With Chinese New Year having recently passed, it's a perfect time for a fun brainstorming project: sorting Pokémon into groups that resemble the Chinese Zodiac. The Chinese Zodiac is a group of 12 animals that run in a cycle over a period of 12 years, with each year being represented by one of these animals.
These twelve animals are (in order): rat/mouse, ox/cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig. In this article, we'll sort Pokémon into these animal groups, identify those viable in the Ubers metagame, and rank the animals based on their Ubers viability.
Keep in mind that the sorting of Pokémon is somewhat subjective, and some Pokémon may represent more than one animal due to their ambiguous characteristics. Let's dive in!
The Zodiac Pokémon Lineup
1. Pig
Kickstarting our list at the least viable in Ubers is coincidentally the last animal on the list, the pig. Pokémon such as Mamoswine, Primeape, and Walrein are classified as pigs. Unfortunately for the pigs, they really don't have a long list of potential candidates, let alone viable Pokémon to use in the Ubers metagame.
The best Pokémon on the list is easily Mamoswine; while it's a pretty cool Pokémon, being actually hard to switch into, and easily the best Electric Arceus counter in the game, it is still quite niche. I guess Primeape can still claim "HI I CAN'T BE PUT TO SLEEP," but it's not like it can take Dark Pulse or anything from Darkrai very well anyway.
Read also: Psychic-Type Effectiveness
2. Ox/Cow
Like the pigs, there aren't many bovines, let alone good ones. What ranks them over the pigs is that the one viable bovine is better than the one viable pig. Terrakion can at least check Exteme Killer Arceus, as well as revenge kill a bunch of other threats.
Even though Terrakion's usefulness has fallen due to the Generation shift, it still holds a significantly better niche than Mamoswine does. In terms of the other cows/bulls, they're not terrible, just outclassed, unlike something like Emboar.
3. Dog
Lucario is a jackal, which has canine qualities, I guess. Entei, Raikou, and Suicune are sometimes known as the legendary DOGS. The best dog is obviously Mega Lucario, although after Arceus began running max Speed and a Jolly nature, it kind of fell away as a decent Arceus check.
However, an Adaptability-boosted Close Combat is still incredibly strong, while Bullet Punch can revenge kill weakened Xerneas. Other than Lucario, Granbull is another interesting dog. The mighty bulldog got a type change in Gen 6, which gave it a lot more resistances as a Fairy bulldog.
With Intimidate, it is now one of the best Mega Mewtwo X counters in the metagame, while being a pretty good cleric with Heal Bell. Mega Absol is an interesting dog. It remains the only Magic Bounce user that is not weak to Pursuit, while decent offenses actually along it to threaten a lot of entry hazard setters.
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This is not to mention that it still enjoys that ridiculously powered STAB Sucker Punch, and with its Special Attack buff, it can actually make use of its huge special movepool.
4. Tiger
For tigers, I've included all the Pokémon that belongs to the cat family as well, as tigers are the cat representatives in the Chinese Zodiac. Landorus-T is easily the best tiger in the Ubers metagame, with its excellent typing, Intimidate, decent bulk, good movepool, and amazing power.
Landorus is not as strong as it is in OU. On the flip side, it is Thundurus that is more viable than its Therian counterpart in Ubers due to its ability to paralyze things with Prankster Thunder Wave. Liepard is also an annoying cat that makes people pull their hair out with its Substitute / Foul Play / Thunder Wave / Swagger set, and in Generation V, its Assist set was just as annoying.
As for the other tigers/cats/lions/leopards, Cinccino is surprisingly strong, being able to 2HKO Groudon with Choice Band Bullet Seed, while Choice Band Tail Slap dents a lot of things that don't resist it.
5. Goat
You will notice that I put Arceus into a lot of lists. This is mainly due to Arceus being able to use multiple Plates, and it sort of looks like a horse and a sort of like a goat. So, Arceus is allowed in goats as well. Although there is a very small list of goats, they are more viable than the previous animals for the sole reason that they have access to Arceus, which can run an Extreme Killer set, support its team with Defog, or be a Calm Mind sweeper (for example, Electric Arceus).
Read also: Meowstic Abilities
Cobalion and Virizion aren't the best Pokémon, but they have a couple of uses-Cobalion's a nice, fast Stealth Rock user with Taunt with decent resistances), while Virizion, with a specially defensive set, can switch into Kyogre at least once to save an Arceus slot, as well as use Taunt to good effect.
Otherwise, the other goats are relatively mediocre for Ubers, although they aren't terrible Pokémon either.
6. Rat/Mouse
Anything that had any rat-like or rodent-like features were classified as mice for this exercise. There are a number of strong rats in Ubers, but Shaymin-S is probably the best. Its Speed and hax ability are incredibly annoying for anyone facing it.
Excadrill is usable as a strong spinner, as well as just a bulky and very powerful Steel-type. It is also a very good check to Zekrom. Victini is a cute and powerful rat, although its ability to check Blaziken and Mewtwo like it did in Generation V has diminished due to Blaziken getting an insanely buffed Knock Off and Mewtwo getting two Mega Evolutions.
Still, Victini is a very, very strong rat. Sylveon has gotten the attention of a number of high-profile Ubers battlers lately, having good Special Defense and a very good support movepool.
7. Rabbit
Anything that had long ears was deemed to be a rabbit. Rabbits are known to be very fast, and Mewtwo proves this right. Mewtwo has quite a number of options in Ubers. It can run a standard set with just Life Orb if you want to save your Mega Stone.
You can also run a fun stall set with regular Mewtwo. However, using your Mega Stone on Mewtwo gives you some pretty amazing results. Mega Mewtwo Y has an awesome base 140 Speed, allowing it to outspeed Mega Gengar, while its ridiculous base 194 Special Attack means it hits almost as hard as Life Orb Mewtwo but doesn't have to take recoil.
Mega Mewtwo X flips a lot of Mewtwo Y's checks on their face. For example, someone expecting a special Mewtwo might bring in Ho-Oh, only for it to get wrecked by Stone Edge from Mega Mewtwo X. Mega Kangaskhan was recently banned from OU and is quite strong in Ubers.
It can run a number of sets, ranging from a Power-Up Punch sweeper to a support set that abuses 200 HP-a-pop Seismic Tosses. Manaphy got knocked down quite hard due to the nerf to rain and free Hydration recovery, but still remains one of the best counters to Mega Blaziken that use Low Kick (which are most of them), as Manaphy takes a pittance from it.
Although the Ubers-viable rabbits are limited to these, a few others, namely Celebi, Mew, Diggersby, and Azumarill, are all relatively decent Pokémon in their own right and can have some uses in Ubers. Celebi is a decent Grass-type to switch into ScarfOgre with if you don't want to use Grass Arceus.
Mew still has its massive movepool, although its Baton Pass has all but lost the luster that it had during DPP.
8. Snake
Snakes are a cool bunch. The Chinese have a saying that snakes are dragons of the land. Any Pokémon that is long and has a snake-like appearance could be classified as a snake. Forretress is a bagWORM, and worms are snakelike in shape.
Heliolisk is more of a lizard, but apparently it's a "basilisk," and we know basilisks are the kings of serpents. That aside, Giratina-O is probably the most viable snake in Ubers, being an excellent defensive Pokémon as well as being a good Defog user, allowing your Arceus forme to do something more flashy.
Rapid Spin may be less in demand this Generation, but as the number of spinblockers dropped in response to this, getting a Rapid Spin off these days is not difficult, still making Forretress a viable Pokémon, not to mention that it can potentially check a slightly weakened Xerneas with Gyro Ball.
9. Monkey
Every human-like Pokémon can be counted as a monkey, as Homo sapiens are evolutionarily close to apes, which in turn are close to monkeys. Darkrai is obviously the most threatening with its ability to put to sleep its counters, coupled with the Speed that allows it to pull this off.
Pretty much all of the Deoxys formes, apart from the normal forme, which is outclassed by the others, are excellent Pokémon. Jirachi has lost some of its defensive prowess, now being unable to check Darkrai and Ghost Arceus, even though the latter is significantly worse off this Generation.
Smeargle is now significantly better in XY due to being one of the only viable users of Sticky Web (as if there were many Sticky Web users in the first place). Sticky Web makes opponents drop their Speed upon switching in if they are grounded.
It can also surprise people expecting Sticky Web by being a SmashPass variant. Jynx is probably still a very good switch-in to Kyogre, although she takes a decent chunk from Thunder. With Lovely Kiss and Taunt, Jynx can mess up a lot of defensive Pokémon.
Froslass is still a decent Spiker, although with Defog, her job gets harder. She still gets Taunt to prevent Defog from slower Defoggers, though. Mega Gardevoir is an interesting new addition.
Although she gets competition for her Mega Stone, Pixilate-boosted Hyper Voice is very strong, while base 100 Speed and access to Taunt is always cool. Finally, we get to the two classic special sponges. Blissey is still usable, being able to wall Geomancy Xerneas, although she is huge Mega Gengar bait.
10. Horse
Being the year of the Horse, Team Horse packs quite an amazing line-up. You may be wondering why Kyogre is a horse. This picture shows you why. In all seriousness, though, whales are evolutionarily close to hippos, which are also known as "river horses". That kind of explains why Hippowdon is also a horse.
Packing the best Pokémon in the entire metagame (Kyogre, Xerneas, Arceus, and Dialga), the only reason why horses aren't higher up the list is because the number of amazing horses (while truly amazing) is relatively small compared to the top 2. Horses really have something for everyone though.
Kyogre is still the undisputed king of Ubers, drowning everything with its incredibly power Water Spout and tanking many special attacks due to its enormous Special Defense. Xerneas is the rising new star of Ubers, and even though ladder noobs spam the shit out of the Geomancy set, it is incredibly versatile, being able to sweep with Geomancy, revenge kill with Choice Scarf, be a cleric with Aromatherapy, or break walls with its mixed attacker set.
Arceus looks like a horse as well as a goat. Dialga has giant hooves and its cry sounds sort of like a neigh. While it isn't as good as it was in DPP and BW(2), Dialga is still amazing, being very difficult to take down, as well as packing incredible power.
Its lead set is still very effective, while offensive sets are very difficult to switch into. Hippowdon is still a decent physical wall with access to reliable recovery. Keldeo is a bit of an unknown at the moment, but with Giratina formes falling slightly out of favour and Latias being non-existent due to the absence Soul Dew, it could have SOME hope to shine.
11. Chicken
Coming in second place are the chickens. While there aren't that many chickens in Pokémon, the fact that they are the only representatives of all birds in the Chinese Zodiac means that every bird can be counted as a chicken... and there are a crapload of good birds. There are so many good birds that trickroom made a Birds team back in Deneration V and with Defog and addition of a few new birds, the chicken team is better than ever.
Although Yveltal puts up some huge competition, Ho-Oh takes the throne of king of all birds. While being amazing last Generation, with Defog around, apart from Kyogre and Xerneas, Ho-Oh is probably THE Pokémon to counter this Generation. Why do you think Rock Arceus is so popular now?
Blaziken is also a chicken that got a massive buff in XY, due to it getting a Mega Evolution, as well as a buffed Knock Off. Those Giratina can kiss their chances of walling this chicken goodbye, and only a handful of Pokémon, including Ho-Oh, Landorus-T, and Gyarados can really stop it from massacring entire teams.
Oh, did I mention it can now Baton Pass those Speed boosts too? Yveltal is the other mascot brought into XY, and it's probably just as versatile as Xerneas; while it can't sweep, it is a hell of a lot harder to switch into that Xerneas.
Lugia is still a mixed bag, being an amazing wall but horrible offensively, leading to it being Taunt fodder in a lot of cases. Defog did improve Multiscale, but XY also introduced Mega Gengar, which makes Lugia helpless a lot of the time. Tornadus and its Therian forme copped a bit of a nerf due to rain not being permanent any more, but their key advantages remain intact (Prankster for the Incarnate forme, Regenerator and 121 base Speed for the Therian forme).
Skarmory also copped a nerf due to Spikes being able to be removed much more easily, although it can pressure Defog Arceus with Toxic, as well as being a decent Defog user itself. It is still an amazing Extreme Killer Arceus counter. Gliscor finds itself competing with Landorus-T.
The other birds/chickens are a lot more situational this Generation. Latias and Latios have their classic case of "early Generation blues" again, as Soul Dew is not available. Latias can still invest heavily in bulk to tank Kyogre's Water Spouts, but is rather weak. Latios has a distinct niche as a Choice Scarf user that is unaffected by Sticky Web.
Cresselia can check Mega Mewtwo X and other physical attackers such as Groudon. Flying Arceus is the only Arceus forme allowed for chickens, but Flying is a good attacking STAB, allowing it to be a good mono-attacker with Substitute. Xatu is still a viable Magic Bounce user, but is rather ordinary.
Mandibuzz used to be a great Ghost Arceus check, although her position has largely usurped by Yveltal. Finally, Talonflame has a cool niche of having priority Brave Bird, but is rather weak. Some special mentions go to Honchkrow for being a very manly bird that has been overshadowed by both Ho-oh and Yveltal and Archeops for being the first bird that ever flew with its powerful Head Smashes.
12. Dragon
Was there any doubt that Dragons are the strongest animals in Pokémon? Ever since DPP, Dragon has been the most powerful attacking type in the game, although Dragons were balanced in XY due to the introduction of Fairy-type. Regardless, they are still an incredibly powerful group.
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