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Published on December 10th, 2015 | by Level 51

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VGC ’16 Pokémon Speed Tiers

The standard ruleset for VGC 2016 has just been announced, and with all these new legendaries to work around, it’s more important than ever to fine-tune your own team’s EVs to outrun the right threats. While together they look a bit like a reference table in a mathematics textbook, Speed tiers are what drive turns in Pokémon. Knowing whether your Pokémon is going to move before or after its opponents is essential to winning battles and avoiding unnecessary damage. This list should help you get a feel for the relative Speed of each Pokémon and what nearby threats are faster or slower than them, thereby making it easier for you to construct your team.

Here are some helpful hints about Speed before the table:

• Discounting the bonuses and penalties of a Pokémon’s Nature, the difference between a 0 IV in Speed and a 31 IV is 15 points in Speed and the difference between 0 EVs and 252 EVs in Speed is 32 points with an odd IV or 31 with an even IV.
• Choice Scarf boosts Speed by one level (*1.5). Tailwind boosts Speed by two levels (*2). Thunder Wave reduces speed to 1/4. Icy Wind reduces Speed by one level (2/3). Iron Ball reduces Speed by two levels (2/4).
• A Pokémon’s Speed is always a whole number. Like most of the math in Pokémon, Speed calculations round down, so a Pokémon with 101 Speed would have 151 Speed when holding a Choice Scarf, not 151.5 or 152.
• The turn order of Pokémon is decided before a turn starts. If you use a move that changes a Pokémon’s Speed level (like Icy Wind) or value (through Mega Evolving) you retain the Speed value you had before the turn started until the next turn. The only exception to this rule is the move Quash.
• There is a 50/50 chance of each Pokémon moving first if two Pokémon have the same Speed. This is some of how Speed Tiers got their name, though Game Freak has enjoyed putting Pokémon at a much greater variety of Speeds in recent iterations of the game compared to the older games, when any popular Pokémon were tied at base speeds like 100.
• In the tables below, a boost level of 1 typically signifies either a Choice Scarf or an actual boost in the Speed stat, either by Speed Boost or a move like Dragon Dance or Quiver Dance. A boost level of 2 signifies either two turns of Speed Boost, a Tailwind boost, or in one very special case, a boost from Geomancy.

Every Pokémon listed below has either 0 or 252 EVs in Speed and a 31 or 0 IV in Speed. In real life, you’ll probably see more variance than this, so what a list like this really does is help you find absolutes: these are the fastest and slowest Pokémon can be with the given Natures. Since taking unnecessary risks tends to be the fastest way to lose in Pokémon, you can use this information when planning your team to make sure that your Pokémon will move before important threats that can knock your Pokémon out, or if that is unreasonable or impossible, to know when defeat could be a turn away and you need to switch out to a more appropriate counter to fend it off. This list can also help you figure out how much Speed you really need: if all the things you want to counter only require your Pokémon to invest 100 EVs in Speed, you’re probably going to want to invest the rest of your EVs defensively instead of running more Speed EVs that might not accomplish very much.

The speeds listed here are broken up into four somewhat arbitrary groups to make the list a little more readable. There is almost too much data here already, so some Pokémon not likely to be relevant to the metagame aren’t listed; furthermore, some speed levels which are unlikely to be run by a given Pokémon are not listed either. Should there be a rise in Exploud usage or 0 Speed EV Blaziken, for example, they would be added to the list.

Boost Required

All Pokémon here have their speed boosted in one way or another, whether by Choice Scarf, Tailwind or boosting moves such as Dragon Dance and Quiver Dance. Most viable Pokémon require a boost of some sort in order to reach these Speed numbers.

Faster than Base 90

Many of the new legendary Pokémon sit at base 90 speed, and it’s important to be able to outrun these huge threats. The Pokémon in this section of the Speed tiers are those faster than base 90 Pokémon with positive natures, which also includes some Pokémon with Speed boosts from weather abilities and Choice Scarf as well as most of the Pokémon that are used largely because of their innate Speed.

Middle of the Pack

These Pokémon make up the large bulk of the Speed tiers, and are slower than the base 90s like Groudon, Kyogre, Dialga, and Ho-Oh, but faster than most Pokémon common on Trick Room teams, especially the most common Trick Room setter, Cresselia, as well as other potential incoming Trick Room setters, such as Dialga.

Trick Room Zone

These Pokémon are largely favored on Trick Room teams due to their naturally lower base Speed, allowing them to move before faster Pokémon under Trick Room conditions. Most of them have had their Speed lowered further by a negative Nature and a 0 Speed IV in order to optimize their effectiveness in Trick Room.

About the Author

Level 51 hails from the (usually) sunny island of Singapore. Although his Pokémon skills are currently mediocre at best, he hopes to one day compete in the Pokémon World Championships.

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