Project Rate of the Month V1: March

[IronBullet]

Rate of the Month
​

RotM is a project that looks to bring quality individual rates into the spotlight and recognise the hard work of unbadged raters.

• Every month, official Team Raters will be monitor the rates posted in their respective tiers.
• A few will be chosen that the RMT staff feel exemplify the qualities of an excellent rate.
• These rates will be posted in this thread, along with a paragraph explaining 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.
• Official Team Raters are eligible to win, but unbadged raters will have priority.

Winners will earn a place in the Hall of Fame, which will be kept in the OP of every thread, and will earn more consideration for the Ladybug

and Team Rater

badges. Also, after gaining three places in the Hall of Fame, a rater will be eligible to earn voice status in the RMT room on PS! on the condition that they've shown an interest in getting involved.

We hope that this project will encourage people to put more effort into their rates and become better and more experienced raters, consequently increasing the quality of rates posted in the forum. Good luck to you all!

Hall of Fame

January - vsomani, Simia (SM OU)
February - Simia (SM OU)
March - patlop2307, Simia (SM OU)

 

[IronBullet]

Congrats to patlop2307 and Simia, who are joint winners of the RotM award for March! They've both posted great rates with excellent suggestions and formatting.

Simia's rate for this balanced team built around Mega Lopunny starts off by identifying its major issues: the lack of speed control, several inefficient movesets / EV spreads, and a significant weakness to Heatran and Tapu Koko. His initial set of changes mainly focusses on on the first two points. He first recommends running a Choice Scarf set on Landorus-T, which provides the team with a revenge killer and reliable check to Tapu Koko. He then suggests running Flamethrower over Acrobatics on Celesteela in order counter Mega Scizor and Ferrothorn more effectively, and a more optimal EV spread that allows Celesteela to tank Choice Specs Tapu Lele's HP Fire. He also suggests changing up Tapu Lele's moveset, replacing Thunderbolt with HP Fire and Shadow Ball with Calm Mind to allow Tapu Lele to get past Steel-types more easily while improving the team's matchup vs stall.

Simia then makes two Pokemon changes that go a long way toward fixing the team's weaknesses. Specially defensive Gastrodon over Toxapex makes the team a lot more solid vs Tapu Koko and Heatran, while Clefable over Volcarona provides the team with a Stealth Rock setter to replace Landorus, and a solid check to Zygarde and Mega Medicham that the team was lacking previously.

patlop's rate largely follows the same format by first calling out the team's big weaknesses to Tapu Lele and stall, due the lack of 1) a solid Fairy / Psychic resist and 2) a particularly strong wallbreaker. Jirachi over Mamoswine helps out against Tapu Lele thanks to its typing and bulk, and its access to Wish is also a great asset seeing as most of its teammates lack recovery.

patlop then suggests several minor changes to help improve the team's performance overall. The team lacks a Stealth Rock setter with Mamoswine's removal, so transferring this duty to Landorus-T seems logical. HP Ice is important for Landorus-T to be able to check Zygarde and opposing Landorus-T, so patlop recommends moving Defog to Tapu Fini, which is perfectly capable of using the move effectively as well. Choice Specs or Waterium Z on Greninja lessens the burden on Kyurem-B as a wallbreaker, while Spikes makes the team a lot more threatening against stall as a whole. His final change is to increase Kyurem-B's attacking capabilities vs stall by maximising its Attack EVs, running Freeze Shock over HP Fire, and replacing Earth Power with Roost to grant it more staying power.