmicky)

Rotom-C (A lot of weaks and might be better grass mons)

Sableye* (Good on a sun team but otherwise probably not)

Scrafty (bad defensive typing sometimes and offense is alright)

Spectrier (too many mons resist Ghost or arent SE by it and somewhat fragile also Sucker Punch)

Suicune (Generally too weak and support alone is not good enough also lower power in Sun)

Sylveon (It doesn't super affect much and only has one STAB)

Terrakion (Good for the Justified gimmick sometimes, but not other than that)

Togedemaru (typically outclassed by Raichu in speed and in general)

Togekiss (Just does follow me), Grimm (just does screen spams and fake tears)

Top (Max Airstream is common, and it only has Fighting STAB)

Weezing (mostly just for gimmicky setups with an ally)

Zapdos-Galar (A lot of weaknesses and Thundurus is probably better)

Medium because inconsistent =

Dusclops and P2 and Oranguru (Taunt weak without hitting back hard)

Kingdra

• (Muddy Water or HP missing unless u use Scald, Relies on weather for Speed, Needs Timid to outspeed Regieleki)

Liepard (Copycat gets messed up by Fake Out, Follow Me, and etc)

Milotic (Too hard to set up the Coil set now and in general is really mostly good vs Intimidate)

Rotom-W 

Tsareena

Venusaur with Sleep Powder

Low Tier =

Articuno-Galar (bad defensive and offensive typing) 

Blastoise - It doesn't really do much offensively and isn't very fast either or good at supporting

Cinderace (it is somewhat powerful and fast but doesn't really counter anything and is fragile)

Corviknight - not bulky enough to make work and too passive

Guzzlord - 4x weak to Fairy makes it hard to use

Hydra (bad defensive and offensive typing)

Latios (bad defensive and offensive typing)

Regidrago (Dragon is just not great in doubles, where you need to SE them, and it isn't super fast or slow so hard to fit onto a tr team or any team really, also it has not a very diverse movepool)

Registeel (It is much worse than Ferro since it lacks Leech Seed) Volcarona (Too many weaknesses)

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Series 7

New Rules: https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/pokemon-ranked-battles-series-7-for-pokemon-sword-and-pokemon-shield-starts-november-1/

Here are some of the changes: None, as far as we know, except special event moves like Sing Raichu. 

As quoted from Dante Horton common meta of S7 was: 

"Coalossal+Urshifu water (aqua jet activates wp+steam engine through protect) + Dragapult Surf

Urshifu + Thundurus + Nihilego cores Tapu Fini + Glastrier + Incineroar cores WP Metagross cores + G-Moltres VenuKoal 50/50 dice rolls Rillaboom omnipresence Notable thoughts: Urshifu more or less unchecked and standard backline w/ sash a-la the way Zacian is played by low ladder right now (splashable) Japanese players loved Kanto Zapdos + Urshifu/Rilla/Incin Spain loved G Moltres in general Hard TR good in best of 3 tournaments bad against skilled players on ladder because info management

12:03 PM

Porygon2 primary TR setter (like Dusclops was in s1-4)

12:05 PM

Regigigas + Weezing w/ Weezing carrying taunt for TR leads common"

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I am thinking yveltal + lightningrod + krookodile/lando (eq mon) + intimidate (incin/lando/krook/scrafty/etc) + kartana or some other kyogre counter, + trick room and/or tailwind (even tho currently yveltal has it so probably just TR) + a 2nd dark mon