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VGC 20XX: First Tournament (Finals)

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As you may have noticed in these fights, Orbeetle’s Hypergravity and Hypnosis makes it enormously annoying to fight against. I did made some serious misplay, but it doesn’t make that any more tolerable. Given Sleep is usually kept in check by slow users or inaccuracy, Hypergravity can be ruinous if the wielder also has Hypnosis or other sleep-inducing moves.

At least we got a red flag to be taken care off!

Both Angus and I got semi-finalist prize as well. Let’s hope their addition and mine will be noteworthy!
 
On Hypnosis, I could see Psychic Pokémon being immune to it on top of whatever nerf we may agree on Hyper Gravity. Hypnosis is mostly learned by Psychic Pokémon, which is very reminiscent of Grass Pokémon being immune to Powder moves. Making the Psychic type more valuable wouldn't hurt in my eyes as it would only encourage Bug, Fighting, Normal, Ghost, and Dark more as these types interact with each other. Iirc, this PetMod has made it one of its goals to promote the Bug type. So, the slight Psychic buff would be an added bonus to this goal. If we want to take a step further, Safety Goggles could be coded to include an immunity to Hypnosis as well.

Moving on, I noticed that although I did add Hattlock's learnset and VGC availability, I have yet to mention it in the pokedex file... Which explains why it isn't found in the teambuilder. Moreover, it's been braught to my attention that Ahimstalag doesn't have access to Sharpen and Purify. These are moves that were dexited in gen 9. Which means I have to manually insert these moves in to the project. Furthermore, it also means that every time someone submits a Pokémon's learnset, please, let me know if it has a dexited move and whether it should stay as such since it could affect other Pokémon. Also let me know if a returning Pokémon isn't available in gen 9 at all as I would have to import all the necessary stuff. Informing me would greatly ease the coding work and decrease the chance of oversights. Thank you!

Then, I will add Meowscarada-Rift's egg moves (Sucker Punch, Leech Seed, Copycat, Ally Switch, Petal Blizzard) since it doesn't have pre-evolutions in the folder. So, that was an oversight. Let me know if I need to add egg moves of any other submission in case of a move missing. This probably only applies to regional / convergent forms. Will check for my own subs as well.

Lastly, I will likely put my thoughts on the metagame once the tournament is over. For now, I do agree Wizareetin-Gravelord and Keisberg are S rank material.
 
On Hypnosis, I could see Psychic Pokémon being immune to it on top of whatever nerf we may agree on Hyper Gravity. Hypnosis is mostly learned by Psychic Pokémon, which is very reminiscent of Grass Pokémon being immune to Powder moves. Making the Psychic type more valuable wouldn't hurt in my eyes as it would only encourage Bug, Fighting, Normal, Ghost, and Dark more as these types interact with each other. Iirc, this PetMod has made it one of its goals to promote the Bug type. So, the slight Psychic buff would be an added bonus to this goal. If we want to take a step further, Safety Goggles could be coded to include an immunity to Hypnosis as well.

Moving on, I noticed that although I did add Hattlock's learnset and VGC availability, I have yet to mention it in the pokedex file... Which explains why it isn't found in the teambuilder. Moreover, it's been braught to my attention that Ahimstalag doesn't have access to Sharpen and Purify. These are moves that were dexited in gen 9. Which means I have to manually insert these moves in to the project. Furthermore, it also means that every time someone submits a Pokémon's learnset, please, let me know if it has a dexited move and whether it should stay as such since it could affect other Pokémon. Also let me know if a returning Pokémon isn't available in gen 9 at all as I would have to import all the necessary stuff. Informing me would greatly ease the coding work and decrease the chance of oversights. Thank you!

Then, I will add Meowscarada-Rift's egg moves (Sucker Punch, Leech Seed, Copycat, Ally Switch, Petal Blizzard) since it doesn't have pre-evolutions in the folder. So, that was an oversight. Let me know if I need to add egg moves of any other submission in case of a move missing. This probably only applies to regional / convergent forms. Will check for my own subs as well.

Lastly, I will likely put my thoughts on the metagame once the tournament is over. For now, I do agree Wizareetin-Gravelord and Keisberg are S rank material.
The stuff I mentioned here is now implemented on DH! Though, I should point out that Hattlock's movepool isn't displayed because of a move's wrong spelling, which will be fixed in the next pull-request. "Role-Role" was the problem. But, you can still type a move's name, and the DH will validate it just fine. For whatever reason, even though the builder validates Ahimstalag's Meditate as intended, the move visually appears as illegal. I have some ideas how to solve the dexit move issue but I won't implement it yet for this tournament to not accidentally cause any unintended issue. Especially when the builder already validates dexit moves. But I will try to revisit it after the tournament. For now, it's best to check move info in the google sheet.
On another note, once the tournament is over, I will add the newest "consolation price" additions, for lack of a better term.
 
Now that the tournament is over, I'd like to thank Sugarbear for using the opportunity to post this VGC centred PetMod and holding a tournament. That's a tall order, doing everything alone and making sure everything works as intended. While I can't speak for everyone else, it's great to have you here!

That being said, I'm going to post my thoughts on the metagame. As far as impressions go, I had a lot of fun building teams and preparing for my opponents. It's the novelty of having new Pokémon and mechanic changes, after all. Moreover, in 20xx, we get the chance to improve the viability of the Bug type and see with our own eyes if our contributions are enough to push it. To that, I would say yes our efforts were enough to promote the Bug type.

:sv/volbeat: :sv/illumise:
Probably some of the most promiment faces of this type are Volbeat and Illumise. At the moment, they're the only Tailwind setter with the Prankster ability, which means at any point of the game, they can quickly set up this condition to control the field. Furthermore, they've got access to great support moves. "Paranoia", for instancce, is kind of cracked on these Bug Pokémon. For those who do not know, Paranoia is a special spread move that lowers the target's best stat by 1 stage and reduces its HP by 25%, similar to Superfang. This effect ensures Volbeat and Illumise will (almost) always be able to make progress against the opponent. It's unlikely that they become passive. An ally can greatly benefit from their disruptive potential to exert offensive pressure, which is further highlighted by their access to Encore, Light Screen, Helping Hand, and many other good support moves. Encore deserves special mention here as throughout the tournament, we saw a high amount of set-up monsters, notably Snorlax, Mudaimer, and Keisberg. Mauycaque and Fieratt further contribute to this development with Coaching. This makes Encore a very valuable move to have to punish the opponent for setting up. Thanks to Prankster, Volbeat and Illumise can quickly shut down those threats if the opponent isn't careful enough. What's more, in this PetMod, Bug Pokémon are immune to Powder moves, which means that, currently, there's no way to redircect this move to protect yourself from Encorre. There's no Follow Me user, and Rage Powder is a Powder move which gets ignored by Bug Pokémon.
To handle the pressure from Volbeat and Illumise, you could run some anti-priority techs. Farigiraf is one such example with its Armour Tail ability. However, it is very limited to certain teamstyles, such as (semi) Trick Room and doesn't appreciate tanking Paranoia or the influx of Dark Pokémon that we have here, such as Swampert-Rift or Cthulauder. In the finals of the tournament, I wanted to run a Hyper Offense Tailwind Team and relied mostly on Dark Pokémon to get around the aforementioned Bug Pokémon. Fwiw, Shiftry already neatly fits such an aggressive team since it can set-up Tailwind itself and exert good offensive pressure, especially with Wind Rider. There's no waste of a turn with it; it can hit immediately hard once Tailwind is set-up. Should it face some fast threats in or outside of Trick Room, it can always fall back on Sucker Punch. Besides, Grass/Dark is good into some metagame relevant threats, like Mudaimer, Swampert-Rift or Wizareetin-Gravelord, to name a few, and doesn't care about redirection from Rage Powder. Weavile, on the other hand, is more of a niche Pokémon but it does offer the fastest Fake Out, allowing Shiftry to reliably set-up Tailwind. Furthermore, it has a good match-up against Magikite, at the very least. Its ability to potentially break Focus Sash with Triple Axel is also quite useful. Then, there's Cthulauder which I consider a quintessential part of any Trick Room Team. Thanks to Contrary, the opponent can't lower its stats. Moreover, Cthulauder is quite physically bulky and has Superpower to quickly spiral out of control. I like running Leftovers on it to improve its resilience but other items are also quite possible. Samtendo09, for instance, used a weakness berry to make it less vulnerable to Bug. That's a smart decision since, again, we do not have a Follow Me user to protect it from Bug Pokémon. (Speaking of Follow Me, I might submit one that could fill this gap and be useful to the metagame. But I'll have to think about it.)

Moving on, there's one Pokémon I'd like to address; it's Magikite. It is essentially a mono Flying Gyarados with actually good coverage and a reliable and strong Flying move. I have to say it's quite the amazing wallbreaker, especially with Wind Rider further boosting its damage output. Wizareetin-Gravelord is one of the very, very few Pokémon able to switch into it and check it, but it has to be bulky due to its poor physical bulk. In my opinion, Magikite is a little bit too good at what it does since it's quite restrictive in the teambuilder. Besides, there's no real incentive at all to run Aerilate when Wind Rider + Flying Dive (a conditional 120 strong Flying move that's easy to fulfill) are this strong. Therefore, if we do want to nerf it, we need to ensure that Aerilate is attractive enough to be used. We could add moves like Endeavor, Flail or even Chip Away, which also serve to make Magikite stand out a little bit more from other Aerilate users in canon. Chip Away deserves special mention for how set-up reliant the metagame has turned out to be. It ignores a target's defensive boosts. Another additional nerf would be Flying Dive. I don't know what we could exactly do but lowering its BP a bit might help as well as an ability change. Iirc, Sugarbear proposed Cloud Nine over Wind Rider.

Then, there's Keisberg which is probably the number 1 threat in the metagame. Its ability makes it immune to both Fire and Fighting, making it only weak to the rare Ground type. With its superb bulk and access to Belly Drum, it can quickly spiral out of control and is hard to stop. In Snow, its physical bulk is further improved, making it even more difficult to take down, especially since Ground Pokémon tend to be physical attackers. I would not be surprised if Keisberg is one of the main reasons why we have seen so few Fire and Fighting Pokémon. I might be wrong, but I can only recall Fieratt and Mauycaque, both of which are more support oriented Pokémon. Magikite's presence in the metagame also does no favour to the Fighting type. Fearing Keisberg, I was compelled to run Foul Play or Encore on some of my teams to handle it. Against this background, a nerf to the ability would go a long way to encourage the Fighting type. Samtendo09, Keisberg's creator, proposed a Water immunity over the Fighting immunity.

As for Wizareetin-Gravelord, I find it easier to deal with, surprisingly. This metagame has a lot of Dark Pokémon able to pressure it with Sucker Punch. However, because of its Ghost type, it cannot be flinched by Fake Out. Moreover, it has 140 SpA and 144 Spe, which is kind of cracked, especially on an Electric/Ghost type with Levitate, granting it lots of opportunities to switch in and out. To top it, its Electric custom move is super effective against Ground. Currently, the metagame has a very low amount of viable Ground Pokémon. The only one that comes to my mind is Mudaimer, which is basically helpless against it unless it runs a coverage move, which can come at the cost of a more useful move like Fake Out, Swords Dance or Protect. Despite its claim to faim, Wizareetin-Gravelord has some positive qualities in the metagame, checking the very scary Magikite, for instance. Furthermore, its great movepool allows for high customizability, such as Encore, Destiny Bond or Trick Room to either check aggressive teams or control the field. The fact it's splashable makes it relatively easy to prepare for and use. It's kind of like Dragapult, which I really like a lot. Now, I do think some slight nerfs are needed to keep it under better control and to give other Pokémon a better incentive to be used, like Gengar. I honestly believe some slight nerf to SpA (and perhaps Spe as well) would help to lessen the offensive pressure. Furthermore, by changing the effect of the custom move, we can open the door to more natural checks, such as Gastrodon or Mudaimer.

Okay, this post is likely already ridiculously long. So, I won't go too much into details now.
- Arbok is one of those Pokémon that surprised me a lot for how disruptive and annoying it can be between Glare, Intimidate, and Parting Shot despite its rather modest stats. I'm curious to see it explored more in the future.
- Trick Room is super strong and diverse, which is a welcome change here. Eereyster is a neat presence here as it's a bulky and offensive Trick Room setter that cannot be flinched by Fake Out. It's cool it can go mixed to adapt to a situation. Stontank is likely another strong necessary addition to Trick Room and some other non Trick Room Teams in general. It's kind of like Metagross but slower and can make up for it with a respectable Rock/Grass typing (which is immune to Rage Powder) and Power Spot. I often see myself putting it on my team. Ulmiraj is a little bit crazy with base 70 Atk and Huge Power but I personally need to see more before we settle on a nerf. But lowering Atk to 60 or less would be an easy fix, most likely.
- This metagame has a low presence of viable Poison Pokémon. We might want to promote it in the (near) future. Or perhaps, we simply need to experiment with our existing Poison Pokémon more.
- This metagame also has a disgusting amount of set-up monsters / enablers. Therefore, it would be nice if we were to introduce some Sacred Sword users (such as Gallade and / or a custom Pokémon), viable Haze users, Unaware Pokémon, etc. to ease teambuilding.
- I could say more but I think I'll reserve it for another big post in the future. Moreover, I'll try to quickly come up with my winning prize as well as sugarbear's gift for me for my contribution to this PetMod. So, stay tuned!
 
:sv/volbeat: :sv/illumise:
Probably some of the most promiment faces of this type are Volbeat and Illumise. At the moment, they're the only Tailwind setter with the Prankster ability, which means at any point of the game, they can quickly set up this condition to control the field. Furthermore, they've got access to great support moves. "Paranoia", for instancce, is kind of cracked on these Bug Pokémon. For those who do not know, Paranoia is a special spread move that lowers the target's best stat by 1 stage and reduces its HP by 25%, similar to Superfang. This effect ensures Volbeat and Illumise will (almost) always be able to make progress against the opponent. It's unlikely that they become passive. An ally can greatly benefit from their disruptive potential to exert offensive pressure, which is further highlighted by their access to Encore, Light Screen, Helping Hand, and many other good support moves. Encore deserves special mention here as throughout the tournament, we saw a high amount of set-up monsters, notably Snorlax, Mudaimer, and Keisberg. Mauycaque and Fieratt further contribute to this development with Coaching. This makes Encore a very valuable move to have to punish the opponent for setting up. Thanks to Prankster, Volbeat and Illumise can quickly shut down those threats if the opponent isn't careful enough. What's more, in this PetMod, Bug Pokémon are immune to Powder moves, which means that, currently, there's no way to redircect this move to protect yourself from Encorre. There's no Follow Me user, and Rage Powder is a Powder move which gets ignored by Bug Pokémon.
To handle the pressure from Volbeat and Illumise, you could run some anti-priority techs. Farigiraf is one such example with its Armour Tail ability. However, it is very limited to certain teamstyles, such as (semi) Trick Room and doesn't appreciate tanking Paranoia or the influx of Dark Pokémon that we have here, such as Swampert-Rift or Cthulauder. In the finals of the tournament, I wanted to run a Hyper Offense Tailwind Team and relied mostly on Dark Pokémon to get around the aforementioned Bug Pokémon. Fwiw, Shiftry already neatly fits such an aggressive team since it can set-up Tailwind itself and exert good offensive pressure, especially with Wind Rider. There's no waste of a turn with it; it can hit immediately hard once Tailwind is set-up. Should it face some fast threats in or outside of Trick Room, it can always fall back on Sucker Punch. Besides, Grass/Dark is good into some metagame relevant threats, like Mudaimer, Swampert-Rift or Wizareetin-Gravelord, to name a few, and doesn't care about redirection from Rage Powder. Weavile, on the other hand, is more of a niche Pokémon but it does offer the fastest Fake Out, allowing Shiftry to reliably set-up Tailwind. Furthermore, it has a good match-up against Magikite, at the very least. Its ability to potentially break Focus Sash with Triple Axel is also quite useful. Then, there's Cthulauder which I consider a quintessential part of any Trick Room Team. Thanks to Contrary, the opponent can't lower its stats. Moreover, Cthulauder is quite physically bulky and has Superpower to quickly spiral out of control. I like running Leftovers on it to improve its resilience but other items are also quite possible. Samtendo09, for instance, used a weakness berry to make it less vulnerable to Bug. That's a smart decision since, again, we do not have a Follow Me user to protect it from Bug Pokémon. (Speaking of Follow Me, I might submit one that could fill this gap and be useful to the metagame. But I'll have to think about it.)
The only issue is that the two are almost interchangeable barring very few moves (i.e. Volbeat with Tail Glow for Baton Pass), with identical bulk and their higher attacking stat not high enough to worth running.

Wouldn’t see wrong with a more distinct bulk between the two, with Volbeat having higher Defense and Illumise higher Special Defense, or the other way around.
 
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