Trademarked

This sounds pretty fun, and I've had a few ideas for it:

Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Amnesia/Trick Room/Safeguard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind

This is standard fare Mega Crobro, but at the cost of pre-mega Regenerator it gains a few options depending on what you think MegaBro normally struggles with most: Amnesia to get a free +2 SpD to offset its huge weakness to Special Moves before it gets a few CMs off, Trick Room makes Slowbro a speed demon for a few turns (although if you ran that you'd set nature to Relaxed and Spe IVs to 0) which allows it to use Calm Mind before being hit, or Safeguard to provide a status immunity for a few turns, deterring your opponent from using Toxic to try and stop your sweep short.

Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Agility
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Nasty Plot/Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast

Instant Agility is fantastic for Thundurus-T allowing to hit incredible speeds with which to abuse its 145 Special Attack stat from the get go, and Nasty Plot can allow you to break past Special Walls that try and take Thunderbolts, or you can use incredibly fast Volt Switches to maintain your team's momentum. Resistance to priority Flying is nice, as it means Thundurus-T isn't (that) scared of Pinsir's Quick Attack

+2 252 Atk Aerilate Mega Pinsir Quick Attack vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Thundurus-T: 130-153 (43.4 - 51.1%) -- 5.9% chance to 2HKO

Of course, I don't know if my spread is optimal, but that fact that other Pokemon can also gain instant Speed boosts indicates to me that keeping your speed as high as you can would be beneficial.

Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Magnet Rise
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Spa / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flamethrower

Another way to use Electric types, this might be a bit niche as other Mega powerhouses exist, but I like it. Basically, at the cost of Manectric's pre-mega Electric immunity, you can instead gain a useful immunity to Ground for a few turns, removing Manectric's one weakness and when combined with post-mega Intimidate makes it quite hard to take down for an offensive Pokemon.

Another thing I wondered about is maybe unbanning Genesect (now this was some time ago, so forgive me if I'm remembering some of the facts about Genesect incorrectly), as its ability Download isn't really that notable any more, as anything in the game with Access to Swords Dance/Calm Mind/Work Up etc can basically already do that for its favoured offence (and in the case of Work Up, both at the same time). So to put it simply, as much as I hate the thing, I think Genesect should be unbanned as the thing it was banned for can be done by basically every offensive Pokemon in the game now.
 

Illusio

Bold and Brash
Landorus-T @ Choice Band/Scarf
Ability: Rest
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sleep Talk
- U-turn/Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Oh, what an annoying crap. Not only you RECOVERED yourself to full health, you also HEALED yourself from annoying burns or poisons JUST BY SWITCHING IN. Anyway. Rest being Trademarked is actually a HUGE buff to resttalk sets because Sleep Talk CAN'T choose Rest. This is basically an auto-regen, auto-natural cure by switching in with the cost of carrying Sleep Talk. Pretty good for people who constantly gets annoyed by status or something.
I found a couple of problems with this set here. While in theory, it looks amazing, in reality it's not going to do much.

First off, remove the Choice items. Assuming that you're going to choose the move Sleep Talk 99% of the time, there's no reason for you to keep Lando in for only two turns before realizing that you need to switch him out again or just sac him. On the third turn, if the opponent is smart, they will simply set up on you, and there's nothing you can do about it.

The set also suffers from the biggest problem that other Resttalkers have - unreliability. There's only a 33% chance that you'll choose the move you want, with the other two not going to do much damage to the opponent.

Finally, I don't even know why you considered adding U-turn to the set. If U-turn is called, then the sleep counter will reset when Lando switches out, rest won't reactivate, and you're left guessing how many turns of sleep Lando has left.

If you really wanted to use Lando-T with Rest, this is the set I would go with:

Landorus-T @ Life Orb
Ability: Rest
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sleep Talk
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Life Orb allows for the 1.3x boost without the need to switch out after 2 turns, and the HP lost is almost irrelevant if you're able to switch out at low health. I removed U-turn/Knock Off because those moves weren't doing you any good if they were called by Sleep Talk (U-turn especially). The reason for only the three moves is so that Sleep Talk has to choose between EQ and Stone Edge, both of which are powerful moves on Lando.
 

sin(pi)

lucky n bad
The sleep counter no longer resets (and if you switch back in while asleep, you won't be using rest), so that's not a problem. I'd also imagine lando wasn't meant to be in for long, though I have no real opinions on the set.

Regarding Genesect: it does get shift gear which, while more predictable, sounds very cool. Not necessarily broken, but yeah.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Exeggutor: Life Orb
Ability: Trick Room
Sleep Powder
Leaf storm
Explosion
Earthquake

Lead so you don't waste a turn switching in. If you are facing a counter, you go first; otherwise you switch to a teammate that takes advantage of Trick Room.

Lol, now Mew is better than Ditto with Transform:

Mew: Choice Scarf
Ability: Transform
Trick
Softboiled
Whirlwind (against substitute)
U-turn

Remember, you can Baton Pass an Imprison so if you have an Imprison Smeargle, it can carry:

Lead with
Smeargle: Choice Scarf
Ability: Imprison

Baton Pass
Trick
Destiny Bond
Transform

This way Smeargle either Transforms or Baton Passes to Mew on the first turn. Now the foe cannot do anything.

Rotom-W: Leftovers
Ability: Rain Dance
Thunder
Hydro Pump
Will-o-wisp
Pain Split

Boost your attack power, have a high paralysis rate.

Houndoom: Megastone
Ability: Sunny Day
Fire Blast
Solar Beam
Foul Play
HP Ground

Boost moves, Mega gains Solar Power to further boost off of the weather. Strong coverage.

Lead:
LEVEL 1 Smeargle: Focus Sash
Ability: Trick Room

-Spore
-Endeavor
-Infestation/Extreme Speed
-Destiny Bond

1st Turn- Spore to sleep
2nd Turn- Endeavor, either on the switch or on the sleeping Pokemon.
3rd Turn- Infestation/Extreme Speed, KO fast/first
4th- Destiny Bond is for the final KO

In the event Extreme Speed doesn't KO the foe after Endeavor on their switch in, (I.e. Leftovers, or since Smeargle is at full HP because Spore went first last turn), Infestation is an option for 100% accuracy passive damage.

However, if Sleep Clause is activated, use Endeavor, survive with Focus Sash, then Infestation/Extreme Speed is for the KO.

Trick Room negates the need to depend on Extreme Speed, thus Infestation is a viable option.

With this set Smeargle Sleeps a foe, KOs a second foe, and Destiny Bonds for a 2nd KO (putting half of your opponents' teams out of commission).
 
Last edited:
I'm just wondering, won't choice items lock you into struggle? OP says you can't have trademarked moves in your moveset so if your trademarked move is something like Swords Dance won't you get locked into Swords Dance, and since you don't have that in your moveset you will just struggle?
 

Snaquaza

KACAW
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
I'm just wondering, won't choice items lock you into struggle? OP says you can't have trademarked moves in your moveset so if your trademarked move is something like Swords Dance won't you get locked into Swords Dance, and since you don't have that in your moveset you will just struggle?
For this question (and a lot of others), you have to keep in mind that the moves become abilities which act like a move. It answers questions about whether Trademarks can be called by Assist and such as well.
 
For this question (and a lot of others), you have to keep in mind that the moves become abilities which act like a move. It answers questions about whether Trademarks can be called by Assist and such as well.
So the trademark is not in the user's moveset. Got it. One more point of clarification. From the OP:

> This Trademark would be the new ability of the Pokemon, so if this is the set, Roost would be its Trademarked move. A Pokemon uses its new Trademark whenever it switches into battle.

Does this imply that the user's ability is to use the move on switch-in, or is it just an ability that mimics the move? It would matter for things like Snatch and Wonder Skin, which respond to Growl but not Intimidate.
 

Snaquaza

KACAW
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
So the trademark is not in the user's moveset. Got it. One more point of clarification. From the OP:

> This Trademark would be the new ability of the Pokemon, so if this is the set, Roost would be its Trademarked move. A Pokemon uses its new Trademark whenever it switches into battle.

Does this imply that the user's ability is to use the move on switch-in, or is it just an ability that mimics the move? It would matter for things like Snatch and Wonder Skin, which respond to Growl but not Intimidate.
It mimics the move (unless it's significantly easier to code the other way around).
 
If you Skill Swap Intimidate, it activates again. I assume the Trademarks should behave in a similar way.
The issue is that it was recently discovered that if Imposter is Skill Swapped, it does not activate again, which was a significant blow to Imposter Chansey in BH. Whether the Trademarks activate again, like Intimidate, or don't, like Imposter, is important for Transform Mew, and any other Skill Swap strategy. It's especially important in the case of Skill Swap as the Trademark, because both Pokemon would endlessly switch abilities. Therefore, either the abilities don't activate again, or they do, and having Skill Swap as a Trademark is banned under the endless battle clause.
 
Had an idea for a fairly degenerate team built around the idea of u-turning repeatedly without letting your opponent move. Azelf is there to anti-lead. Weavile has pursuit for Shedinja, a lot of the other moves are filler. Protect on everything is to help deal with opposing protect trademarkers (which seems kinda stupid in and of itself). Two slots are missing, which leaves a fair bit of room for building against counterteaming. Zoro is probably dispensable too. The team would benefit from something with embargo or similar trademarked to deal with rocky helm users, particularly skarm. A defogger would also be appreciated. Not sure what else - maybe magic coat?


Azelf @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Taunt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trick
- U-turn
- Protect
- Sleep Talk

Lucario @ Choice Band
Ability: Copycat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Roar
- Me First
- Counter
- Protect

Zoroark @ Choice Band
Ability: Copycat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sleep Talk
- Trick
- Thief
- Protect

Weavile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Assist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- Protect
- Pursuit


Assist and Copycat both seem pretty busted tbh.
 
Snaq, it seems you haven't addressed using protection moves as a trademark as it not only can induce endless battles but also guarantees a safe switchin (feint doesn't count and neither does pursuit as they're both useless if you mispredict)
 

Snaquaza

KACAW
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Snaq, it seems you haven't addressed using protection moves as a trademark as it not only can induce endless battles but also guarantees a safe switchin (feint doesn't count and neither does pursuit as they're both useless if you mispredict)
I said in an earlier post that I'm not willing to ban anything more until its playable. It doesn't cause an endless battle as the opponent is able to burn PP and can wear you down with hazards / status / weather / etc.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
How does the trademark Mimic work? Mimic copies the last move and is replaced by it, but loses it upon switch, correct? If not, mimic could copy a offensive move and use that each turn on switch in, correct?
Does Mimic give you a 5th move, added directly to your move set?
 

tl;dr: You can put a status move as your ability, which is activated upon switch-in.​


What's Buffed
  • Parting Shot. You can switch in and immediately use these moves, causing you to rarely be hit with a specific Pokemon, though you're not actually able to battle with it unless it's your last Pokemon.​
  • Pokemon that only need one turn to set up. They can get this setup while switching in now, so no need to actually set up afterwards. They still gotta watch out for the priority flying around though!​
  • Defog, Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock and Sticky Web. They can now be set without having to waste a turn and thus losing momentum. Pokemon just have to switch in and they appear on the field.​
Underlined added by me.

Rapid Spin is not a Status move.
A cool concept. I'm known as a stall hater, so there's some sets I thought of.

Hydreigon @ Scope Lens
Ability: Focus Energy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe (idk what's the best spread for this)
Naive Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Superpower
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon

Haxorus @ Scope Lens
Ability: Focus Energy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Superpower
- Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab

Oh, so you are trying to boost your defenses? Or trying to lower my attack? Or burn me on switch in? How about no? Critical hits ignores your stat drop and opponent's defense boosts, so unless you have Lucky Chant or being a Mega Slowbro, any kind of Defense boosting moves will be useless in front of these mons.
Crits don't ignore Burns.

Auo-critting Hydreigon is pretty cool, though. Basically an upgraded Kingdra.

-belly drum bisharp will be scary with +6 STAB sucker punch off of 125 base attack.
Bisharp doesn't have Belly Drum.

It'd probably be best to limit it to one parting shot per team, so that they can still be used but not abused. Also recover/roost/etc is literally just better regenerator.
The timing difference is key. Regenerator allows Ho-oh to switch into Stealth Rock, drop to 40% health, switch out, and still switch into Stealth Rock again later. Roost would faint on the switch-in.

Another thing from that post that was seemingly ignored was Charm Mega Gardevoir. I thought it wouldn't be too hard to understand the appeal of that, given that it fixes Mega Gardevoir's main problem, but... Same real thing with Charm on Snorlax.
I'd rather have Mega Gardevoir drop Will O Wisp, as it can't trigger Defiant, doesn't boost Contrary, etc. Or you could put up Reflect as team support, or you could use Thunder Wave to let Gardevoir outspeed key fast threats. Really, there's a lot of things Gardevoir could do...

While this is a really cool concept, as it currently stands its hideously unbalanced - any mon that learns Swords Dance can effectively get a Huge Power boost, which is stupid when you consider the enormous distribution of SD. Same goes for other boosting moves, like Nasty Plot, Quiver Dance, Dragon Dance, Agility, Tail Glow, etc. These abilities pretty thoroughly outclass almost every other ability to the extent that I imagine they would centralise the metagame tremendously - I really struggle to see how they wouldn't be broken. As well, status-inflicting abilities like Spore, Will-o, TWave and the like seem potentially broken to me as well; the ease with with something like TWave Skarm could spread para around an opposing team seems almost impossible to deal with. As previous posters have mentioned, Block and Mean Look are basically Shadow Tag and definitely need to go as well.
The comparison people keep making of "Swords Dance=Huge Power" is wrong. First and foremost, additional stage-based modifications will be weak -say Garchomp runs Swords Dance as its Ability and Hone Claws as its boosting move. If it actually had Huge Power, using Hone Claws would be a 50% increase in Attack -instead, it's a 25% increase. Not only that, but Huge Power bypasses Unaware. Swords-Dance-as-Ability does not.

I'm also puzzled that you think spreading statuses is a big deal when Heal Bell and Aromatherapy can be set as infinite PP auto-trigger on switch. Sure, fine, spread your statuses, and then Celebi or whatever switches in and in one turn wipes your multiple turns of spreading statuses.

----

Foresight, Odor Sleuth

Pseudo-Scrappy.

Heal Bell, Aromatherapy

Suddenly, major statuses just aren't so scary.

Detect

Notable entirely because it can allow you to run Protect in you actual moveset, if for some reason you want to.

Electrify

Theoretically makes it easier for Heliolisk to switch in, since any attack will be resisted. It probably has better options.

Ion Deluge

What? Why would you do this?

Camouflage

If combined with Terrains, can allow for some very non-standard Pokemon.

Terrains

Electric Terrain can be used to block opposing Rest and Spore/etc while also bolstering your Electric moves. If you weren't planning on using Sleep yourself, that can be fantastic. Grassy Terrain weakens Earthquake and provides passive healing, though honestly it's the least appealing of the Terrains. Misty Terrain weakens Dragon moves and blocks major status effects -and more importantly, it provides the best Nature Power attack in the form of Moon Blast.

Speaking of,

Nature Power

No Normal type with Nature Power is Specially oriented, unfortunately, but if you're willing to place Terrains, it can turn switches into free attacks. Moon Blast spam is potentially scary, especially if backed with Choice Specs.

Swallow, Stockpile, Spit up

Swallow and Spit Up fail, bar Baton Pass shenanigans. Don't use them. Stockpile is a poor man's Cosmic Power.

Substitute

Ensures your switch-in survives basically anything. Two Pokemon running Leftovers and Substitute can potentially switch-stall setup attackers for a long time. Critically, completely blocks non-Infiltrator/Sound-based attempts to inflict statuses upon you, making it a universal check to all kinds of shenanigans. Costs 25% of your HP, though, making it costly if you switch out too soon.

Memento

A straightforward suicide lead that is probably not worth running. Put something else into the slot and use Memento manually.

Mean Look, Block, Spider Web

plz ban

Fairy Lock

plz ban?

Admittedly, it only lasts one turn and has awful distribution. Might be redundant.

Flash, Smokescreen, Sand Attack, Kinesis

plz ban

Confuse Ray, Swagger, Teeter Dance, Supersonic, Sweet Kiss, Flatter

plz ban

Disable

Whatever they just did, they don't get to do it again for a while. This is a fantastic way to shut off Choiced foes, forcing them to switch or Struggle after one attack, with the Disable occurring before the second attack no matter what, as switching is so fast.

Encore

The reverse of Disable. Whatever he enemy just did, they don't get to do anything else. A fantastic way of ensuring you can switch into setup sweepers and then force them out, maybe hit them with Toxic first.

Soak

Wipe STAB, produce a consistent set of weaknesses. A little gimmicky, but useful.

Miracle Eye

Poor man's Scrappy, but for Psychic types. Has the key flaw that you're probably a madman if you actually switch a Psychic type into a Dark type.

Entrainment

Either locks the battle into an endless loop or is borderline useless because most Abilities will be Trademarked Abilities, and so the only time it will ever do anything will be, like, on the first turn of the entire battle.

Gastro Acid

See above, remove endless loop statement.

Worry Seed

Block attempts to use Rest... except for the ones using it as their Ability slot. Ehhh.

Simple Beam

What? No! Don't help their setup sweepers!

Skill Swap

Either locks the battle into an endless loop or uses the enemy's Ability one time. Eeeeeh.

Me First

Anticipate an attack, and slam them with it before they move. Gimmicky.

Gravity

No, you don't actually have any switch-ins to Landorus, nor its friends it's about to U-Turn out to.

Can also be used to improve the odds of hitting with moves like Thunder or Hurricane.

Metronome

Because who needs skill?

Mimic

Huh?

Heal Pulse

Legitimate use: heal yourself against Magic Bouncers.

Otherwise: whyyyyy

Healing Wish, Lunar Dance

Well, you could run this as your Ability slot, though frankly it seems insane to me to do so.

Leech Seed

Stall! STALL!

Trick, Switcheroo

Now predictions are no protection from Choice-Tricking.

Wonder Room

My wall isn't the wall you think it is.

Water Sport, Mud Sport

Not strictly useless, but I question the purpose.

Charge

Powerful Volt Switch and an easier time switching into Special Attacks in one package!

Psycho Shift

Difficult to keep a status on you, spread them at the same time. Questionable, especially since it won't do anything the first time you switch in. (Unless you switched into Toxic Spikes, I guess?)

Heal Block

DIE STALL, DIE

There's a question of how it interacts with Trademarked healing, though.

Weather

Directly supplants the actual Weather Abilities.

Role Play

Hello Trace!

Nightmare

If Resters become popular, this could actually be a very anti-meta tool.

Forest's Curse

If it had better distribution...

Trick or Treat

Better! Since you're a Ghost type yourself, ensuring most foes are Ghost is actually pretty useful. Imperfect, but useful.

Telekinesis, Mind Reader, Lock On

Your first move can't miss. Or your first three, in Telekinesis' case. Could be amazing for stuff like Scarf Zap Cannon to punish setup sweepers -even if they switch, they've still lost their set up, and you've still got a 50% chance of doing horrible things to the switch-in.

I'll get to part 2 tomorrow.
 
Fresh sets! Get 'em while they're hot!

Regigigas @ Life Orb
Ability: Rock Polish
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch

Regigigas @ Leftovers
Ability: Substitute
EVs: 172 HP / 228 Atk / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Focus Punch / Rock Polish / Drain Punch

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Heal Bell
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Wish
- Protect
- Baton Pass / Toxic / Roar

Houndoom @ Houndoominite
Ability: Sunny Day / Substitute
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
- Solar Beam / Taunt / Nasty Plot

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge
 
Foresight, Odor Sleuth

Pseudo-Scrappy.

Heal Bell, Aromatherapy

Suddenly, major statuses just aren't so scary.

Detect

Notable entirely because it can allow you to run Protect in you actual moveset, if for some reason you want to.

Electrify

Theoretically makes it easier for Heliolisk to switch in, since any attack will be resisted. It probably has better options.

Ion Deluge

What? Why would you do this?

Camouflage

If combined with Terrains, can allow for some very non-standard Pokemon.

Terrains

Electric Terrain can be used to block opposing Rest and Spore/etc while also bolstering your Electric moves. If you weren't planning on using Sleep yourself, that can be fantastic. Grassy Terrain weakens Earthquake and provides passive healing, though honestly it's the least appealing of the Terrains. Misty Terrain weakens Dragon moves and blocks major status effects -and more importantly, it provides the best Nature Power attack in the form of Moon Blast.

Speaking of,

Nature Power

No Normal type with Nature Power is Specially oriented, unfortunately, but if you're willing to place Terrains, it can turn switches into free attacks. Moon Blast spam is potentially scary, especially if backed with Choice Specs.

Swallow, Stockpile, Spit up

Swallow and Spit Up fail, bar Baton Pass shenanigans. Don't use them. Stockpile is a poor man's Cosmic Power.

Substitute

Ensures your switch-in survives basically anything. Two Pokemon running Leftovers and Substitute can potentially switch-stall setup attackers for a long time. Critically, completely blocks non-Infiltrator/Sound-based attempts to inflict statuses upon you, making it a universal check to all kinds of shenanigans. Costs 25% of your HP, though, making it costly if you switch out too soon.

Memento

A straightforward suicide lead that is probably not worth running. Put something else into the slot and use Memento manually.

Mean Look, Block, Spider Web

plz ban

Fairy Lock

plz ban?

Admittedly, it only lasts one turn and has awful distribution. Might be redundant.

Flash, Smokescreen, Sand Attack, Kinesis

plz ban

Confuse Ray, Swagger, Teeter Dance, Supersonic, Sweet Kiss, Flatter

plz ban

Disable

Whatever they just did, they don't get to do it again for a while. This is a fantastic way to shut off Choiced foes, forcing them to switch or Struggle after one attack, with the Disable occurring before the second attack no matter what, as switching is so fast.

Encore

The reverse of Disable. Whatever he enemy just did, they don't get to do anything else. A fantastic way of ensuring you can switch into setup sweepers and then force them out, maybe hit them with Toxic first.

Soak

Wipe STAB, produce a consistent set of weaknesses. A little gimmicky, but useful.

Miracle Eye

Poor man's Scrappy, but for Psychic types. Has the key flaw that you're probably a madman if you actually switch a Psychic type into a Dark type.

Entrainment

Either locks the battle into an endless loop or is borderline useless because most Abilities will be Trademarked Abilities, and so the only time it will ever do anything will be, like, on the first turn of the entire battle.

Gastro Acid

See above, remove endless loop statement.

Worry Seed

Block attempts to use Rest... except for the ones using it as their Ability slot. Ehhh.

Simple Beam

What? No! Don't help their setup sweepers!

Skill Swap

Either locks the battle into an endless loop or uses the enemy's Ability one time. Eeeeeh.

Me First

Anticipate an attack, and slam them with it before they move. Gimmicky.

Gravity

No, you don't actually have any switch-ins to Landorus, nor its friends it's about to U-Turn out to.

Can also be used to improve the odds of hitting with moves like Thunder or Hurricane.

Metronome

Because who needs skill?

Mimic

Huh?

Heal Pulse

Legitimate use: heal yourself against Magic Bouncers.

Otherwise: whyyyyy

Healing Wish, Lunar Dance

Well, you could run this as your Ability slot, though frankly it seems insane to me to do so.

Leech Seed

Stall! STALL!

Trick, Switcheroo

Now predictions are no protection from Choice-Tricking.

Wonder Room

My wall isn't the wall you think it is.

Water Sport, Mud Sport

Not strictly useless, but I question the purpose.

Charge

Powerful Volt Switch and an easier time switching into Special Attacks in one package!

Psycho Shift

Difficult to keep a status on you, spread them at the same time. Questionable, especially since it won't do anything the first time you switch in. (Unless you switched into Toxic Spikes, I guess?)

Heal Block

DIE STALL, DIE

There's a question of how it interacts with Trademarked healing, though.

Weather

Directly supplants the actual Weather Abilities.

Role Play

Hello Trace!

Nightmare

If Resters become popular, this could actually be a very anti-meta tool.

Forest's Curse

If it had better distribution...

Trick or Treat

Better! Since you're a Ghost type yourself, ensuring most foes are Ghost is actually pretty useful. Imperfect, but useful.

Telekinesis, Mind Reader, Lock On

Your first move can't miss. Or your first three, in Telekinesis' case. Could be amazing for stuff like Scarf Zap Cannon to punish setup sweepers -even if they switch, they've still lost their set up, and you've still got a 50% chance of doing horrible things to the switch-in.

I'll get to part 2 tomorrow.
Healing Wish is a plausible Trademark, really. Think of it as trading the option to have six unique Pokemon for five unique Pokemon and a duplicate of one of them. Probably inferior to just having it in the moveset, but if your team is REALLY solid with just five mons then it could be used.

A number of Electric-weak mons actually get Mud Sport. Notably you have Empoleon, Milotic, Blastoise (pre-mega), and Slowbro, which could be solid picks. Probably a niche choice for teams that want to inflate their Electric-checking ability in a pinch, since most of these mons usually have better things to do. +1 252 SpA Choice Specs Raikou Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Empoleon under Mud Sport: 146-174 (39.3 - 46.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery.

The problem with Telekinesis/Mind Reader/Lock On is that it telegraphs your move pretty clearly and won't enable you to consistently do anything to the switch-in. Could score KOs, but there are plenty of things that score KOs. Gravity is a more limited version of this that's just more generally useful, and the pool of mons that get one of these but not Gravity is relatively small.
Houndoom @ Houndoominite
Ability: Sunny Day / Substitute
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
- Solar Beam / Taunt / Nasty Plot

Garchomp @ Garchompite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Stone Edge
Both of these would probably rather run their +2 boosting move over their weather move. If Mega Houndoom can find something else to set sun for it and pivot into it (shouldn't be a problem), it can run Nasty Plot as its trademark and start nuking from base-115 Speed.

+2 252 SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey in Sun: 435-513 (67.7 - 79.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Fire Blast vs. +1 0 HP / 0 SpD Keldeo in Sun: 311-366 (96.2 - 113.3%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
+2 252 SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Fire Blast vs. 240 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Goodra in Sun: 200-236 (52.4 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Since Megachomp's only Sand-boosted moves are physical anyways, it's probably better off with Swords Dance as its trademark (and, correspondingly, max Attack). Still helps to have another sand setter alongside it to do stuff like this:

+2 252 Atk Sand Force Mega Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 96+ Def Mega Venusaur in Sand: 364-430 (100.2 - 118.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Sand Force Mega Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Quagsire in Sand: 208-246 (52.7 - 62.4%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Sand Force Mega Garchomp Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory in Sand: 197-232 (58.9 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

The best part of SD Mega Chomp is that every Unaware and Haze/Clear Smog user in the metagame is 2HKOed, if not OHKOed, in the sand.
 
Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pain Split
Level: 1
EVs: 116 Atk
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Spore
- Recycle
- Endeavor.

This thing is gonna be fun to play with. Every time you switch in, your opponent loses a chunk of their health thanks to Pain Split. Trick Room to outspeed everything, Spore is spore, Recycle allows you to reactivate your sash, since 99% of the time, you are gaining all your health back when you switch in, Endeavor is to weaken stuff even further. Easy to pair this with something, then as the opponent switches in their answer to that something, you switch this in and weaken the answer.
 

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
Steelixite @ Steelixite
Ability: Curse
Gyro Ball
Rock Slide
Earthquake
Roar

Boost Gyro Ball, and your offense/defense with Curse lowering Speed. Also you get a better ability once you Mega Evolve to boost Rock Slide.

Dragonite: Life Orb
Ability: Rain Dance
Hurricane
Thunder
Surf
Roost

Boom.
 
Last edited:
Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pain Split
Level: 1
EVs: 116 Atk
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Spore
- Recycle
- Endeavor.

This thing is gonna be fun to play with. Every time you switch in, your opponent loses a chunk of their health thanks to Pain Split. Trick Room to outspeed everything, Spore is spore, Recycle allows you to reactivate your sash, since 99% of the time, you are gaining all your health back when you switch in, Endeavor is to weaken stuff even further. Easy to pair this with something, then as the opponent switches in their answer to that something, you switch this in and weaken the answer.
Am I missing something? What's with the 116 Attack EVs?
 
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dragon Dance
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Diamond Storm
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Keldeo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Calm Mind
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Icy Wind
- Scald

Say goodbye to your Keldeo checks, now ttar doesn't need to play mind games as after a DD and adamant nature all relevant Keldeo switchins gets demolished by one of its STAB moves.


+1 252+ Atk Tyranitar Pursuit vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Latios: 266-314 (88.9 - 105%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

+1 252+ Atk Tyranitar Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 198-234 (45.8 - 54.1%) -- 95.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

+1 252+ Atk Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Venusaur: 171-202 (46.9 - 55.4%) -- 74.2% chance to 2HKO

+1 252+ Atk Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mew: 274-324 (67.8 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

I don't think I need to post calcs showing how strong specs Keldeo at +1 is. I'll just do 1

+1 252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 72 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 160-189 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

lmao resists?
Not to mention Keldeo's infamous ability to burn every checks it has.
 

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