Tier List Update April 2018

[Senile]

For this month of usage, we're going to use the regular 4.36% cutoff point, to try and get the tiers into a more "accurate" ballpark of what they should look like before we start the regular 3 month cycles. As a result, there's going to be some relatively major tier shifts, but they should be significantly more stable after this month, barring updates. Additionally, in light of some of the major movements caused by this, we're going to move quite a few BL pokemon into UU for testing.

 

Moving up from UU to OU:

 

• Jolteon
• Snorlax
• Weezing

 

All of these pokemon were above the 4.36% cutoff for usage in OU.

 

Moving up from NU to UU:

 

• Typhlosion
• Quagsire
• Medicham
• Clefable
• Dusknoir
• Nidoqueen
• Umbreon

 

All of these pokemon were above the 4.36% cutoff for usage in UU.

 

Moving down from OU to UU:

 

• Breloom
• Kingdra
• Cloyster
• Jellicent
• Chansey

 

All of these pokemon were below the 4.36% cutoff for usage in OU. Some of those pokemon will likely be very strong in UU, but we have decided to not quickban anything, and will be keeping a close eye on UU for possible problems.

 

Moving down from BL to UU:

 

• Darmanitan
• Azumarill

 

Both of these pokemon were initially placed into BL for fear of them being too overwhelming to be allowed in UU. However, they are being tested in UU, for several reasons.

 

In the case of Darmanitan, a large part of the reason it was initially banned was the sheer power that Sheer Force grants it's main STAB, Flare Blitz, effectively allowing it to be spammed incredibly effectively, regardless of resistances. However, without Sheer Force, Darmanitan loses a significant amount of power, as well as losing survivability on it's LO set. In light of this, as well as the fact that other, arguably just as threatening if not moreso threats are being pushed down to UU, the TC has decided that it is worth testing.

 

Azumarill is a similar powerhouse, and will still likely be very difficult to answer in UU. However, even when it was quickbanned, it was not necessarily for being a completely unstoppable threat, but being a major, incredibly difficult to reliably stop threat. With the drop of Jellicent, it's largest and hardest counter, Azumarill seems like a reasonable threat to test out. While we still expect it to be a great threat, the projected popularity of Jellicent at least makes it worth trying out.

 

Moving down from UU to NU:

 

• Gligar

 

Gligar dropped below the UU cutoff, and is dropping.