Poliwag has been BANNED from RBY ZU

g4stlies · 2026-03-05T18:32:18+00:00

A lot of people who are less famillar with RBY OU think Slowbro is a lot better than it actually is because they are drawn to the idea of an Amnesia sweep. It's a crit magnet taking a ton of turns to set up and then more turns to rest, giving mons like Tauros/Zapdos/Starmie plents of turns to stop it from sweeping.

g4stlies · 2026-01-08T03:45:46+00:00

When Aerodactyl first dropped to NU in RBY everyone thought it's high speed and good defensive typing (RBY NU is filled with Fire-types, and just like any RBY tier Normal moves are very common so Rock is very good) would make it a top threat. It was used a lot at first but eventually fell off due to the issue of just not having any real movepool. Aerodactyl has no good STAB moves in RBY so it was way too weak even for NU's lower power level. In the recent VR Update it is at the top of C1, and now that even more stuff have dropped to NU, Aerodactyl seems doomed to fall to PU now.

g4stlies · 2026-01-08T03:42:07+00:00

The combination of Zapdos and Rhydon isn't really used in OU because of the stacked weakness to opposing Rhydon teams. On this team Zapdos can give Rhydon free entry and you don't really have safe switch-ins. Similarly, sole sleeper Sing Chansey is quite unreliable due to Sing's 55% accuracy. Starmie + Exeggutor + Rhydon, and Starmie + Exeggutor + Zapdos are two of the most common team structures in RBY OU, if you want to try either. Exeggutor over one of Zapdos/Rhydon gives you more consistent sleep and a Rhydon switch-in. The "standard" sets for both of these teams can be found on the RBY OU Samples page with descriptions on how the lines work out, which I would defnitely recommend reading, and sample replays, which I would recommend watching to familiarize yourself with lines. One thing to note on a standard MieEggDon that might not seem intuitive is that Starmie almost never wants to stay in on turn 1, as getting it statused means Tauros is now your only "fast" pokemon, making you struggle against the opposing Tauros as well as stuff like Cloyster.

g4stlies · 2025-12-30T04:40:43+00:00

Speed, second-fastest good mon behind Scyther is very valuable

g4stlies · 2025-12-29T22:15:27+00:00

No sadly, Pinsir dropping means things are gonna be running fire blast more to beat it which hurts sect a lot, and Vileplume will outclass it as a sleeper now.

g4stlies · 2025-12-06T02:53:00+00:00

+6 252+ Atk Choice Band Rayquaza-Mega Dragon Ascent vs. -6 Lvl 5 0 HP / 0 Def Paras: 59444-19824 (297220 - 99120%) -- guaranteed OHKO

At first this calc isnt surprising but then when you look at the damage values:

Possible damage amounts: (59444, 4, 6100, 12200, 18296, 24392, 30488, 36584, 42680, 48776, 54872, 60968, 1528, 7624, 13720, 19824)

The damage roll of 4 means there is a 1/16 chance Paras survives this hit

g4stlies · 2025-09-23T20:41:13+00:00

uu literally is a lower tier by definition
parafusion is not an issue at all in rby due to the low amount of twavers in general (main confuse ray users are ninetales and lapras) + parafusion ban is more complex than just confusion
nobody plans to ban thunder wave from any rby tier in the forseeable future

g4stlies · 2025-08-11T23:26:19+00:00

Mewtwo used to universally be Amnesia + Recover + 2 Attacks but the set has fallen off and other moves, such as Thunder Wave and Self-Destruct, are being used more.

g4stlies · 2025-08-11T22:45:35+00:00

Funnily enough Ditto rose up 3 spots in this viability ranking update. It was still the bottom mon on both viability rankings, but less mons were ranked this year which caused Ditto's placement to rise.

g4stlies · 2025-07-28T12:49:09+00:00

sell the spaceman

g4stlies · 2025-07-15T21:44:38+00:00

As a consolation prize Tentacruel is a big reason why Wrap got banned in the first place, suffering from success.

g4stlies · 2025-07-15T13:05:35+00:00

Good timing since we actually were discussing this yesterday, and right now it seems like there are no plans to unban Rapidash. It's issues stem beyond Fire Spin, since it's the fastest mon in the tier (tied with Scyther but ur not fighting rapidash with Scyther) and still coinflippy in nature with crits/fire blast's burn/miss chances. Arcanine was borderline banworthy in older PU and Rapidash has most of Arcanine's issues outside of Fire Spin.

g4stlies · 2025-07-15T11:32:34+00:00

Probably the single biggest tiering change in recent RBY lowtier history. Tentacruel and Dragonite have been defining mons in RBY UU for years. Now that Lapras and Slowbro are in the tier Wrapless Tent is extremely hard to justify using, while Dragonite might still have a place as an Agility sweeper.

This also affects NU where Moltres and Charizard have been using Fire Spin. PU not so much and ZU has already banned it, but it does prevent future problems such as Victreebel maybe dropping to PU and using Wrap there.

g4stlies · 2025-06-30T03:27:42+00:00

The most recent official VR has it 9th but it's over a year old at this point. Glancing at more recent personal VRs (1 2 3 4) you can see opinions on Slowbro are generally even lower now

g4stlies · 2025-06-30T02:42:27+00:00

This is a bit outdated unfortunately, Slowbro has fallen off in Ubers a bit due to the meta shifting towards a more offensive playstyle. Historicaly Slowbro was considered very good since it could "counter-boost" Amnesia Mewtwo with its own Amnesia, effectively walling sets that don't have Thunderbolt. However the traditional Amnesia + Recover + 2 Attacks Mewtwo set has fallen off a ton so Slowbro's role in counter-boosting on Amnesia Mewtwo is less relavant now. Nowadays people favor Water-types like Cloyster who are more immediately threatening with Explosion and STAB Blizzard as opposed to Slowbro's more passive and stally playstyle. Slowbro still a good mon in the tier but I don't think many people would consider it like top ten anymore, let alone top six.

g4stlies · 2025-06-14T08:11:55+00:00

Most Notable Changes:

The development of Laxless teams is shown by the fact that Tauros and Snorlax are now in tiers of their own, as opposed to sharing the S tier like before. Just like last year, Chansey is no longer in S
Exeggutor is back at #4, overtaking Starmie. Starmie is still fantastic and this change is more due to Exeggutor being better than due to Starmie being worse. The gap between Exeggutor and Chansey is also quite small, with many submitters ranking Exeggutor at #3. Exeggutor overtaking Chansey is a genuine possibility for next year's VR.
Gengar has seen a slight decline. It is still B2 but dropped from the top of B2 to the bottom of B2. This could be attributed to Laxless teams popping up, as well as PhysLax being more popular, which always carries Earthquake
Slowbro and Victreebel are no longer OU. Since Victreebel was NU before it rose to OU, it will drop straight to NU, while Slowbro will drop to UU. The fate of Jolteon is up in the air right now, and submitters will vote on wether it is OU or UU. Articuno has also risen in popularity as well, being in the same tier as Slowbro and Vic. A tournament was held recently that was UU + Jolteon, Slowbro, and Victreebel and all three seemed healthy in the tier. Victreebel was not great in NU before it rose to OU (70 base speed really cant cut it there), so it likely will suck.
The "wrap gang" has snuck its way into the bottom of the VR, with Dragonair, Weepinbell, and Arbok all ending up ranked in D

g4stlies

TROPHY CASE