Resource USUM AG Viability Rankings

Geysers

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Xerneas can kill Mega Ray without any boost:

252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Rayquaza-Mega: 458-540 (130.4 - 153.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Xern with right EVs and/or nature can sure OHKO MRay without geomancy. Only a super bulky MRay can survive:

252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Rayquaza-Mega: 330-390 (79.7 - 94.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

But who uses super bulky MRays anyway? And even then, MRay can only win with a switch advantage or if Xern is already heavily damaged.

Turn 1

-Rayquaza used Dragon Ascent!
0 Atk Rayquaza-Mega Dragon Ascent vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Xerneas: 226-267 (57.5 - 67.9%)

-Xerneas used Geomancy!
It became fully charged due to its Power Herb!
Sp. Attack sharply rose!
Sp. Defense sharply rose!
Speed sharply rose!

Turn 2

-Xerneas used Moonblast!
+2 252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Rayquaza-Mega: 656-774 (158.4 - 186.9%)
Rayquaza fainted!

Feel free to correct me somewhere.
Ok, there are a few problems here. 1. No ray ever runs 0 atk unless fsr it’s specs. You shouldn’t be using specs ray. It’s an unset. Ray always runs 252 atk, sometimes with a boosting nature. 2. unless you’re using scarfxern, ray outspeeds xerneas, so it bops it with ascent before xern has the chance to do anything.
t1-
252+ Atk Life Orb Rayquaza-Mega Dragon Ascent vs. 0 HP / 168 Def Xerneas: 316-372 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
xern... geomances?
t2-
252+ Atk Life Orb Rayquaza-Mega Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 168 Def Xerneas: 140-166 (35.6 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

boop!
80.4 + 56.6 > 100

your xern is dead. This is a stupid argument tbh. Ray beats xern 1v1 close to 100% of the time unless the xern is scarf or the xern gives up its sweeping potential by killing ray with moonblast after an ascent.
 
That point about Mega Rayquaza is wrong:
252+ Atk Life Orb Rayquaza-Mega Dragon Ascent vs. 0 HP / 168 Def Xerneas: 316-372 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Rayquaza-Mega V-create vs. 0 HP / 168 Def Xerneas: 316-372 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Rayquaza-Mega Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 168 Def Xerneas: 140-166 (35.6 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
All it needs to do is Dragon Ascend/V-Create as Xerneas switches in and then click Extreme Speed.
Even if Xerneas is already in, it is still a mixup. If you Geomancy hoping Rayquaza switches out then you still die to Dragon Ascend->Extreme Speed. Not to mention that Mega Rayquaza is faster, so if you take some chip damage first you just die to Dragon Ascend in the 1v1.
The problem with this is that no one runs 168 Def or Adamant so the calc looks like this:
252 Atk Life Orb Rayquaza-Mega Dragon Ascent vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Xerneas: 341-402 (86.7 - 102.2%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
(vs dd/mixed)
252 Atk Rayquaza Dragon Ascent vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Xerneas: 228-268 (58 - 68.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
(vs scarf)
252 Atk Choice Band Rayquaza-Mega Dragon Ascent vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Xerneas: 391-462 (99.4 - 117.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
(vs band)

The scenarios in which MRay and Xern are together on the field are:
1) They both switch in at the same time.
2) Xern switches/doubles into MRay.
3) Xern comes in on a sack.
4) MRay switches in on Xern.

Now let's analyze what actually happens during these:

1) They both switch in at the same time. MRay switches out if it knows it's Scarf Xern, and BananaLaddersPS already proved that MRay beats GeoXern 1 on 1 unless Xern sacks itself to win.
2) Xern switches/doubles into MRay. Good luck eating any hit.
3) Xern comes in on a sack. This is incredibly suspicious and most players would switch out.
4) MRay switches in on Xern. The opponent is bad.

Yeah MRay wins.
 
Time for a nom
D --> UR

I've been pushing for Tapu Koko to go to UR in the AG chat but I'm going to post this publicly.

Let's talk about its sets first. We're going to need to know these well in order to get an understanding of how bad they are.

Dual Screens - Worse Deo-S. The only thing this has going for it is U-turn, and that's barely a plus given what Deo-S offers.

Choice Specs - This is Tapu Koko's claim to fame, appearing after Game Moderator's famous RMT, electriCITY. It proved itself to be a fantastic team, and as a result became very common. Um...why is this good again? It'll only take so long before people start realizing that Specs Koko fits on like three teams and has disappointing breaking power. People gush about its coverage but like Specs Koko is so heavily reliant on prediction that it's basically not worth it. Consider what this thing actually beats without heavy prediction required: Marsh, POgre, and Yveltal. Look at your team. Do you have a fairy? Do you have a POgre check? If you have both of these things (which you are nearly guaranteed to have) you don't need Specs Koko. If you really want speed control that badly use Scarf Xern: you get speed control, retain the ability to check Marsh and Yveltal offensively, and reliably check more than three stuff. Also Koko dies to any attack including priority.

Considering how little use Koko has compared to its competition, I say unrank it.
 

MZ

And now for something completely different
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Ok lads, it's finally here. This sheet is the last VR update for gen 7, during gen 7. Idk we might eventually go back and muck around with some things but you get the point. Also bacon was last to vote and decided to not do any of the noms that had already hit a majority if you're wondering why one column is very empty. Anyway, without further ado:

Code:
Rises:
Aerodactyl Unranked to D

Drops:
Magearna B to B-
Dialga C to D
Clefable D to Unranked
Tapu Koko D to Unranked
Ultra Necrozma S- to A+
Zygarde-Complete A+ to S-
Marshadow A+ to A
Xerneas A to A+/S
Arceus-Water A- to B+ or A
Tyranitar B+ to A-
Mega Mewtwo-Y B to B+
Deoxys-Speed B- to B
Excadrill B to B-
Klefki D to Unranked
Alolan Muk D to Unranked
Scolipede D to Unranked
Mega Slowbro D to Unranked
Arceus-Electric D to Unranked
Umbreon D to Unranked
Stakataka Unranked to D
Slurpuff Unranked to D
Groudon Unranked to D
Mega Scizor Unranked to D/C
A lot of extremely careful moderation here with the vast majority of nominations not going through. For what did, Magearna and Dialga are obviously Pokemon that struggle a lot with our current meta threats and competition from Dusk Mane, Clefable was more of a holdover from earlier metas where we found a use for it as the all-purpose Arceus counter, and Tapu Koko has always been an extremely mediocre Pokemon that you can use but really just never need to, built-in Vivillon counter or not. I hope we've ended up with the D ranks being acceptable to people, this is not going to stop being an issue in gen 8 (presumably, if this format isn't completely gutted), but hopefully this final equilibrium is more or less alright. And if you didn't get everything you wanted, believe me, neither did I. Otherwise we toyed a bit with expanding or removing S- but decided not to and felt that the debates on things like Ttar and Arceus-Water were super overblown and they're pretty fine where they are. As always feel free to ask for more clarifications on discord or in the room, but hopefully the vote tallies give a good idea as to how we feel overall on any individual nomination.
 

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