Resource - SV OU Viability Ranking Thread [ UPDATE: POST #751 ] (2024)

Welcome to the first ever Scarlet and Violet Overused viability rankings!

In this thread, we, as a community, will be ranking every single justifiably usable Pokemon into "tiers" ranking their viability in the metagame. You're encouraged to post your thoughts and opinions on the various Pokemon that are viable in OU and what tier they should fall under. Posts in this thread will be taken into account when deciding rank changes, but the ultimate decision will be handled by OU Viability Rankings council vote during each slate of rankings -- more on this later.

The general idea of the topic is to rank each OU Pokemon under "rankings" that go in descending order. Since this is a tier list for the entire metagame, everything is lumped together. There won't be any segregation between offense, defense, and supportive presences in the metagame within this thread. For example, Rotom-Wash can be ranked in the A- tier as a supportive presence, Iron Moth can be ranked in the A- as an offensive presence, and Skelridge can be ranked in the A- tier as a defensive presence. While these three examples can also be found in the initial rankings, the viability of Pokemon and their roles within the metagame can and will change over time, so we will be sure to keep an open mind to this as well and adjust the thread accordingly during each update.

Finally, there will be a council of experienced players who will discuss and vote on the ranking of Pokemon. Depending on how the metagame is developing, we could update the thread every couple of weeks or every month+. Please note that your posts still very much matter and will be factored in to what we discuss and the discussions themselves. This thread is nothing without the posters and every informed opinion that is shared is considered a valuable contribution in my eyes, so do not hesitate to post if you know the metagame well and understand the forum rules. The council will consist of the following users:

• airfare
• ayevon
• ausma
• Baloor
• Finchinator
• ironwater
• njnp
• Ruft
• TPP
• Zneon

SV OU Viability Ranking Tier List

S Rank:

S Rank

Great Tusk

Kingambit

A Rank:

A+ Rank

Dragapult

Garganacl

Iron Valiant

Roaring Moon

Volcarona

A Rank

Cinderace

Dragonite

Gholdengo

Hatterene

Meowscarada

Rotom-Wash

Ting-Lu

Toxapex

A- Rank

Amoonguss

Corviknight

Dondozo

Glimmora

Hydreigon

Iron Moth

Scream Tail

Skeledirge

Walking Wake

Zoroark-Hisui

B Rank:

B+ Rank

Azumarill

Ceruledge

Clodsire

Garchomp

Greninja

Slowking

Torkoal

B Rank

Breloom

Pawmot

Pelipper

Sandy Shocks

Scizor

B- Rank

Alomomola

Armarouge

Brute Bonnet

Floatzel

Indeedee

Iron Hands

Polteageist

C Rank:

C+ Rank

Cyclizar

Iron Jugulis

Quaquaval

Slither Wing

Talonflame

Toedscruel

C Rank

Barraskewda

Blissey

Charizard

Gastrodon

Golduck

Grimmsnarl

Hawlucha

Haxorus

Iron Leaves

Iron Thorns

Iron Treads

Magnezone

Pincurchin

Slowbro

Tinkaton

C- Rank

Abomasnow

Cloyster

Ditto

Flamigo

Gallade

Gyarados

Hippowdon

Lokix

Masquerain

Maushold

Mimikyu

Quagsire

Scovillain

Sylveon

Tauros-Paldea-Fire

Tauros-Paldea-Water

Tyranitar

Wo-Chien

Rules - Updated as of 12/12/22

• Post intelligently. Posts like "I think pokemon X should be in this tier" will be deleted and potentially infracted if it is a repeat issue. Expand on your opinion with actual analysis showing understanding of the metagame and perhaps bringing a unique perspective to the conversation.
• Absolutely no flaming, personal attacks, or general idiocy will be tolerated. Part of this is under moderator discretion and please know that posting in this thread is a privilege, not a right. You'll get warned initially if it is not something overly malicious, but harsher punishments can and will come with repeated behavior or severe offenses.
• Usage statistics may be used to support an argument or a claim, but don't base your ENTIRE argument around them. There needs to be more substance than just this. For example, you can't just say "Pokemon X shouldn't be this tier because they aren't used that often!"
• When nominating a Pokemon to move from one rank to another, do not merely list its obvious qualities such as stats, typing, movepool, etc. If you think a Pokemon deserves to rise or drop, explain what has changed in the meta to cause such Pokemon to get better or worse. I can assure you that the VR Council already knows the obvious qualities and we are far more interested in understanding why you believe it has increased or decreased in viability.
• Unrelated discussion such as talk of (potential) suspects and unproductive one liners that do not greatly contribute to discussion will be deleted. If this becomes a recurring issue for any particular user, then it could lead to an infraction. If you are unsure where to post something, feel free to start a conversation with me on here or discord. Moreover, if you have a general question, then odds are it belongs in the SQSA, not here.
• Being OU by usage alone does not guarantee a ranking. We touched on usage not being the sole reason behind viability of anything before, but this is very true here as a lot of things accumulate ladder usage despite not being the best option. Do not mistake the correlation between usage and viability as stronger than it actually is. If you have any further questions about this, please start a conversation with me on here or discord instead of posting it in this thread.
• When new Pokemon, items, abilities, and/or anything else relevant to the OU metagame are released, please hold off on discussing the ranking of the new Pokemon or the rankings of Pokemon that are impacted by these developments until there is approval to discuss the matter by an OU Moderator in this thread.
• Failure to follow these rules after warning(s) will result in an infraction or possibly a ban depending on the severity of the offenses.
• If you are nominating a Pokemon to be ranked (meaning it was previously unranked), then you need to provide replays of it being used in the metagame and you also should go out of your way to be as thorough as possible in explaining why it has a niche in the metagame (Example of GOOD UR Nomination) -- a vast majority of nominations have been of poor quality historically and we reserve the right to revoke nomination privileges from thread posters at any point in time. If you are in doubt, then feel free to start a conversation with me on here or discord prior to nominating a Pokemon and I will give you honest feedback on the post.

Blacklisted Pokemon: All posts regarding these Pokemon will be deleted (or nominations of these Pokemon will be removed)

• None (for now)

I am hoping for a productive discussion to take place in this thread throughout the generation. I am looking forward to seeing the metagame develop in front of our eyes; I find this to be a very cool prospect and it is one of the main reasons why I elect to run this thread. With this said, I am still only one person and our moderation team only consists of so many people, so try not to make our lives too hard here...post intelligently, lurk before commenting if you are new, and do not expect everything to be moderated super closely 24/7. We are all volunteering our time and effort to maintain threads like these, so we expect a certain degree of respect and understanding of this.

--- Reserved for update log ---

Update #1: January 24, 2023 -- post

Hello everyone, this is the first edition of the SV OU Viability Rankings!

We will keep this thread locked for a couple of days and then open it up to public questions for 1-2 days, which we will try to respond to for those curious about ranks. Please hold your questions in the meantime -- we will get to them then, I promise! Thanks for being patient -- I am just a tad overwhelmed right now with everything going on.

After this stretch, it will also be open to nominations and we will engage in the normal VR process. Enjoy!

I posted some thoughts on the S, A, and B ranked Pokemon to help give some perspective.

Obviously rankings are not perfect and we will have another slate after the upcoming suspect test, but it's awesome to get something out for the people early. Thanks for being patient and appreciatove of our hard work!

With this said, the thread is now open!

You may ask questions about why things are ranked where they are, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use control+f to see if duplicate questions are there so I do not have to answer the same thing numerous times. We will try to keep questions open for 24h and get to everyone within the next few days.

Then, nominations will be open as per normal (meaning they are not yet).

post away!

Magcargo said:

Why is Dragapult S-Rank? The video mentions that its viability is similar to that of Gen 8, but it feels much more managable due to the omnipresence of Dark-type checks like Chien-Pao and Kingambit + Booster Energy Pokemon like Iron Valiant and Iron Treads that are able to keep up w/ its amazing Speed tier.

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For starters, none of the Dark types are reliably into it. But also it has the convenience of Specs from gen8 coupled with the chance to STAB Tera boost, which makes it a premier offensive Pokemon in terms of speed and power all of a sudden. This coupled with the minimization of SDef Pex and pink blobs goes a long way towards bolstering that set. We also are seeing more Band than ever, even deploying Tera Blast with Ghost to compensate at times for the lack of STAB Ghost move. Hex sets are more viable now than at the tail end of gen 8 even, but that does not say a ton.

I think Booster Energy +speed Pokemon are not quite as potent or worrisome now as they where day1 in gen9, but it's true they can revenge kill much like Sucker Punch. This can force Dragapult out for sure, but the damage is oftentimes done before then when playing Dragapult into offensive teams.

Overall, it was pretty unanimously picked as a top5 Pokemon and easily settled into S- due to this all.

Happy to see Clodsire doing good :)

Anyways, as for questions, what makes Scizor so good?

IopenwithSpinda said:

Why is Maushold D rank ?

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Super frail, gets blown up by anything faster and scarf is not an option, population bomb is unreliable if you don't run zoom lens which hinders its damage output which means it's walled by the premier walls (75 Atk is garbage, let's be real) and it gets murdered by Rocky helm and Normal is ahh offensively. Tidy Up saves it from being unranked as removing hazards is that important.

Cratersmash said:

Happy to see Clodsire doing good :)

Anyways, as for questions, what makes Scizor so good?

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It honestly peaked earlier in the generation with Sucker Punch being great into offenses and we have gotten more diminished returns since then. The main thing carrying it to even be B+ is just that it’s a Steel type with redeeming qualities offensively/utility wise (I.e: strongish, priority, coverage, and not super fragile despite losing some tools). The bar is set quite low here as builds may necessitate Steel types, but we have an all-time-low in terms of selection with the state of the available Steels in the dex. I’d say it’s more capitalizing on the lack of alternatives, besides the handful ranked higher, than it is a premier option itself

IopenwithSpinda said:

Why is Maushold D rank ?

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It realistically should be UR Imo (incoming army of salty ladder fiends). It provides little offensively and nothing defensively. Its unique movepool offers a niche by definition, but it does not actually fit into teams due to how constrained building is and how much of a dead spot it frequently is. D rank captures some niche options and some bottom dwellers that cling onto usage for now it appears.

Red Raven said:

Looking at the vr I find myself asking 'who tf are these mons' instead of 'why are they x rank'. Anyway why is there a D rank? Isn't that where we dump all the mons who have little to no place in the meta? Or is that rank reserved for Genesect in ubers?

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D rank is for Pokémon with an extremely limited niche, but one that stands out from alternatives nevertheless. You may see them on competitive teams sporadically, but not particularly often. It’s nice to give them a mention and representation without letting them dictate larger narratives essentially

Don't really have any big problem with the higher tiers, but want some clarifications on:
Garganacl - Fine with it being in A tbh, but wondering what kept it away from being A+ since it is one of the best users of Tera on slow, bulkier teams, with a large variety of options for covering gaps in teams.
Chomp/Glimmora - I definitely understand why both are below Ting-Lu, but what is it that put Glimmora above Chomp when for the most part they can do the same job, while each having their respective other niches that the other can't.

As for the one mon I don't really agree on, it is
Rotom-H - Honestly does a lot of the same things as Wash, especially when they can Tera into the same thing, with Overheat threatenings different threats from Hydro Pump such as Chien-Pao, Corviknight, Kingambit, and Tera Grass Volcarona. Certainly not as good as Wash because of the SR weakness, but why is it all the way below in D?

Edit:
Thanks for the explanation, great to know that positions for Garganacl and Chomp/Glimmora are really just on the bubble.
Using Rotom-H over Rotom-W has always been a meta call, and I might nom it to go C/C+ when noms begin, but more importantly, I just wanted to put it out here so more people can try it out to put it in a more accurate place.

escarlata said:

Garganacl - Fine with it being in A tbh, but wondering what kept it away from being A+ since it is one of the best users of Tera on slow, bulkier teams, with a large variety of options for covering gaps in teams.

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I’d argue it’s close to A+ and even borderline broken with Tera. The fast pace of the metagame allows for prepared offensive players to suffocate it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it grace A+ eventually. You bring up valid points here for sure.

escarlata said:

Chomp/Glimmora - I definitely understand why both are below Ting-Lu, but what is it that put Glimmora above Chomp when for the most part they can do the same job, while each having their respective other niches that the other can't.

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Very close between Chomp-Glimmora, but ultimately the status component of Glimmora coupled with the recent use of offensive variants (EBall for Tusk, Gleam for Tusk/Moon, EP for Gholdengo, etc as options) also spread it out and added a dimension Imo.

escarlata said:

Certainly not as good as Wash because of the SR weakness, but why is it all the way below in D?

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Really haven’t seen it much and haven’t used it once firsthand, but perhaps it’ll pick up if those aspects of it prove sufficient to include on squads. For me, it’s still limited and an uphill climb to justify it much, but I can see C rank considerations if the metagame remains kind to it.

Curious as to why Sandy Shocks is in D tier. It's not great, of course, but being a pivot that just barely eeks out past base 100 speed mons seems useful, especially paired with its strong offensive presence due to its typing + fairly good sp. attack. I get why it wouldn't be above C, but it feels like it has more of a niche than mfing maushold, especially on sun teams.

VR looks really good overall!

Thanks for putting the time and effort into making the VR.

What makes Slowking B+, and why is there a large gap in viability between it and Slowbro?

Rasar said:

Thanks for putting the time and effort into making the VR.

What makes Slowking B+, and why is there a large gap in viability between it and Slowbro?

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Short answer: Chilling Reception
Long answer: Chilling Reception and Regenerator together. It's an incredible pivot to get stuff like chien-pao and chi-yu on the field.

Rasar said:

Thanks for putting the time and effort into making the VR.

What makes Slowking B+, and why is there a large gap in viability between it and Slowbro?

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The big one is that Slowbro lost Teleport, while Slowking got a replacement in Chilling Reception, which can be useful regardless of if you want to build around Snow.
Also, both Slowtwins lost Scald, which can be argued to hurt Slowbro more than Slowking because it hurts Slowbro's ability to tank physical attackers more than it hurts Slowking's ability to tank special attackers.

TH1N3 H4MM3R said:

why is mega weavile (chien-pao) not S or S-?

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It has somewhat lower immediate power than those of the S- rank trio, which combined with its SR weakness, makes it slightly more prediction dependent than Chi-Yu and Dragapult who can just click whatever and get a kill.

TH1N3 H4MM3R said:

why is mega weavile (chien-pao) not S or S-?

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It's not quite to the level of S tier mons. At this point it's really about semantics though.

My boy Iron Treads getting some respect.

- Steel and Fairy resist.
-Amazing speed tier for something with the utility it provides
-Knocks and Spins while also being able to pivot with Volt Switch
-Defensive typing better against Ghold, Pult and Espathra
-Surprisingly not easy to switch into with Ground + Steel STAB, especially with Booster Energy

658Greninja said:

My boy Iron Treads getting some respect.

- Steel and Fairy resist.
-Amazing speed tier for something with the utility it provides
-Knocks and Spins while also being able to pivot with Volt Switch
-Defensive typing better against Ghold, Pult and Espathra
-Surprisingly not easy to switch into with Ground + Steel STAB, especially with Booster Energy

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- Ironically, loses to its past self
Better defensive typing against ghold is debatable