A2 is the second installment in 35-Perfect's vision-A as well as the successor to A1. As is with every version- at the end of A1 a metagame analysis took place to determine what Pokemon should stay, deserve a second chance- and which should be cast aside to make wave for new, more viable choices. In this case quite a few underperforming pokémons from the likes of klawf wormadam and simisage were rolled out. Due to the nature of the metagame A2 saw a heavy rise in usable pokémons with a large majority of the cast having at least solidly defined niches; with 14 pokémons considered to be A rank and above in viability.

At the very start of the metagame runerigus- the replacemment to its unovan counterpart cemented itself as the best physical wall in the tier due to its excellent base 145 defense stat and good ghost/ground typing letting it check common threats in the tiers physical attackers such as medicham, silvally and archeops. It possesed excellent role compression in its ability to spread status in will-o-wisp-- crippling physical attackers, and hazards in stealth rock and occasionally toxic spikes to disrupt teams and as such was one of the most used pokémon in the tier. Due to runerigus' strong presence many team styles, pokémons and archetypes had to have the wall in mind when building, a lot of teams were built around the idea of wearing down runerigus over the course of a game such that their strong physical attacker like a scarf medicham could clean up once the opponents' runerigus was weakened. 

Due to runerigus' added ground type the dynamics of the tier shifted quite a bit more from a1. As many sets that were once used against cofagrigus either didn't work or took the opportunity to adapt to the changes. Vikavolt for example dropped thunderbolt and more commonly started to run roost- as now energy ball was enough to secure the 2hko on runerigus. One notable example of these sets, or a pokémon in general was archeops. Archeops was one of the best pokémon in the tier during A1 due to its powerful meteor beam sets being able to ravage teams and cleanly secure the 2hko on most defensive pokémon such as cofagrigus, however this set fell almost entirely out of favor in a2- seeing much less usage due to the dominance of runerigus and its complementary ground type letting it cleanly resist meteor beam and fire back with a body press to do a considerable amount of damage to the otherwise frail archeops. As such archeops saw a heavy drop in usage, while still a very viable anti-offense pick due to its excellent speed tier and offensive typing letting it deal with foes like rapidash and silvally-fighting, it lost the dominance and wallbreaking prowess it once had.

Another notable fall is mawile, in A2 copperajah was introduced as an alternative steel type option able to provide great defensive utility aswell as stealth rock, in this role mawile was largely outclassed with its biggest niche being as a slightly better silvally check, this can be attributed to copperajahs much better overall bulk and attacking capabilities, while copperajah loses out on intimidate and a helpful secondary fairy typing, it has a much larger set versatility being able to run powerful wallbreaking sets with moves like earthquake to pressure setup sweepers, assault vest as a strong archeops, aurorus and mr-rime check and stealth rock sets to provide a team with hazards.

At the start of A2 turtonator erupted as one of the most used offensive pieces in the metagame, with shell smash sets taking off and making it an immensly powerful game ending threat. Shell smash allows the user to double its speed and attacking stats, this was very strong on turtonator due to its miriad of possible sets making it an unpredictable foe, Most turtonator opted to run a specially attacking set, as such mantine was the preferred turtonator answer due to its high special defense stat aswell as its water typing allowing it to resist turtonators fire moves. However much like runerigus mantine was exploitable and many teams were prepared for it. Turtonator had the ability to run head smash, a powerful coverage move that could destroy most mantine sets after chip, some even used physical sets with scale shot and heat crash for the surprise factor. Toxicroak was a strong offensive threat able to take advantage of more defensive teams, paired with turtonator, it presented an excellent core to put pressure and overwhelm mantine. It's combination of dry skin and the poison typing gave it ample setup opportunity on the large majority of mantine sets which mainly ran scald + toxic, meaning toxicroak was able to switch in freely against mantine due to it being immune to both moves. Mantine suffered from heavy 4-move-slot syndrome this version as it wanted a set for basically everything, air slash was needed to prevent toxicroak from setting up on you, scald and toxic were needed to threaten turtonator and physical attackers such as copperajah, defog was good utility to remove hazards and roost was needed as a form of healing. mantine also heavily appreciated amnesia meaning it could run physically defensive sets to better handle head smash/scale shot turtonator and medicham. More offensive teams opted to go for more temporary answers to turtonator as many saw mantine as a liability due to its exploitable nature. One of these answers was Dusknoir, Dusknoir was a premier bulky offense piece with assault-vest sets being particularly good, Dusknoir could help teams that needed an archeops switchin a mr rime switchin, an aurorus answer, a ghost type for medicham/silvally-fighting, and a turtonator answer all in one without the downside of being passive due to dusknoirs wide coverage movepool and strong stab poltergeist. Another notable set that grew to be another thorn in turnators side was punishment skunktank, Punishment is a move which gains 20 base power for every stat boost the target has, meaning a 180 base power move after shell smash. this was particularly effective on scarf sets. as it was able to outspeed and ko a turtonator after stealth rock chip. However defensive sets with sucker punch also a fair amount of use, as it was an alternative defensive turtonator check to mantine that faired better into other threats such as the tiers numerous special psychics and had the added benefit of sucker punch being able to pick off a weakened foe. Skuntank was particularly good at this due to its status as one of the best revenge killers in the tier. Skuntank has access to powerful sucker punches, strong spammable stab moves in knock off and gunk shot, pursuit to trap enemies and the ability aftermath to heavily chip foes trying to take it out. All this made it an excellent choice in the tier due to its valuable role compression and offensive capabilities.

At the start of A2 the sweeping power of silvally-dark was incredibly potent, due to its status as a dark type letting it overcome the best physical wall in the tier in runerigus, and swords dance sets in conjunction with multi attack being able to do massive damage even to otherwise very physically bulky foes silvally dark was a force to be reckoned with. Due to this rise of a very strong sweeper, throughout half way in the tournament a surprise defensive mon was found in fighting-silvally, being able to stop a sweep from most silvally-dark sets and even ocassionally those running psychic fangs silvally was a strong counter piece being able to disrupt the cleaning gameplan silvally-dark liked to execute. This meant that their viability practically inverted with silvally-fighting becoming the silvally of choice fitting on more team archetypes and wildly being considered more viable. However that isn't all there is to it. Silvally's status as a fighting type naturally meant the answer to it was the ever present ghost type runerigus being able to threaten burn on it forcing the silvally to switch out, from this simple interaction a new team style was born which preyed on passive teams that relied on runerigus as their physically defensive wall. Due to silvally access to the move toxic it was able to lure in runerigus, status is with toxic and then click parting shot bringing in its teammate vikavolt which could then threaten energy ball on the runerigus and force it to switch out, this kind of simple volt-turn team style was highly effective at forcing chip damage on almost everything in the tier and in the end relied on a powerful cleaner to win the game. vikavolt was a mainstay piece in the metagame due to its excellent matchup into the majority of the pokémon in the tier and its ability levitate and strong recovery in roost letting it exploit the everpresent runerigus. Vikavolt was widely considered to be one of the best mons in the tier for a good reason, however it was not unstoppable. A mainstay in the tier, togedemaru completely stopped vikavolt in its tracks and spread toxic on it and its teammates, it could also be an annoyance with wish, it's ability lightning rod blocks volt switch preventing vikavolt from using it as momentum which is a problem many other mons in the tier faced, togedemaru was the major adaptation against this kind of team style, blocking the kind of momentum volt-turn loved so much and spreading toxic to wear them down. However togedemaru was not invincible and some teams opted to run mud-shot vikavolt as a way to put pressure on the mouse.

At the start of A2, rapidash was largely overlooked as the tiers fire type, with many being in favour of turtonator as their preffered fire type. However as the tournament went on, many metagame innovations happened and it gradually grew to be one of the most dominant forces to be reckoned with in the metagame. but why? Turtonator certainly had the edge as a setup sweeper due to its powerful shell smash boosting both of its offenses, however rapidash was used in much a different way. Rapidash, in conjunction with volt turn was one of the most powerful wallbreakers in the tier. While it didn't have the immediate power of something like a choice banded medicham or copperajah- its ability to spam flareblitz on the tiers most dominant physical wall in runerigus made it one of the arguably best mons to apply offensive pressure, with very little being able to take a hit and threaten it back. due to its excellent coverage combination of wild charge and high horsepower being able to decimate switchings like opposing rapidash, defensive skuntank or mantine. paired with teammates like vikavolt- able to switch in to runerigus and threaten it to switch out, and silvally to spam parting shot- it made an almost perfect volt turn core that was very hard for defensive/slower playstyles to deal with, getting them trapped in a volt turn vortex forcing them to play reactively or let their team get decimated by the sheer firepower. Toxicspam was really strong from both offensive and defensive playstyles due to the very wide distribution of the move. for defensive playstyles giving it a way to fight back at volt turn and prevent the archetype from gaining momentum, for offense to break through the numerous defensive mons in the tier, misdreavus and leafeon were used on a few teams, notably offensive ones as a sure fire way to not lose to the strategy due to their status cleansing in aromatherapy and heal bell respectively, leafeon was particularly good due to its access to the move wish being able to switch in, remove the teams status and wish up a teammate such as silvally made is a strong lesser seen force in the metagame.

In conclusion 35-perfect A2 was a much beloved, fairly balanced tier home to many metagame developments and interactions making building very interesting and rewarding niche picks/creativity.

Written by Presi

/challenge gen9nationaldex35pokes @@@ -All Pokemon, +Unobtainable, +Past, -ND Uber, -ND AG, -ND OU, -ND UUBL, -ND UU, -ND RUBL, -ND RU, -ND NFE, -ND LC, +Cacturne, +Seviper, +Komala, +Leafeon, +Copperajah, +Rotom-Fan, +Armaldo, +Mr. Rime, +Cryogonal, +Medicham-Base, +Silvally-Psychic, +Silvally-Fighting, +Toxicroak, +Mantine, +Purugly, +Archeops, +Toucannon, +Aurorus, +Mawile-Base, +Togedemaru-Base, +Frogadier, +Vikavolt-Base, +Pinsir-Base, +Wugtrio, +Dragonair, +Shiinotic, +Dusknoir, +Skuntank, +Silvally-Dark, +Runerigus, +Misdreavus, +Turtonator, +Rapidash-Base, +Camerupt-Base, +Sandslash-Base