Resource - SV PU Viability Rankings (2024)

Welcome to the SV PU Viability Rankings!

Here we will rank every viable Pokémon in PU as a community. This is intended to be an aid to teambuilding and a reflection of the current metagame, as well as a spark to discussion on these things.

Now that we have progressed to letter rankings, we are accepting nominations for rank changes and newly ranked pokemon. The VR council will now be voting on nominations from posts here rather than large sweeping votes on the whole tier. Please ensure your nominations are well considered and backed up with evidence as this may sway the votes!

Tiers are currently ordered alphabetically, this may also change as the tiers get more nuanced over time.

Our current VR council is made up of the following members:

S tier

• 

  Bellibolt

• 

  Slowbro-Galar

A tier
A+

• 

  Arcanine

• 

  Delphox

• 

  Florges

• 

  Inteleon

• 

  Skuntank

• 

  Tauros-Paldea-Aqua

A

• 

  Bronzong

• 

  Flamigo

• 

  Gastrodon

• 

  Gligar

• 

  Golurk

• 

  Kilowattrel

• 

  Milotic

• 

  Mudsdale

• 

  Rotom-Heat

• 

  Scrafty

• 

  Staraptor

• 

  Tauros-Paldea-Fire

• 

  Toxtricity

• 

  Wo-Chien

• 

  Zoroark

A-

• 

  Altaria

• 

  Articuno-Galar

• 

  Bombirdier

• 

  Decidueye

• 

  Emboar

• 

  Goodra

• 

  Grimmsnarl

• 

  Houndstone

• 

  Pawmot

• 

  Salazzle

• 

  Sandslash-Alola

• 

  Scream Tail

• 

  Scyther

B tier
B+

• 

  Ambipom

• 

  Bruxish

• 

  Coalossal

• 

  Duraludon

• 

  Electrode-Hisui

• 

  Hariyama

• 

  Heracross

• 

  Meloetta

• 

  Minior

• 

  Oricorio-Sensu

• 

  Rotom-Mow

• 

  Tatsugiri

B

• 

  Abomasnow

• 

  Decidueye-Hisui

• 

  Dudunsparce

• 

  Farigiraf

• 

  Froslass

• 

  Glastrier

• 

  Grafaiai

• 

  Hitmonlee

• 

  Palossand

• 

  Qwilfish

• 

  Sandaconda

• 

  Tornadus

• 

  Virizion

B-

• 

  Avalugg-Hisui

• 

  Braviary-Hisui

• 

  Exeggutor-Alola

• 

  Kingdra

• 

  Lycanroc

• 

  Mesprit

• 

  Qwilfish-Hisui

• 

  Regirock

• 

  Sandslash

• 

  Snorlax

• 

  Whimsicott

C tier
C+

• 

  Alcremie

• 

  Hoopa

• 

  Sceptile

• 

  Toxicroak

• 

  Vikavolt

C

• 

  Charizard

• 

  Ditto

• 

  Drifblim

• 

  Floatzel

• 

  Frosmoth

• 

  Jolteon

• 

  Lanturn

• 

  Magneton

• 

  Mismagius

• 

  Muk

• 

  Orthworm

• 

  Poliwrath

• 

  Porygon2

• 

  Rhydon

• 

  Smeargle

• 

  Sneasel

• 

  Thwackey

• 

  Uxie

This post is reserved for VR council voting history. Find the voting histories below:

We have an update for the SV PU Viability Rankings! This update progresses us from preliminary "Top/High/Mid/Low" tiers to more specific letter rankings as are standard for a more developed VR. The voting has changed ranks as follows:

Top

Flamigo -> A
Florges -> A+
Slowbro-Galar -> S

High

Altaria -> A-
Arcanine -> A+
Articuno-Galar -> A-
Bellibolt -> S
Bronzong -> A
Delphox -> A+
Emboar -> A-
Gastrodon -> A
Gligar -> A
Golurk -> A
Goodra -> A-
Grimmsnarl -> A-
Inteleon -> A+
Kilowattrel -> A
Milotic -> A
Mudsdale -> A
Pawmot -> A-
Rotom-Heat -> A
Salazzle -> A-
Sandslash-Alola -> A-
Scrafty -> A
Scream Tail -> A-
Scyther -> A-
Skuntank -> A+
Staraptor -> A
Tatsugiri -> B+
Tauros-Paldea-Aqua -> A+
Tauros-Paldea-Fire -> A
Toxtricity -> A
Wo-Chien -> A
Zoroark -> A

Mid

Abomasnow -> B
Ambipom -> B+
Bombirdier -> A-
Bruxish -> B+
Coalossal -> B+
Decidueye -> A-
Decidueye-Hisui -> B
Dudunsparce -> B
Duraludon -> B+
Electrode-Hisui -> B+
Glastrier -> B
Grafaiai -> B
Hariyama -> B+
Heracross -> B+
Hitmonlee -> B
Houndstone -> A-
Kingdra -> B-
Meloetta -> B+
Mesprit -> B
Minior -> B+
Oricorio-Sensu -> B+
Palossand -> B
Qwilfish -> B
Regirock -> B-
Rotom-Mow -> B+
Sandaconda -> B
Snorlax -> B-
Tornadus -> B
Virizion -> B

Low

Alcremie -> C+
Avalugg-Hisui -> B-
Braviary-Hisui -> B-
Charizard -> C
Ditto -> C
Drifblim -> C
Exeggutor-Alola -> B-
Farigiraf -> B
Floatzel -> C
Froslass -> B
Frosmoth -> C
Hitmontop -> UR
Hoopa -> C+
Jolteon -> C
Lanturn -> C
Lycanroc -> B-
Magneton -> C
Mismagius -> C
Muk -> C
Orthworm -> C
Poliwrath -> C
Porygon2 -> C
Qwilfish-Hisui -> B-
Rhydon -> C
Sandslash -> B-
Sceptile -> C+
Smeargle -> C
Sneasel -> C
Thwackey -> C
Toxicroak -> C+
Uxie -> C
Vikavolt -> C+
Vulpix -> UR
Weezing -> UR
Whimsicott -> B-

The full VR council voting for this round is linked here.

As an additional note, you may notice the creation of the C+ tier despite that tier not being a category for voting on. Due to C tier being very large and there being a significant enough number of pokemon with split votes in the area of B- to C, this tier was created.

Now that we have progressed to letter rankings, we are accepting nominations for rank changes and newly ranked pokemon. The VR council will now be voting on nominations from posts here rather than large sweeping votes on the whole tier. Please ensure your nominations are well considered and backed up with evidence as this may sway the votes!

658Greninja said:

Snorlax being a B- mon in PU is kinda wild. What happened to my boi?

Click to expand...

Most of the A rank Pokémon are Fighting-types

I'd like to kick off with a couple nominations in the hopes it inspires others to make their own noms.

Naclstack UR -> B

Naclstack is currently the only Unranked pokemon present in our sample teams, which I think is argument enough to include it in our VR. Naclstack is quite well matched into this tier, with its high bulk/status immunity/Salt Cure being a nuisance for our fat mons, and it being a specially bulky mon that can still prevent an Arcanine sweep (and win vs it in the case of curse sets) is a very clear role for it in teams.

Hoopa C+ -> B

Hoopa has been quite clearly underrated in the last vote IMO, with the general increase in viability of Scarfers with Trick, Hoopa emerges as the hardest hitting option for this while still outspeeding our fast unscarfed mons and also providing teams with a temporary backup Sdef switch in to lessen the pressure on our special tanks like Florges/AV Glowbro/Gastrodon/etc which are subject to quite a lot of chip. I think Hoopa is much easier to slot into a team than its current C tier status conveys.

Decidueye A- -> A

I think that Decidueye has been far too prominent for too long in the current meta to be as low as A-. Decidueye is seen commonly in offense, balance, hyper offense and bulky offense alike, matches very well into top mons in the tier and always gets value. It's one of the most splashable mons in the tier, it has top 10 usage last month and saw common use in PULT. It's a mon that is a flexible slot being able to check top offense mons like Tauros-Aqua, threaten faster sweepers with stab priority, break a variety of top tier fat mons (Glowbro, Bellibolt, Gastrodon, Florges, Milotic etc) while being immune to contact effects, and act as a late game cleaner/wincon and this is with the same set. It also has set variety as it's a passable physdef mon/defogger but this is significantly lesser to the SD set. I don't think it needs to push as high as A+ but it's also not that far off either. Easy A for me personally.

I think there's more we can adjust but I'll leave it to others as people on discord have had some strong opinions on some of these placements.

Meant to write this last night oopsies,
But without further ado I'd like to make some noms of my own

UR ->B tier

As previously stated Naclstack is the only unranked pokemon on a sample team(and a rather potent one at that), it is not just for this reason but also for the many tools at its disposal such as salt cure,status immunity, surprisingly valuable pure rock typing and access to recovery. That I believe this pokemon should be ranked. Not much else here.

Now for my more original noms...

B- ->B

Avalugg hisui or Havalugg has long cemented itself as a spinner with great attack to threaten numerous blockers, (Noteably Decidueye, golurk and even palossand) I personally think the splashable nature and unexpected reliability of this pokemon are undermined by its current rank
With tools like impeccable coverage, access to recover, the devastating mountain gale signature move and the aforementioned spin, avalugg has always leaned towards more offensive teams and in the current meta I feel it fills that role very well.

B -> A-

Talk about a sleeper pick, dudunsparce cements itself as an absolutely devastating calm mind sweeper in the PU tier, with near infinite coverage, The insanely high powered boomburst, surprisingly good invested bulk, and a nice anti-knock/intim tech ability in rattled aswell as reliable recovery this behemoth of a snake can be quite a pain to take down and even harder to take a hit from, with the rapid downfall of former normal type rival in snorlax, dudunsparce has a pretty easy time sealing it's slot in teams, that's not to say its without flaws as it has the same struggles as other set-up sweepers, a strong dislike for moves like trick and toxic.
However these issues are things most teams are already planning for before even adding dudunsparce
Overall I think B is far too low for this powerhouse.

That's all I have for now but if it'd allowed I may look into more, (not rlly spellchecked well sorry)

A short post on some of my nominations:

Rises

A -> A+

Very strong setup sweeper that does make progress in various stages of the game while having excellent bulk, abilities and a great typing.
This mon has many ways to approach winning and can fit on various playstyles including Hyper Offense, Offense, Bulky Offense and even Balance, making it a very versatile mon that can make use of any of its three excellent abilities to become a win condition or to support the team via knock off and staying healthy with rest + shed skin while functioning as a status absorber. On BO and balance, Scrafty's excellent bulk allows it to come in on more passive mons such as Slowbro-Galar, gastrodon and even milotic and threatening to knock off an item or setting up. On HO and offense teams it can go much more offensive with either poison jab or iron head and the corresponding tera to deal with fairy types. Can also make use of other support moves such as taunt and encore to ease its setup.

B+ -> A-

This mon offers excellent role compression in addition to being one of the only spinners effectively able to dissuade houndstone from spinblocking. While its typing is not amazing i dont find it too hard to pair coalossal with teammates that can deal with water, ground, and fighting moves, making its job easier. It has become many players go to hazard control on bulkier teams which to me indicate a slight rise on its viability. Also flame body can straight up win you games.

Drops

A -> A-

While on paper this mon has a great defensive profile due to levitate cancelling out its quad weakness and water/rock moves having some great switch ins such as gastrodon and mudsdale, this mon has some points that in my opinion hinder its viability quite a bit. I find this mon hard to fit in teams because defensive fire types are honestly not that amazing at being walls or pivots. Offensively, It has an awkward speed tier but it also needs all the speed it can get, mainly to outspeed mons like tatsugiri, skuntank and heracross making it unable to run full bulk most of the times. It can be decent at breaking and keeping mons low via Nasty plot 2 attacks and pain split, however, gastrodon will hard shut you down eventually if it is packing surf. Also the moment this mon gets knocked off its performance drops off significantly. I’ll keep it at A- for now because I do believe it is overall better than rotom mow.

A -> A-

I understand that initially this would be regarded very highly due to it being the only real steel type in the tier (being able to tank quite a few hits). However, I do think that theres many issues that bronzong has that don’t make it a desirable pick in my teams. Bronzong becomes easily abusable by a lot of setup sweepers due to its awkward stabs and flat out not pressuring offensive mons enough to make them switch most of the times. Also, Skuntank being as common and highly rated means that it can come in on Bronzong quite easily and force progress on the opposing team. Getting knocked early is significant enough and it will most likely play happen due to bronzong usually having the role of Stealth rocker. This mon does offer you a bulky steel that can be good but it can potentially hinder your team more than what it offers.