hey look it's a wild pearl
fwiw, i'll try to keep individual noms short and concise for my own sake (and also the readers' i guess, but it's mostly because i'm too lazy to come up with elaborate walls of text). here are a couple of opinions regarding the metagame in general (as well as the some of the recent rank changes)
should rise further. i'd personally put it in
B, but I can live with B-. both of this pokemon's best sets (defensive utility with either sub or defog and agility + z hurricane or fire blast) are extremely anti-metagame right now. the former is a near perfect stop to some of the most prominent threats right now such as scizor and coba (while also being a good lure for rotom-w and non refresh mlati) while the latter is a formidable late game cleaner vs cookie cutter bulky offense (think like pre rotom-w talonflame but slightly more reliable defensively. for reference, non sdef invested washtom takes over 40% from this thing's z-move). i had some really good replays on it in action, but those happened during the time when replays broke, so i'm out of luck. the only real big issue with this pokemon is its rocks weakness, but uu has some good hazard removal options and moltres itself can directly switch onto some of the tier's most common rocks setters like coba and u-turn gliscor, so while annoying, it can definitely be worked around.
could rise further. it isn't quite as good as its ORAS counterpart yet, but i feel like there's a bigger demand than ever for defensive fairy-types and sylveon is easily the face of that role, as the alternatives are either expensive (mega altaria) or lacking in utility (defensive primarina and togekiss to an extent). anyway, the reasons for sylv's raise in hilomilo's post (checking a big list of prominent threats while also being excellent at supporting other defensive pokemon like muk) also apply to my request to bump it up to
B+, so there's no need for myself to extend this any longer. this isn't all too relevant though, just me being nitpicking and wanting to see sylveon alongside other defensive staples that are currently in B+.
shouldn't have been moved down at all and could even be placed in B-. i hope god forgives me one day for defending florges but, in all honestly, this isn't oras anymore where sylveon is an uncontested queen of the tier. right now, both florg and sylv are niche defensive/utility mons that find their way onto teams due to their ability to check common offensive threats, and florges' access to immediate recover is a massive boon when both voltturn and klefki spikes are everywhere, as not having to waste 2 turns healing up can be the difference between winning a game or throwing it into the recycle bin because you were forced to choose between protecting with sylveon or not giving klefki an extra spikes layer. its higher special bulk also means it matches up better vs. both manec and washtom. last but not least, cm florges is an unexplored option that hasn't gotten any love at all and could eventually make a splash, especially considering that most people's fairy resist is cb scizor, which is among the tier's easiest mons to chip down. i've seen people run cm wishtect sylveon, but losing to any toxic user when mega latias is in the tier is pretty awful IMO.
no strong opinion. right now i feel like rotom-w is a similar limbo to oras uu conk/entei in the sense that it's probably better than the rest of A+ but (at least in my eyes) is just not as dominant as the pokemon in S. it's true that it dropping was massive for the success of volt turn, but this playstyle has some frameworks that work just fine without it (see: most megaman teams, some beedrill squads that opt for rotom-c over wash) and it fails at handling some threats as a bulky water (i.e. mega aero pressures it immensely with rocks up). on the other hand though, it's clear to see how much this pokemon has impacted the metagame, so i'm not entirely opposed to seeing it up there.
should move down to either B or B- i brought this up to the ranking council some time ago and was met with some opposition, but i'm still posting it. in my opinion, celebi suffers massively with latias' presence in the tier, as aside from its access to u-turn and rocks (which celebi is awful at keeping up anyway), i'm pretty sure latias executes most of its functions better. special breaker with a set up move? run cm z move latias. utility? run defog mega latias or even scarf regular latias. defensive sets? have fun losing to [insert mon that celebi supposedly checks] + alolan muk/mabsol (latias is similar in this aspect, but at least it has a higher chance of living through those). maybe i'm just being a hater, but i personally wouldn't run this pokemon at all right now, especially considering that other bulky grass-types (amoonguss and even chesnaught) are better at covering voltturn cores
could move up to A- i've been using this one a lot recently and feel like all it needs to become a dominant force again is just a small push. although latias' presence hurts it sweeping prowess, the truth is that most people's suicune answers right now are plain awful, with defensive rotom-w failing to do any significant damage after one single calm mind boost and stuff like amoonguss/tentacruel being pretty easy to either pp stall or chip down respectively. i wouldn't recommend vincune right now due to the lack of defensive utility (although i reckon that it can run through some unprepared teams), but both crocune and roarcune with spikes support are nasty to play against.
note: pair with alolan muk for maximum fun!
should move up. i'm pretty sure i have the biggest tentacruel boner out of any uu player, but even then, B+ for a pokemon that finds its place onto so many different teams just feels wrong to me. need a spinner that is actually useful defensively for your klefki team? use tentacruel. need a mon to absorb toxic spikes? use him too. need a blanket check to sd scizor, mega altaria (beware of eq), primarina and other dominant pokemon? you guys guess who. need to stop cobalion from running through the 6? run icium z on it. it's not a spectacular pokemon by any means, but it does way too much for a single slot, especially when it isn't confined to a single team archetype (seriously, even pif uses it on some stall teams).
could move up slightly. it was a lot better when the main pursuit trapper was weavile, but scarf chandelure is a pretty interesting metagame fad that handles both scizor and cobalion pretty nicely while also being able to prey on weakened teams due to its stab combination, access to trick to cripple common answers and sky high special attack. doesn't really matter where it's placed at the end of the day, but a slight bump to reflect the fact that it has been seeing some usage in tournament play could be interesting.
should probably move up. not that good vs voltturn, but its standard defog set single handily murders klefki offense, as klefki can't poison it due to its ability's interaction with dark types and mega sharpedo won't be killing it anytime soon bar very bad luck. also good vs amoonguss i guess. sucks vs mega latias/altaria and requires a really good cobalion answer alongside it, so i wouldn't really mind if it stayed where it is, but its niche as a hazard remover with an unique set of traits is appreciated in the current metagame.
i used it in a snake game recently, and even though it didn't do much because my opponent forgot to use a rocks setter, it was still able to annoy things with knock off + good bulk that allows it to pivot onto strong hitters.
could move up. even though jirachi has been banned nearly one month and a half ago, its presence in the tier can still be felt even nowadays, as people who ran it for its defensive utility started gravitating towards bronzong. even though its biggest target (gardevoir) was banned recently and a lot of current metagame trends are very unkind to it, bronzong still does an excellent job keeping pokemon such as altaria, non mega latias (and even mega without refresh or reflect type), mamoswine, nidoking, nihilego among others at bay. it's not spectacular by any means, but it cripples some teams pretty hard.
and now it's time for the unpopular opinions...
should switch ranks with swampert. i know that swampert is marginally better as far as raw bulk goes, but aside from roar (and cheesing people with countercoat), i personally see no reason to use pert over seismitoad with rotom-w in the tier (although i guess this could go against my aforementioned stance on rotom-w). other additional boons of using this pokemon over swampert are the water immunity (useful vs tentacruel users who like to fish and uncommon pokemon like jellicent and feraligatr), access to refresh (allows it to act as a status sponge for teams that can't afford a cleric) and knock off (self explanatory). if you find this stance too drastic, then putting them in the same rank (B or B+) could also work, but it legit pains me to see the toed below pert right now.
should move up to S rank. and this, my friends, is the nomination that single handily motivated me to write this post. it's not that i don't feel strongly about any of the above, but this one absolutely
has to happen in my opinion. although its niche used to be limited to breaking fat teams in previous iterations of the sm uu metagame, the current gliscor is a whole different beast. its stealth rock set (toxic is still better imo, but i've warmed up to u-turn variants recently) is a godsend, as it is extremely easy to fit onto most bulky offensive teams. it's not a defensive beast my any means, but it keeps momentum up better than any other rock setter in the tier (one could argue that cobalion does this as well, but gliscor is still unmatched for the most part) and very few hazard removers are actually able to make it forfeit getting them up (with ice beam mega latias being the only one that immediately comes to mind). that aside, it's still the same old beast as before. swords dance sets chunk most of its supposed answers (in fact, rotom-w needs waterium z to reliably take on special defense invested sd gliscor) pretty nicely, substitute + toxic has been gaining some traction lately and absolutely tears teams that don't have an opposing gliscor (which says a whole lot about this pokemon in the current metagame) apart and swords dance + z move sets are largely unexplored but have some untapped potential (personally i ran sd eq sky attack rock polish with fly z to some success, but stone edge could work as well). all in all, i can't help but feel like in this land of klefki, rotom-w (and other voltturn fiends), scizor, mega latias and stall, it is gliscor that actually runs the uu metagame.