Rate of the Week V2: Week 7

[Enki]

Rate of the Week
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Welcome to Rate of the Week! This is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognizes the hard work of unbadged raters. Here's how it will work:

• Each week, official Team Raters will be paying close attention to the RMT forum and reading the rates posted in their respective tiers. They will then shortlist a few which will be in contention for the Rate of the Week award.
• From the pool of shortlisted rates, one will be chosen which most exemplifies the qualities of an excellent rate. That rater will be the winner for that particular tier!
• A post will be made by an official TR who specialises in that tier, explaining how and why the particular rate won. This will allow aspiring raters to gain an idea of what constitutes high-quality rates, and hopefully incorporate those aspects into their own rates.
• There will be multiple winners every week, one from OU and a couple from other tiers depending on the quality of the rates posted. We hope that in this way we can expand rating activity in less popular tiers, while maintaining a weekly OU winner.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but not more than once. Unbadged raters can win the award multiple times.

So what's in it for the winners? Well, they will earn a place in the Hall of Fame, which will be kept in the OP of every thread, and their rates will be announced on Twitter. Winners also earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, which will consequently increase the quality as well as the quantity of rates in the forum. Good luck to you all! :)

Hall of Fame

Week #1 - Nedor (OU) and fran17 (LC)

Week #2 - shui3 (OU), YABO (UU), and 49 (RU)

Week #3 - celes (OU), Serapis (VGC)

Week #4 - FlamingVictini (OU)

Week #5 - Albacore (OU), dodmen (UU), 49 (RU), and Corporal Levi (LC)

Week #6 - MrAldo (OU) and Kreme (UU)

Week #7 - Miridy (OU) and Minoridy Suspect (Ubers)

 

[Enki]

This week's OU winner is Miridy! She has made a pretty cool rate with a nice format too. First of all she starts talking by about how the team struggles against other Heatran, since the team's own Heatran doesn't have Earth Power and Assault Vest Azumarill is crippled by burns or Toxic and lacks a form of recovery. Excadrill is another major problem, especially the Swords Dance variant, which can easily set up and sweep. Mega Slowbro is another annoying threat, since Amoonguss is slower and is hit hard by Psyshock.

Then she starts talking about the changes. Changing Assault Vest Azumarill to the Choice Band version makes it easier to face stall teams and achieves an OHKO Excadrill with Aqua Jet. With the presence of Amoonguss and Latios it doesn't really need Assault Vest.

The second change is making Latias a Latios with 3 attacks, which makes Heatran less problematic, without losing too much bulk. The version suggested is the life orb 3 attacks with eq in order to lure Heatran, which annoys the team as said before. She explains pretty well how Latios is better, beeing able to OHKO Mega Pinsir with Draco Meteor which Latias wasn't able to do.

Lastly she suggests changing Scizor for a special defensive Skarmory, which is a pretty nice sub, since it takes on fairies very well. She explained how Toxic skarmory should work, and why not using Spikes, because of the existence of Defog in the team. With toxic this is able to catch stuff like Mega Slowbro, tank Chomp, Azumarill and Hippowdon, all of which annoy the team, and Mega Charizard X too. Thanks to her great formatting and multiple in-depth options to improve the team, Miridy was able to provide a great rate, and earned herself a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congrats!

 

[Lord Outrage]

This week we have an Ubers winner and It's Minority Suspect! His rate is really well done and everything is well explained. First of all, he starts by explaining how Deoxys-Speed, a suicide lead, is a waste with Arceus Grass and Lugia since both will allow the opponent to Defog easily. After that, he suggests replacing Deoxys-Speed with Stealth Rock Primal Groudon, a more durable Pokemon who also provides better defensive synergy. He also suggests Swords Dance+Stone Edge instead of Protect+Knock Off on Blaziken since It becomes able to annoy Its most common checks: Mega Salamence as well as Ho-Oh. Now, since the team is weak to Ground and Extreme Killer Arceus, he suggests using Giratina-O over Lugia which will also provide Defog support. Finally, he advices the OP to use offensive Arceus Ground instead of Arceus Grass since It forms a great core with Giratina-O versus Primal Groudon and also is helped in it's sweeping mission by the presence of Blaziken on the team. He concludes by mentioning the option of Scarf Xerneas instead of Geomancy if any problems against Darkrai are occurring.

His great formatting and optimal suggestions earned Minority Suspect a spot in the Hall of Fame. Congrats!