Mega Crucibelle: As one of the most splashable Mega Pokemon in the metagame, the VR team has found Mega Crucibelle to fit quite comfortably in S. It's one of the best offensive Stealth Rock setters in the metagame, especially in combination with U-turn to pivot it out of bad matchups. STAB, recoilless Head Smash and Gunk Shot provide it the raw power it needs to keep up the pressure throughout the game. Additionally, Mega Crucibelle is an incredible response to Tornadus-T, one of the metagame's premier Defoggers, that appears on balance and bulky offense teams. Tornadus-T usually can switch into other Stealth Rock users like Landorus-T, Tomohawk, Heatran, and Clefable and Defog them away immediately, but Head Smash keeps Tornadus-T from doing this against Mega Crucibelle. Additionally, Tornadus-T can't cripple Mega Crucibelle with Knock Off, as it does with many other Pokemon, and can't really deal too much damage to Mega Crucibelle unless it runs Life Orb Hidden Power Ground or a significant amount of Attack EVs and Fightinium Z + Superpower. Moreover, many metagame trends allow Mega Crucibelle to flourish. The fall of purely defensive Landorus-T, a dip in usage for Tomohawk, and a hard drop in Scarf Kartana usage frees Mega Crucibelle of some of its checks. Though offensive checks like Mega Alakazam and Kitsunoh are also rising, Mega Alakazam has extremely low physical defense, which prevents it from switching in directly into an offensive move, and Kitsunoh can barely take two Head Smashes. The only real fault that Mega Crucibelle has is the low accuracy behind its STAB moves, but it's clear that running these moves are worth it due to the excellent power behind them.

Necturna: It shouldn't be a surprise that Necturna is rising to S. Shell Smash + Ghostium Z Necturna is the best sweeper in the metagame, with very few checks and basically one counter, Tomohawk. If Necturna's teammates can clear the way for it, and it gets a free Substitute and uses Shell Smash, it's a gg for you. Other techs, such as running Shadow Sneak over Substitute or Focus Sash over Ghostium Z, also increase the variability of this set, shifting its checks around, making the set truly terrifying. But that's not the only set it can run. It can run bulky Shift Gear sets, Choice Band + V-Create, and even the old Sticky Web set - all 4 sets are viable and share Tomohawk as their only counter. Forewarn has a very good use nowadays, as it alerts the Necturna user of potentially dangerous moves that Zygarde can run. If Forewarn sees Thousand Arrows, the Zygarde can't break Necturna's Substitute, and if Forewarn sees anything else, then the Necturna has to find another opportunity to set up. All-in-all, the variety of successful sets that Necturna can pull off and especially the devastating power behind Shell Smash lets it sit solidly in S.

Zygarde: Despite Jumbao's introduction, Zygarde continues to be one of the polarizing forces in the metagame. Between all of its sets, including Bulky SubToxic + Coil, SubToxic + Dragon Dance, offensive Dragon Dance + Z-Move, Choice Band, and more, it fits on a multitude of team archetypes. With its new Glare sets, however, it's able to punish offensive teams with ease. It's honestly a no-brainer that Zygarde should rise to S, as it has no certain defensive checks, and at times offensive counterplay can be limited as well.

Tomohawk: While Prankster Haze still exerts considerable pressure in the teambuilder, and defensive Tomohawk can sustain itself over the entire battle extremely well, it's taken enough hits across the generation to finally fall to A+. Facing stiff competition with the extremely splashable Tornadus-T, offensive sets have really fallen off except for hyper offensive teams that might appreciate Prankster Stealth Rock, Healing Wish, Memento, or Haze. Otherwise, Tornadus-T just does offensive Tomohawk better, with U-turn and Knock Off acting as better support for an offensive set and Regenerator acting as a better ability for an offensive Pokemon. Rain as an archetype has taken a hit to viability with the introduction of Jumbao, so Tomohawk's niche as a secondary rain setter has fallen off as well. The ubiquity of Toxic on many offensive Pokemon in the metagame also hurts defensive Tomohawk's survivability across a match. Additionally, Tomohawk's Air Slash makes it rather passive, and if it wants more power, Hurricane has an awful miss chance for a defensive Pokemon. The rise in offensive Psychic-types like Mega Alakazam and Mega Latios also doesn't do Tomohawk many favors. Overall, Tomohawk is still an amazing Pokemon in the metagame, but the metagame has adapted to it sufficiently for it to drop to A+.

Landorus-T: Its decline has been rather slow, but currently Landorus-T doesn't quite fit in with the new S-rank Pokemon of the metagame. Z-Move sets have really taken a nose-dive in usage, which highly contributes to this drop, as the variability of Landorus-T's sets has declined massively. Although Choice Scarf is a great set, it can be rather easy to take advantage of, as locking into Earthquake gives Shell Smash Necturna a prime opportunity to set up. While Cawmodore also isn't all that relevant, giving Cawmodore free opportunities to set up doesn't exactly help either. A general rise in Coba Berry Tomohawk and Celesteela makes Flyinium Z sets harder to use, but Rockium Z has trouble cracking open bulky Grass-types like Jumbao and Tangrowth. Again, Landorus-T is still an amazing Pokemon, but currently it finds itself below the new S-rank.