tinkaton tier is a joke tier, my actual ranking is Tier 5 behind Baxcalibur
So I ranked every viable Pokémon in SV DOU. The tiers are ordered, but tier 5 specifically is pretty loosely ordered because I stopped caring by then. This post is mostly a collection of nominations for the Viability Rankings, but the tier list is a pretty nice visual. I will be including replays, but as there haven't been very many SV DOU tournaments yet, they will be mostly my own replays. I don't know if this is past the deadline but hopefully it's at least considered for the next slate if it is, because this took forever
Tier 1 Nominations
Annihilape
![Resource - SV Doubles OU Viability Rankings (2) Resource - SV Doubles OU Viability Rankings (2)](https://i0.wp.com/www.smogon.com/forums/media/minisprites/annihilape.png.m.1716648629)
Annihilape is the only tier 1 Pokémon i haven't talked about at some other point, which is a crime because it's VERY dumb. Rage Fist is an insanely powerful attack with great neutral coverage. It goes up by 50 base power every hit, making it perfectly reasonable to get up to 150-200 base power. It has a great attack stat and Bulk Up on top of this, so Rage Fist is going to hit like a truck on anything that doesn't resist it. Speaking of resists, this Pokémon literally has none. Ghost/Fighting is perfect coverage, and it has great Fighting-type STABs with Close Combat and Drain Punch. The fact that it also resists nothing can be mitigated with Terastallization allowing it to become an unrelated defensive type like Water or Steel. It also loses STAB bonus on rage fist, but not having STAB on a 350 base power move isn't exactly a make-or-break difference. It doesn't even really need to invest in it's attack stat if it's running Bulk Up, allowing it to invest in it's bulk to take more hits, and by extension increase the power of Rage Fist. It also has 110 base HP and Final Gambit, allowing it to act as a delete button against anything not named Ting-Lu. This Pokémon is pretty obviously unhealthy and should at least be suspected.
All the other Pokémon in Tier 1 I've talked about before in this post, so I'll be moving on to tier 2
Tier 2 Nominations
Amoonguss
![Resource - SV Doubles OU Viability Rankings (3) Resource - SV Doubles OU Viability Rankings (3)](https://i0.wp.com/www.smogon.com/forums/media/minisprites/amoonguss.png.m.1716648629)
Amoonguss is the best balanced Pokémon in the tier. Without Tapu Fini, it lost one of the main things preventing it from spamming Spore, meaning the only counterplay to it's sleep moves are Grass-types, which there are a very limited amount of, and Safety Goggles, which is otherwise a waste of an item slot and has serious opportunity cost over other items if your opponent just doesn't have an Amoonguss or Brute Bonnet. Amoonguss is also the most consistent check to Dondozo with Clear Smog and the best redirector with Rage Powder. It also has a great defensive typing, and it's Poison typing allows it to be a great Toxic Spikes absorber in combination with Regenerator. It can also Terastallize into a Water or Rock-type to more easily pivot around Sun teams. It's item slot is also very flexible. It can run Eject Button with Palafin to act as a defensive pivot for it to more easily activate it's ability, and has great synergy with it's ability Regenerator, Sitrus Berry gives it additional recovery and can turn 2HKOs into 3HKOs, and Covert Cloak allows it to ignore moves like Fake Out, making it even more potent as a Spore user. This Pokémon is amazing, the only reason it's not in tier 1 is because tier 1 is reserved for Pokémon I would consider potentially broken, and I don't think Amoonguss is quite at the level of Chi-Yu or Flutter Mane in that regard. Regardless, it's an amazing Pokémon, but in a way that's healthy and not overbearing.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-1729115767-pza1s8c1tvt22b6scx5drajnw372zvppw
Torkoal
I really don't have much to say about this one. It's just a good Drought user and defensive pivot. Sun is amazing this generation because of the Paradox Pokémon that benefit from it, and Torkoal is a great enabler. Eject Button Torkoal is the most common set I've seen but Charcoal and Sitrus Berry are likely also usable. It's also the main Trick Room beneficiary on such teams, with Eruption and Tera Fighting Body Press sets both being usable. It's just a really solid mon that enables a ton of brokens, there's really not too much to say
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-1716694343
Dragonite
Dragonite is one of the best users of Terastallization this gen, Tera Normal Extreme Speed hits like a truck and ignores speed control. It even outspeeds other priority moves like jet punch and sucker punch. I've already talked about what Dragonite does in my Terastallization post, so I won't repeat myself for the sake of time, but this mon is cool.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-1719198496
Glimmora
Glimmora is the premier hazard stack Pokémon this generation. It does mostly the same thing regardless of it's set, but it has a few different options to spice things up a little. It's main set is Spikes/Stealth Rock/Sludge Bomb/Power Gem with Focus Sash, but it has a few options outside of that. It can run Spiky Shield over Spikes on teams that already have a Spikes Pokémon, it can use Earth Power over Power Gem for the mirror and to hit Steel-types that would otherwise wall it, and Mortal Spin is an option over Sludge Bomb, but is only ever really worth it on hard stall. Focus sash can also guarantee Glimmora two layers against physical attackers, or guarantee it Stealth Rock or one layer of Spikes. It's Poison typing also allows it to absorb Toxic Spikes from opposing Glimmora. Personally I think this mon is insane, I've been using it a ton.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-1719198496 (same replay i used for dragonite but this also slowcases glimmora fairly well)
Gyarados
Gyarados is also pretty solid right now. It's nothing special, but it does what it needs to do and does it well. Dragon Dance sets can make good use of Ground-type Terastallization with Earthquake which is really good right now. It also has a support set with Taunt and Dragon Tail, and while I'm not a huge fan of it, I will acknowledge it's existence. Gyarados is fine, DD is a cool wincon with defensive utility in Intimidate and the support set... exists.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-1719301415
Scizor
Scizor is the best user of Tailwind in the tier. It has a great defensive typing and good bulk that it can afford to invest into. It's low speed, which might appear to be a detriment to it due to the dynamic speed changes, actually benefits it because it gets access to slow U-Turn and can run Bullet Punch to bypass it's speed stat entirely. It can even run Choice Band sets to further boost Bullet Punch. It's overall a very solid and splashable mon.
Garganacl
Garganacl functions pretty similarly to Registeel, except it's actually good. It has Iron Defense and Body Press along with good natural bulk, but is also immune to status conditions due to it's ability, so you can't just burn it to make it's damage output manageable or hit it with Toxic (not that much even gets Toxic anymore) It also has access to Salt Cure which does great passive damage that persists until they switch out or die, and Recover which is good for obvious reasons. It was also clearly designed with Terastallization in mind, as it's an amazing user of it defensively. Grass and Fairy are good defensive types for it to turn into, but it can also run Fighting to power up Body Press or even Ghost which only has one weakness because of it's ability (granted it's an extremely common weakness).
Arcanine
Arcanine always goes hard in dex restricted formats. It has access to Snarl and WIll-O-Wisp as well as Intimidate, making it an amazing debuffer that can do surprisingly decent damage with Flare Blitz. It's a great mon into Sun teams and can take hits from Chi-Yu + Flutter Mane pretty well due to it's pretty decent natural bulk and ability to debuff with Snarl. It also benefits quite a bit from Terastallization, but I talked about that in my Terastallization post.
Chien-Pao
This is the one I'm the least confident about, and there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus on it. Some people think it's pretty good (myself included) but I've also seen other people saying it's garbage, so I'm not really sure if this is a hot take or not. Regardless, Chien-Pao on it's own is pretty epic. Ice and Dark are both amazing offensive types, and it also gets Sacred Sword. It's also an amazing user of Terastallization, with Tera Fighting to power up it's Sacred Sword or just Tera Ice or Dark to power up its STABS. Ice/Dark, while an AMAZING offensive pairing, is extremely weak defensively, but Terastallization fixes that problem for it, allowing it to simply change it's typing into something more effective defensively, like Fighting. Additionally, It's ability makes all of it's attacks even more difficult to switch into as well as enables it's physical attacking teammates. Speaking of enabling it's teammates, you may notice that a lot of the Pokémon I've just talked about (Annihilape, Dragonite, Gyarados, Scizor) and some of the other Pokémon in the higher tiers (Iron Valiant, Palafin, Garchomp, etc.) really benefit from the defense of other Pokémon being lowered. That's what makes Chien-Pao such a great Pokémon in my eyes. It's great on it's own offensively, but also enables its teammates to do more damage just by existing on the field with them. Personally I think it deserves tier 2, but if you think it's tier 3 that's fine too, not really willing to die on this hill
Tier 3 Nominations
Palafin
Palafin is an extremely strong priority user. Jet Punch hits like a truck with Terastallization and Choice Band boosting it. It also pairs very nicely with Scizor and Eject Button Amoonguss, both of which are already good Pokémon. It has decent coverage moves too with Close Combat and Zen Headbutt. I could also see Palafin being tier 2, but I just don't think it's better than Pokémon like Scizor, so top of tier 3 behind Garganacl makes sense to me (Though tier 2 is also a pretty respectable ranking for it imo)
Garchomp
Really good Earthquake user. It's fast and decently strong with Ground + Rock coverage. It also gets access to Swords Dance and is a great user of Clear Amulet. Sand Veil also allows it to work well on Sand teams. Pretty solid mon, but nothing special, not much to say here.
Tyranitar
Does pretty much everything it did last gen, those things being hazard setting in combination with Sand chip and Dragon Tail to spread damage. It gets even more value now because of how common hazards are in this meta (so many Pokémon got Stealth Rock/Spikes) and the fact that it beats Sun, the best weather.
Farigiraf
This is another mon I don't have much to say about. It's a good Trick Room user that blocks priority while doing decent damage in the process. It also fits fairly nicely on sun teams as a Torkoal support. It's pretty good on Trick Room teams and is a pretty consistent setter.
Iron Hands
Iron Hands has great stats and access to Fake Out which is pretty hard to come by with every viable Fake Out user from generation 8 being dexited. It's a great AV user and has access to Volt Switch for pivoting as well. It's insanely bulky to the point where it's near impossible to OHKO with any unboosted attack, and still does good damage because it has 140 base attack. It does come with an Earthquake weakness though, which is very unfortunate in this meta where Earthquake is one of the best attacking moves.
Brute Bonnet
Brute Bonnet is basically just a more offensive, but worse Amoonguss. It actually does decent damage, especially on Sun teams, and Close Combat + Sucker Punch is really decent coverage, as well as having access to Spore. The problem is mostly it's typing. Grass/Dark is a pretty bad defensive type, and while it can Terastallize to get around this, dedicated Terastallization users are generally pretty bad, and even then Brute Bonnet would much rather use it's Terastallization offensively. It's still really good though, this meta is lacking good offensive Grass-types and Brute Bonnet fills that niche pretty well.
Chansey
This mon will probably always be viable through just raw stats. It does the exact same thing it's done in every generation prior, but it fits very nicely on hazard centric stall teams which this meta is full of. It's just an insanely bulky wall that can spread damage and status, and a lot of teams seriously struggle to break it.
Iron Bundle
This Pokémon isn't very popular right now, but I think it has some serious potential. Hydro Pump and Freeze-Dry is amazing coverage, and it's also a great partner for Chi-Yu. Right now people aren't really experimenting with alternate Chi-Yu partners because, for the most part, Flutter Mane is just better, but Iron Bundle could end up being a really good option if/when Flutter Mane gets banned, or on teams that benefit more from it's typing/coverage.
Great Tusk
Great Tusk has Disgusting damage output and Ground and Fighting are amazing offensive types. Headlong Rush also hits like a truck, 2HKOing most neutral targets, and Earthquake is a very strong spread move with very few resists. Great Tusk also has access to Rapid Spin, which removes hazards (with how popular Glimmora is, hazard removal actually gets a ton of value) and gives it +1 speed, allowing it to outspeed almost every relevant Pokémon in the meta. This Pokémon is amazing, it does so much damage and actually has pretty decent bulk as well.
Roaring Moon
This Pokémon is the weirdest bad Pokémon I have ever seen. It shouldn't be bad, and on the surface it's actually very good. It has a lot going for it, like a good speed tier, great base attack, a deep movepool, and Tailwind which it's the current best user of (which is realistically the only reason it's even ranked this high). So what's wrong with it? well, all of it's moves are weak. It has no strong, high base power delete button like so many other strong offensive Pokémon in the tier right now. It has one move above 100 base power, which is Acrobatics. Acrobatics is unironically not a bad option on it with booster energy and Flying-type Tera, but it's usually not a good idea to spend your Terastallization on it, as in most matchups it's optimal to just get Tailwind up and click moves until you die, and you preferably want your Terastallization user to have more impact on the game, especially if it's a dedicated Tera like Roaring Moon. It's not terrible though, it's the only tailwind setter that does decent damage offensively (other than Scizor which isn't nearly as fast as Roaring Moon) and Dragon Dance sets with proper support can be quite threatening.
Maushold
Maushold is currently the best user of Follow Me and has access to Population Bomb, which is an extremely strong multi-hit move with good coverage, sitting at a staggering 200 base power if you connect every hit. It also gets other good support moves like Super Fang and Encore and has a pretty decent speed tier as well. Very solid Pokémon, arguably tier 2 but tier 3 makes more sense to me.
Pawmot
Pawmot may seem a little weird this high up, but it's for good reason. It pretty much does what Zeraora did last generation with fast Fake Out and strong Electric STAB, but it also has access to STAB Close Combat and Revival Blessing, which may actually be the single most broken move ever (not including Z moves obviously). Being able to revive a teammate is huge, and it can run Leppa Berry and allow you to do it twice in one game, which is insane value. Pawmot itself isn't phenomenal in my opinion, but Revival Blessing is so broken I think it deserves at least tier 3
I don't feel like writing for tiers 4 and 5 as this post is already 2k+ words, but I will highlight some specific Pokémon from the lower tiers
Dondozo/Tatsugiri
This pair may actually be broken. I didn't know where to put it so I just put it in tier 4 to be safe, but the discovery that you can't actually phase Dondozo after Commander activates is huge. Because outright killing Dondozo at +2 is pretty much not an option, the only reliable counterplay to all Dondozo sets is Haze and Clear Smog, and the best user of Haze is Murkrow Dondozo + Tatsugiri feels pretty warping right now, if you don't have the very specific tools required to deal with it you literally just lose the game, which doesn't seem particularly healthy.
Iron Valiant
Iron Valiant definitely has potential to be extremely good, I just don't think I've seen enough of it to be convinced it ranks much higher than this. Mixed Booster Energy is a very good late game cleaner, and it's typing means it could probably have some use as a stallbreaker, as it hits a lot of Pokémon commonly used on stall super-effectively. Fighting Fairy is an extremely good offensive typing, and it has a good movepool and stats to back it up, it just hasn't been used enough to rank any higher than where it is right now in my opinion
Gothitelle
Interestingly, I think Gothitelle without Shadow Tag has some serious potential. Fake Out users are very limited this generation and Gothitelle is an amazing user of it, it has great utility moves in Heal Pulse and Hypnosis, and it's an amazing Trick Room user. Frisk is also an extremely useful ability for scouting items, specifically on Pokémon like Flutter Mane which have several viable items that aren't immediately obvious due to the fact that it runs the same few moves on literally every set. It basically functions as a sort of budget Mew, a bulky Fake Out user with good support options.
Skeledirge
I personally think this Pokémon has a ton of potential on Glimmora teams. Torch Song and Hex is a pretty powerful STAB combination on Toxic Spikes Teams, and it also gets access to good debuffing options on more stallish teams like Will-O-Wisp and Snarl. This mon could very easily run away with games on more offensive Torch Song sets, and is a decent debuffer with Snarl + Will-O-Wisp. It hasn't seen much usage as of right now, but it could potentially end up being a nice option on Balance teams once the meta settles more. Or I'm just on copium because I love it's design, both are equally possible
Gastrodon
Gastrodon got directly buffed by getting access to Spikes this generation, but it also got indirectly buffed, as options for offensive grass types that beat Gastrodon are VERY limited. Gastrodon's typing is also very valuable this generation defensively, allowing it to pivot around Sun, neutralize Palafin and to a lesser extent Dondozo with it's ability (it can also run clear smog specifically for Dondozo), and take hits from the infamous Chi-Yu + Flutter Mane duo. This Pokémon has actually seen a decent amount of use to my knowledge, and I unironically think it's going to be pretty good this generation (at least before Pokémon Home)
Alright, those are all the Pokémon I wanted to talk about. Sorry for the long post, I had a lot to say. I also really hope this isn't past the deadline, as that would be MOST unfortunate. Also please remember these are just my opinions. I'm not trying to say that if you think something is higher/lower than where I placed it, you're wrong. This is also based on my own personal experience mostly, so Pokémon I haven't seen as much are probably ranked lower. If you made it to the end, thanks for reading, I appreciate it :D