Season 6 Initial Power Rankings

12 min readApr 5, 2021

Completely objective and never wrong

I went through these teams in the order of their draft, and they’re judged based on how they hold up at the time of writing this. If you make changes between now and the draft, I’m not going to rerate the team. I do take criticism though, it’s extra fun, so go ahead and @me in the discord as you wish.

Tiramisu

This team looks like Tira’s best in the past couple of seasons. That said, I think there are still a couple issues that will be abused pretty hard. The team shares a bunch of weaknesses to both ground moves and rock moves, with nothing on the team able to safely switch into a pokemon carrying both. The stealth rock weakness alone is going to deal a bunch of damage and put a lot of pressure for hazard removal, and when your hazard removal is coalossal, you’re going to have a bad time. There might be too many 4X weaknesses and not enough safe switch ins to the 4X weaknesses to make this team very strong. C

Glitchtastic

Glitch got a solid team with a solid amount of power behind it. There are some nice synergies between these mons, and plenty of speed control to deal with faster teams. Small weakness to hazards that could be abused, but glitch has options for hazard removal that matchup well against most setters. I think this team could struggle against defensive teams, but primarina takes care of most walls with specs moonblast spam. B

FJFJFJFJFJ

A hard hitting offensive team that will not enjoy getting hit back. FJ’s team is going to rely on switches rather heavily, as losing mometum could easily result in a loss of a pokemon each time. In particular, Dark/fighting move sets hit almost the whole team, which could lead to some problematic 50/50s with these frail attackers. If FJ correctly calls these predictions, his team can blow through most others. B

Lard, formerly known as The Drampa Guy

A solid tricore is brought down by some disjointed looking pieces. The team is a mix of powerful and frail attackers crossed with extremely passive stalling mons. I think the binder between these two halves is missing, which might end up coming back to bite this team. Slowking helps patch up this whole somewhat, but swapping one or two of these middle mons for another pivot would do wonders for this team. C

Panda

Panda hit some rough spots in the draft that left him strung out with picks, leaving his team to struggle to a rocky close. This is one team that is going to be looking for a bunch of trades, but in its current state it’s just going to struggle very hard. No good special absorber sets the team back, and galvantula and espeon are not enough special power to balance the physical bias of this team. Coupled with a stealth rock weakness and overlapping stab type resists, this team is going to struggle for a while as Panda moves his pieces around. That said, this team will take games still with the power of Panda/TX chaos sets. C

Style

Ok who let Style get scizor AND togekiss? This team is very strong, thanks to the combination of those two backed up by a great support cast. Sawk is great every season, rhyperior makes big dents and sucks up hits for the main two, and persian-a is a solid and annoying pivot. The only weakness I’m seeing for this team is the reliance on scizor to act as the team’s only check for ice and fairy type spam in most games. if scizor gets caught out by a solid predicted or a surprise fire move and goes down too early, this team can break under the shared weaknesses. S

Hanmingzyy

This team is fast, and it looks like it can abuse that speed rather effectively. The volturn core of raikou + crobat will give this team a lot of momentum, and there are switch ins for almost every type. Most of these pokemon have very spammable stab moves that can be hard to switch into, and this team can keep up momentum enough to allow these pokemon to eventually break through their checks. Solid draft, but could be vulnerable to good predictions or strong walls. A

Deathbypudding

Hey it’s me. So I got almost everything I wanted out of both phases of picks, and I’m quite happy with how the team is shaping up. It’s more offensive than teams I’ve played in the past, which is a nice mix up after three seasons of playing balance/bulky offensive into 3 championships. I went in with the goal of drafting a unique tricore of mamo + flying + water type, and I got my top choice in each of those categories. Passimian is my speed control and fighting spammer, mime offers a secondary spinner, and gardevoir actually just slaps (I’m really starting to love this pick up.) Duraludon was the perfect pokemon to round this team out and it really solved all the issues the team was having in scrims. Happy with the draft, and I’m going to have some fun with a more offensive style. 3/4

Bloodninja

I’m not too sure about this team overall. I think diggersby is underrated, and is actually a sold T1 capable of really taking out a bunch of pokemon given some space. That said, this team as a whole looks hard to execute, and it doesn’t have a very clear game plan for closing out games. A couple walls are mixed with some faster attackers, but it could be difficult to actually bring in these attackers without letting them get heavily chipped or KO’d on the switch. As with a lot of teams of this style, a slow pivot would help this team out a lot. C

Killazoid

Killazoid somehow managed to get all of these pokemon onto one team, and it’s going to make for a nightmare to get through. Kommo-o is incredibly versatile as both a physical and special sweeper, with the option to run defensive sets as well. This team has pivots, reliable switch ins for practically every move type, mixed bulk, speed, priority, and hazards. Easily one of the best drafts, and in the hands of one of the best players, this team will be near the top of the standings for sure. S

Sigmodic

Another great team, this one in the hands of a new player who everyone wants to trade with. A bunch of powerful yet bulky special attackers are supported by physical walls and a cleric with great wish support for all of these pokemon that lack reliable recovery of their own. If sigilyph was replaced with a powerful physical attacker to break through special walls, this team would be even harder to deal with, but even in its present form its going to be hard to deal with. The only vulnerabilities come in the lack of a great physical wallbreaker and some possible issues with speed control. A

Sleepy

The sponsor of my captain went in and casually drafted a stall team. Let’s see how that plays out for him. In terms of drafting a stall team though, this looks about as good as you could hope to get in a draft format like this. There is a ton of bulk on Sleepy’s side that will be able to mostly just sit in the face of anything trying to break through it, and indeedee does provide a late game win condition once toxic stall has dealt with most of the opponents side. Good answers to steel types are present, which could otherwise shut this team down completely. Good for a stall team means a solid rating out of me, but I think this team will still struggle because of how difficult it can be to run a stall team into 5 substitute users every game. B

bsvhsvj

If this team was just a little faster, it would be incredibly hard to deal with. Kyurem absolutely crushes most pokemon, and it can be especially hard to deal with when supported by aurora veil users. Doublade is a steal at t3, and acts as a reliable switch to fighting moves for these mons. This team is dragged down by the reliance on scarf rotom and arctovish to act as speed control, as well as a huge stealth rock weakness and lack of any control to reliably keep it off the field. This will end up forcing a lot for these mons to run HDB every game, and seriously impede their options. B

Closed@5

The 4 player who carries me every lane has managed to draft a solid looking balance team. This team is filled with bulk, but also with enough attack power to weaken and chip down the checks for the real win condition, polteageist, to clean up shop after a shell smash boost. Closed has excellent hazard control, can spread status, and can get through some potentially troublesome walls with some of these stronger attackers. I just worry that this team will struggle against powerful wallbreakers on the other side, and its inability to answer strong, bulky attackers very well. Also, if you’re reading this, you should @mozart and tell him good luck in his match tonight. B

Dolly

What initially appeared to be an incredibly broken draft dwindled down just a tad in the later stage, leaving Dolly with a formidable, but not outright broken, team. Nihilego is power, noivern is broken, cress and shark complement each other nicely, and rapidash-g is a nice value fairy type. Unfortunately, all the other picks I didn’t name are mediocre at best, which leaves Dolly just a bit short of the top rating. Considering I always underrate Dolly’s team’s though, expect this to go 12–2 or something. A

Korgoth

Man, I love this team. Starmie + incineroar is a great complementary pair, and both of them work together to set up these other strong pokemon to get in and cause damage. Zydog will greatly enjoy the support being brought out by these pokemon, and can cause serious damage, while thunderus-t brings similar power on the special side. This is a seriously well balanced team, and if Korgoth can execute it well, it can easily sit at the top. S

Doomcow33

This team looks, just ok. There are a lot of pokemon on this team that would not be my first choice in their tier, and there doesn’t seem to be a real core or win condition set up here. A weakness to water is never a great feeling, especially when your only switch in hates being burned, and will not help this team out. Speed is either very low or very high, and that leaves this team vulnerable to opposing wallbreakers that sit at that nice middle area with priority. I could end up surprised, but this team doesn’t really excite me. D

Spaceturt

Spaceturt is an anomaly. He appears suddenly, doesn’t take a coach, and then creates a solid balance team with a nice spread of typings. This team has both the necessary bulky mons and the frail wallbreakers that a lot of other teams have, but in spaceturt’s case, he has the pivots to get between them cleanly. This team looks solid, but not quite as broken as some of these other teams look. B

Matieu

My coachee and silvally sampler Matieu got the team he was looking for, and I think it’s a good one overall. The offensive tricore from his first three picks is capable of threatening a lot of teams, and the remaining pokemon were selected to fill in the holes left by this core. Once its checks are chipped, gyarados cleans up extremely well, and these mons are more than capable of removing problematic defensive pokemon. Matieu might struggle against choice scarf users, since his team is mostly reliant on other items, but I think this is easily Mat’s best draft yet. A

DerpyDots

A decent looking tricore is supported by a couple of value mons, but I think there are a few missing pieces. No hazard control will hurt this team, and a lack of effective ways to abuse grimmsnarl’s best niche (dual screens) will end up with Derpy running choice band or other sets that don’t take as much advantage of its ability. This team ends up being very item reliant, so knock off will absolutely wreak havoc on the effectiveness of these mons. Derpy is going to have a hard time setting up for lucario or tauros to clean up, especially with everything eating hazard chip the whole match. B

Lonewolf

Another very formidable team, boosted off the back of a round 2 terrakion pick (seriously how did it fall that far.) Lonewolf has that powerful balance of bulk and power, and these pokemon are very capable of smashing through opposing lineups. The offensive mons on the side of Lonewolf hit incredibly hard, and have options for either immediate power with choice items or sweeping threats with boost sets. The one place it might struggle is making sure these offensive mons can get in safely, but wish support from umbreon helps patch that up. A

Burrahobbit

Burra finally returns to her roots and drafts a sun team. This team looks dangerous, with venusaur capable of sweeping entire teams with only a single boost, and has a nice variety to prevent it from being all in on keeping up the weather. That said, weather teams can struggle when they are hard targetted like they are in this league, and I can see this team faltering after too many uses of rain dance. I also worry that opposing pokemon could abuse the sun as well, and spam powerful fire type moves that cause some serious issues for this team. B

Sick

Well, it’s a monotype team. And that means its going to struggle. While water is a very solid choice for monotype, and sick has almost everything a team could need from a monotype draft, this team will nonetheless struggle very hard against anyone who slaps on 3 thunderbolts and 2 grass knots. I wish him luck. D

Mozart

Mozart started out this draft with what I think was a perfect start to a mimikyu centered team, and then he got baited by sticky webs. Webs are super overrated imo (even after winning last season with them) and the shuckle pick forced this team to have to play for hyper offense. Unfortunately, the remaining picks stuck more with the original plan, which I think is a major contributor to why this team is struggling to feel cohesive. Mozart needs to commit to one strategy to make this team as strong as the opener said it could be. B

Holo

Solid looking picks overall, but I’m not super sold on the team as a whole. There are a number of issues here, especially a major stealth rock weakness and no way to remove them aside from using defog on conkeldurr, which really sets this team back. There is some nice counterplay that zoroark can create surprise KOs, but the general passivity of this team makes me think it’s just going to get illusion broken by pivot moves or random attacks. C

Logical

This team is a bunch of button clickers with a random doormat thrown in. That said, these pokemon hit hard and are fast, but logical will need to make some good predictions to keep momentum up and prevent getting his frail attackers killed by faster scarf users. This team either needed more mantines or no mantines, and it suffers from having a mix of both. B

Spacedude-galar

It’s a theme team, and that’s just a lot of fun. The type spread is surprisingly solid, and I think there are a lot of functional pieces in here that support each other pretty well. It has hazards and control, pivots, bulk, and offense mixed in healthy amounts, so for a meme draft it comes out surprisingly cohesive. Just don’t get hit by too much ice spam and this team will do fine. A

Kayfabe

Another meme draft that ended up turning into a sort of half hail abuse, half terrain abuse sort of squad with more pokemon than I want to try and count. I honestly have no idea how well this team is going to do, it has about half a dozen completely different ways to play that all look halfway usable, and about 10 more that look awful. Honestly not the worst draft even after picking all T5 pokemon in the first phase. C

Bliss

A team that I initially though was absolutely terrible until I actually saw it play during some scrims. This team just hits you. Bliss presses his buttons, and then things die, that’s all there is to it. This team can take some games, but it still has the very abusable flaws, most notably that it’s slow as dirt, that I noticed in my first assessment. This will still beat up on the defensive lineups though, which should make for a halfway decent team overall. B

Glump

The gameplan here is as plain as day. “Press buttons with webs.” Any team that can be fully summed up in a single phrase, with very little outside of that available to it, is going to struggle with the real top teams of the league. There are a bunch of moderately slow but powerful attackers designed to abuse vikavolt’s webs, but as soon as those webs are cleared, this team can’t do much of anything. Very prediction reliant to keep up the momentum, and the low tiers look totally out of place and unable to support the top end of attackers. B

skynumber5

Honestly, the more I look at this draft, the more solid it looks to me. There is a tricore, there is a game plan, and there are the pokemon to support both. A good bit of bulk and type variety supports this team’s mixed attack stats, and I think almost all these pokemon are solid or even great for their tier. A bit of a general weakness to special attacks brings this team down, but there are enough AV carriers on the team that it should work out without too much of an issue. A

So to summarize, here are all the teams in their tiers, in no particular order

S tier

Style

Killazoid

Korgoth

A tier

Hanmingzyy

Sigmodic

Dolly

Matieu

Lonwolf

Skynumber5

B tier

Glitch

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