Last month, I said the September data wasn't to be trusted because of Garchomp's ban and Platinum's release both happening in the middle of the month, as well as the expected spike in use of Pokés that got new stuff. So with that out of the way, we now have a clear picture of what things are going to look like for the next couple years.
Um, where to start? I'm going to throw a curveball here and start out with the #1 unsung hero of Platinum.
And unsung hero is right. Unused hero too, as clearly no one got the memo that Bibarel is much too good for UU now. #143 in standard is low, but what's even more outrageous is #84 in UU. How bad is it? Butterfree fell ONE USE short of it! But, why am I surprised? Curse + Simple is the whole reason anyone would even use the thing, and lo and behold, in standard only 43.4% of Bibarels even have Curse! Besides, Smogon's idea of UU went to hell when they allowed Steelix in, so take my comment with a grain of salt - because I do.
Now on to the more expected topics... Hypnosis users got absolutely murdered, with Gengar and Bronzong, two Pokémon that have been in the top 5 seemingly forever, knocked down to #8 and #15 respectively. And Gengar looked good to be the heir apparent of the #1 spot after Garchomp got banned... and that's not the whole story for Gengar, as Rotom's meteoric rise may have also played a part. Put all the forms together, and their combined usage falls less than 5000 short of Gengar's! Even more amazingly, the Heat and Wash forms made OU all on their own. Not necessarily a surprise for Rotom-H, but Rotom-W might be one of those guys who regularly makes the trip between OU and BL. As for Rotom-C... if its standard use were any lower one might look at it being in UU, but with vanilla Rotom still faring very well there (despite wave after wave of demotions of genuine BLs) it won't ever happen. But back to Hypnosis... Yanmega didn't find it funny either, as the #46 ranking can attest to.
The pixies, with all their new toys... what the hell happened? Yes, with Deoxys-E out of the way Azelf is by far the most common lead in the game (replacing... wait for it... Bronzong), but in terms of overall use it didn't climb nearly as much as I expected. Probably because its new moves aren't used all that much... Trick, Zen Headbutt and Ice Punch lead the way with 16.8, 12.9 and 10.7% respectively. And here I expected the lack of Ice Beam making Ice Punch a viable alternative on most sets, especially with so few Azelfs running a -Atk nature... guess I was way off. As for Uxie, people already use it for what it has to offer over Cresselia (read: Stealth Rock and U-Turn), but Knock Off did little to woo its users (18.2%). And Mesprit... ouch. It fell off the face of the earth, no joke. I expected that with Azelf getting Ice Punch, there would be less need for a boltbeaming Psychic, but Ice Punch Azelf is a rarity... so what the **** happened? I honestly don't get it.
Next up is Shaymin-S. For a Pokémon supposedly on the verge of getting banned (and more and more Smogonites speak out against the possibility, so it's far from a certainty), #10 is really disappointing. Registeel's 15 minutes of fame isn't quite over yet though, as it's the most used of the Regi trio.
Scizor, new king of the game? You better believe it. And all it took was one move. Unlike Flareon, though, Gamefreak got it spot on. Ironically, the former king of bugs lost a lot of ground... maybe because no one wants to double up on bugs? Who knows. Maybe it got to Yanmega as well? Zapdos rocketing to #4 is obviously due to Heat Wave (71.5%), and in Lucario's case, as expected, moveslot syndrome got the best of Ice Punch. Kingdra gets to the top 20... long live Outrage! But on the reverse path, we find Gliscor and Skarmory, former top 20 mainstays, now hobos with a "will **** money for spot on team" sign.
Oh yeah, Salamence remains #3. So much for the impending ban. Outrage found its way on 56.4% of these, and 3.1% or worse of Gyaradoses. Moveslot syndrome again, of course. Speaking of move tutors, giving Gunk Shot and Seed Bomb to stuff where they didn't make sense did... absolutely nothing.
Oh, and check out Blaziken's common moves. Most common is Flare Blitz (no surprise there) at 33.5%. No, don't clean up your monitor, you read correctly. Three causes for this: no Close Combat means physical builds are less tempting than if it were there. Second: the physical fighting department is split between Superpower (25.2%) and Sky Uppercut (31.8%), so neither really stand out. Also note the presence of Reversal and Vacuum Wave. Third: same deal for Fire moves. Flare Blitz, Blaze Kick, Fire Punch, Flamethrower and Fire Blast are all justifiable choices. Just one problem, though: with Infernape being all-around vastly superior, how come none of the moves that are exclusive to Blaziken (Agility, Reversal, Baton Pass) manage to stand out?
With a new, improved FEAR (Cleffa) being devised lately, I'm expecting the thing to get more than three uses this month. Unless, of course, you use Clefable so that if the opponent doesn't check the level he won't know what hit him until it's too late.
And finally, a look at the brand new uber... Giratina-O confirmed what everyone thought: failed experiment.
In closing, a question: is it really fair to rank the Rotom forms separately? I mean, they all got the same stats, the only difference is their one special move. You can't say that for any other Pokémon with multiple forms (though Rotom aside, the only one where tiering varies depending on form is Shaymin, and there's no one to say it's not fully deserved).
At any rate, this year's Winners and Losers write-up is sure going to be lengthy to write (and read)...
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