Project The LC Theorymon Project

[doomsday doink]

approved by macle
taken over from Rhythms

THE LC THEORYMON PROJECT​

Kinda the same thing as last time, but now some salty nerd is running the show. Get at me. Oh, and some Canadian nerd named QuoteCS is helping.

The process by which this version of the project is gonna work is much different from the previous one. For starters, all nominations for theorymons will be sent in a conversation to both me and Quote. If you plan on sending theorymons in for consecutive rounds, please use the same conversation. After people have sent in their nominations, Quote and/or I will make a post for each theorymon. You will vote on the theorymon you want to win by liking the post that contains said theorymon. After the round is over, we will open up the floor for discussion on how that Pokemon will affect the metagame and what are some good strategies to utilize that theorymon (feel free to post teams for others to see and critique). This process will cycle through like that, with either me or Quote making a post to signify moving onto the next stage of the process.

Here are some general rules that each theorymon suggestion should follow:

• Don't suggest changes about Pokemon that are already pretty viable in LC. Of course the term 'pretty viable' is open to interpretation, so to be more specific, everything in B- rank and below in the viability ranking thread is fair game.
• Don’t suggest changes that make or may make a Pokemon broken
• Only theorymon ideas that bring positives to the LC metagame and have useful implications will be picked, which means no Huge Power on random Pokemon and other similar buffs.
• You can only add a secondary typing to Pokemon of one type, or change the second type of a dual-typed Pokemon. Eg. Adding a Grass type to Flabebe, or changing Gastly from Ghost / Poison to Ghost / (insert other type)
• Those changes should at the very least not contradict flavor. They don’t have to fit a Pokemon’s flavor perfectly, but don’t suggest a secondary Fire-type for Grass-types for example.

Please refrain from posting in this thread unless the discussion stage is open. This new way of approaching his project will hopefully lead to a more organized discussion on the metagame.

I have discussed adapting a metagame around this project with sparktrain, and he has graciously agreed to host this metagame on sparkserver.psim.us . Drop him a quick "ty" if you see him around.

This is still kind of a WIP so bear with us n_n

P.S. we are big like whores hence this system

 

[doomsday doink]

Completed Theorymons​

Nincada + Regenerator, U-turn, and Earthquake (Mambo)

Poliwag + Drizzle (Mambo)

Froakie + 4 Speed (71 -> 75) (macle)

Tentacool + Regenerator (SilentMango)

Mincinno + Bullet Seed and Rock Blast (Omastar42)

Numel + Dry Skin and Slack Off (boo836)

 

[doomsday doink]

this one too

 

[doomsday doink]

Please refrain from posting in this thread unless the discussion stage is open.

 

[doomsday doink]

Fur Coat Growlithe by Aaron's Aron

This ability will replace Intimidate.

Flavor: Growlithe is a puppy with noticeable tufts of fur on its head and chest, along with a full coat of fur just as any puppy should have. Although not quite as much as the original owner of the ability (Furfrou), Growlithe can still successfully pull it off.

Analysis: Growlithe's best ability currently is Intimidate, which is pretty much a weaker form of Fur Coat in almost every scenario. The addition of Fur Coat grants Growlithe much more physical bulky, along with the ability to now switch into Pawniard without activating Defiant. Growlither would become a fearsome physical wall, rivaling Ponyta and Larvesta as a viable defensive Fire-type, yet not surpassing the two aforementioned Pokemon due to Growlithe's lower Speed and Attack.

Remember that you are voting by liking the post with your favorite choice.

 

[doomsday doink]

Dry Skin + Slack Off Numel by boo836

This ability will replace Own Tempo.

Flavor: A common fact about camels is their innate ability to retain large amounts of water, therefore justifying the addition of Dry Skin. Slack Off seems appropriate as a recovery move for Numel due to camels commonly being seen in a sitting / laying position. Another less fact-based justification would be that Hippopotas also has access to Slack Off and the two Pokemon share various similarities.

Analysis: These two additions would effectively make Numel THE best Chinchou counter in the metagame, as well as increase its ability to set up Stealth Rock and burn foes with Lava Plum throughout a match. It would function as a mini-Primal Groudon of sorts, sporting the same typing and immunity, except Numel now has a reliable recovery move. Fortunately, with this addition, we won't have to ban Chinchou switching into another Chinchou :D

Remember that you are voting by liking the post with your favorite choice.

 

[doomsday doink]

The winner of this round is Dry Skin + Slack Off Numel by boo836. Congrats m8

The floor is now open for discussion involving Dry Skin + Slack Off Numel, as well as discussion regarding the previously selected theorymons (which can be found in the post under the OP). The thread will remain open for this discussion phase for a longer period of time than future discussions, as there hasn't been a discussion over the metagame as a whole yet. Make sure your posts are informative and challenging and feel free to criticize other people's opinions as long as you aren't attacking them. I trust that you all are going to help make this project as beneficial and creative as possible so have fun!

Tagging sparktrain to implement this new Pokemon on sparkserver. Make sure you guys head over there and play each other to get a feel for this metagame.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me or QuoteCS.

 

[boo836]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/sparkserver-lctheorymon-419

Numel's a monster. Not amazingly bulky, but goddamn it's impressive.

I don't like that it can abuse those defensive stat up moves though. They kinda break past most of Numel's checks like Timburr. That said, I'm loving how Numel is actually shifting the meta away from water/grass, and destabilizes opposing f/w/g cores.

 

[doomsday doink]

Numel is super good right now, but I don't think it's broken. It does have the ability to check a vast amount of the meta and it pretty solid bulk. If Numel ends up being deemed too broken for some reason, Slack Off will most likely be removed from its movepool.

Poliwag seems pretty busted right now due to Belly Drum and Hypnosis, being able to OHKO Numel (the supposed rain check) with a +6 Return. I'd like to see some discussion on Poliwag and whether Drizzle pushes it over the edge, as now Waterfall can pretty much OHKO anything that used to take the hit. If it's deemed too broken, we'll probably remove Belly Drum from its moveset.

I'll have to play some more matches, but that's my general opinion right now.

Also, sparktrain has informed me that he's not able to alter the stats of Pokemon in the teambuilder, but it will still change in the battle. So far this only applies to Froakie, so when building Froakie's moveset, EV its Speed stat as you would if it had 75 Speed, as this change will be reflected in the battle regardless of what the teambuilder states.

 

[Kavatika]

This is just going from the small few battles I've had so far, but Timburr seems to be pretty great in this meta, largely because of Numel. It can cripple Numel with Knock Off, and Drain Punch it to death or Bulk Up. Numel's presence in the metagame is also really bad for Spritzee, Timburr's main check. Spritzee has serious trouble getting past Numel, given its great natural bulk and the fact that Slack Off has higher PP than Morning Sun, which is what other Fire-types would be forced to rely on. Since Numel can generally beat Spritzee, Timburr has an easier time boosting in this meta IMO, even with two Fighting-type checks added.

 

[TheFenderStory]

Just an update from the sparkserver crew. There's a client wide connection issue between PS and a lot of private servers, us included. We all are waiting for this to get resolved so try and be patient. Hopefully we will all get to enjoy BD Drizzle Poliwag again soon.

Update: As of this morning we are back up. Thanks for your patience

 

[Camden]

Alright, it's been a while and I'm sure you've all had time to discuss/use Numel, so I'm going to start this back up with the 2nd round of submissions. If you submitted something last round (Looking at you Aaron's Aron) you're allowed to re-submit it. I'll post the new nominations in a couple of days. Remember, send the submission to both Mambo and I, not just one of us.

 

[Camden]

Grass/Fighting + Vacuum Wave Cacnea by Rowan

Flavour: Cacnea has access to many fighting-type moves, such as drain punch, dynamic punch, counter + low kick + more, therefore Fighting-typing isn't exactly strange. Vacuum Wave is just an extra I wanted to add on, which isn't exactly unbelievable either.

Analysis: This is cool, because it's both a defensive+offensive change. Fighting-typing lets Cacnea much more reliably switch into much more Pokemon, and gives it STAB on drain punch, allowing it to keep healthy for longer. Vacuum Wave allows Cacnea to check smashers, particularly Omanyte + Shellder + any other Rain Sweepers in this metagame. With these changes, Cacnea can go physical, special, or mixed, using attacking moves of Drain Punch, Bullet Seed, Sucker Punch, Giga Drain, Vacuum Wave, and Hidden Power Psychic/Ice. It can now run semi-viable Swords Dance/Nasty Plot sets, or use supporting moves such as Spikes + Destiny Bond or Synthesis for longevity. It's far from broken, being walled by most Poison-types, and taken on by most Flying-types. However it does create a new viable offensive Grass-type outside of sun (something LC lacks, basically only has Snivy), whilst also a nice check to many annoying Water-type sweepers.

Remember that you are voting by liking the post with your favourite choice.

 

[Camden]

Unaware + Rock Slide Turtwig by Kopaka

Flavour: Turtwig looks pretty aloof, a common trait among Unaware Pokemon.

Analysis: Turtwig gives us a good Unaware user who has all the tools it needs to abuse that ability. It's pretty bulky, sporting 55/64/55 defenses. It has recovery in synthesis. It can even run a boosting set with Curse. Rock Slide lets it hit stuff like Fletchling and Ponyta on the switch. Unfortunately its still weak to the bird, but it's got all the tools necessary to stop pretty much any other boosting sweeper in its tracks.

Remember that you are voting by liking the post with your favourite choice.

 

[Camden]

Sand Stream Larvitar by Sken

Flavour: It makes no sense for Larvitar not to have access to Sand Stream since its final evolution Tyranitar has it.

Analysis: Sandstorm isn't that viable in LC mainly because it's an offensive playstyle and the only setter is a defensive pokemon, Hippopotas. Larvitar would give place to new cores (not the typical Hippopotas/Vullaby/Lileep/Drilbur) and make Drilbur rise in a new viable playstyle. Individually, Larvitar would boost its own special defense making it a good tank with access to Dragon Dance and pretty good offensive dual stabs.

Remember that you are voting by liking the post with your favourite choice.

 

[Camden]

Nasty Plot + Aura Sphere Drifloon by queenlucy

Flavour: Drifloon is a Ghost-type, and being a Ghost-type it emits a special aura. It can also be a mischievous Pokemon that drags children into the underworld, which explains Nasty Plot.

Analysis: At +1, Drifloon still sadly can't hit that hard. Nasty Plot alleviates this, allowing it to be an actually threatening sweeper. Drifloon already has pretty cool coverage options, but Aura Sphere as an additional move would allow it to finally be able to significantly damage one of its main switch-ins: Porygon. Aura Sphere would also be able to nail pesky steels like Ferroseed and Pawniard who try to switch in expecting an acrofloon set.

Remember that you are voting by liking the post with your favourite choice.

 

[Camden]

Ground/Fairy + Guts + Play Rough - Curse Golett

Guts replaces Klutz. Curse is removed.

Flavour: Golems are mythical creatures. They stand resolute and unmoving in the face of adversity and thus these modifications make sense.

Analysis: The purpose behind this is to offer a balancing check to Numel, Timburr, and many more. A check to Ponyta and other status users as well, it adds a certain diversity to the metagame. We don't have many ground types, nor do we have many physical fairy types. Curse is removed so we don't end up with another Timburr.

Remember that you are voting by liking the post with your favourite choice.

 

[Camden]

Nasty Plot + Aura Sphere Drifloon by queenlucy wins! Congrats!

I'm unlocking the thread so you guys can discuss this Pokemon and the effect it has on the LC Theorymon metagame. Good luck and have fun everyone!

 

[doomsday doink]

Tagging sparktrain to implement this onto his server

 

[Tymano]

I can see a drifloon set of 116 Att/196 SpA/196 Spe Naive or Hasty focus sash unburden with NP/Sball/Acro/BPass or Acro to be a decent mixed attacker or Baton Passer since it can hit special walls with Acro, and unburden doubles it's speed to get from 17 spe, to 34 speed, outspeeding most of the meta. Plus passing +2 SpA and +2 Spe to a special attacker is always really nice.

 

[Fiend]

You don't pass speed like that though. You do however, pass of the Nasty Plot, but I feel like that would be a better niche for Togepi or Aipom or something. What Aura Sphere does do for Drifloon is allow it to hit Porygon for the 3hko at +0 while KOing Pawn all but 1/16 of the time and it lets you not burn extra EVs for making up lower IVs. Mixed floon does look cool, as again, its newfound moves get past Pawn, turning it into a check, while smashing Fighting types and a large amount of Set Up Sweepers. It looks like it'll be a niche sweeper that ruins teams not ready for it, kinda like a much better Teddiursa.