I feel like Vaporen should stay B-. Baton pass makes it functionally different enough from other water type pivots like slowking and alomamola by allowing it to create and maintain momentum. This is a semi-unique trait on a bulky water in UU and it allows vaporeon to hold a really solid niche as a defensive backbone on offensive team archetypes.
Toxicroak has been a potential A+ in my mind for a while so yeah, A rank is long overdue and may still be underselling froggys insane splashability.
Nidoking for A-, Yes. The mixed sets are just as good now as they were in XY, the atk invest needed to compensate 248/252+ def "mixed walls" is pretty negligible costing no really relevant ohko's/2 hit ko's with proper 4th slot coverage. The fact that a speed tier of 86 is super relevant at the moment is just icing on the cake.
Gatr never belonged in S tier tbh, that was shiny new toy syndrome at it's worst. It is damn good but.... Its incredible "Diversity" boils down to 2 sets with massive 4mss and a really harsh case of power vs speed and it really restricts your own teambuilding on anything but HO thanks to semi-forced type/role redundancy. A+ seems like a pretty good home for it though as it's raw power does mostly compensate for these flaws.
I really like escav and use it quite a bit, the band and bulky SD sets both do really good work on the right team. Swarm and overcoat are both pretty fantastic ability's and it's movepool options are fantastic. It's just... escav suffers from speed tier issues preventing it from really doing it's job efficiently. Don't get me wrong it can be A ranked power on the right team but it is restrictive due to a need for redundancy and competition from similar pokes with access to better overall utility. The metagame is less prepared for Escav so it may be B+ now due to a slight over prepare for cobalion and doublade but the overlap in checks and counters is enough to allow for a pretty rapid shift back to B usefulness.
Mamphy is a solid A-, pretty much all of it's flaws are mitigated by it's existence as a strong bird and fire resist in UU that's not named Maero. Access to a strong momentum move and being a water switchin in UU are just icing on the cake.
I support Mbee for A-, it's never going to happen but dear god that would be a well deserved drop. Bee strong af (if it's adamant) but it's a complete dead hole in team synergy and is a momentum user that gives your opponent free turns. It also can flat out die to offstab base 80 moves such as pursuit and espeed, hell boosted 40 BP priority ohko's bee. It does do really good work on the right team but bee just is not as splashable as people make it out to be and it can be a completely dead mon slot in certain matchups. Bee's strengths do cover it's flaws and it does have some really good matchups, but the potential for it to just flat out fizzle is just too much for me to consider it more than an A- poke.
Toxicroak has been a potential A+ in my mind for a while so yeah, A rank is long overdue and may still be underselling froggys insane splashability.
Nidoking for A-, Yes. The mixed sets are just as good now as they were in XY, the atk invest needed to compensate 248/252+ def "mixed walls" is pretty negligible costing no really relevant ohko's/2 hit ko's with proper 4th slot coverage. The fact that a speed tier of 86 is super relevant at the moment is just icing on the cake.
Gatr never belonged in S tier tbh, that was shiny new toy syndrome at it's worst. It is damn good but.... Its incredible "Diversity" boils down to 2 sets with massive 4mss and a really harsh case of power vs speed and it really restricts your own teambuilding on anything but HO thanks to semi-forced type/role redundancy. A+ seems like a pretty good home for it though as it's raw power does mostly compensate for these flaws.
I really like escav and use it quite a bit, the band and bulky SD sets both do really good work on the right team. Swarm and overcoat are both pretty fantastic ability's and it's movepool options are fantastic. It's just... escav suffers from speed tier issues preventing it from really doing it's job efficiently. Don't get me wrong it can be A ranked power on the right team but it is restrictive due to a need for redundancy and competition from similar pokes with access to better overall utility. The metagame is less prepared for Escav so it may be B+ now due to a slight over prepare for cobalion and doublade but the overlap in checks and counters is enough to allow for a pretty rapid shift back to B usefulness.
Mamphy is a solid A-, pretty much all of it's flaws are mitigated by it's existence as a strong bird and fire resist in UU that's not named Maero. Access to a strong momentum move and being a water switchin in UU are just icing on the cake.
I support Mbee for A-, it's never going to happen but dear god that would be a well deserved drop. Bee strong af (if it's adamant) but it's a complete dead hole in team synergy and is a momentum user that gives your opponent free turns. It also can flat out die to offstab base 80 moves such as pursuit and espeed, hell boosted 40 BP priority ohko's bee. It does do really good work on the right team but bee just is not as splashable as people make it out to be and it can be a completely dead mon slot in certain matchups. Bee's strengths do cover it's flaws and it does have some really good matchups, but the potential for it to just flat out fizzle is just too much for me to consider it more than an A- poke.