Pet Mod Paleomons - Slate 13 Winners

[Beaf Cultist]

Alright, the veto period has ended, so it is now time for voting to begin! Spammernoob's Floaty Shocks and Roaring Moon-cif, as well as Swagodile's Slithertail, remain vetoed, while all other submissions may be voted for. The voting rules are as follows:

• Each Pokémon will be voted for separately.
• There is no limit on the amount of submissions you can vote for. First Place will count for 3 points, Second Place for 2, and all others will count for 1 point. If you only vote for two submissions in a category, First Place will count for 2 points and Second Place will count for 1 point. If you only vote for one submission in a category, that vote will only count for 1 point.
• Self-Votes may not be First Place and have a limit of 6 points total.

Example

Flutter Mane: First Place, Second Place, Third Place
Slither Wing: First Place, Second Place
Sandy Shocks: First Place, Second Place, Third Place, Fourth Place, Fifth Place
Roaring Moon: First Place, Second Place, Third Place

Voting will last for 48 hours.

 

[Beaf Cultist]

illegal in galar, Beaf Cultist, Cheryl.
anaconja, Beaf Cultist, Orangesodapop, CoruptedUsername
Cheryl., anaconja, Beaf Cultist, ErrorMon
ErrorMon, Beaf Cultist

 

[jawabarat]

Cheryl, jawabarat, Beaf Cultist

anaconja, Beaf Cultist, illegal in galar

Cheryl, anaconja, ErrorMon

Beaf Cultist, Tanny89K, illegal in galar

 

[Cheryl.]

illegal in galar, Cheryl., Beaf Cultist, jawabarat

Beaf Cultist, Orangesodapop, anaconja, Cyaneedle

Beaf Cultist, Cheryl., ErrorMon, anaconja

Tanny89K, Beaf Cultist, illegal in galar

 

[illegal in galar]

cheryl, Illegal in galar, beaf cultist

anaconja, Illegal in galar, orangesodapop, corruptedusername

beaf cultist, errormon, Cheryl

errormon, tanny89k, illegal in galar

 

[anaconja]

cheryl, jawabarat, illegal in galar
beaf cultist, anaconja, cyaneedle
beaf cultist, anaconja, errormon
errormon

 

[ErrorMon]

cheryl, beaf cultist, illegal in galar
beaf, cyaneedle, anaconja
beaf cultist, cheryl, errormon
anaconja, errormon,

 

[Orangesodapop]

Flutter Mane: jawabarat
Slither Wing: Anaclubja, osp (sv)
Sandy Shocks: Anacodja, errormon, cheryl
Roaring Moon: Tanny, osp (sv), errormon

 

[Beaf Cultist]

Voting is now closed!

 

[Beaf Cultist]

Alright, here are the winners!

For Flutter Mane, we have Cheryl. with Nymphamane!

Name: Nymphamane (Nymph + Mane)
Original Pokemon: Flutter Mane
Typing: Fairy/Water
Abilities: Aroma Veil/Punk Rock
Stats: 55/60/125/105/85/100 (530)
New Moves: Moonlight, Life Dew, Sparkling Aria, Alluring Voice, Whirlpool, Heal Bell, Trick, Rain Dance
Removed Moves: Calm Mind, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Charge Beam, Hex, Phantom Force, Poltergeist, Sunny Day, Spite
Role: New option for a Water or Fairy that utilizes its amazing typing either defensively with physdef fat sets or offensively with Choice Scarf revenge killing sets. Lacks pivoting but has just enough strong utility moves like Thunder Wave from Flutter Mane's OG movepool and Trick to make it not overly passive when facing strong resists like Omastar and Kabutops. Scarf can also be a mean cleaner lategame with its Punk Rock-boosted STABs. You can also attempt Whirlpool Perish Song sets if you're mean.
Flavor: A deceptively dangerous hunter who abused its small size and beautiful voice to attract land predators to lakes and streams thinking they just got an easy meal. Once lured, Nymphamane would capitalize on its successful trickery by pulling the predator underwater with surprising force. Why is it in the water? Cause Flutter Mane with GILLS.

For Slither Wing, we have anaconja with Combysa!

Name: Combysa (combust + Cebysa leucotelus)
Original Pokemon: Slither Wing
Typing: Fire / Fighting
Abilities: Compound Eyes / Shield Dust / Flame Body
Stats: 85 / 85 / 85 / 125 / 79 / 91 | 550
New Moves: Burn Up, Overheat, Fire Blast, Inferno, Flamethrower, Flame Burst, Incinerate, Fire Spin, Focus Blast, Aura Sphere, Vacuum Wave, Earth Power
Removed Moves: First Impression, Lunge, Bulk Up
Role: scarfer that has a little trouble with kabutops but otherwise smacks other things p well
Flavor: fire swing

For Sandy Shocks, we have me with Magnestone!

Name: Magnestone
Original Pokemon: Sandy Shocks
Typing:

Abilities: Predator | Solid Rock
Stats: 85 / 71 / 97 / 121 / 65 / 101 [540 BST]

New Moves: Ferrous Force, Magnet Rise, Meteor Beam, Rock Blast, Rock Polish, Rock Slide, Rock Throw, Smack Down, Stone Edge
Removed Moves: Earthquake, High Horsepower, Scorching Sands

Customs

Predator: After an attack, this Pokemon gains 1/8 of the damage in HP dealt to other Pokemon. (Shell Bell effects)

Ferrous Force: 110 BP Special Rock, 80% Accuracy, 5 PP. If the target is Steel type, lowers their Special Defense.

Role: Base Sandy Shocks actually almost exactly fills a niche I feel like the meta has been missing, so I've just given it a few tweaks to slot in better. Basically, VoltTurn cores are very strong in the meta, but most of them lack the "Volt" part of VoltTurn, opting to stack U-Turn and Flip Turn mons instead. Yizolt can be used with Volt Switch but is better with U-Turn, so I wanted to make an Electric type that actually works as a fast Volt Switcher. Additionally, the many Kabutops nerfs have removed the only real button-clicking special attacker from the meta, so Magnestone serves as a replacement, with its STABs plus Earth Power being shockingly spammable as long as the opponent doesn't have an AV Armaldo or a Carriguana.
Flavor: The idea of this stupid magnet thing being an apex predator is very funny to me. Otherwise flavor is basically the same, it's a magnetic rock.

And finally, for Roaring Moon we have Tanny89k with Nochummer!

Name: Nochummer (noche + chummer)
Original Pokemon: Roaring Moon
Typing:

Abilities: Dry Skin / Night Watch
Stats: 90 / 127 / 80 / 53 / 60 / 90
New Moves: Fake Out, Quick Attack, Poison Fang, Sucker Punch, Toxic
Removed Moves: Acrobatics, Aerial Ace, Draco Meteor, Dragon Dance, Dragon Pulse, Hurricane, Roost, U-turn
Role: Breaker that can hit Carracosta for big numbers. Good anti-offense in Fake Out and Sucker Punch. Can snipe Icaruff with Toxic. Struggles somewhat with 4MSS and lacks pivoting as a catch-all against switches. Also Knock
Flavor: Nocturnal ambush hunter. Unlike its Paradox, it lacks wings.

What do you think about our new additions? Feel free to discuss them here or on the Discord! The next slate will open soon, after a few announcements.

 

[Beaf Cultist]

For our first announcement, we have a big VR update! Unfortunately this will be outdated immediately, as we have both new mons and an upcoming balance slate, but I wanted to at least set a better framework for the future as we've understood the meta better post-PMPL. This update was made by combining my personal VR with those of the PMPL players, so while I've written up some reasonings below, don't take them as gospel, since I wasn't the only contributor this time.

Updated VR

S
Alticombat
Armaldo
Bastiodon
Kabutops

A+
Carracosta

A
Archeops
Icaruff
Yizolt

A-
Aerodactyl
Gourgeist-Ancient-Large
Skeledirge-Ancient
Tyrantrum

B+
Aurorus
Crobat-Ancient
Eleffigy
Gourgeist-Ancient-Small
Omastar
Rampardos
Ungabunguss
Venopleura

B
Brawlutra
Cardantis
Swishivish

B-
Carriguana
Goldoco
Pesbasil
Tauros-Ancestor

C+
Arctobyss
Conkeldurr-Conch
Lapras-Abyss
Sigilyph-Ancient
Swampert-Ancient

C
Cradily
Dracomizer
Gourgeist-Ancient-Super
Heliolisk-Ancient
Hemlophosaur
Moscourge
Nurturaptor
Salazzle-Ancient
Servachne

D
Bellibolt-Twisted
Gourgeist-Ancient
Meganium-Sonic
Shivertherium

NEW
Nymphamane
Combysa
Magnestone
Nochummer

Reasonings

Rises:

Carracosta
B+ to A+
Carracosta proved itself to be the best SpDef wall in the meta during PMPL.

Armaldo
B to S
Anyone who played in PMPL knows why this mon is going to S, it's basically the Landorus-Therian of the meta with its splashability, set variety, and high utility.

Bastiodon
B to S
Another clear standout from PMPL, Bastiodon 1v1s pretty much the entire meta and can wall entire teams in the right situations. Its lack of recovery can hold it back but Rest variants also popped up during the tournament to cover that weakness.

Gourgeist-Ancient-Large
B to A-
Grassy Terrain teams were very strong in PMPL, and Gourgeist-Large is their enabler.

Alticombat
B- to S
Token brokemon of the meta. SD sets on this thing are ridiculous, and Band sets aren't far behind.

Aerodactyl
B- to A-
Aerodactyl has been historically great, though it had fallen off a bit in the recent meta due to how team were built around beating it. Those cores showed up a lot less in PMPL though, and new innovations like Band and DBond have brought Aero back into the limelight.

Brawlutra
B- to B
To quote a tour player, "I use Brawlutra when I want Armaldo with Spikes over Rocks."

Omastar
C+ to B+
Omastar has shown itself to be a staple of very bulky teams, with Regenerator plus massive bulk and a large utility movepool making it a must-slot in order to check key offensive threats.

Cardantis
C+ to B
While it hadn't been seen much since its nerf, Cardantis received new (un)life during PMPL, with players experimenting with Misty Surge sets (both offensive and defensive) to some success.

Pesbasil
C+ to B-
Button clicker with Band or Scarf. Very one-note mon, but its STABs are hard to switch into, so it does its job well enough.

Lapras-Abyss
C to C+
Was used a lot during the tour due to its defensive profile + Rough Skin, though it's still pretty passive and loses to a lot of common offensive mons.

Conkeldurr-Conch
D to C+
Pure Power sets actually saw a fair amount of use during the tour, as its good natural bulk and few weaknesses make it a pretty functional tank.

Sigilyph-Ancient
D to C+
Tinted Lens makes this fairly hard to switch into, and buffed Petroglyph lets it clean up games in the right hands. Psychic/Ground is also shockingly good offensively in this meta, which all comes together to make a Sigilyph a pretty good mon, though it does require some skill to use effectively.

Heliolisk-Ancient
D to C
Not as bad as the D tiers, though it's not great either. Galvanize Double-Edge is very strong, and Quick Attack is great for revenge-killing Alticombat, which gives it just enough utility to be usable.

Salazzle-Ancient
D to C
Saw some use in the tour for its powerful, hard-to-switch-into Specs Ice Beams.


Drops:

Skeledirge-Ancient
S to A-
The power dropoff after this mon got a SpAtk nerf has been very noticeable, and without the ability to run away with games it's mostly just been used for its (still quite good) defensive profile.

Icaruff
A+ to A
A somewhat surprising drop considering how much Calm Mind sets popped off in PMPL, but I think it's moreso that people think the mons ranked higher are better overall, rather than Icaruff being any worse.

Yizolt
A+ to A
Similar to Icaruff, Yizolt was a very strong and often-used mon in PMPL, but people just think the top 4 + Carracosta are better.

Venopleura
A+ to B+
Venopleura's inability to actually beat SD Alticombat has removed one of its main niches in the current meta, making it harder to justify on teams. This is exacerbated by how common Ground coverage is on physical attackers, limiting the number of mons Venopleura can actually check defensively.

Crobat-Ancient
A to B+
I think this is mostly a case of tour players not using Crobat enough, as the mon is still plenty good, and arguably especially so in the current meta, as it feeds on teams that rely on Bastiodon and Carracosta as their SpDef walls.

Gourgeist-Ancient-Small
A to B+
The main concern regarding this mon was splashability, and while I think the competition with Gourgeist-Large is a very real knock against it, I don't think Gourgeist-Small is all that hard to slot otherwise, as its drawbackless unwallable STABs + Ground coverage are obscenely strong when played well, so this could just be another oversight from the tour players.

Swishivish
A to B
Swishivish, on the other hand, has had a real falloff. While its STABs are great on paper, in-game it's difficult to bring in and the payoff is often too low to justify Swishivish's SR weakness and crappy speed tier.

Eleffigy
A- to B+
Mostly just the meta settling. Eleffigy is still good, it was just ranked a little too high on the previous VR. Archeops usage is also trending down in recent weeks.

Ungabunguss
A- to B+
Same deal for Ungabunguss. Still good, just ranked a little too high previously. Also doesn't help that it can't actually beat some Tyrantrum sets.

Tauros-Ancestor
A- to B-
Another mon that was barely used during PMPL, which could be biasing this ranking a bit, but Tauros is generally considered to be very hard to slot and not worth the effort to enable, though I personally think it has a lot of unexplored potential even after its nerf.

Carriguana
A- to B-
Tour players generally trended away from using Carriguana, as its fairly defensive nature left it too slow for many teams. It's still a solid option, and B- is probably underrating it a bit, so we'll see if it can reclaim a higher placement in the future.

Cradily
B+ to C
Post-nerf, Cradily is just really passive and hard to justify on teams. This is especially true in a meta where Kabutops and Alticombat are the two best offensive mons.

Moscourge
B+ to C
Moscourge went almost completely unused in PMPL, with its extreme frailty and weak STABs making it hard to justify on teams.

Goldoco
B to B-
Goldoco can often feel just a bit understatted for what it wants to do, especially in the SpDef department.

Swampert-Ancient
B to C+
Swampert was repeatedly unable to provide value to teams in PMPL, and while I was able to get much more value out of it in testing, I can understand a drop from the showing that's publicly available.

Dracomizer
B- to C
Very awkward to run and hard to justify over other options for hazard setters. Also can't do anything to stop Kabutops from spinning away all the hazards it sets.

Hemlophosaur
B- to C
Another awkward mon. Can get good value with its great defensive typing and Poison spreading, but generally struggles with many defensive cores and common mons like Carracosta and Omastar.

Servachne
C+ to C
Bastiodon is S-tier and on like half of all teams - very hard to get value with Webs in a meta like that.

Gourgeist-Ancient
C to D
Impossible to justify over its other forms.

Meganium-Sonic
C to D
Impossible to justify when it literally can't do anything to Carracosta/Skeledirge and can't switch into any offensive mons.

 

[Beaf Cultist]

The second announcement is, of course, the balance patch! The focus here is going to be on diversifying meta options and giving weaker mons tools they need to compete, but for the most part, full reworks will be left until after the mod finishes running.

Nerfs

Alticombat
105 / 100 / 60 / 60 / 75 / 120 --> 105 / 85 / 60 / 60 / 75 / 120

Alticombat had far too much power for its speed, being able to muscle past supposed answers like Venopleura and Bastiodon with minimal effort after a Swords Dance or two, and having enough bulk to set up freely on key meta options. In my opinion, Alticombat's Speed is important so it can stand out from Archeops and Swishivish, but it's clear after PMPL that its offensive profile needs to be toned down, so its Attack will be getting a major cut.

Bastiodon
70 / 52 / 148 / 107 / 138 / 30 --> 60 / 52 / 148 / 107 / 138 / 30

The Petroglyph buff was more impactful for Bastiodon than expected. In fact, it was a bit too much, as being able to beat Bastiodon is now pretty much mandatory in order to function as a mon in the current meta (with the only notable exception being Skeledirge). While many appreciate the role Bastiodon plays as a catch-all stopgap to many powerful offensive mons, I feel it would be best to revert the HP buff it received last year, as a minor nerf will hopefully lower Bastiodon usage a bit and give mons like Dracomizer and Servachne room to breathe.


Buffs

Bellibolt-Twisted
109 / 64 / 91 / 103 / 83 / 45 --> 109 / 45 / 91 / 113 / 83 / 54
+Earth Power

Bellibolt is very very hard to justify in a meta with many strong Fighting and Fairy types plus extremely high Carracosta/Armaldo usage. While the concept of a slow Electric/Dark may be flawed on its face, particularly with how little BST Bellibolt has to work with, this is my best attempt at improving it. Earth Power is so that you have a way of actually threatening Carracosta, higher Speed lets you naturally outspeed Omastar, Goldoco, and Ungabunguss without investment, and higher Special Attack makes your Volt Switches more valuable.

Dracomizer
100 / 101 / 112 / 90 / 80 / 52 --> 100 / 111 / 117 / 80 / 80 / 52

Dracomizer really struggles to find a place in a meta where Bastiodon is top-tier and completely shuts down everything you'd want to do with it. While this buff doesn't fix that issue unless you want to run Earthquake, it does make your other matchups significantly better, and will hopefully work together with the Bastiodon nerf to give Dracomizer more of a place in the meta.

Goldoco
100 / 135 / 100 / 50 / 70 / 50 --> 100 / 135 / 100 / 50 / 85 / 50

Goldoco has fallen behind a bit in the modern meta, with its statline just not being quite up to snuff these days, and seeing as how we still don't have any specially defensive Steels, I figured we may as well make Goldoco a bit less foldable on that side.

Meganium-Sonic
109 / 74 / 81 / 108 / 111 / 42 --> 109 / 59 / 86 / 118 / 111 / 42

The same as I said about Bellibolt, this mon is just impossible to gain value with in a meta with high Carracosta usage (maybe a sign that Carracosta needs some attention of its own...), but even aside from that mon, Meganium also hates Skeledirge and the high amounts of U-Turn spam in the meta. These stat buffs will hopefully make Meganium's positive traits more appealing, making it easier to run overall.

Moscourge
66 / 96 / 76 / 116 / 86 / 106 --> 76 / 76 / 76 / 126 / 86 / 106

Moscourge was put on major fraud alert after PMPL, where it saw a single use and zero wins throughout the entire tour. The main issue is that Moscourge loses to Carracosta just doesn't have enough of an offensive presence to break through common defensive cores, and dies instantly to even the weakest attacks thanks to its paper-thin bulk, so a boost to both its offense and defense is in order.

Pesbasil
+Protect, Rest, Sleep Talk, Stealth Rock, Substitute

This mon is just missing a lot of moves, which forces it into running offensive sets since it doesn't have the movepool to do anything else. Besides universals, the other big addition here is Stealth Rock, giving Pesbasil utility it sorely lacked and hopefully enabling more defensive sets to function.

Salazzle-Ancient
60 / 60 / 69 / 108 / 69 / 114 --> 60 / 60 / 64 / 114 / 68 / 114
+Nasty Plot

This mon hasn't functioned since its release, so we're reverting the veto this mon received before its introduction. Hopefully Salazzle's original form will fit a bit better into the meta than its neutered version has been.

Shivertherium
105 / 115 / 105 / 65 / 60 / 80 --> 105 / 115 / 105 / 65 / 60 / 90
Mountain Gale now has 100% Accuracy
+Bulk Up, Protect, Rest, Sleep Talk, Substitute

Shivertherium is another mon that hasn't functioned since its release, but it's been in the meta quite a bit longer than Salazzle, so that's really saying something. Ice/Steel is just such a terrible typing, and Shivertherium's lacking... everything, really, just makes it impossible to run on serious teams. A big movepool facelift combined with an improved speed tier will hopefully breathe new life into the meta's only physical Ice type.

 

[Spammernoob]

I was considering whether to start with comments on buffs or nerfs, but I guess I have stronger feelings towards the nerfs so I'll start with that.

Bastiodon
I don't understand why this needs a bulk nerf. The point about " being able to beat Bastiodon is now pretty much mandatory" is pretty overstated, as the only mons that can't hit it at least neutrally with STAB are: Dracomizer, Icaruff, Nurturaptor, Skeledirge, Tyrantrum, Ungabunguss. That, combined with its worst-in-tier speed and no reliable recovery, forces it to trade HP (which it is admittedly very good at), but opens up a lot of avenues of counterplay. I think this type of mon being centralizing in the tier is healthy, and I really don't like the idea of reducing its trading potential. Its best team (Grassy Terrain) is getting nerfed with Alticombat nerf anyways.

If there is any nerf that I'd be OK with, it would be Magic Bounce -> Good as Gold to allow more hazard-setters to see play (mainly Spikes on Omastar/Venopleura/Dracomizer, also Webs but ugh). I don't think Toxic Spikes will be viable as long as Kabutops and Carracosta exist, but such is life.

Alticombat
This is probably fine, seeing Elec Seed + SD + Roost cheese through Venopleura was slightly ridiculous and this mon was very restrictive in builder due to its high speed, solid power, and insane neutral coverage with Scrappy (someone actually loaded Chople Cardantis for it...). This nerf is probably fine.



Re: buffs
I think typing/role are the main issues with a lot of these mons tbh, but I get that these are small tweaks and reworks will happen later so these changes are fine. I'll just give some thoughts on the mons' issues as reference for later.

Bellibolt-Twisted
Bellibolt: Yes, unfortunately Ground/Fairy/Fighting are too common offensively in this tier, and most relevant Pokemon it would like to check (eg. Kabutops) can easily pivot out of it. I don't really see a way to make this work, unless you give it something like Sinistrous or Route Closed from Glacemons (Fairy Absorb and Pivot Absorb respectively). CAP has a similar Pokemon () but it is Electric/Normal, which is way nicer. Electric-type wall losing to main relevant Electric in tier (Yizolt) is so sad.

Maybe giving it Knock Off would be good as well, but +Earth Power is fine to make it not blank into Carracosta.

Dracomizer
Weird to assess this. Beaf is convinced this is kept down by Bastiodon, but I really can't see a good reason to use it regardless. Physical has a lot more Ground/Rock type attacks to threaten this typing, and I don't really see anything it targets particularly well in the meta (Skeledirge targets Icaruff very specifically, and Unaware is solid for Alticombat as well).

Flame Body instantly gives this mon a strong niche, but I'm not sure if Beaf wants to greenlight that. EDIT: I just saw Combysa has Flame Body... job stolen...

Goldoco
This mon feels a little similar to Bastiodon, quite fat and strong, but main issue really is that it is completely blanked by Armaldo. I'm not sure how to solve this, other than giving it U-turn or something.

Meganium-Sonic
The sad fate of Grass-types in Paleomons is losing to Water-types (Kabutops and Swishivish). The sad fate of Volt Switch clickers in Paleomons is losing to Armaldo or Carracosta.

Moscourge
If this were a meta without Kabutops/Carracosta infestation and Toxic Spikes were viable, maybe there could be a Merciless build. As it stands, Moscourge is locked to Corrosion + Toxic to have a hope of making progress against Carracosta, but has serious trouble clicking the move, as it often risks being OHKO'd in return.

Corrosion Glimmora is actually a solid set in certain fat metas. Corrosion Salazzle is much worse. Unfortunately, Moscourge is closer to the latter, due to its middling bulk and poor defensive typing, and the meta is not particularly friendly to Corrosion mons anyways (high amounts of offense, esp. Volt-turn) so I'm not super convinced it will be good without major meta shifts.

Pesbasil
Beaf is convinced this mon is actually good. Well, it will always have issues with Armaldo, but ig that is why Armaldo is good.

Salazzle-Ancient
This is like a more offensive Darkrai, which I guess is a solid role. I'm not sure if it will ever be able to click Nasty Plot, but the threat is nice at least. I think it should be playable, though a Water/Fairy was just added... we'll see.

Shivertherium
This typing feels slightly less fake than I initially thought, but it's really more of an offensive piece than a defensive one so Stamina likely only ends up boosting its Body Press damage (I guess not bad...).