Melmetal is really good, thats for sure. You dont need to look at any calcs to figure out that a mon with such heavy physical bulk and varied movepool is going to sit at the top of the foodchain in the tier. That said, I think it fits just right in the tier as it is right now. While not many people I've discussed this with seem to agree, I think its offensive capabilities are not powerful enough for it to be problematic, but just strong enough to cause an impact in the tier, evidently not the most welcomed one but one that I think will help the current state of the meta.



Melmetal does one thing I think everyone can appreciate: punish TeleWish Clef Balance. Aside from Aegislash, theres not many mons in the meta that can hit Clef hard enough to where it cant succesfully pass Wish with Teleport to its teammates, which is one of the primary reasons this strategy has risen to the top of the metagame, to the point where not having your own Wish passing Clef puts u at a direct disadvantage against a team with it. Because of this, one of the prime switch-in opportunities for Melmetal is a Wishing Clef. I've seen and went through this sequence dozens of times on the suspect ladder and it also leads to one of Melmetal's flaws: Protect. Choice Band is the most popular set atm, although people briefly experiemented with Sub Acid Armor prior to the original ban and Assault Vest/bulkier AoA sets are seen sometimes. While the Clef user suddenly loses all momentum in the face of a Melmetal, Protect can usually scout the most dangerous set. Whenever Melmetal doesnt turn out to be choiced, it lacks the immediate power to force a kill through the sturdier defensive core that are very popular atm. Defensive backbones consisting of Clefable, Corviknight, Toxapex, Hippowdon, Seismitoad, Rotom-H, Ferrothorn, etc all have the tools to play around choiced sets and the sturdiness to withstand correctly predicted attacks coming from a non choiced set. A number of recent metagame trends including the rise of helm Hippo, Pain Split being a staple of Rotom-H, plenty of Ferrothorn, etc are quite punishing for Melmetal and with Wish Clefable being omnipresent, I think Melmetal has just the right power to force a kill when conditioned correctly but is not overpowered to the point where it can dismantle these cores at any moment without giving them the chance to recover.



Against more offensive teams, the biggest gripe most people have with Melmetal is just how bulky it is. It's nearly impossible to OHKO with a physical move, which often allows it to at least trade with an offensive threat. I think its physical bulk is easily one of its most oppressive traits for this reason, but I also think offensive teams are well equiped to handle this threat. The staple pivots (Clef, Corv, Toad, Kommo-o) all have different ways to prevent it from coming in for free: Clef can Teleport out for momentum, Corv clicks U-Turn more often than not, Toad is Toad, Kommo-o threatens to hit it with Body Press on the switch and win 1 on 1. I think on practice, Melmetal's impact in this matchup comes down to its ability to succesfully switch in (either after a KO or VoltTurn support) and make the right trade. It's definitely easier for it to get out of hand when you don't have the defensive backbone to hold it back or the offensive tools to take it down in 1 hit but mons like Rotom-H, Dragapult, Chandelure, Specs Kyurem, the increasingly popular CC Conk, etc are usually enough to keep it at bay and make progress themselves. Speaking of Kyurem, another great aspect about Melmetal is the addition of an offensive Ice resist to the tier. Prior to Melmetal the only mon that could really switch into an Ice Beam and pose a threat of its own was Aegislash. With the right set and spread, Melmetal can turn the tables against one of the most powerful breakers in the tier which is great for bulky offense teams that cant afford the sturdiest Ice resists that would drain momentum.



There's a lot more I could talk about but I think this about sums up my thoughts, I think Melmetal would be a great addition and in all honesty the tier can only get so much worse than it is rn anyway, free Melmetal