How can I tell if one Pokemon outclasses another in Competitive Battling?

Question

What is the process of determining if one Pokemon outclasses another? (For example, one water type outclasses another water type) Does it depend on the tier they're in? If not, does it depend on their stats?

Answer 1

The easiest way is checking viability rankings or usage statistics. If one of your Pokemon isn't on the rankings or has low usage, then it's probably outclassed by something, although it might not be your other Pokemon. The slightly more difficult way requires knowing what "outclass" means.

Outclass – Surpass all the important roles of another Pokémon, item, move or ability.

source
In other words, thing A (it can be a Pokemon, move, item, ability, or strategy) outclasses thing B if thing A is more useful in every situation. It's difficult to consider every possible situation. It's much easier to look for important differences between your 2 things and think about when those differences might make your 2 things more or less useful. For example, I'll use Blastoise and Suicune in gen 2 OU.

Type
They have the exact same type.

Stats
Suicune is better in every stat except for its slightly worse physical attack. This means Blastoise is slightly better against special walls like Blissey, although Blissey can still very easily use its support moves when facing either of them.

Moves
Blastoise learns all of Suicune's good moves, as well as rapid spin. This makes Blastoise better if you're trying to use teammates that are threatened by spikes (such as belly drum users) against a spikes user.

Therefore, Suicune usually outclasses Blastoise unless you really benefit from rapid spin. (and Blastoise is outclassed by Starmie as a rapid spin user)

Comments

This is a much better answer than the first one

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I answered after the Porygon person selected the other answer.

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Thanks sumwun! This answer is a whole lot better!

Answer 2

Ummm...though question though, but i’m gonna answer it.
1.The Tier
The tier which makes by smogon was mentioned very clearly and directly, like lapars as an example, it got good stat but outclassed by other water and ice type due to its movepool, typing, etc., etc..

2.The Movepool
Movepool was one of the most important thing, you need to have a better movepool for stalling, sweeping, tanking, etc., etc.. A lot of Pokemon has good stat but a lame movepool which makes them very frail.

3.The Stat
The stat was another not that important as the movepool, but still important. Like pikachu as an example, it’s Atk, SpAtk and Speed stat was pretty nice with light ball, but it’s defensive stat sucks to lot that makes it almost ohko by everything :p It’s speed was also outclass by the others, which makes it more frail.

4.The Ability
Another super important thing in either in game or compective battle, like Slaking and Rigigas, who has a super duper high stat of 670 was in a PU, why? Cuz’ it’s ability sucks. Tuant and Slow start makes them to the PU tier, tuant makes slaking could only move for 1 turn and do nothing in the another one turn, which sucks. And slow start halves it’s speed, atk and spatk stat in the5 turns which was still pretty long and most Pokemon couldnt takes so much hits from.

5.The Evs and Ivs
See Here too see how important it is.

Hope it helps!

Comments

It's also worth mentioning how one matches up against the pokemon in the tier it's in

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Thanks for the feedback! It’s also important.

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Every Pokemon species can have the same EVs or IVs, so comparing EVs or IVs isn't useful when trying to decide whether one species outclasses another species.