I'm probably crazy for this, but I have 3 Pokemon that I've been wanting to nominate from unranked to C for a month that I just haven't had time to get to before. I used two of them in my Sept. Dark Horse, but that's not the only experience I have that make me feel that should be ranked. As a disclaimer, these are not just kneejerk reactions from me using a Pokemon and doing well with them; I gave some time after initially using them to see if they were as effective as the were before and they deliver. While we keep spending time trying to clear C rank, we really shouldn't be keeping viable mons from appearing on the rankings.
First up:
Emboar to C - Yes, I'm defending the pig again. It didn't deserve to be unranked in the first place, as its niche as a wallbreaker is very much defined and it does its job well. The main Pokemon people jump to compare this Pokemon to are other Fire type wallbreakers like Darmanitan, Infernape and Entei along with other regular wallbreakers like Pangoro and Tyrantrum. Emboar has a few things that separate it from these mons.
For one thing, the damage output. It hits so hard with Flare Blitz along with Superpower and Head Smash, that it oftentimes only has to pick between one or two moves to get a positive result. In my experience, Emboar tends to get about two kills per battle on average, which is definitely pretty good.
This replay is a good example. Once Doublade gets knocked out, the entire team has no switchins to Head Smash. Even with LO knocked off in
this replay, I barely have to predict for the Head Smash and Sucker Punch more or less guarantees a kill on Mega Beedrill. I'm not going to lie and say that Emboar gets a kill every game like
here, for instance, but something always gets crippled if it is sent out. LO Darmanitan and Adamant LO Tyrantrum (which usually runs Jolly) outdamage LO Emboar's Flare Blitz with their respective immensely powerful STABs, but Darm lacks secondary STAB (or moves that are powerful enough to essentially serve as STAB like Emboar's Reckless Head Smash), is walled by plenty of bulky waters, lacks priority and has less defensive syngergy, while Tyrantrum is
vulnerable to burn, lacks priority and loses to Mega Aggron and bulky Water Grounds without a Choice Band, whereas Emboar can pretty much anything it wants on a single set, whether carrying Choice Band or Life Orb (FB + Grass Knot + Head Smash pretty much breaks through anything it needs, though Wild Charge makes breaking past Mola way easier and reliable).
Sucker Punch is another thing that's surprisingly big for it. Being able to outspeed and OHKO things like Mega Beedrill and Chandelure after SR or Spikes damage is a really good and underrated asset for a wallbreaker to have. Entei can accomplish similar feats with Extreme Speed, but, as a wallbreaker, it doesn't really do what Emboar does. Entei has trouble breaking through bulky Waters and Rock types even with burns no matter what it does while Emboar can break through whatever it wants and hits harder.
Emboar's recoil is obviously its biggest detriment, but when it's getting in about 3 hits per battle, that's actually really good since those hits are really impactful. If a reckless player like me gets good mileage from it each battle, the recoil can't harm it
that much. Plus, Muscle Band and Expert Belt are great alternatives to Life Orb. Emboar's speed is also lower than the other wallbreakers I mentioned aside from Pangoro, but Sucker Punch + the sheer force of its attacks make that less of an issue than it is on paper. Rank this mon. It is a dangerous wallbreaker that needs to be noted by UU players.
Fun replay:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-276276577 - Who needs prediction anyway lol
There are more replays of Emboar in the next nomination which is:
Sneasel to C - This was the other DH mon and, unlike with Emboar, I had never used it before so I was quite surprised by its quality. It really feels like Sneasel is a standard UU Pokemon when I use it. The immediate comparison a physical Ice type with Ice Shard gets is to Mamoswine of course, so what makes Sneasel special?
The speed tier is really, really huge. Sneasel can easily go 1v1 with Pokemon like Hydreigon, Haxorus, Shaymin, Roserade and Nidoking and OHKO them with Icicle Crash before they move in scenarios where Mamo is stuck in an awkward position where Ice Shard won't kill and it can potenitally get OHKOed before it attacks. STAB Knock Off isn't bad either. Sneasel also has a niche as a naturally fast Pursuit user if the team doesn't need extra coverage for Steels with Sneasel's Low Kick.
Sneasel does have some crippling flaws like lack of power against defensive teams without Swords Dance (which it is too frail to run) and frailty, but the utility of Knock Off + its performance against Offense, as well as its ability to switch into resisted attacks on the special side well enough make these flaws not bad enough to make it unviable. A Dark type that can't beat Cresselia and Reuniclus very well isn't great though. Despite this, Sneasel seems to fit pretty conformtably in C rank.
Replays (feat. Emboar):
My postings on the Dark Horse also contain more commentary on Sneasel and Emboar as well as more replays.
Finally, to a mon I posted about in the Creative/Underrated sets thread:
Sceptile to C - While its Mega can eclipse it in most cases, the competition for the Mega slot is stiffer than ever in UU. That begs the question of why to use Sceptile over Roserade or Shaymin as offensive Grass types. Like with Sneasel, the speed is a crucial factor, as outspeeding the likes of Azelf, Heliolisk, Entei, Mega Houndoom, Whimsicott and the like is really important and makes it so that it's not forced out as much. With its Life Orb set, it can also lure Fairies that wall the traditional Mega Scept set with Iron Tail and use its good mixed coverage to beat various other Pokemon in the tier. A SubSD set with Unburden + Sitrus Berry or Ovegrow + Salac Berry functions similarly to Hawlucha and can sweep pretty efficiently, having a niche one of the few physical setup sweepers that can beat Quagsire and is good at using bulky Waters as setup fodder in general.
I lack replays atm since they were down at the time I posted these sets, but
here is the link to the post, so that you can see the sets and descriptions. I just wanted to post this since it's been on my mind for a while.
That's all. Sorry for the long post.