Pet Mod Megas for All v7 - please switch to the new thread for v8! (There's a link in the first and last posts!)

[FiniteInfinity]

My votes (and thoughts)

The Kappa

KeroseneZanchu brought the most synergistic sub to the table that I've seen out of these last two slates. The ability he proposed may be a tad on the weak side for a singles format unless we receive a new Psychic Surge Pokemon, but it will wreak havoc in VGC and other doubles formats (as a side note, I appreciate how this mega also gives a weaker Pokemon a chance to shine, in addition to enabling its own underutilized gimmicks). It contibutes perfectly to everything that Golduck strives for, and everything that Psychic Terrain strives for - it allows Golduck to be the Psychic powerhouse it's always been hinted to be in lore, but retain the plain Water typing it has kept for 8 generations and abuse the better defensive typing that comes with it. It perfectly utilizes the innate properties of priority blocking and Expanding Force boosting of the terrain to take Surge Surfer's concept and bring it its peak performance.

Violettes and Ausma's joint submission here provides much of the same wonderful properties as KeroseneZanchu's, however, just not quite as well (in my opinion). Regardless, it's still high enough quality to win the second place spot for me.

The PogChamp

Paulluxx and BlueRay's joint submission definitely takes the cake for flavor (pun intended) - the best I've seen out of these past two slates. The perfectly justified unique typing and the trio it makes with Grimmsnarl and Hatterene is just perfect. That's not to say the functional aspect is lacking - as it is most definitely not - but the flavor here is what really shines. I definitely think this will be most effective on Sun, and I am glad about Sun getting a new non-Fire non-Grass tool to play with, but I appreciate that it has plenty of non-Sun applications as well. Most notably that (as far as I know) it will be the only Defogger that actually resists Rock. Even if the rest of the sub was bland, that may have been enough to land a second place in my book.

SimpyShrimp's Sirfetch'd uses the Coup de Grass ability in a delightfully new way - while Cacturne used this expertly named ability to play off of the Grass type, Sirfetch'd here makes full use of the Coup de Gras portion of the pun. I think this distinction will very effectively set the two megas apart, should this win.

The Twitch

Probably to nobody's surprise, I will be voting for myself in first place. I won't go into much detail since you can find that in my submission itself, but without further ado:

Magmajudis has second! The Erratic Movement ability he proposed is quite intriguing and one I would like to see in action. The concept of a setup sweeper that gets rewarded even more for setting up but then punished for sweeping is an incredibly fun-sounding mechanic to play around, and one I can't wait to play with myself. It brings a lot more strategy to the table than simply clicking buttons.

Violettes comes third for me - permanent Torment sounds like an equally intriguing concept as Magmajudis' sub, if even a tad moreso - however, I placed this one just behind due to the fact that I don't think Porygon-Z's stats/moves/general gameplan lends itself too well to pulling off the idea effectively.

 

[RickAmortis]

Duck Duck: Kerosenezanchu, Blueray, Moretto, Josjet

Goose: Paulluxx, Eeveegirl1380, Simpyshrimp, Ausma

???: Ausma, Kerosenezanchu, Finiteinfinity, Ninjacid

(If these ones were too obscure, they're Golduck, SIrfetch'd, and Porygon-Z, respectively)

 

[ausma]

Porygon-Z:
1. Violettes
2. Magmajudis
3. okispokis
4. ausma
5. KeroseneZanchu
6. NANI?!?!?
7. Eeveegirl1380

Sirfetch'd:
1. Pauluxx
2. SimpyShrimp
3. Violettes
4. ausma
5. okispokis

Golduck:
1. KeroseneZanchu
2. Violettes + ausma
3. JosJet
4. BlueRay

 

[Seranode]

Porygon-Z: Violettes, Ausma, Magmajudis

Sirfetch’d: Ausma, Paullux/BlueRay, Violettes

Golduck: KeroseneZanchu, Violettes/Ausma, Abismal

 

[Magmajudis]

Votes

1. Magmajudis
2. Ausma
3. Violettes

Votes

1. Paulluxx/BlueRay
2. Magmajudis
3. Ausma

Votes

1. KeroseneZanchu
2. Violettes/Ausma
3. Magmajudis

 

[BlueRay]

Hello!

To ease the teambuilding process, I decided to create a list where you can find Pokémon fulfilling specific roles. For instance, if you want to look up viable Intimidate users, you will find Pokémon such as Incineroar or Landorus-T, among others. This list was inspired by the Role Compendium for VGC 21 Series 10 by Giokio, which you can find here if you are interested. [Link]
Below, you will only find Pokémon suited for the standard M4A VGC metagame. With time, however, I'll create another list for specific formats, like Kalos Regional M4A VGC or Restricted M4A VGC. If you want a Pokémon to be added to the list, let me know. Moreover, the list will be updated from time to time.

Role Compendium

Sun

Setters

Chlorophyll

Rain

Setters

(Mega, Primordial Sea)
(Mega)


(manual)

Swift Swim

Abusers

(Mega)

Sand

Setters

(Mega, Desert Gale)

Abusers

Hail

Setters

(Mega, Eternal Winter)
(Mega, Diamond Dust)
(Mega)

Abusers

Other Field Effects

Tailwind

(Mega)
(Mega)

Trick Room Setters

(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega, auto)
(Mega)

Trick Room Abusers

(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega)


:Sirfetch

Electric Terrain

Setters

Abusers

Grassy Terrain

Setters

(Mega)
(Mega, Arena Rock)

Abusers

Misty Terrain

Setters

Psychic Terrain

Setters

Abusers

(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega)

Acidic Terrain

Setters

(Mega)

Utility

Fake Out

(Mega)
(Mega)

Helping Hand

Taunt

Substitute

(Mega)
(Mega)

Fake Tears

Safeguard

Haze

Wide Guard

Prankster

Defiant

Competitive

Trapping

Perish Song

Imprison

Prio Moves Prevention

(Mega)

Feint

(Mega)

Volt Switch

U-Turn

Redirection

Follow Me

Rage Powder

:Buttterfree:

Storm Drain

Lightning Rod

(Mega)

Ally Switch

(Mega)

Speed Control

Icy Wind

(Mega)

Electroweb

Scary Face

Quash

Bulldoze

String Shot

Priority Attacks

Ice Shard

(Mega)

Aqua Jet

(Rapid-Strike)

Bullet Punch

Grassy Glide

(Mega)
(Mega)

Sucker Punch

(Mega)
(Mega)

Shadow Sneak

Quick Attack

(Mega)

Extreme Speed

Boosting

Heavenly Techniques

(Mega)

Swords Dance

(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega)

Nasty Plot

(Mega)
(Mega)

,

Quiver Dance

Meteor Beam

(Mega)

Coaching

(Mega)

Iron Defense

(Mega)
(Mega)

Weakness Policy

Choice Band

(Rapid-Strike)

Choice Specs

Choice Scarf

Assault Vest

Damage Reduction

Dual Screens

Aurora Veil

(Mega)
(Mega)
(Mega)

Intimidate

Eerie Impulse

Snarl / Struggle Bug

Parting Shot

(Mega)

Status
Sleep

Sleep Powder

Hypnosis

(Mega)

Spore

Burn

Will-O-Wisp

Paralysis

Thunder Wave

Poison

Spoiler

(Mega, auto)
(Mega, auto)

- - -

[Link, M4A VGC: Sample Sets]

[Link, M4A VGC: Viability Ranking]

[Link, M4A VGC Kalos Dex Tournament: Report / Sample Teams]

 

[inkbug]

Hello everyone! The votes are in !!

Before I get started, a quick run-down of how this works:

• Each vote contributes one point to its first-place choice
• The candidates are ordered based on both the number of first-place votes and the number of total votes, and eliminated from the bottom
• Any vote whose first choice has been eliminated instead gives its point to its second choice, or whatever its next ranking is. (On the sheet, points that have moved in this manner are highlighted in yellow.)
• The elimination and re-ranking process continues until there are two remaining, upon which the one with more points is the winner.
• You can view the whole thing on this spreadsheet.

A lil bit more about vote tallying

This shouldn't have any effect on results, but for the sake of transparency, I tried a bit of a different method of going about the tallying this time to sort of streamline the process. Essentially, rather than ranking everything at the beginning based on both total votes and first-place votes, I cut off everything that got less total votes than the submission that has the highest number of first-place votes, and distributed the first-place votes down the runoffs accordingly before continuing with the ranking.

The thought process here is that even if these submissions got every single possible runoff vote, they would still lose to the one that's currently in the lead, so they can be dropped and reranked more quickly, giving the other submissions that do have a shot of overturning the rankings a better chance to do so. Ultimately, using the old process they would have still eventually been eliminated, but would have sat around soaking up points that other submissions could be using despite having no chance of actually winning.

On the spreadsheet, submissions that are below that threshold of total votes are now marked in grey.

Not particularly relevant to anything but I just thought it was interesting!

Anyways! Without further ado:

Mega Golduck: KeroseneZanchu !! (calm down dude what the fuck)

Mega Golduck
Type: Water
Mega Stone: Golduckite

Ability: Mind Rider - This Pokemon's speed is doubled on Psychic Terrain.
(Surge Surfer clone)

Stats:
Stats:
HP - 80 (+0)
ATK - 82 (+0)
DEF - 98 (+20)
SPA - 155 (+60)
SPD - 100 (+20)
SPE - 85 (+0)

New Moves: Shadow Ball, Psychic Terrain, Expanding Force, Recover

Description:

Flavor

Dex Entry: The power of Mega Evolution overwhelms Golduck, returning the chronic migraines of its Psyduck days with a vengeance. The pain stunts all of Golduck's skill and elegance as a swimmer - however, basking in the energy of Psychic Terrain temporarily brings it peace, and allows it to achieve a state of enlightenment. During this state, Mega Golduck fights and kills with a ferocious grace in or out of the water - now, nowhere is safe.

Golduck has always had this strange juxtaposition as being extremely heavily tied to the psychic type through both flavor and movepool, despite never receiving the Psychic type itself - staying pure Water. I decided to keep this theme by giving it an ability that helped and promoted the Psychic strengths while maintaining the defensive potential of not actually having it as a type. The new ability also cripples it in a way compared to the base form - Golduck has always been solid on rain teams with how powerful and easy to use its ability is. However, with proper use of its new ability, despite being more restrictive, Golduck reaches much higher offensive potential than base.

Competitive

This Mega Golduck combines the offensive potential of Psychic with the defensive potential of Water in a way that retains all of the gimmicks of Golduck - non-Psychic Psychic, speed doubling ability, etc. - and synergizes perfectly with the modus operandi - Psychic Terrain. While I'm usually against making clones of abilities for the "what if this ability but with this Pokemon's ideal type/weather/etc.", having a Psychic Terrain version of Surge Surfer (which I guess could also be considered a clone of Swift Swim, Golduck's ability) is cool in how it interacts with the Psychic Terrain itself.

You see, since Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, it completely shuts down one of the most common methods of revenging a fast Pokemon. In addition, even with maintaining Golduck's base speed, it can outspeed everything in the game that isn't Scarfed or boosted in some way. Even when taking Modest instead of Timid, it outspeeds everything besides a max speed with nature Regieleki. This synergy means Mega Golduck truly goes first when it gets up Psychic Terrain, and you just have to deal with it. In addition, since Psychic Terrain autosetters are basically non-existent with Lele banned and Indeedee being dog in singles, this also makes Mega Golduck a viable manual terrain setter, since doing so is effectively the same as both Agility and a (slightly worse) Nasty Plot in the same turn.

This is because by stacking the power boosts from Psychic Terrain as well as Expanding Force's own enhanced damage under it, Mega Golduck can provide an incredible offensive Psychic threat that outdamages Surf and just barely falls shy of Hydro Pump, despite not even having STAB on it. This is beneficial, since not having the Psychic type means that Golduck doesn't have to fear Pursuit, Knock Off, or U-Turn, which are staples in the meta. This better defensive typing lets it take advantage of its bulkier stat spread, granting it multiple potential builds and movesets. A quick to start, hard-hitting cleaner with Hydro Pump, Expanding Force, Ice Beam and Psychic Terrain? Or a bulkier setup sweeper with Expanding Force, Calm Mind, Recover and Psychic Terrain? You might even be able to run some other support like Terrain Extender Slowbro (thanks Paul for the example) in order to free up the last move slot, letting the immediate hitter take Shadow Ball as bonus coverage.

While Mega Golduck can work in singles, it's much more potent in VGC. Already, strategies like weather and terrain can be a lot more powerful in the format, but Mega Golduck has even more reasons why it shines in doubles. Namely, the only existing auto-setter for it is suddenly an actual viable option. Female Indeedee has loads of support for it in the doubles format such as screens, Follow Me, and of course providing it with immediate Psychic Terrain just by existing. Mega Golduck's two best and most reliable moves are also great in doubles, being Surf and Expanding Force, which means it can dish out a lot of damage, and do so before the enemy has the option to react. Psychic Terrain also shuts down stuff like Fake Out as an added bonus, and neither Mega Golduck nor Indeedee care at all about Intimidate.

Golduck Tally

Mega Porygon-Z: Violettes !!

Mega Porygon-Z

Type:

Ability: Erratic Code (All Pokemon on the field, including this one, are under the effect of Torment.)

HP: 85
Atk: 95
Def: 90 (+20)
SpA: 160 (+25)
SpD: 120 (+45)
Spe: 105 (+10)

New Moves: None

Reasoning:
Porygon-Z is glitchy and unstable. Erratic Code is meant to reflect that, as it prevents any pokemon on the field from using the same move twice. This can be particularly annoying for choice users, but it also prevents mons from spamming recovery moves, and it prevents certain setup mons from spamming their setup move or strongest attack. As a balancing factor, this also applies to Mega Porygon-Z itself, making it unable to spam Tri-Attack or Recover. To work around this, Mega Porygon-Z could run Protect, though this does come at the cost of a move slot. In addition, it could take advantage of forcing choice mons to switch or use Struggle with Nasty Plot or Substitute.

Porygon-Z Tally

Mega Sirfetch'd: Paulluxx & BlueRay !!

:Sirfetch
Mega Sirfetch'd

New Ability: Grassy Surge

Type: Fighting | Fairy

New stats:
HP: 62
Attack: 135 → 155 (+20)
Defense: 95 → 125 (+30)
Special Attack: 68
Special Defense: 82 → 102 (+20)
Speed: 65 → 95 (+30)
BST: 507 → 607

New moves:
Roost, Toxic, Play Rough

Description

Description:
1) Design Concept

Sirfetch'd are known to fight with honour, which is why they are a popular motive for portrays. Since it's based on a knight, Paul and I decided to go for a fairytale route; after all, that is where knights are sometimes featured. During our research, we came upon a Danish fairytale called "The Green Knight", which has some similarities with "Cinderella". In the Danish story, a princess is badly treated by her stepmother but she finds solace in a book a Green Knight gifted to her. Every time she reads the book, everyone but her would fall asleep and the Green Knight would come in as a bird and talk to her, making her happy. As time goes on, her stepmother becomes suspicious of her happiness. After some research and thinking, she decides to put a poisoned pair of scissors in the window and manages to poison the Green Knight... If you want to know how the story ends, read it for yourself! :DD
So, to sum up the essential points for Mega Sirfetch'd dual Fighting and Fairy type:
- we have a knight motive; and knights are often associated with honour and sometimes featured in fairytales
- in a Danish fairytale, we have a Green Knight who visits a sad princess by flying to her home as a bird
- this knight is vulnerable to poison set up by an evil stepmother
Knights are renowned in the world to be able to Kill Dragons, and giving it the fairy typing would allow it to do that in the competitive world as well.
Additionally we noticed, that giving it the fairy typing would complete a trio of gen 8 fairy tale creatures with the fairy typing in Grimmsnarl and Hatterene(who also have only 3 BST more than it)

2) Competitive Aspect
This Sirfetch'd can be used in and outside of Sun teams.

The dual Fighting/Fairy type, coupled with Grassy Surge, turns Mega Sirfetch'd into an excellent support and offensive option for teams in general; after all, this combo resists Earthquake + Stone Edge, which are generally hard to wall since these types hit almost every Pokémon for, at least, neutral damage. Furthermore, being immune to Dragon is pretty great since Garchomp is one of the most common abusers of Earthquake + Stone Edge and can tear apart most defensive Pokémon with Dragonium-Z or Rockium-Z.
As Mega Sirfetch'd can withstand these forms of pressure, it can act as a very good Defogger if you would like as it is the only defogger that resists the edgequake combination, especially since hazard setters are usually Ground Pokémon, like Garchomp, Landorus-T, or Hippowdon. Additionally non ground hazard setters such as Ferrothorn, or Kommo-o are weak to one of its STAB Moves so it can force them out and prevent them from getting rocks up!

On a Sun team, Mega Sirfetch'd can boost Grass moves for Grass Pokémon like Venusaur, and lessen the damage from Earthquake to help out Fire Pokémon like Torkoal or Heatran. Moreover, with the new Fairy type, Sirfetch'd can easily take care of Dragon Pokémon like Garchomp, Latias or Kommo-o Sun teams often struggle with due to their good bulk and natural resistances to Fire and Grass. On top of that, Sirfetch'd can run Solar Blade since Sun teams always run Drought.

Outside of Sun teams, you can choose between Grassy Glide or Leaf Blade. While the former acts as a great tool to finish weakened Pokémon and patch up its rather mediocre Speed for a wallbreaker, the latter helps it out to greatly weaken Tapu Fini, Slowbro or Unaware Pokémon like Quagsire and Pyukumuku.

As Sirfetch'd knows Defog, you can decide yourself when you want to remove Grassy Glide so that your opponent can't take advantage of it.

Sirfetch'd can also run 2 very different wincon sets for teams wanting its defensive utility or offensive prowess, Swords dance sets can break through much of the meta with its access to Brave Bird, Poison Jab for Fairies, and Knock off. But also Iron Defense Body Press Defensive sets can work very well due to its access to roost, and STAB Body press off of its defense hits like a truck, and uninvested Knock offs allow it to deal with switchins midgame and prevent them from switching in later.

In the realm of VGC it is also a very good pokemon contributing to terrain wars but also its premega ability rendering it immune to intimidate or being fake outed on turn 1. It can support its team using moves such as quick guard, or feint to break through protect, its bulk is also a lot more modular in VGC.

Sirfetch'd Tally

Congrats to the winners !!

I didn't draft this post ahead of time so I'm gonna keep this brief in the interest of time, but here's a reminder about our upcoming events, which you can also view on the calendar:


VGC "15-Ban" Tournament: August 28 (This Saturday!)

Slate 35 (Decidueye, Incineroar, Primarina) opens: September 3 (Next Friday)

Speed Draft: September 4 (Next Saturday)


Discussion prompt: For those of you with experience in VGC, have you any advice or resources to offer? For those of you who want to learn VGC, what's stopping you/what would be helpful?

Personally, I am intimidated by just about every aspect, but I have yet to really sit and do my homework on it, haha. My aversion to using sample teams probably doesn't help!​

 

[Hematemesis]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT, all of this tournament will take place on the m4a discord, which you can join with this link! https://discord.gg/JKKasJzs8H
If any of the other links expire, you can join the 4 discords listed through this discord link (I made sure that this link never expires). It's basically mandatory to join this discord server to participate in the tour!

m4a auction (m4auction) commencement thread! @Announcements @Roomtours @m4auction entrant Hi! Bolivia here with a massive, extremely cool announcement that I'm sure you guys are going to enjoy. This is the commencement thread for the fall team tournament to contrast with the spring team tournament, m4apl, m4a auction, or m4auction for short. There is a lot of ground to cover, so let's start with a cursory refresher on the team tournament format. In a tournament format, you battle by yourself in 1on1 matches, where the winner moves forward. In a team tournament format, however, you are a member of a team, and each battle pits members of one's team against the other team in which the team with the majority of wins is crowned the victor. Contrary to a solo tour, a team tournament builds camaraderie as players cheer on their teammates. The flipside is that team tournaments are more difficult to schedule and host, which adds a layer of prestige to the tournaments that makes them, to me, incredibly enjoyable (think the olympics being a real life team tournament where you bring pride to your team/country in addition to winning yourself). As if it couldn't get better, m4apl, the most recent m4a team tournament, might be my best memory related to Pokemon as a whole. From the dense lore to the hype moments to the incredible internet team bonds formed, I had a blast, which is why I am so excited to bring you m4auction. Next, let's go over main difference between m4apl and m4auction. The most pressing change is, as the name implies, the auction format. Contrary to the blind snake draft format that m4apl had, the auction will allow managers to have more autonomy when selecting players. In an auction format, the manager's pick is not a pick, but a nomination. A manager can nominate any player of the remaining players that signed up to bid on, and all other managers can bid on that players.



Managers start with a set amount of money, and must fill the 6 other spots and 2 substitutes on their team in that amount, which makes for a total of 4 teams and 9 players per team. Something I have to make very clear here is that, in this format, if we have more than 32 players sign up, not everyone is going to be nominated. Due to this, we ask that you sign up at your own discretion. If you cannot handle not being picked in a non-toxic way, it may not be the right tournament for you. We wanted to be able to include as many people as possible without making the tournament too cumbersome, and this is what we thought was best. Anyway, I'm sure you guys want to know about teams and managers (discord servers will be provided as the managers make them), so let's get onto that! Your teams are as follows:
The Accumula Aggrons, coached by ViZar https://discord.gg/SdrtbzcrBz
The Driftveil Diggersbys, coached by STICKY FINGAA https://discord.gg/TEm5Fg4t
The Pacifidlog Palkias, coached by Paulluxx https://discord.gg/Cq743XMK9e
The Twinleaf Taillows, coached by IsoCon https://discord.gg/sQxNBxvr
These 4 teams will be battling it out over the course of 6 weeks, where the top 2 teams will face off at that time for the championship. But it's not just any championship...no, this time around, there's a prize for the winner. That's right! A special role, in a pristine, golden color, that will be yours to keep forever. I want to figure out another prize that might be more fruitful. I could chip in and get a winner 1 month nitro but I couldn't do that for 8-9 people, so we'll brainstorm a prize but it's TBD for now. Anyway, the 4 managers all have been putting in some substantial work over the past couple of months, and I want to specifically highlight Sticky here, since he's not on comp council. Sticky has been on an absolute tear in tournaments, and is a valued member of our community. We really appreciate his hard work!


Here are the tiers, with quick explanations of each! bo3 M4a singles bo3 M4a VGC Tour M4a monotype bo1 Report Card Mega smash bros br-all Generations RR Dittos 2 substitutes m4a singles bo3 - self explanatory m4a VGC tour - This time, VGC will operate on a "tour" basis. 3 tiers, standard VGC, 1 restricted uber VGC, and monotype VGC will be prepared for and potentially played every week. Game 1 between opponents will be standard VGC, and then the loser of game 1 will pick one of the other 2 formats to play for game 2. If the loser then wins, game 3 will be played in the unpicked format. M4a monotype - self explanatory Report Card - Okay so report card is going to need some dedicated resources but I can explain the format right now. In Report Card, each player will give its opponents 3 m4a megas to choose from, an A grade mega, B grade mega, and C grade mega, ranked in terms of viability. The opponent will have to bring one of the megas on the report card. Once you put a mega on someone else's report card, you can never give it to another opponent for the rest of the tournament. Super Smash Bros Br-all - In this format, every week, two very bizarre, unused-in-OU sets of similar viability will be given to the players in a "versus" type situation. Take, for example, https://pokepast.es/04124753d71e0f90. For Trapville, the players will have to build a team with either Dr. Greg or Your Nightmares, although they can choose which they prefer. These weird sets will through in an extra level of fun to battles each week. Generations - Generations is similar to m4a singles, but with one small restriction. Every week, players will be forced into a generation. Week 1 will be megas in slates 1-12, week 2 slates 13-24, and week 3 will be slates 25-current. Should be fun! RR Dittos - RR dittos takes the regional roundup form and applies it to dittos. Week 1, both players must bring a full Kanto team. Week 2, a full Johto team. ETC (the finals will be Alola).




And now, finally logistics! Soon, I will open up a place where you can sign up for this tournament. In order to sign up, we need the following information: - Your discord username - Your showdown username - Your preferred pronouns (yes, we have roles for those, but helpful to have nonetheless ) - Your timezone (this is extremely important for scheduling games with opponents) - Your preferred tiers (you will not be allowed to start in tiers you do not put down here unless you are substituted for another player midway through the week. You can specify preferences by saying "all, but prefer...") - Copy pasting the phrase "I promise to be a positive contributor to the mod and tournament throughout its entire duration!" Once we get at least 32 signups, we'll have a deadline for sending in signups, but right now, we are planning the auction for September 26th, at a time currently TBD that works for the 4 managers, but September 26th. That should be everything to cover, but I'll be around to ask questions. I'm simultaneously hosting the tour and signing up to be a player, but I have proven myself to be impartial and will have the non-affiliated council and competitive council help determine things to remain as impartial as possible. Thanks so much, I'm so excited to get started for the tour!


and, btw, shoutouts to Ink for saving me from posting the embarrassing art I made for this originally with his INCREDIBLE art :P

 

[BlueRay]

New Poll on Balance Changes

Hello!

I'm here with another poll on balance changes. This time, it's about Mega Aurorus, Mega Trevenant, Mega Rillaboom, Mega Boltund, and Mega Jolteon. To participate in the poll, you need to log in your Google account. Here, the [ Link ].
Below, you'll find descriptions to each Mega Pokémon.

Spoiler

Mega Aurorus has a niche as a slow (supplementary) Hail setter in Singles that can override an opponent's weather and generate momentum through Volt Switch. Since it's so slow, it can most likely bring in safely a Pokémon into the battle. Another good quality about Mega Aurorus is the fact that, thanks to its ability, team members like Volcarona or Cinderace are not required to run Heavy Duty Boots. So, there's room to run a Z-Move, for instance, thereby making the abilty's abusers much more potent.

However, while being slow can be good for pivoting purposes, Mega Aurorus's typing makes it vulnerable to strong moves, especially after Stealth Rock since it has to mega-evolve first. Furthermore, if it has to reset Diamond Dust, it will take damage from Stealth Rock first.

To help out Mega Aurorus, we were thinking of adding Parabolic Charge to it which allows it to have a decent and unexplored recovery option--one that likely wouldn't make it busted since it's relatively weak to begin with and doesn't recover as much as Draining Kiss does (50 % vs 75%!). Moreover, Parabolic Charge would add another role to Mega Aurorus. Aside from being an offensive, bulky pivot, it can also become a set up attacker, similar to Tapu Fini.

Spoiler

Recently, some people have been testing Mega Jolteon. They came to realize that Calm Mind on Mega Jolteon makes it very difficult to deal with, especially when you consider its high speed (base 150) and SpA (base 160), coupled with its ability and typing. After all, the threat of a Charge boosted Electric move can force opponents to rethink their moves, and allow Mega Jolteon to set-up with Calm Mind, making it even more difficult to force out through fast offensive Pokémon or to beat it on the special side. Remember that the Charge like ability can grant you a SpD boost!

While good Electric answers are required on every teams due to threats like Tapu Koko, Mega Jolteon can muscle through its checks like Amoonguss and Tangrowth and make Pokémon like Nidoqueen and Hippowdon afraid of switching into it due to a potential 2HKO. Therefore, we think Calm Mind should be removed from Mega Jolteon.

Spoiler

Quickly after the recent balance changes, people have tried out Mega Trevenant and deemed it exceptionally powerful and restricting on the teambuilder, leaving niche options like Mandibuzz, Galarian Moltres or Indeedee as one of the very few able to check or wall it effectively. Triage with Drain Punch and STAB Horn Leech discourage many Dark Pokémon and threats like Heatran from switching into Mega Trevenant, and force the opponent to be very careful with HP management on their Pokémon. There's a lot of excessive pressure on the opponent, especially when you consider Mega Trevenant's decent speed and power as a breaker since boosted Poltergeist can pressure Flying Pokémon like Corviknight or Zapdos very well.

We believe removing Bulk Up and giving back Mega Trevenant its original stats "85 HP | 120 ATK | 91 Def | 90 SpA | 112 SpD | 76 Spe" would be a first step to making it less restrictive. If it turns out to be too much of a nerf, we will try to find a better solution.

Spoiler

As for Mega Rillaboom, despite the nerf it received to its stats, it has still shown to be a very threatening Pokémon that requires multiple checks to deal with it. After all, its terrain cannot be overriden in an easy and common way, therefore forcing opponents to deal with boosted Grassy Glide. Furthermore, due to its excellent bulk (100 / 110 / 110), Mega Rillaboom has good chances to set up with Swords Dance multiple times and recover HP through Drain Punch and switching out, making it very difficult for an opponent to deal with it. As a result, we believe Mega Rillaboom should be banned to Ubers.

Spoiler

Currently, Mega Boltund faces a lot of competition from Mega Raichu and, to a lesser extent, Mega Luxray. Mega Raichu and Mega Luxray both have access to powerful Fighting moves in High Jump Kick and Superpower respectively, thereby allowing them to muscle through defensive Pokémon like Blissey or Mega Empoleon. Moreover, the combination of their stats, ability, and movepool makes it much easier for them to deal with 4 x weak Ice Pokémon like Landorus-T and Gliscor whereas Mega Boltund gets checked by them very well.

Therefore, the addition of Dazzling Gleam to Mega Boltund's movepool would be a good way to give it some edge over the aforementioned Electric Pokémon without making it too busted. Not only can Mega Boltund avoid abilities and items punishing contact moves from the likes of Buzzwole, Ferrothorn, Garchomp or Landorus-T, it can also take further advantage of its pre-ability Competitive, punishing Defog, Parting Shot, and Intimidate users in particular.

Moreover, in the context of VGC, Mega Boltund might actually prefer mostly if not only special moves due to Intimidate / Electroweb / Icy Wind / Parting Shot being everywhere. The ability to hit two targets rather than one would be in favour of Boltund as it makes up for its fragility. Something like Dazzling Gleam / Protect / Rising Voltage / Volt Switch could be a great starting point for Mega Boltund. The synergy between its ability, Discharge, and Oranguru's Instruct also looks very neat, as suggested by the incredible and creative Ink!

 

[BlueRay]

Hello!

(Depending on how fast you are, you might spend 30-60 minutes on this post.)

Following the recent M4A VGC 15 Ban tournament, which took place on August 28, I decided to work on another report, detailing players' experiences and impressions during the special event. The theme of this tournament was proposed by SimpyShrimp, then voted for by the community in the hope of a more fun and diverse metagame where 15 staples are banned.

List of banned Pokémon

01) Mega Slowking
02) Mega Dhelmise
03) Tapu Fini
04) Incineroar
05) Amoonguss

06) Mega Rillaboom and Rillaboom
07) Urshifu-Single-Strike + Urshifu-Rapid-Strike
08) Spectrier
09) Glastrier
10) Regieleki

11) Mega Registeel and Registeel
12) Mega Orbeetle
13) Landorus-T
14) Mega Alolan Ninetales
15) Galarian Moltres

Canon Mega Pokémon like Mega Mawile were also added to the banlist to further encourage the use of M4A's custom Mega Pokémon, learning more about them in the process. For a more interesting tournament experience, the community voiced their desire for an open team sheet, meaning every participant could look up relevant information about an opponent's team, with only EVs, IVs, and Nature being excluded. As a result, players were incentivized to build consistent teams rather than relying on surprising elements. Moreover, to a pleasant surprise, the setting of this tournament created a beginner-friendly environment where people would joke around, cheer for the players, praise each other, and even provide helpful comments on their game plans. So, there was a lot less pressure on players and more emphasis on having a fun time! Some participants even go so far as to say that, with renewed interest, they would happily join more M4A VGC tournaments in the near future.

As for the M4A VGC 15 Ban tournament itself, it certainly lived up to its promise of a more diverse and interesting metagame! During the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament, Hail didn't see any play at all. Although there was Mega Aurorus, it didn't have any viable Hail abusers and was rather used as a bulky, devastating set-up sweeper. This time, however, Hail had a strong presence in the M4A VGC 15 Ban event, with player ry even leading it to its second place! Initially, the pairing of Mega Hawlucha, Alolan Ninetales, and Arctozolt didn't prove very effective in the testing phase due to their fragility but, in the end, it turned out Mega Aurorus was more adept at supporting the archetype; in fact, it forewent its traditional set-up set in favour of a more interactive and reactive one: Volt Switch and Aurora Veil. The former allowed it to reset Diamond Dust, which is a Hail variant nullifying Rock damage and causing no residual chip damage; the latter, on the other hand, provided a team with the necessary bulk to stay relatively long on the field and launch powerful attacks from Hail abusers like Arctozolt and Arctovish. Furthermore, due to its high Special Attack stat (131) and excellent offensive dual typing (Electric | Ice), Mega Aurorus was powerful itself and could put a lot of presssure on the opponent, especially with its excellent bulk that made it very challenging for them to get a 2HKO on it, let alone an OHKO. For instance, Kingdra's Hydro Vortex merely did between 45.9-49.9% to Mega Aurorus in the game between pitterpatter5786 / Nani and BlazingHero657 / Superior Serperior! Despite its generally low usage in all the M4A VGC tournaments, Mega Aurorus showed it was not a Pokémon to be trifled with, and hence worthy of its A rank. Perhaps, more people will start using Mega Aurorus in the near future!

Another Pokémon that showed a convincing result was Gothitelle. Like Mega Aurorus, Gothitelle didn't see much play in M4A VGC tournaments in general, which could be explained by the abundance of very powerful and centralizing Dark and Ghost Pokémon, such as Incineroar, Galarian Moltres, Urshifu-Single-Strike, Grimmsnarl, Spectrier, and Mega Dhelmise. Fortunately enough, the M4A VGC 15 Ban metagame allowed Gothitelle more room to breathe since there were significantly less of its natural enemies to take care of. This limitation led to a succcesful exploration of Mega Gothitelle as a Psychic Terrain abuser during the testing phase. Between Nasty Plot and its pre-ability Competitive, Mega Gothitelle could exert a lot of pressure with Expanding Force. It even had great bulk and a good dual typing (Psychic | Steel) to deal with Tapu Lele, Indeedee, and Mega Reuniclus that were expected to make big waves in the upcoming event.

While Mega Gothitelle didn't make an appearance in the M4A VGC 15 Ban tournament, its regular form certainly did. It was used by BlazingHero657 / Superior Serperior on a Rain team, featuring Mega Walrein. Shadow Tag could punish players from chosing the wrong lead as there was no easy escape from Mega Walrein's merciless onslaught. Furthermore, Gothitelle provided Fake Out support and Trick Room support, making it even more difficult for opponents to make progress against the duo. The inclusion of Jellicent was a clever one to take good advantage of Mega Walrein's Drizzle, launch powerful Water Spout, and switch into Fighting moves that would trouble Mega Walrein otherwise. It likely wouldn't come as a surprise then to see a rise in Gothitelle and Jellicent's usage on semi Rain Trick Room teams, thereby adding more diversity and depth to this archetype; after all, it does have Mega Empoleon, Mega Swampert, and Mega Dhelmise as potential candidates to be paired with as well.

Indigo's / ASnomPlaysShowdown's discovery of and mastery over Mega Cacturne was another highlight of the tournament and instrumental in a lot of matchups, even leading to his victory in the finals. Mega Cacturne was one of the few Mega Pokémon that hadn't been tested prior the M4A VGC 15 Ban tournament and outside of the testing phase, if at all. What made Mega Cacturne particularly effective were its great bulk and ability with which it could force out or take out weakened Pokémon. It didn't matter whether the opponent set up Tailwind, Trick Room, or Psychic Terrain because, so long as opposing Pokémon had 50% HP left or less, Mega Cacturne would be usually able to strike first, thus making sure opponents couldn't do much progress against the user. If Mega Cacturne's HP was at 50% or less, it could even trigger a fast Destiny Bond to punish opponents. Against this background, Mega Cacturne created a lot of interesting interactions between opposing Pokémon and itself, further adding lots of mindgames to a match. Between Tapu Koko's Nature's Madness and Choice Spec Tapu Lele, Indigo could pull off Mega Cacturne's Coup de Grass with ease, demonstrating that it doesn't need too much support to function as a lategame cleaner. It looks like Mega Cacturne has a bright career in the M4A VGC metagame since its partners can support it much easier than in Singles!

Mega Cacturne wasn't the only new discovery; in fact, Mega Lycanroc-Day too could show its potential during the M4A VGC 15 Ban tournament thanks to Hematite / H2OPulse. The influx of Tapu Lele and Indeedee-F meant little to Mega Lycanroc-Day as its ability Down-to-Earth suppressed terrain effects, thereby allowing the player to use powerful priority moves like Extreme Speed to take out weakened Pokémon. What's more, Mega Lycanroc-Day could even support Kommo-o in case someone were to set up Misty Terrain through Galarian Weezing, for instance. That is because Kommo's Dragon moves would become significantly weaker in Misty Terrain if it weren't blocked.
There's also another advantage of Down-to-Earth; you no longer have to fear a priority move from Grassy Glide in Grassy Terrain and could spam Earthquake without worrying about a damage reduction! These qualities might just be enough to ensure Mega Lycanroc-Day's place in the ever-changing M4A VGC metagame.

Strategy wise, there's a lot to address in this paragraph. According to the participants, Sticky Fingaa and Ink had the most interesting teams. Sticky Fingaa's team mainly relied on setting up with either Kommo-o or Volcarona. To do that, he had Whimsicott to set up Tailwind and reduce offensive pressure through Memento. There was also Tapu Koko which provided Screen support and further speed control. Lastly, Golduck could suppress weather forms so that Swift Swim users, Slush Rush users, and Sand Rush users couldn't outspeed his team. What's more, Golduck could activate Volcarona's Weakness Policy through Aqua Jet and was able to multiply stat boosts with Simple Beam. If one wasn't fast enough to make progress against this team, Sticky Fingaa could quickly blast his way through victory.

As for Ink / Inkbug1, he had a very elegant and synergystic team. Mega Toxtricity-Amp's ability Acid Rock poisons every Pokémon on the field, except for Poison and Steel Pokémon. Ink's Obstagoon could take good advantage of this ability as it had Guts and Facade to increase its offensive power. Then, there was Celesteela which didn't care about Poison at all thanks to its Steel type and provided a safe switch-in against Psychic Pokémon and Ground Pokémon for Mega Toxtricity-Amp. With Meteor Beam and Poison, Celesteela didn't have to worry about Focus Sash and could acccumulate boosts every time it took down a Pokémon. If this combination wasn't already enough, Ink had the great idea to pair Malamar with (Mega) Falinks and Obstagoon. Brutal Swing and Contrary ensured that, if one of its partners used King's Shield or Obstruct, Malamar would receive a stat boost! That was such a beautiful display of teambuilding and strategy, and it came to no surprise participants were pleasantly surprised and overjoyed to see his ideas coming to fruition!

Last but not least, I want to point out the beauty of Hematite's team. As you might have already gathered from the report on Mega Lycanroc-Day, this Pokémon worked well with Kommo-o to ensure its partner's Dragon moves could make the most out of Down-to-Earth. This isn't where Lycanroc-Day's usefullness would end, though; in fact, it could apply offensive pressure alongside Mega Flygon as Desert Gale activated Lycanroc-Day's pre-ability Sand Rush and increased the damage output of Steel, Rock, and Ground moves. So, opponents weren't always sure when Hematite would mega evolve his Pokémon and which one of them would be the Mega Pokémon of a match, thereby creating mindgames. These mindgames were further increased by Extreme Speed from Lycanroc-Day and Arcanine as well as Fake Out from Sableye which would all turn into a Ground move and be boosted by Desert Gale. If a player wasn't careful enough, they could get easily surprised and pay for it!

At this point, I want to draw attention to some players. LordThemberchaud deserves an honorable mention for using Mega Toucannon. While it is severly outclassed by Mega Charizard-Y due to the higher damage output from Drought, its pairing with Heatran made me realize that it could have a small niche in supporting Fire Pokémon. After all, thanks to Ignite, Boomburst is turned into a Fire move, which, in turn, can activate Flash Fire to increase the damage output of its partner's Fire moves. Mega Toucannon even has the perfect dual typing to stay on the field in the face of Ground and Fighting Pokémon, which scare Heatran. While LordThemberchaud didn't use it, Coalossal is another potential partner for Mega Toucannon as its profits from the same qualities this Flying Pokémon offers to Heatran. Instead of a boost to Fire moves, Coalossal can maximize its Speed through a combination of Steam Engine and Mega Toucannon's Boomburst. Since Mega Toucannon struggles a lot in Singles due to its middling speed tier and tough competition from other Fire and Flying Pokémon, perhaps, it is possible to change Mega Toucannon's stats and add moves to make it more suited for its niche in M4A VGC.

Eeveekid is another person I want to highlight. Although Mega Luxray isn't exactly new in the M4A VGC metagame as Indigo has already proven it a few times in past tournaments, the addition of Volt Switch, however, is a new and intriguing development. As a reminder, Mega Luxray's Ambush will always do critical damage to targets if it manages to attack them before they do. With good speed control, Mega Luxray can become a very threatening attacker that doesn't care much about Intimidate. Due to its immense offensive pressure, it is very good at forcing out Pokémon. With Volt Switch, Mega Luxray can capitalize on switch-ins and generate momentum. In doing so, Mega Luxray can quickly wear down opposing Pokémon. I imagine there's some potential with Discharge if you want to hit several Pokémon!

This tournament was a huge success. 12 people participated in the event and managed to create such a warm and entertaining environment everyone felt welcome and at ease. Moreover, it brought to light Mega Pokémon that were unexplored before, like Mega Cacturne, Mega Toucannon, and Mega Lycanroc-Day. On top of that, it added more depths to already known Pokémon, such as Mega Aurorus functioning as an offensive support Pokémon or Mega Luxray applying further pressure through Volt Switch.
That said, I'm very grateful to all the participants for this experience and am looking forward to more M4A VGC tournaments! Below, you'll find an interview with all the players, the open team sheet, and a link to all the replays of the event.

Interview

Indigo

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I did it cause I find VGC fun, and to see the interesting sets people could make.


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
It honestly stayed pretty similar to my standard teambuilding experience. I discovered Naganadel might be viable, and so tried to build around that. My first draft was a Mega Corviknight team with Suicune, Cinderace and Landorus-I, as well as Naganadel. It honestly sucked, and was way too passive. So I built a second team with a Mega Samurott and its standard partner in Comfey (which gives it priority health control and non-priority speed control), plus sand and Assault Vest Tapu Bulu. It was a solid team, but it wasn't as... dynamic as my usual teams were. I probably didn't test it enough.

Then Blue gave a joke suggestion for the first team with Naganadel by replacing Corviknight with Dragalge. I tried it out with the new TR setter of Gigalith, and it worked surprisingly well even with the double types. I replaced the rest of the mons, and out came the final first team. I was planning to use that, but a few of blue's testing games got me thinking about Tapu Lele. I was originally not going to use this team for the tourney, so I paired Tapu Lele with Regieleki, on the grounds that with priority blocked from Tapu Lele's Psychic terrain, and ignoring Trick Room, Regieleki would be guranteed to move first, and then Regieleki could lower the speed of opposing Pokémon with Electroweb for Choice Specs Tapu Lele to deal damage.

I still couldn't decide the mega, but after analyzing the mega list on drive, I reread Cacturne's ability. The wording, plus my prior experience with gimmick strats, made me realize that it activated like a custap berry, not as increased priority like quick attack, and therefore isn't stopped by Psychic terrain. So my new basis became that under psychic terrain, Cacturne is guaranteed to move first even against Choice Scarf Speed boost Ninjask. I added Garchomp to experiment, and cause I was looking at XY worlds and felt inspired by all the garchomps there.

My last 2 picks were mons that couldn't be hit by Garchomp's Earthquake. Outside of the M4A VGC 15 Ban tournament, Celesteela had Wide Guard for the likes of Galarian Moltres and Mega Empoleon and [was neutral to] Ice, while Galarian Zapdos punished Intimidate and speed drops, as well as dealing big damage to key targets like Amoonguss, Mega Aurorus and Mega Walrein. Then I realized that, after a few testing matches, I actually wanted to use this team for the tour. I replaced Regieleki with Tapu Koko, and blue suggested Nature's Madness, which really synergizes with Mega Cacturne's ability (I learned it can activate in the middle of the turn too). Rest is History.


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
Honestly, yeah I would like to see it more often. Probably not in M4Auction, but in other standard vgc tours. It rewards consistent building, and separates the good gimmicks from the bad (If it can work consistently without the element of surprise it may be worth looking deeper into as a viable strategy). Plus, the biggest reason why I wanted it is to be able to watch each other's matches without it counting as scouting. It's really fun conversing with the participants and watching their matches live compared to on a replay.


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I had loads of fun (aside from going to bed at 4 in the morning)! I loved everyone's teams and the interest everyone had in VGC. I saw a few rising stars, such as ry, who get to Finals with one of the most solid teams in the tour. I honestly expected MUCH more Trick Room, as Megas like Reuniclus were still allowed, and Mega Gigalith just got its buff. I'm not complaining about how it went though!


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
Aside from the open team sheet, there's not really much I'd want to include. [Blue and I] are already working on a guide for new players, so stay tuned for that!

Eeveekid

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
15 Ban has the same thing with Kalos Cup, You dont have access to Mega Dhelmise, Incineroar, and Landorus-T etc. threats, but with new creativity via the expanded dex


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
It wasnt really difficult, I made a Mega Luxray Tailwiind offense, which was made in like 2 minutes, and has a lot of flaws, but yeah, if I would have given it significantly more time, it would have been a significantly better team


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
That was really epic and I like the idea, I would love to see it in the next tournaments and events


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I had a lot of fun in seeing indigo vs hematite, jake vs serp etc., It was like the most fun thing I had in a while


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
m4a vgc restricted????
[Author's comment: What she means by M4A VGC Restricted is the use of one Uber legendary Pokémon, such as Calyrex-Shadow-Rider or Zacian.]

Hematite

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I've actually been meaning to get into M4A VGC for a super long time! But I am not an especially confident teambuilder in general (and usually just stick to what I feel works once I have a team I like), and that's usually my biggest obstacle to getting into a new format - I'm always just a liiittle bit paralyzed by all of the options and not knowing where to start Part of why I started this time was actually because ink was doing it; I knew he'd been wanting to get into the format together, so he encouraged me and reminded me a few times that it was coming up in the hopes that I would join him anddd I will confess that I still almost didn't end up coming through :'D but literally the night before, I had an idea for a team concept that sounded fun and decided there was really no better time to try it out and I would just regret it later if I didn't take the leap, especially since some other aspects of the tournament (like the open team sheet) appealed to me as a beginner and since I was pretty sure my team idea wouldn't work so well if I had to worry about some of the banned Pokémon anyway


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
The teambuilding process itself is almost always hard for me no matter the format, and having to build a new team was definitely my biggest perceived obstacle to getting into VGC in the first place; even when this tournament came up, I started out with a pretty big list of Pokémon I wanted to try using for the first time, but I was having a hard time fitting them together in a synergistic or interesting way and wasn't really satisfied with anything I put together. The thing that made the biggest difference for me by far was being able to go in with a clear idea for the trajectory of the team from the start - not just "I could use any of these Pokémon and I bet they'd all be fun," but "I want to try this specific combination of Pokémon, because I think they would be cool together and I haven't seen anyone else pairing them up" - and being able to build around making it work (I'm actually really proud of where my team ended up, so I'm super happy I went for it! A couple of people commented on how synergistic it was throughout the tournament and I think I got more people to consider using Mega Lycanroc in VGC after showing its potential, so I think it was a success and I fulfilled the concept I was going for after all .w.)

This is probably a longer breakdown of my thought process than I was supposed to give, so I'll spoiler it, but here is a look into how I went into this as pretty much a first-time builder for the format!

Spoiler

In this case, my starting point was wanting to run Mega Flygon and Mega Lycanroc-Midday on the same team, which excited me for a few reasons. In part, I thought they could pair well with similar Pokémon, since Flygon enabled sand abusers and I initially thought Mega Lycanroc would appreciate being run alongside a sand setter as well; I actually planned at first on committing to full sand, and earlier iterations of the team also had a Dracovish and a backup Tyranitar for when I wasn't using Flygon as my Mega, so I expected to be using Sand Rush more interchangeably with Down-to-Earth than I ultimately did, and the Special Defense buff from Tyranitar would have been appreciated as well
I don't think my opponents this until after the tour, but my Lycanroc was not Speed-invested at all, haha
More importantly, though, I was especially interested in the idea that I could bring along my Lycanroc-Midday, with the same set between its Mega form and its base form, and have it function perfectly well alongside Mega Flygon and even benefit from its support, adding a lot more flexibility to my team than if the two Mega Evolutions were mutually exclusive team members; Lycanroc had Protect to let Flygon use Boomburst with abandon, but having Sand Rush also let it get away without the Mega's Speed buff, its two attacking moves (Extreme Speed and Rock Slide) both benefited directly from Desert Gales to make up for its lack of a held item, and it could even pair its Rock Slide with Flygon's Rock Slide as a disruptive strategy when an opponent was relying on hitting both of their attacks. I actually didn't get to pull this off as often as I expected in the tournament, in part because Lycanroc was my Mega for most of my matches anyway. Down-to-Earth is clutch against teams that rely on Psychic Terrain, so it was super nice to have with all of the Indeedee and Tapu Lele I faced, but I played a number of games against Paul later in the day and I think I got to utilize it more against him, which was nice! It definitely felt like it was an option that benefited the team even if not something that came up every time I brought Flygon. Side note: all things considered, I was actually really surprised not to see other people running more than one Mega on their teams! Ten of the other players - everyone but ink and me - committed to one specific Mega from the start, which... actually had never crossed my mind because the bring-six-pick-four format of VGC made it feel so natural to have multiple team modes and prepare more than one Mega as an option; seems like that's rarer than I thought? O:

With that starting concept in mind, I tried doing research in a couple of places to figure out my options - including an article on sand teams in VGC, which is what inspired me to use Galarian Zapdos and gave me a better idea of the threats I should expect to handle (even though mine wasn't ultimately much like a sand team at all, this was something that proved handy and Zapdos paired very well with Flygon and my other teammates regardless, so I was happy I started with this focus!) I also added Kommo-o to the team, in part because Soundproof paired well with Flygon's Boomburst and in part because it was a Pokémon I've used in doubles before in-game in the Battle Tree and I felt particularly comfortable with using it; I was not even close to the only person who brought Kommo-o for this tournament and it is really not difficult to see why :'D

Incidentally, it wasn't relevant here because Tapu Fini is banned, but Flygon isn't the only Mega that supports Kommo-o! Lycanroc's Down-to-Earth prevents Misty Terrain from weakening Clangorous Soulblaze and Clanging Scales, so the omnipresence of Tapu Fini, which normally holds Kommo-o back, can be mitigated in this team's case - the way it pairs with both potential Megas instead of just one was another reason I was happy to bring it along C: Later in the process, I started trying to think of how my chosen Pokémon supported each other and what I would probably be doing whenever any two of them were on the field together; this is also the point when I ironed out a lot of important details, like... - Which support Pokémon I wanted most! I went with Sableye in the end, but I had some interest in Meowstic and Oranguru early on as well; I decided against Oranguru because my team wasn't using Trick Room itself (I had kind of wondered if a slow Instruct user would have been effective to help with opposing Trick Room, but Oranguru isn't as slow as the main threats on TR anyway and it wouldn't have made my team act any sooner!), but I tentatively chose Sableye over Meowstic much later because it turned out either one could use the movepool I had chosen (Meowstic's main distinguishing factor would have been screens) and Sableye's defensive type looked more appealing at the time (actually, this is something I'm reconsidering after the tournament! My team had a lot of Fairy weaknesses and that definitely caused me some trouble, so I wonder if Meowstic could have helped?)

- Whether I really wanted to use sand at all!
I gradually moved away from sand as I realized how few of the Pokémon I had chosen to use it would actually help and how little that support mattered to them.
Like I mentioned, I had started out planning to use a Tyranitar for when I couldn't bring Flygon, but I ultimately felt it wasn't adding as much to the team as it was demanding from the other members, and I think this particular build turned out better without it! Mostly, I had noticed that some of the supportive options I was considering early on were almost entirely for Tyranitar's benefit, while I wasn't making as much use lf Sand Rush as I planned early on; I also didn't like the way it made Flygon weaker rather than stronger if I was ever forced to bring them together, and Kommo-o couldn't run both Overcoat and Soundproof at the same time, so Sand Stream's chip would be hurting several of my own teammates as well Plus, my team didn't really need any more physically offensive attackers, and it wasn't quite slow enough to help with the Trick Room matchup anyway although this is a matchup I would have liked to be easier in hindsight - I didn't realize how easily Tsareena's Queenly Majesty and one Mental Herb could completely undermine all of my contingency plans! Cutting out Tyranitar was what allowed me to bring other Pokémon that had much more unique and mutually beneficial interactions with the rest of the team overall, so this isn't a choice I regretted! Tyranitar still definitely looks appealing in VGC, but I'm glad I thought this through and decided not to put it on this team

Spoiler

- What particular holes I could prioritize filling with my last team slot!
Arcanine was actually the last Pokémon I added to the team which sounds nuts considering how important Intimidate is to VGC in general, but not having Incineroar or Landorus-T in the format really changed how I regarded this! because Intimidate, Snarl, a Fairy resistance and Fire coverage were all assets my team could use, while Extreme Speed gave me another potential beneficiary of Desert Gales for when Lycanroc couldn't be the one to exploit it (that actually came in handy a lot! Arcanine wasn't in all of my matches, but it was selected for most of the ones when I brought Flygon and I really liked having it) - All of the specific moves I would want to run, to avoid being caught in awkward situations with Pokémon that couldn't work together! Among other things... at this stage, I actually thought my Flygon would be a specially biased attacker with Extreme Speed and Heat Wave bringing Arcanine along really helped to lighten its load and allow me more flexibility!; it was only when I thought about what moves best supported the team, like Iron Head to help against Fairy-types and Rock Slide for its disruptive potential, that I decided on a bulky mixed support set instead, leaving Boomburst as its only special move (Boomburst was almost as strong as Earthquake even without diverting offensive investment, and it wasn't vulnerable to Intimidate, burns or Grassy Surge, while it sounded helpful to have a special move since all of my other Desert Gales users were physical) Tailwind vs U-turn was another choice I debated a lot with Flygon, and... well, actually, I think I could safely drop Iron Head to fit both of them? XP U-turn definitely might have come in handy in hindsight (especially against opposing weather teams, one of which gave me my second loss in the tournament and eliminated me!)

I also thought Kommo-o would be mixed because that's how I run it in singles, but I think a Modest special set worked better in the end! Once I had my team and their moves decided, their items were mostly pretty obvious (the choice that took the most thought relatively speaking was Band vs Scarf on Zapdos, but I chose Band pretty quickly because I had priority on three other Pokémon, and that was definitely the right choice as I found myself leaning more and more on Zapdos later in the tournament!), but EVs made me nervous because I didn't know the relevant Speed tiers very well and it was getting really late and the tournament was in the morning, so I couldn't afford to do much research, so I went mostly with the basic 252/252/4 spreads I'm used to from singles, haha I also ran 4 Speed EVs on Arcanine solely to creep other Arcanine because I thought they were supposed to be common in formats without Incineroar haha nope I think I brought the only Arcanine - but hey, checking VGC resources on Arcanine did help me decide on a bulk spread, since I learned both that its HP should be divisible by 4 to help it eat its Figy Berry (that's the opposite of what you want in singles!) and that Special Defense should be favored because of Intimidate and the more prominent Fairy moves!

The only other particularly interesting choice was to run 0 Speed and Adamant on Lycanroc, which already had a very strong move with +2 priority, pre-Mega Sand Rush if I were using it with Flygon, and did not fear Psychic Terrain, so it would almost never be in a situation where it was struggling to go first and its base Speed would carry it more than far enough actually, I briefly considered using my own Zapdos as a reference for Jolly base 100s in VGC, but I thought it might be nicer to be able to go second sometimes because of Thunderous Kick... uh, that part literally never paid off and was a pointless choice in hindsight, but at least it also didn't come back to bite me? :'D Pretty much as soon as I figured out my EVs and finished the team, I sent it straight to BlueRay and then went to sleep so I could be ready in the morning, but he was kind enough to give some final feedback on move choices and to give me the time to respond to it - and I'm really glad he did, because that final input paid off in a number of cases and there wasn't a single time when I wished I had the moves I replaced!

3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
I really liked having this, myself - it was definitely one of the biggest factors that made me want this to be my first VGC venture, to be honest :'D In part, I guess that's because I didn't really know what to expect going in? As a total beginner who's not all that familiar with standard VGC sets or their structures (like, when you play singles enough, you start to intuit what your opponents will be running, but I don't have that same kind of intuition yet for doubles), this was a really big help in learning the format and making more educated plays throughout the tournament, and definitely the number one reason I was able to adapt quickly to the format

This is going to sound like a silly comparison, but another reason I felt so comfortable with this resource at hand is because, while I had absolutely no prior VGC experience, the closest I've come to playing it before was the in-game Battle Tree in SM and USUM; there are a lot of obvious differences between that and real VGC against human players, but one of the things that helped me the most in the later stages of that and getting to defeat Blue was the same concept of being able to look up the NPCs' sets and make more specific plans around their potential moves, so that gave me a lot more confidence XP

I'm sure I'll eventually be at a point of not needing that kind of resource, but this really did help a ton as a beginner - when you don't have the format experience to know what to expect from a particular Pokémon, it can be hard to find your footing early on, but this made me feel like my losses were because of my own choices in the moment (rather than because of some insurmountable skill gap or external disadvantage), gave me opportunities to try more skillful plays myself and feel like I could keep up with the other players, and went a long way towards building confidence early and getting invested in the tournament I can definitely understand why someone might be against this in a more serious tournament between already-skilled players, but at least for a more casual tournament like this one that's supposed to get new players interested, I felt that this went a super long way in creating a beginner-friendly learning environment and being welcoming to people with less experience in VGC; I really appreciated that, and it contributed to pushing me to try VGC and get over my perceived barrier to entry FWIW, I really liked this experience and I'm definitely planning to be more active in the VGC community from now on!


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I had so much fun in this tournament and I am incredibly happy I participated!!! Since I am not at all an experienced VGC player, I didn't really expect to do too well (actually, I was kind of shocked when I won even my first set, especially since I felt I had underprepared for the matchup - I'm kind of proud to have won more sets than I lost even if I wasn't a top-ranking player!), and one thing that made me feel better going into the tournament was that it was double-elimination on top of the traditional best-of-three format of VGC sets It was really nice to be able to play even two more sets after losing one for the first time, and some of the most exciting moments in general happened in loser's bracket matches (not to mention that it meant everyone getting an incredible 52 games across the tournament! I've been checking out some of the saved replays since it ended, and it's so cool to get to see all of the other teams shown off), so I'm glad we had that chance!

There was also a lot about the community that made for a more pleasant experience! I'm super grateful to BlueRay for giving some input on my team and allowing me the chance to accommodate for it despite how last-minute my registration was, and all of the other players were incredibly welcoming and friendly (which I particularly noticed when Indigo was spectating my matches! you're really cool : D)

On that note, I was glad that we were able to spectate each other's matches in general! I know there are some situations in other tournament settings where that would be (justifiably) unwelcome, but since there were no concerns of scouting we had each other's teams anyway! and M4A's tournament scene as a whole tends to be more lax about spectating matches than other communities from what I can tell, the presence of other players was really nice - everyone was supportive, and the people I encountered consistently gave positive feedback and sometimes offered helpful post-match advice or exchanged team ideas Plus, whenever I wasn't in a battle myself, I could go over to the matches of other people I knew to cheer them on! It was awesome to be there when ink won his first set, and equally so for him to be there for some of mine - his prodding was part of why I joined the tournament, like I said earlier, so I'm glad it wasn't a rigidly competitive or solitary experience and that we could check in on each other! All of this really added to the experience and made it into a community event more than a tense competitive one, and as someone who's a lot more casual a battler than many of the other prominent figures of the community, this made me feel welcome and not stressed instead of feeling pressured to fixate on winning C: Overall, this was just an incredibly positive first experience with the M4A VGC community and competitive scene - and I know I saw other players express a similar sentiment, that playing in this tournament left them more interested in the format and surprised at how much they liked it - and I think BlueRay did an amazing job running the tour and that the other more experienced players did a great job making us feel welcome! I would love to see other tournaments like this one attract a similar crowd of new players and would definitely encourage everyone to try and join the next one even if you've never played VGC before C:


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
Not really, no! The only thing that comes to mind is really pretty minor in the scheme of things, but maybe having a bracket updated live like some of the tournaments that were run through Challonge would be convenient? I think this tournament went really smoothly regardless and it definitely wasn't an issue, but it might have made it easier to follow what round everyone was in, how one had placed so far, and so on C: That said, this was an amazing experience and I don't at all think there was anything pressing to change! I would be happy to participate in another tournament just like this in the future!

Ink

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I've been wanting to learn VGC for a long time now !!! 15-ban seemed like a good opportunity to try and get back into the swing of attempting to learn it (and a little bit back into battling in general), since let's be real I am kind of an UU player at heart and always struggle against the strongest staples of an OU metagame.


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
My teambuilding process is never particularly... clean? :'D I had this team sitting in a draft for a long time, initially constructed around the core of Falinks + Malamar, Malamar + Obstagoon, and Obstagoon + Toxtricity. Thinking of the team in pairs like this was a really useful mindset for me! Then it was mostly a matter of filling the last two slots with things that also made several good pairs. I have a long way to go for VGC building, though, and my games gave me a good hint of what I need to work on next.


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
I really enjoyed having access to the open team sheet personally! As kind of a VGC amateur, it made me a lot more confident in making some weirder reads or plays that I wouldn't have had the confidence in myself to make otherwise (most notably the Ally Switch read on turn 1 of my first game against Memes Bita, since I knew both of them had Trick Room). I probably wouldn't have lost quite so badly to Eeveekid in my third set if I had actually remembered to check their team beforehand.


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I was thoroughly expecting to get 2-0d and be out, like the last few times I've tried to participate in VGC stuff (or participate in tournaments in general, actually). So in that regard I was extremely pleasantly surprised! The games I lost it was very clear why, and for once it was actually pretty easy to process where in my building process I have room for improvement. I'm not sure when I'll be able to talk myself into playing again but I definitely did have fun!!


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
Not that I can think of really! Thanks for organizing this, I had a really good time!!

Shrimp

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
Because i'd like to join a tour where most of the "meta-mon" get banned. to see the differences.


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
I copy pasted a few set and teams in the past and adjust some strat. It was not really that difficult.


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
I think it's fine and i kinda like it. I would be fine to see it more often


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I have fun at midnight. Losing can be frustrated some times but it's fine. I can learn from those mistakes.


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
I think it's fine as it is

NANI?!

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I'd never played M4A VGC before and this tournament felt like a good opportunity to try out the format.


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
At first I picked my Mega, and Aurorus seemed like a good choice, with BoltBeam, Aurora Veil, enabling Slush Rush users, and Volt Switch to go into other teammates. I built from there, starting with Arctovish as the Diamond Dust abuser. Then I covered up their weaknesses using Heatran and Zapdos-Galar, finally adding support with Whimsicott and Porygon2. It definitely wasn't difficult but I suppose I'm not the most careful teambuilder.

3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
The open team sheet was certainly interesting. On one hand I lost a lot of my surprise factor, but on the other hand, so did my opponents. Feels like a fair tradeoff. I'm mostly neutral about it seeing it again in the future.


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I had expected to have a fun time, and I was right. I knew I wouldn't get very far considering my lack of experience prior to the tournament, but I was hoping the 15 bans would bring a change to the meta that I could take advantage of.


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
I'm unsure about this one. Maybe the open team sheet could be changed to just show the Pokemon and their items? It's pretty revealing when you and your opponent know everything that could matter about each other except for the plays you'll make on the field, but at the same time, not showing all that much kind of defeats the purpose of an open team sheet.

Sticky Fingaa

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I thought stepping out of the comfort zone a little and playing some VGC instead of singles could be fun


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
It was slow at first, trying to make little gimmicks and then building the team around them was weird ngl x), trying to make spreads for the mons was slow and kinda boring at the beginning since I didn't know the VGC meta properly and the EVs spreads works differently, but as I started to understand how It worked It got fun to do


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
The open team sheet was something new for me lol, but It was pretty cool even tho dumbass me forgot to use it, and I probably would like to see It In the future


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I was definitely not expecting to get close to the finals, and my expectations were right lol, even tho I got eliminated on round 2, seeing my team putting In the work at least once was fun


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
Ban fairy types so Kommo-o can shine /j

ry

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
i like playing pokémon


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
i like hail and trick room so i made a hail and trick room team


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
really dislikes it


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
pretty fun, i liked not seeing so much of the same pokémon (lando, incin, yadda yadda)


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
i think it would be interesting to ban/restrict to more general things instead of specific mons. for example: have to have at least one mon with a terrain setting ability, no grass types, no dark type moves, etc

LordThemberchaud

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I thought it would be fun, and I knew that I could participate in it.


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
I just looked at the MFA VR site (the one maintained by ink) and found a mega that could use something that could use moves that could hit multiple opponents. I found Mega Toucannon, and I thought it would be fun to build around. I just threw on some Tailwind support, things that could take a Boomburst from Toucannon, and something to get rid of Trick Room. I also thought a physical wallbreaker would be nice. Then you helped with the rest. I am still grateful!


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
I liked being able to see what everyone else thought of, and I think it should see more use.


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I didn't think I would win because I wasn't experienced with VGC, but I did win some games and I even was victorious in a best 2 out of 3. I had a lot of fun, and I can't come up with anything to complain about.


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
there should be a rule that makes me automatically win I was actually very content with everything! I think that banning certain Mons allows for more creative ideas to appear, like Eruption Heatran idk if it's uncommon, but I've never seen it before.

Jake88

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I joined the tourney bc I've always enjoyed VGC and I wanted to see what the M4A version would be like since that's the purpose of the mod kek


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
team building was a little tough since it was my first time, but I decided to focus around one mon (corviknight) with 1/2-2/3 of my team with some of the supporting members serving different roles like empolean negating corvs electric weakness and serving as an icy wind user (although I think it was to slow for that role), heatran covering fire for corv and for kartana as well as being an excellent sweeper with scarf eruption if flash fire procs, and then clefairy as general support for all members and for kartana and volcarona specifically


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
while I don't mind open team sheets, I do prefer VGC tourneys without them as it encourages more unique strategies since they aren't known beforehand in my opinion, as I said I'm ok either way but I slightly prefer the unpredictability that comes without team sheets or at the very least team sheets without some combination of items/moves/ and abilities


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I had really great fun with the tourney, and I would say it was almost 100% fantastic, the one thing I would change if I could would be to make the matches more spaced out so more people have to watch other players, but due to timezones and outside factors I understand why that isn't feasible and this is more than fine as is


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
And finally while unnecessary I think an unrestricted M4A VGC tourney could be really interesting in the future although I can see why some would be against it considering how VGC 2017 was received by most people.

Memes Bita

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
I decided to participate because I wanted to see how this metagame worked, with these restrictions (something that made the meta more diverse imo)


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
I would say the teambuilding process to me wasn't that hard because I already knew what I was gonna do. Probably the "hard" part of the process was choosing what mega I was gonna use that could have a good synergy with my team.


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
I liked the open team sheet, because even though you know what mons will be used, they're not revealed until the day of the tour, which gives the "surprise effect"


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
I had a lot of fun with this tour! The good teambuilding and strategies of the other players resulted in very good plays, and it's also great to see mons that doesn't get to shine that much because of the more used ones.


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
I don't think there is anything I would like to change, and i think it would be cool to see tours like these happening in other formats, like Monotype or Megas for two

Superior Serperior

1) Why did you participate in the 15 Ban VGC tournament?
i didn't have a particular reason for joining. i simply thought the event would be interesting.


2) How was your teambuilding process like? (Was it difficult for you, how did you prepare, etc.?)
well, you kinda helped me with this, but rather than start from scratch, i decided to take a concept from one of my existing teams and modify it to fit the banned ruleset. both the unused setup team and the Rain/TR team were modified versions of existing teams.


3) What were your thoughts on the open team sheet? Would you see it more often in future M4A VGC tournament events?
the open team sheet was incredibly helpful for giving you a general gist of what to expect when entering battle, leaving EVs as the only unknown. personally, i like knowing what i'm getting into, and using Indigo's battle as reference, it's one thing to know what your opponent has, and another to deal with it. i'd love to see it used more in VGC events.


4) How would you describe your expectations for and experiences during the tournament? (Did you have fun? Was there something you liked or disliked?)
tour was fun. a little slow (due to outside forces we had little control over) but it had me thinking ahead, and planning what to do based on opponent sets and items. considering i don't have nearly as much VGC experience as Ry or Indigo, i got fairly far and so i'm content with that. i wouldn't say i particularly disliked anything.


5) Is there anything you would like to change for future events or is there something you would like to see being added?
i uh... don't think you should be asking me for these sorts of things. i tend not to have a proper opinion on these sorts of things, and again, i'm not experienced, so i wouldn't know what to look at in the first place.

Open Team Sheet

1) Memes Bita: https://pokepast.es/d41e436284ceb0d5
2) Superior Serperior: https://pokepast.es/767f40c7ea5a1978
3) Indigo: https://pokepast.es/05a6358452fbf5fd
4) Jake88: https://pokepast.es/d24170b426dcf65d
5) Nani: https://pokepast.es/120149e9f2589149
6) Sticky Fingaa: https://pokepast.es/633527919f50c1fc

7) LordThemberchaud: https://pokepast.es/646842d29909beb0
8) Glaceon: https://pokepast.es/184eba47a7d62a2e
9) Ink: https://pokepast.es/613ff8acd40822c5
10) ry: https://pokepast.es/e68668fabc2ec51b | Author's note: Mega Aurorus actually has Aurora Veil over Calm Mind!
11) Shrimp: https://pokepast.es/8bcd27856c632e51
12) Hematite: https://pokepast.es/87953a4868ca4767

Replays

Link: http://megasforall.wikidot.com/tour:vgc-15-ban

 

[Hematite]

Hellllo, everyone!! I am here with a couple of important announcements for today! C:

First, some quick news - in case anyone missed it, DH is now playable through slate 34, meaning you can use KeroseneZanchu's Mega Golduck, Violettes's Mega Porygon-Z and BlueRay and Paulluxx's shared Mega Sirfetch'd any time you want!

Next up, the competitive council is looking for your input on potential upcoming tournaments!

>>> Upcoming Tournaments Poll <<<​

This is based on the results of another poll that was posted recently - a couple of options had equal support, so while we'll probably get to all of them eventually, this is your chance to show us which one you'd like to participate in next!

As for imminently upcoming events...

The Speed Draft Tournament is tomorrow!​

The extraordinary Exploziff will be running a speed draft tournament tomorrow!
A speed draft is an event that starts with all players drafting a selection of 8 Pokémon on the spot, then building the best teams they can out of them in 45 minutes before fighting a tournament with the other players who drafted!
The expected time commitment is about three hours, but tours do often run overtime, so make sure to clear your schedules if you plan to participate or spectate! C:

>>> You can find full details on his spreadsheet here! <<<​

Signups are unfortunately already closed, but even if you didn't already register, make sure to keep an eye on DH while the tour is going on so you can watch it unfold and maybe consider joining for next time!
It sounds like an incredibly cool event, so I bet it'll be super fun to watch! C:

The tournament is set to take place at 12:00 PM (noon) EST tomorrow, or some 16 hours from this post!

The results are in for the recent balance changes poll!​

For Jolteon to lose access to the move Calm Mind:​

passes with an 86.7% supermajority​

​

For Aurorus to gain access to the move Parabolic Charge:​

passes with a 96.7% supermajority​

​

For Trevenant to lose access to the move Bulk Up:​

passes with a 66.7% supermajority​

​

For Mega Trevenant's stats to be reverted to before its buff:​

does not pass with only a 53.3% majority (required was 60%)​

​

For Mega Rillaboom to be moved to Ubers for the purposes of singles formats:​

passes with a 76.7% supermajority​

​

For Boltund to gain access to the move Dazzling Gleam:​

passes with a 93.3% supermajority​

These changes are not quite live, since the poll ended just today, but I'll submit a patch right away and we'll hope it sees a quick turnaround! C:

And finally... it's September 3rd! which means:

Submissions for Slate 35 are now open!

Submissions for Mega Decidueye, Mega Incineroar and Mega Primarina are now open!
I plan to follow up with a feedback and veto post at some time on Friday, September 8th, which will also serve as the 24-hour warning to make any final changes before submissions properly close at the same time on Saturday, Sepember 9th.

Some important reminders on the subject of these Mega Evolutions:​

As was recently announced on the Discord, we're moving in the direction that it's okay to ban a given Mega Evolution from either singles or VGC as long as it's in a good place in the other, rather than vetoing and nerfing Mega Evolutions that are fine in one format but problematic in the other (for example: Mega Rillaboom was recently banned from singles, because it's repeatedly proven difficult to balance for singles but is still currently regarded as a fine presence in VGC).​

I'm bringing this up because I have an important clarification on what this rule means, which is especially relevant to this slate!​

To be clear: a submitted Mega Evolution may end up banned from VGC as needed, but that does not mean that if it's okay if a Pokémon's base form needs to be banned because of the moves you give it! This is no different from any other moves that have previously been disallowed for implications on a Pokémon's base form in a singles context.​

​

Incineroar (not Mega) is one of the strongest VGC Pokémon of all time.​

In fact, if you look at Pikalytics, a site dedicated to usage data for VGC formats, you will see that Incineroar has been the most-used Pokémon in every VGC format since 2019 with the sole exception of Sword and Shield series 6, in which it was banned in keeping with that series's theme of removing top threats from BSS and BSD.​

Accordingly, movepool additions that buff Incineroar in a VGC context will be taken exactly as seriously as if you tried to buff an important and carefully balanced singles Pokémon like Heatran or Landorus in a way that was likely to push it over the edge. No matter how much sense a move makes on your submission, and no matter if your submission is meant to be legal in VGC or not, any movepool additions that are deemed problematic on base Incineroar in a VGC context may be disallowed.​

​

As a starting point, the following moves are blanket-banned on all Incineroar submissions on the recommendation of our fantastic VGC format leader, BlueRay:​

Feint, Foul Play and Sucker Punch​

We may well add more to this list as the slate progresses, so please be understanding of future updates!​

If a submission adds one of these moves (such as because the submitter missed this announcement or a future announcement of a banned move), it may not necessarily be vetoed for it, but the move will not be added even if the submission wins.​

​

Another important clarification on this rule: we would still like to try to keep bans in both formats to a minimum!​

That means you should never make a submission intentionally broken in one format or the other, and we will always start out with a Mega legal in as many formats as possible (incidentally: this is the same policy we've established for submissions to our eventual Ubers format! so long as a Pokémon's base form isn't already illegal in OU, while its Mega may be designed with Ubers viability in mind, it is always still better for it to avoid being banned if possible).​

In cases when even a surface-level glance makes it obvious that something is problematic to a downright unrealistic extent, we reserve every right to acknowledge it as optically unsound and poorly designed; please make an effort to avoid that, and be respectful if we feel the need to veto a submission that you think can be balanced!​

​

On that note, I would like to make a reminder of something that's been kinda sorta policy on and off for a long time but that I can totally see happening a lot this slate:​

Broadly, a straight clone of Intimidate for another stat, especially Special Attack or Speed, is not welcome.​

If you would like to make an Incineroar that lowers other stats, consider attaching other conditions that can limit how freely it can activate instead of making it unconditional on entry like Intimidate.​

This does not necessarily have anything to do with VGC​

Consider it a ban for objective optics reasons because Game Freak would absolutely never do it​

You may sue me if I am ever proven wrong and such an Ability is introduced in the official games​

Until then, I will die on this hill​

Fight me if that's what it takes or just make good design choices​

​

As a more minor note on Primarina submissions: the move Boomburst may not be added to Primarina.​

This is non-negotiable and does not depend on any other part of the submission itself, because it is rooted in the move's very obvious implications on its base form (thanks to Liquid Voice), meaning that arguments about whether your specific Mega Evolved form is balanced with the move are largely irrelevant.​

​

Finally, I was... told to be concerned about people wanting to give Thousand Arrows to Decidueye for "flavor"...? I'm hoping no one was really considering it but I just want to be prepared​

If you try to do so following this warning, there is a non-negligible chance that you will be invited to leave the thread in shame and never come back.​

They're not even real arrows but Zygarde Cells​

For the first time in what feels like a long time, we also have a poll to decide the next slate - the Mega Evolutions we do in slate 36 are up to you!
It's a super fast poll with just a few options - please vote on it and make your voice heard!

>>> Slate 36 Poll <<<​

We'll announce the results of this poll when submissions for slate 35 close, giving you the length of the voting phase and discussion phase to prepare your ideas.

That's all for this evening - have fun, everyone! We can't wait to see your submissions for slate 35!​

 

[jazzmat]

first sub let's goooo

Yo, Decidueye he was just 14 When his parents built a very strange machine Designed to trap a ghost unseen He's gonna catch 'em all 'cause he's Decidueye

mega decidueye

grass/ghost
stats
hp- 78
atk- 107(+10)>117
def- 70(+40)>110
spa- 100(+20)>120
spd- 100(+30)>130
spe- 70

ability: Spectral Seal- the target of the user's trapping moves become typeless

new moves: strength sap, leech seed

description

So! Basically i designed this mega to allow decidueye to trap ghost types (which are normally impossible to trap) by taking away their type entirely. while this does unfortunately mean you can't hit trapped mons super effectively, it also means your targets don't have STAB bonuses on their moves, and you can poison and steel types with toxic as well as being able to leech seed grass types giving you many options for either bulky sets to slowly take out mons or set up with swords dance or nasty plot

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLEEEEEEEEEE

mega incineroar

fire/dark
stats
hp- 95
atk- 115(+15)>130
def- 90(+20)>110
spa- 80(+30)>110
spd- 90
spe- 60(+35)>95

ability: (cheap heat/intense; name not final)- stat changes the user inflicts on another pokemon are doubled

new moves: coaching

description

since the release of its hidden ability, incineroar has been a major contender in vgc formats with its great utility, from its intimate ability to snarl to fake out to parting shot to even more niche moves like bulldoze, incineroar makes its presence known much like its inspiration in the heel wrestler. cheap heat takes this idea and cranks it up to 11, giving it -2 snarls and bulldozes and parting shots becoming pseudo-memento, as well as the ability to give your ally +2 attack and defense with coaching.
(also if you don't know cheap heat in wrestling is when you rile up the crowd as a heel by doing things that are unfair and getting them mad at you)

and just for fun here's a list of all the moves affected by the ability:
bulldoze, crunch, low sweep, focus blast, snarl, coaching, confide, growl, leer, parting shot, scary face, swagger

Shawty's like a melody in my head That I can't keep out, got me singin' like Na na na na everyday It's like my iPod's stuck on replay Replay-ay-ay-ay

mega primarina

water/fairy
stats
hp- 80
atk- 74
def- 74(+25)>99
spa- 126(+10)>136
spd- 116(+15)>131
spe- 60(+50)>110

ability: duet- if a pokemon on the field uses a sound move, the mega primarina uses the same move at 1/2 damage

new moves: snarl

description

since more sound moves are attacks instead of status moves compared to dance moves, i felt like a power reduction was needed to make this balanced (2 full power boombursts + another move in doubles would be pretty insane), but besides straight offense this also is useful for parting shot(and we all know how common that move is), heal bell, snarl, noble roar, and most interestingly clangorous soul.

 

[The Damned]

Congrats to KeronseneZanchu, Violettes, and Paulluxx & BlueRay for winning last slate.

Given all of the Doubles focus as of late, despite it not being a format I really play or am comfortable with, I tried to keep it more in mind for my submissions this time. It actually helped a lot with getting over my initial roadblock with Decidueye-Mega.

EDIT #1: Have a good weekend. Stay safe.

Incineroar-Mega
Typing:

/

{no change}
New Ability: Kayfabe - This Pokémon's Fighting attacks do 1.5x damage if hit by one Fighting move; Fighting immunity. {abilities were Blaze / Intimidate (hidden ability)}

NEW STATS
HP: 095
Atk: 115 → 150 (+35)
Def: 090 → 115 (+25)
SpA: 080 → 090 (+10)
SpD: 090 → 099 (+09)
Spe: 060 → 081 (+21)
(BST: 530 → 630)

Movepool Additions: Circle Throw, Storm Throw, Submission, Vital Throw

Pokédex Description: Pokémon Sword: "Incineroar is now more boastful and fond of toying with even its weaker opponents, especially those that think they can take it out by using Fighting moves against it."
Pokémon Shield: "Due to its expertise at grappling and close-combat, Incineroar has a sixth-sense for any formal fighting move sent its way. Despite its gruff look and bulky body, it nimbly dances around opponents before lariating them."

Picture of Theoretical Incineroar-Mega

Design Choices

Design Choices: I decided to lean all the way into Incineroar's wrestling theme by having it learn to roll with the obviously fake Fighting moves that come its way and then give them back just as good, if not better. You know, for the sake of the cheering crowd. It's good to hear their adoration even if you're a heel, especially if the way you do it completely eliminates one of your weaknesses and gives you the pseudo-STAB on Fighting attacks that your design already leans into anyway. That pep also gets put into Incineroar's step by having it also gain back most of the Speed it lost upon evolving from Torracat. Yay.

Getting "out of character", I will say that I had initially planned for two different abilities that generally boosted allies as well, but between the flavor of being a heel and the rude reminder that there are only like...four grappling moves in the game (unless you also count Flying Press and then start stretching the definition to things like Bind and Wrap), neither of those abilities made the cut. I did at least give Incineroar all of those throw moves given it weirdly gets none of them, instead weirdly having skipped them to get the really good physical Fighting moves. Despite being four whole new moves, given that they're all pretty weak outside of like Circle Throw, which could see some usage, their addition should be fine and is mostly for flavor since Incineroar largely has what it already needs movepool-wise.

I do worry a bit that Incineroar-Mega vs. Incineroar-Mega could get...obnoxious given its newfound immunity to Fighting though. [Insert traumatic flashbacks to times when Gliscor or Suicune were the most prominent threats in a UU metagame and a lot of games came down to both sides having a mon that could barely hurt itself.]

Still, Incineroar thankfully does at least already get Earthquake to KO itself and doesn't have any healing besides Rest against itself given Drain Punch just gets "absorbed" by Kayfabe. It's also still weak to Stealth Rock, all hazards, and Water too, so I'm not too worried. That was just something I kept in mind when making sure it stayed vulnerable on the SpD side too. The ground rising up to meet it and KO it via Earthquake is also appropriate for how easily it gets edge-guarded in Smash Ultimate.

The final bit worth noting is that its ability would make this Incineroar-Mega literally the only mon in the game (at present) who resists both sides of the dreaded Fighting/Ghost coverage duo. Eat your flaming heart out, Marshadow. Just, uh, stay away from Mold Breaker mons with Fighting moves like Pangoro.

Primarina-Mega
Typing:

/

{no change}
New Ability: Swift Swim {abilities were Torrent / Liquid Voice (hidden ability)}

NEW STATS
HP: 080
Atk: 074 → 095 (+21)
Def: 074 → 099 (+25)
SpA: 126 → 145 (+19)
SpD: 116 → 125 (+09)
Spe: 060 → 086 (+26)
(BST: 530 → 630)

Movepool Additions: [NONE]

Pokédex Description: Pokémon Sword: "The energy of Mega Evolution has split Primarina's tail into leg-like appendages it can use to walk on land. It finds this irritating and even painful to do for long periods of time."
Pokémon Shield: "The strength of both Primarina's voice and swimming have increased. On rainy days, Primarina is now swift enough in the water to outrace the sound of its own song."

Design Choices

Design Choices: I will be perfectly blunt from the beginning here: I don't like Primarina. I don't hate Primarina, but I don't like it either. Never have in part due to disliking its visual design but mostly due to how annoyingly good its typing is and how difficult it generally is to deal with, especially after Empoleon gets inconveniently Thanos Snapped by Dexit and when it randomly gets access to Calm Mind in Gen 8, which it never really needed. Thanks Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. Thanks a lot, especially for then giving it the obnoxiousness of Flip Turn too.

That said, my antipathy aside, I figured I would still try to at least do a decent if uninspired job for its Mega even I'm sure other people could do (much) better given all of the good ideas that tend to be in this thread alone. So I decided the least I can do to make sure its Mega form is worth using over Tapu Fini, which is part of why it got the semi-trolly Speed tier it did, which influenced both my versions of Incineroar-Mega and Decidueye-Mega thereafter. I figure that a niche as the fastest and strongest special-oriented Swift Swim is enough for it to see theoretical use, especially if it also becomes the fastest Water/Fairy in general even outside of Rain--even if barely that.

(For the record, the tail splitting in visual design is just a supposed aspect of mermaids from some mythologies that's come into the public conconsciousness once again via One Piece and, I guess, Starbucks. Shrug.)

This "bare minimum" aspect is a concern I have about Primarina-Mega in general though. Not only am I unsure if I added enough stat-wise for my own, it's also rather clear that Primarina-Mega doesn't need much to potentially just become somewhat obnoxious to the point of maybe having to get banned to Ubers, especially now that it has Calm Mind and Flip Turn. Ugh. Again, I'm sure someone else can do better than this--I sincerely hope that. This is just personally the best I can do at present, especially for a mon I'm utterly unenthused about, while still being fair to it.

Decidueye-Mega
Typing:

/

{no change}
New Ability: Seismic Damper - This Pokémon draws Ground moves to itself to raise Special Attack by 1; Ground immunity. {abilities were Overgrow / Long Reach (hidden ability)} {EDIT #2:: Previously named "Sniper's Perch".}

NEW STATS
HP: 078
Atk: 107 → 125 (+18)
Def: 075 → 085 (+10)
SpA: 100 → 141 (+41)
SpD: 100 → 110 (+10)
Spe: 070 → 091 (+21)
(BST: 530 → 630)

Movepool Additions: Earth Power, Focus Energy, Scorching Sands

Pokédex Description: Pokémon Sword: "Despite the increased of its wingspan and their weight, it is still capable of flight. It is merely more comfortable on the ground, even at times choosing to snipe at foes accurately from the safety of an underground borrow."
Pokémon Shield: "While Decidueye's appearance and presence are now ominous, especially with the spiritual energy it radiates that permeates the very ground around it, it is merely aloof and patient. If you are not its target and approach it without malice in your heart, then it is generally kind."

Design Choices

Design Choices: Even ignoring the latest poll to debuff the recently buffed Trevenant-Mega in all of its physically oriented glory, I had long already decided that if we ever did Decidueye-Mega, then I would make it more specially oriented. It has bothered me for literal years that the series somehow has four different Grass/Ghost mons--more if you separate all forms of Gourgeist--and yet somehow all of them are physically oriented. That problem was only made worse with Decidueye, whose design I like the most of the Gen 7 starters in basically every aspect besides that and its lack of Speed. That Decidueye has the smallest gap between its slightly greater Atk and its still decent SpA just made it sting more, especially since its genuinely stellar signature move of Spirit Shackle is, of course, physically oriented too.

Sigh. Game Freak, why are you like this?

With that problem so decided, it became an issue of what to do for its ability. Of the three Megas in this slate, despite having the clearest idea for an overall goal for Decidueye, Decidueye-Mega was definitely the most difficult one to think of an ability that both fit its flavor and that I liked. I was initially leaning towards something like what Sawsbuck-Autumn-Mega has with its Autumn Leaves ability, but then I felt that would be a bit too derivative even if this Decidueye-Mega is specially oriented unlike that Sawsbuck-Mega. I wanted to try to also focus on making this different from all the other Grass/Ghost mons' Megas if possible, helped by this being the last of the Grass/Ghost mons to get a Mega and by Dhelmise-Mega having become Ghost/Steel--thanks Mossy Sandwich.

(It also didn't help that, of the two other initial ideas I had, I rather quickly realized both were somewhat obnoxious and probably unfun to play against even in the unlikely case they weren't also overpowered. So they got snuffed out in darkness. Let's just say something that makes the current version of Knock Off look fair shouldn't ever exist.)

Ironically I only eventually blundered onto this particular idea while trying to focus more on Decidueye's design as a Flying mon before it evolves. Well, focus on that and deciding that its special orientation should also both a) focus on archery & "sniping" and b) be decently powerful enough to incentivize actually using mostly special moves over a purely physical set given how good Spirit Shackle is. So I eventually realized that I could do what I did with Incineroar-Mega and give it a variation of an already existent ability.

While in Incineroar-Mega's case that was giving a Fighting variation of Flash Fire that covered one of its weaknesses, Decidueye-Mega instead got a Ground variation of Storm Drain, which makes one of its resistances redundant, though thankfully not as redundant as Sceptile-Mega getting Lightning Rod. I think the redundance is fine in this case given how nicely Sniper's Perch Seismic Damper plays with allies--*cough*Heatran*cough*--in both Singles and Doubles. Sniper's Perch Seismic Damper also helps to simulate the Flying type that Decidueye lost when evolving from Dartrix. Also helping to lessen redundancy is the fact that despite Grass being one of only two non-Flying types that resist Ground, most Grass mons (and Bugs mons for that matter) simply tend not to get to take advantage of that resistance, which Sniper's Perch Seismic Damper can and will even if this Decidueye-Mega still has to worry about the usual accompanying coverage, in this case usually Ice (or Fire) instead of Rock.

(That said, Sniper's Perch Seismic Damper should neither boost itself off Spikes nor confer immunity to Sandstorm damage, which is technically Rock type anyway. I'm admittedly unsure about whether it should ignore Spikes damage on the way in though, much less Toxic Spikes poisoning. The former seems fair-ish, but the latter seems a bit excessive even though those too are grounded. I guess I'll leave that up to the coder if this wins though, even if it also obviously shouldn't ignore the various Terrains either despite those also caring about being "grounded".)

Anyway, with Sniper's Perch Seismic Damper decided as this mon's ability, its stats were basically decided solely by looking at Sceptile-Mega's as well as keeping in mind that Decidueye already has access to Roost, Swords Dance, and Nasty Plot in addition to Spirit Shackle and other strong STABs on both sides. All of those considerations are why this doesn't have as much defensiveness as I initially gave it, though its Speed was initially lower before it got the weird Speed tier it is in now basically solely due to my Primarina-Mega. Not much else to say to close this out except that all of the additional moves are somewhat dicey and, like Primarina-Mega (or Incineroar-Mega), it may not need additional moves at all given what it already has. I just figure that they all fit the flavor, especially when I can't reasonably give it the hideously overpowered Thousand Arrows; Scorching Sands in particular is pretty much an iffy compromise that arises from it being one of the few Ghost types who (still) doesn't get access to Will-O-Wisp.

(Oh. Speaking of Thousand Arrows, if I'm acknowledging small niches, then Sniper's Perch Seismic Damper would make this the only mon in the game that doesn't have to worry about that move at all, meaning it's one of the better checks to Zygarde, especially with immunity to Extreme Speed too. Just, uh, don't get hit by Outrage.)

{2021/09/08 -- 11:49 P.M. -- Despite technically not having to do so after confirming with Hematite that I could just leave the name as it is, I've decided to change this Decidueye-Mega's ability name from "Sniper's Perch" to the less flavorful but even easier to reuse "Seismic Damper" in case anyone else wants to use it later on, especially if this doesn't win. It's still in flavor anyway given those poor pueo owls that Decidueye's line is partly based on nest on the ground, a part of their nature that has "helped" them unfortunately become endangered as of late, but I digress.}

EDIT #2: Fixed some typos that of course were still existent in Decidueye-Mega's entry despite all of my proofreading in addition to changing its ability name from "Sniper's Perch" to the more accessible and intuitive "Seismic Damper". Probably added more typos that I haven't noticed, but this is the last I'm touching this entry if I can help it, so I'll just have to hope that I got all of them for once.

 

[inkbug]

hey remember when i was joking about writing a dissertation about decidueye back in (checks watch) march

Mega Decidueye
New Ability: Overgrow/Long Reach -> Illusion
New Typing: Grass/Ghost (unchanged)

New Stats:
HP: 78
ATK: 107 -> 127 (+20)
DEF: 75 -> 95 (+20)
SPA: 100 -> 120 (+20)
SPD: 100 -> 120 (+20)
SPE: 70 -> 90 (+20)

New Moves: none

Desc: Sorry in advance, this is gonna be a long one, but i have a lot to say about it!! i've been really excited about this one for a really long time. I'll give a short version up here for those of you who don't wanna be here all day, but

The TL;DR is: Illusion synergizes in some really scary and cool ways with Decidueye's signature trapping move Spirit Shackle (allowing it to disguise itself as a teammate whose counter it has an advantage over, in order to bait and trap that counter, among other things), and then by extension also with its vast support and setup movepool, including (but not limited to) both Nasty Plot and Swords Dance, Toxic, Haze, Defog, U-Turn, and Ghost Curse + Roost, just to name a few. It also has great defensive synergy with the original Illusioner, Zoroark, bringing the MfA-unique ""archetype"" of "Double-Illusion teams" to a whole new level.

Long description

yes , indeed , i HAVE submitted an illusion mega to Megas for All before! as my first ever submission in fact !!!

One of my favorite things about working on MfA so far has been people occasionally building teams around Mega Inteleon, a horrible bastard creature that I loved so much as a concept it compelled me to make a smogon account just so I could submit it to the mod. One of the wildest things I remember seeing people do with Mega Inteleon was running double-Illusion teams with Zoroark, resulting in a bizarre, hilarious and tense guessing game of whether the Pokemon you're facing was Zoroark, Inteleon, or the thing either of them would be pretending to be -- most memorably for me in this monstrosity of a team by BotwNerd745, which is absolutely one of the most mind-bending and absurd things I've ever had the pleasure of battling.
This kind of team structure was mostly unintentional on my part -- like, I knew it was a possibility, and I think I toyed around with it some myself, but the Mega wasn't designed around it.

Even though Mega Inteleon was an incredibly cool experiment -- and a successful one, I think -- I couldn't help but feel like there's still so much untapped potential in Illusion. Like, what kinds of moves that Zoroark or Inteleon don't have access to could be paired with it in new and creative ways? What types would benefit from the concealment, and what kinds of creative teambuilding options would new-typed Illusion options open up?

Over the course of the last 13 months (holy shit) I've been more and more interested with competitive design, some experiments working and some decidedly not. I've especially talked a lot with Hematite about the intricacies of the ~type chart~ and the properties and synergies of each type and its unique qualities, and what kinds of tools best take advantage of both a given Ability and a typing (we are huge nerds, this is honest to god how we spend our free time now apparently).

While working on various solomod and fakemon projects, I finally landed on what I would want my next "ideal" Illusion user to be -- a Ghost-type, with modest mixed stats, boosting on both sides, access to U-turn specifically, decent bulk, and a good support movepool. A Ghost-type Illusion user specifically would play with a very specific synergy in a very unique way: Ghost and Dark, in combination, cover each other's weaknesses near-perfectly, so if a Ghost Illusioner was combined with Zoroark on a team, trying to attack any new Pokemon would be a shot in the dark about what move to even use. Do you target Ghost's weaknesses? Do you target Dark's completely different and almost 100% contradictory set of weaknesses? Or... do you target the weaknesses of the Pokemon that actually appears to be out on the field? Is it safe to set up? Do you have to taunt to prevent them from setting up?? So many questions !!!! The possible mindgames this kind of mon enables are endless, and really, really interesting!

So I set out looking for comparison Pokemon to sort of assess what power level to make this fakemon at, and remembered about Decidueye, which is a Ghost with mixed boosting, great utility and very even stats across the board. But while looking at its movepool to refresh my memory (which is like. the coolest movepool. decidueye's competitive design is soooo coooool--) and its stats, I realized that... Decidueye basically already was exactly the mon I was looking for? Not only that, but its signature move Spirit Shackle -- a trapping move -- had a completely different and fucking incredible interaction with Illusion that hadn't even occurred to me before then.


SO! Enough preamble!! Decidueye is perhaps the perfect candidate to exploit the bizarre mindgame-ridden ability that is Illusion, and (in my opinion at least) the ideal endpoint of the "dual illusion" team archetype. Spirit Shackle could come hidden from behind any team member, followed up by any of Decidueye's wide array of setup, support, or stallbreaking options. For example: it has both Swords Dance and Nasty Plot to set up on its hapless victims; Toxic (or Ghost-type Curse combined with Roost if you're feeling fancy) for stallbreaking; Haze to break setup; and Defog to provide team support.

Spirit Shackle in particular is a fascinating option for an Illusion user to have, probably one of my "top three" as far as "best moves to whip out as a surprise from behind an Illusion" are concerned (one of the others being Spectral Thief, which I nerfed to 60bp and distributed more in my mod but we can't do that here so look forward to Ubers when I make my third Illusion mega submission lol). Decidueye is not weak to U-Turn, resists Volt Switch and Flip Turn, and has a significant selection of tools to prevent something it's trapped from taking advantage of it (mostly mentioned earlier).

By manipulating their team order, a savvy player could bait a huge threat to their team at large into getting trapped and dealt with by a disguised Decidueye, allowing its party members to wreck shop. Notably Pokemon such as Heatran could be a decent partner in this regard, as Decidueye resists Ground, Water and is immune to Fighting, and Heatran is immune to Fire and resists Flying. It could also pair well with a variety of Electric-type setup sweepers such as Xurkitree, as Ground types that aren't also flying types tend to not have pivoting and Decidueye is fairly efficient at dealing with them, but the possibilities are really only limited by one's own creativity.

ANYWAY!!! THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK !!!!!!!!!

*xx127095120120090 (Decidueye) @ Mega Stone 2
Ability: Illusion

​

Mega Primarina
New Ability: Torrent / Liquid Voice -> Serene Grace
New Typing: Water/Fairy (unchanged)

New Stats:
HP: 80
ATK: 74 (-)
DEF: 74 -> 94 (+20)
SPA: 126 -> 143 (+17)
SPD: 116 -> 136 (+20)
SPE: 60 -> 103 (+43)

New Moves: none

Desc: The moves Primarina already runs in its normal Specs/AV/Leftovers sets all have very interesting and useful secondary effects. Its main STABs here are fascinating with Serene Grace in and of themselves: Scald and Moonblast both now have 60% chances to inflict their respective secondaries, which greatly hamper the damage output of physical and special attackers respectively. It of course also has Flip Turn access, and for its fourth moveslot it has a wide variety of cool coverage to pick from; Psychic and Shadow Ball now having 20% and 40% chances to lower Special Defense respectively aid it in wearing down walls. There's also Ice Beam/Blizzard, which with Serene Grace is a little bit ew, but it's mitigated somewhat by the fact that it'll virtually always be running Scald which is one of the few moves that always thaws a target hit by it so a frozen opponent could potentially maneuver into a position to free themselves.

Serene Grace also gives it a very interesting distinction from its fellow Alolan water/fairy special wall Tapu Fini. Fini is very specifically designed around not being able to abuse Scald for physical damage reduction in the same way most Water-types can, due to its Misty Terrain preventing its grounded targets from receiving burns, while this Primarina aims to burn as many things as possible with it.

It obviously has more options than this; looking at its moveset, Calm Mind + Scald + Draining Kiss + maybe Stored Power? sounds extremely fun as well, and probably the first thing I would try. Overall, a moderately fast specially defensive Pokemon that specializes in spreading burns sounds really fun to use and like it would have a lot to offer to just about any team.

*xx094143136103 (Primarina) @ Mega Stone 1
Ability: Serene Grace

​

Mega Incineroar
New Ability: Blaze / Intimidate -> Technician
New Typing: Fire/Dark (Unchanged)

New Stats:
HP: 95
ATK: 115 -> 135 (+20)
DEF: 90 -> 125 (+35)
SPA: 80 -> 105 (+25)
SPD: 90 -> 95 (+5)
SPE: 60 -> 75 (+15)

New Moves: Circle Throw, Storm Throw, Beat Up

Desc: Incineroar has some insanely cool tech options in its movepool, and fittingly many of them are Technician-boosted! Technician brings Flame Charge up to the same base power as Fire Punch, its main STAB for people who don't want recoil wearing it down. Dual Chop isn't something it probably would ever run, but that goes up to 60bp x2; Snarl having raised BP alongside its heightened Special Attack makes that move more likely to be useful, especially in combination with pre-mega Intimidate and its access to Will-o-Wisp; and Bulldoze goes up to 90 BP, still less than Earthquake but coming with a valuable Speed drop.

As for its move additions, Circle Throw and Storm Throw have been frequently seen alongside Technician submissions, due to the incredible tech potential they offer; Incineroar combines its pre-existing access to Flame Charge (another popular Technician prompt) with flavor that fits "throwing moves" like a glove and a portrayal in another video game where it quite possibly boasts the best throws of the roster. Circle Throw forces the opponent to switch, frustrating switch-ins and buying itself turns to mess around. Meanwhile, Storm Throw always results in a critical hit, which when combined with Technician to raise it to 90 BP blows holes through a lot of things. Finally, Beat Up is a Technician niche that I personally have been wanting to see for awhile -- depending on the composition of your team, because each hit of Beat Up is calculated separately, Technician can boost it to absurd levels. I don't see it often wanting to run that, due to it weakening over the course of the battle and biasing your team to include certain stat spreads, but I think it fits personality wise/flavor wise and this is a great opportunity to include it.

Technician somewhat suits it personality-wise, giving the feel of an underhanded fighter who doesn't rely as much on brute force to muscle through matchups, instead getting creative and using its wits and a good amount of trickery to turn its opponent's strengths against them.

And of course, any discussion of Incineroar cannot avoid touching on its titanic relevance in doubles formats. I'm actually a bit nervous here, as I don't really know enough about VGC to know if this could potentially be unhealthy there, but hopefully it isn't! Many of Incineroar's doubles-related tech options are also boosted by Technician, most notably Fake Out, Snarl and Bulldoze, and I've also been told that Storm Throw would be a very viable option for it in VGC due to critical hits bypassing screens and Intimidate debuffs.

Also I don't really understand why Incineroar doesn't have these throwing moves already
It's like a wrestler right
I don't know how to win spirit battles in smash bros without just using Incineroar to just throw them off the screen, help, im really not good at smash bros

*xx135125105095075 (Incineroar) @ Mega Stone 2
Ability: Technician

 

[PalpitoadChamp]

Mega Decidueye
Grass/Ghost
Ability: Chaos Aura - This pokemon's contact moves lower the target's Def by 1.
Stats: 78 / 107 / 75 / 160 / 100 / 110 (+0/+0/+60/+0/+40)
New Moves: None
Description: My Mega Wishiwashi sub 2.0. This pokemon hits very hard but is walled by mons like Blissey and Bisharp. However, when it runs into something that walls it, it just clicks U-Turn and switches into a different mon that can (most likely a physical attacker due to the def drop from chaos aura.) It also can run physical sets without its powerful ghost stab getting defense drops as well due to polt and shackle not being contact. Shoutouts to Hema for the idea with contact over physical!

 

[lydian]

Mega Decidueye

Ability - Overgrow; Long Reach ➝ Deciduous Shot (Increases the power of Grass-type moves used by this Pokémon by 100%, but the user faints upon using a Grass-type move)

HP - 78 ➝ 78
Atk - 107 ➝ 127 (+20)
Def - 75 ➝ 88 (+13)
SpA - 100 ➝ 120 (+20)
SpD - 100 ➝ 120 (+20)
Spe - 70 ➝ 97 (+27)
BST - 530 ➝ 630 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Leech Seed, Strength Sap
Competitive Corner - Spirit Shackle alongside a Grass-type Explosion and Swords Dance is a scary combo, but it comes with a few caveats, while a Swords Dance-boosted Deciduous Shot-boosted Leaf Blade can probably one-shot a lot of Pokémon, you give up your Mega Evolution, both in the builder and in the battle. As opposed to something like Choice Scarf Final Gambit Victini, however, Mega Decidueye brings a lot more versatility by being able to not knock itself out by simply not Mega Evolving, and being able to pick it's prey via Spirit Shackle before commiting. It should create an interesting dynamic of knowing when is right to Mega Evolve, and playing around with risk vs. reward and knowing when to sacrifice it in a way that should be pretty unique if this is ever implemented. But here's the million-dollar question... Is it broken? I have no idea!
Flavor Corner - Obviously Decidueye, among many other inspirations, gets its typing from deciduous trees which lose their leaves and "die", so to speak, so what if something similar was implemented on its Mega Design — I thought to myself — Mega Decidueye would be able to amagalmate the power of its leaves one last time to go out with a bang in an attempt to take down the opponent, which is ironically almost a bit fitting with owl's roles as psychopomps in many mythologies, except here, Mega Decidueye also dies to take its prey to the underworld. I thought this would be a very interesting way to incorporate this theme as an ability, and I'm really happy with my idea here :O

Mega Incineroar

Ability - Blaze; Intimidate ➝ Heating Tactics (Activates when user uses a Dark-type move. Once activated, user’s Fire-type moves deal 1.5 times damage)

HP - 95 ➝ 95
Atk - 115 ➝ 155 (+40)
Def - 90 ➝ 110 (+20)
SpA - 80 ➝ 90 (+10)
SpD - 90 ➝ 110 (+20)
Spe - 60 ➝ 70 (+10)
BST - 530 ➝ 630 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Beat Up, Cycle Throw, Storm Throw, Vital Throw
Competitive Corner - Incineroar is already a stellar Pokémon in competitive, hence I thought keeping things relatively tame for its Mega, and at least trying a different approach to the Intimidate Heavy-Duty Boots approach would be a nice change of pace, so this, competitively, is a bit similar to what Incineroar used to do in NU before getting Intimidate, that's right, this Incineroar is a fearsome setup sweeper, making use of Intimidate, Swords Dance, and its boosted firepower after using a Dark-type move to break through teams, like a true heel would. Using something like Taunt or Snarl as a way to help set up, and also guarantee its Flash Fire boost, might also be an interesting approach, as opposed to having to hit a Dark-type attack, before activating said boost. Although, missing out on Earthquake coverage might be undesirable, I dunno.
Flavor Corner - The flavor here is the concept of "heat" in professional wrestling, heels will often attempt to create "heat", which is basically making the audience root against them, and for the good guys, a.k.a. the faces. And how do they do that, exactly? By playing foul and cheating, of course! Hence, upon using any Dark-type move, Incineroar gets the audience's hatred, and that fuels up its firepower even more >:)

Mega Primarina

Ability - Torrent; Liquid Voice ➝ Alluring Voice (All sound-based moves prevent the opponent from switching)

HP - 80 ➝ 80
Atk - 74 ➝ 80 (+6)
Def - 74 ➝ 104 (+30)
SpA - 126 ➝ 160 (+34)
SpD - 116 ➝ 136 (+20)
Spe - 60 ➝ 70 (+10)
BST - 530 ➝ 630 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Electro Ball
Competitive Corner - We all know base Primarina is pretty strong, so this is like that but now it can trap other Pokémon with Sparkling Aria... Cool! Not too many applications, but it can help snag momentum on one of the typical Primarina switch-ins, that can't do much back. Nothing too flashy here, it's just base Primarina with better stats and all.
Flavor Corner - Went a bit with the obvious theme this time, of sirens and mermaids, but trust me, I really tried to explore Primarina's other inspirations (selkies and opera singers, mostly) as abilities, and they weren't quite working out, so I decided not to overthink it and just go with this. I mean, it's very fitting, right? And probably should have been Primarina's original ability? Liquid Voice is a bit confusing to me, especially when Sparkling Aria already is, a Water-type sound based move? But I dunno, here's my Mega Primarina I guess, hope you enjoy :D

 

[StarFalcon555]

Mega Decidueye
Type: Grass/Ghost
Ability: Perish Body
Stats:

• HP: 78 (+0)
• Attack: 127 (+20)
• Defense: 85 (+10)
• Special Attack: 130 (+30)
• Special Defense: 115 (+15)
• Speed: 95 (+25)

New Moves: None

I had a lot of trouble deciding on what I wanted to do with this guy. I wanted to give it something like Shadow Tag or Tinted Lens because I liked the flavor both of them had to offer, but both of those abilities are also obviously broken (especially the former). Then I realized that Decidueye's signature move, Spirit Shackle, actually has great chemistry with Perish Body. Its gameplan is simple: it traps Pokemon in and sets a Perish Body counter on them.


Mega Incineroar
Type: Fire/Dark
Ability: Heel Up (When this Pokemon lands a critical hit, its Speed is increased by one stage.)
Stats:

• HP: 95 (+0)
• Attack: 145 (+30)
• Defense: 110 (+20)
• Special Attack: 90 (+10)
• Special Defense: 110 (+20)
• Speed: 80 (+20)

New Moves: Night Slash, Cross Poison, Focus Energy, Storm Throw

So Incineroar is based off of a heel, a specific role in the wrestler world that focuses on playing dirty and using unfair tactics. And what's commonly seen as one of the most unfair mechanics in Pokemon? Critical hits. Incineroar already learns a lot of moves that have high critical hit ratios, including Blaze Kick and Cross Chop. This Mega is meant to encourage the use of those high-crit rate moves with the potential for Incineroar to become a deadly sweeper. Night Slash is a new Dark STAB that works with Heel Up, Cross Poison is another high-crit rate move that has the added bonus of dealing with Fairies, and Focus Energy and Storm Throw give Incineroar a guaranteed method of activating its new ability..


Mega Primarina
Type: Water/Fairy
Name: Mist Drifter (If Misty Terrain is active, this Pokemon's Speed is doubled.)
Stats:

• HP: 80 (+0)
• Attack: 74 (+0)
• Defense: 114 (+40)
• Special Attack: 146 (+20)
• Special Defense: 136 (+20)
• Speed: 80 (+20)

New Moves: None

This is probably the most basic of my submissions. Misty Terrain is by far the most defensive of the terrains, so I'd thought I'd try my hand at making a Mega that can abuse Misty Terrain in a more offensive manner. Nothing more to say here really.

 

[Ema Skye]

Finally, I was... told to be concerned about people wanting to give Thousand Arrows to Decidueye for "flavor"...? I'm hoping no one was really considering it but I just want to be prepared

If you try to do so following this warning, there is a non-negligible chance that you will be invited to leave the thread in shame and never come back.​

They're not even real arrows but Zygarde Cells​

So in this trio, there is a connection with Zygarde. In my lore, mega evolution causes the trio to absorb Zygarde cells and they protects Alola's ecosystem, but because they are drawing energy not only from the mega braclet but Zygarde itself, things get intense.

Mega Decidueye
New Ability: Gleipner's Bind - The user's Ground also deal Grass damage. No power boost but they are considered STAB.
Type: Grass/Ghost

New stats:
HP: 78
Attack: 107 -> 132 (+25)
Defense: 75 -> 100 (+25)
Special Attack: 100
Special Defense: 100 -> 120 (+20)
Speed: 70 -> 100 (+30)
(630 BST)

New moves: Thousand Arrows, Power Whip (flavor: Vine Whip, Bulldoze, Mud Slap)
Description: So just as Zygarde inspiration has a connection with the underworld, so do does Decidueye's. Per Bulbapedia, "an association between the supernatural and owls was once a very common motif, as they were seen as both bearers of death and disturbed spirits throughout history." The Alola games also have a theme where there is a strong connection with the natural environment, which is, again, shared with Zygarde's complete form. A possible PokeDex entry could be "It shoots vines from its arrow that ensnare threats to its environment before it brings them to the underworld".

So, anyways, Thousand Arrows. Yes, I'm aware they are Zygarde cells and not actual arrows. But given the lore mentioned above, I believe I made it work. Its effectiveness spread with Grass is:

• 4x weak: Rock
• 2x weak: Electric, Water, Ground
• 2x resist: Flying (subsequent hits)
• 4x resist: Grass, Bug

So all it really gets is a more consistent STAB option through gaining neutralities (no longer resisted by Poison, Fire or Steel). As it still is resisted by Flying types once they are grounded, I think they can still be decent checks. Power Whip is here as a riskier option, with higher STAB but a worse weakness/resistance spread, but is an upgrade on Leaf Blade and fits with the flavor of shooting vines.

Mega Incineroar
New Ability: Analytic (I was going to go for something more flavorful involving the Zygarde cores but I realized this gave me exactly what I wanted and custom clones or improvements of better abilities aren't allowed)
Type: Fire/Dragon

New Stats:
HP: 95
Attack: 115 -> 125 (+10)
Defense: 90 -> 100 (+10)
Special Attack: 80 -> 150 (+70)
Special Defense: 90 -> 100 (+10)
Speed: 60
(630 BST)

New Moves: Core Enforcer, Dragon Claw, Dragon Pulse, Slack Off
Description: I feel like I don't have to make as big of an explanation between underworlds and a Fire Pokemon who embodies vice. Mega Evolution makes Incineroar "violent and selfish disposition" and it becomes royalty, which I am associating with Dragons (think Unova legends, and Zygarde, I suppose). Tigers and Dragons are also opposites in Chinese lore. Further more, all of the Fire starters have been drawn from Chinese astrology, of which dragon is also one (even though Charizard covers it already, but I'm not thinking of it as a checklist).

As Pokemon, it's main strategy is Core Enforcer. Ability suppression is so strong and anything looking to check Mega Incineroar has to do so without its ability, as switch ins will trigger both the ability suppression and Analytic boost. Fire/Dragon is amazing dual STAB and the Analytic boost compensates for its lack of an item. It does have to worry about Stealth Rock damage and it will be taking a lot of hits.

Mega Primarina
New Ability: Jormugandr's Wrath - The user's Ground also deal Water damage. No power boost but they are considered STAB.

Base Stats
HP: 80
Attack: 74 -> 99 (+25)
Defense: 74 -> 99 (+25)
Special Attack: 126 -> 146 (+20)
Special Defense: 116 -> 146 (+30)
Speed: 60

New Moves: Thousand Waves, Earth Power
Description: Using Zygarde cells, it can create waves blending its native water powers. While it is a seal, it has taken on more of a resemblance of sea serpent, drawing on the mythical Naga figures (which were water serpents), as well as Jormugandr, the sea serpent from Norse mythology. Yes, both are part of Zygarde's lore so it's kinda cool. Flavor wise, it draws on the Zygarde cells to enhance its singing ability.

Competitive wise, trap something with Thousand Waves and then use it as set up fodder with Calm Mind or to create a free switch with Flip Turn. Feels straight forward.

 

[ARandomPerson]

Alright let's get this text wall started!


Primarina-Mega @ Primarinite
Ability: Harmonic Flow - This Pokemon's attacking sound moves cause the user to be switched out after damaging a target.
Stats: (These are LITERALLY perfect and I will NOT change them)
Hp: 80
Atk: 89 (+5)
Def: 89 (+15)
Spa: 146 (+20)
Spd: 146 (+30)
Spe: 80 (+20)

New Moves: Moonlight, Snarl

Flavor: With the power of mega evolution, Primarina's songs are able to control the flow of currents in the ocean. It makes sure the ocean and it's inhabitants are in harmony, as a sort of guardian. When aggravated, It flows in and out of battle, calling on the currents to boost it's movements and attacks.

Competitive

Primarina finds a niche as an amazing pivot, thanks to it's unique ability, stats and typing, allowing it to switch in on threats like Greninja, Keldeo, Heatran, Volcarona (provided it isn't running giga drain) and Cinderace (provided it isn't running gunk shot). It can pivot on anything without a water immunity, with sparkling aria turning into a pivoting move, plus a new secondary option that reduces special damage in snarl (and no pokemon are immune to it either). With it's relatively slow speed it can often pivot out last, and it's great bulk and added recovery in moonlight allow it to stick around for a long time. One shouldn't underestimate the power of it's form of pivoting either. To quote kero: "There's a reason why U-Turn has 70 BP and very few stab users, there's a reason volt switch is 70 BP and cannot affect a commonly used type (ground), and there's a reason why Flip Turn has only 60 BP." Pokemon like Keldeo ran flip turn on choice sets for it's utility, so imagine Keldeo with a 90 bp special pivoting move. Of course Primarina is nowhere near as powerful since it can't run specs, and because it's encouraged to run bulk investment, as it already has great spa (Can we talk about this thing's stats though? It's just... mesmerizing to look at).

It's main non-mega competition is Tapu Fini, however it's combination of pivoting and recovery is enough to set it apart. Fini has misty terrain though, so it doesn't have to worry about status, which is something Prrimarina cannot do. (Something funny I realized: you would think that since Primarina doesn't have misty terrain, it would run scald more than Fini, but since Primarina's ability encourages running sparkling aria, and because of sparkling aria's secondary effect, it's unlikely to run scald, while Fini runs scald to punish switchins like Rillaboom, which change the terrain.) As such, cleric support is appreciated, but the most viable clerics either share roles or types with Primarina, and I don't think anyone is using defensive support Dragonite?? It can technically run a calm mind set too, dropping sparkling aria for hydro pump or scald, however Fini can do this without having to worry about status, and it doesn't take a mega slot either. Like I did before It really doesn't appreciate status, but as a pivot with no boots, it appreciates hazard control too. I would imagine that it normally struggles against grasses and electrics, as well as other waters like Toxapex, in addition to the aforementioned status and hazards, so ideal partners may be Pokémon like Kyurem, Zapdos, Derrothorn, Lando-t, Gliscor and Dragonite(Let's go support dragonite!!!).

Incineroar @ Incinerite
Ability: High Velocity - This Pokémon’s contact moves multiply the users attacking stat by 1.5x when used, all contact moves gain the effect of dealing recoil equal to 1/3 the damage dealt. Attacks with recoil do not recieve any additional recoil.
Stats:
Hp: 95
Atk: 135 (+20)
Def: 135 (+45)
Spa: 95 (+15)
Spd: 110 (+20)
Spe: 60

New Moves: (Bold=Notable): Seismic Toss, Vital Throw, Storm Throw, Rapid Spin

Flavor: With the power of mega evolution, Incineroar's strength and conditioning are increased to astonishing levels, with the ability to tear steel pylons in half with it's bare hands, provided they haven't melted due to the intense heat generated by Incineroar. These power boosts have come with a cost, however. Incineroar loses any remaining compassion it had (Incineroar's rough and aggressive behavior is its most notable trait, but the way it helps out small Pokémon shows that it has a kind side as well. - Shield Dex Entry), and will attack anything it perceives as a threat, with deadly results. It still recognizes it's trainer's orders, and can be reasoned with, however.

Competitive

Hits very hard, great bulk on paper, and multiple boosting moves including sd, bulk up, flame charge and the new addition of rapid spin, but like darmanitan, itreally doesn't appreciate stealth rock, and will be tanking a lot of hits in addition to recoil, so the bulk is pretty necessary. Most of the moves were added for flavor, but storm throw, with it's guaranteed crit chance, can find niche usage in VGC to hit other fighting-weak pokemon like opposing incineroar or mega empo while bypassing intimidate. Rapid spin provides incineroar with more utility and a different way to boost it's speed (It originally had flame charge, also just, the darkest lariat animation is all the flavor it needs for rapid spin). For temmates, It appreciates hazard control the most, as seen in the calcs below, stealth rocks can be the key to achieve ohkos or 2hkoes on opponents, and due to the health loss, a wish passer is appreciated too if you plan to not set up, and safe entries via pivoting moves are great for maximizing incineroar's longevity.

Calcs: (Hustle is used to simulate high velocity)
252+ Atk Hustle Incineroar Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tapu Fini: 180-214 (52.3 - 62.2%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Hustle Incineroar Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 362-428 (91.8 - 108.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Hustle Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kyurem: 363-427 (92.8 - 109.2%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Hustle Incineroar Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 148-176 (48.6 - 57.8%) -- 96.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Hustle Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Buzzwole: 378-446 (90.4 - 106.6%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO

Decidueye @ Deciduite
Ability: Sharp Reflexes - If this Pokémon faints a target on it's first turn in battle, it's speed is increased 2 stages.
Stats:
Hp: 78
Atk: 127 (+20)
Def: 100 (+25)
Spa: 130 (+30)
Spd: 110 (+10)
Spe: 85 (+15)

New Moves: (Bold=Notable) Detect, Quick Guard
 (in VGC)

Flavor: Decidueye's sensory awareness and marksmanship skills are second to none. When hunting, It fires arrows the speed of sound, causing a sonic bang and stunning it's prey, before firing the finishing shot. In battle, It sneaks in and out of trees and shadows without making a sound, Often appearing as if it materialized out of thin air.

Competitive: Coming Soon

EDIT: Added incineroar's competitive description

 

[LordThemberchaud]

I like Wikipedia

Decidueye

Mega Decidueye
Type: Flying/Ghost
Stats: 78 / 112 (+5) / 125 (+50) / 100 / 125 (+25) / 90 (+20)
Ability: Spirit Guardian (When this Pokemon switches out, the Pokemon that comes in takes 1/2 damage from attacks.)
Additional moves: None
Description: To get inspiration, I looked on Bulbapedia and found that Decidueye is based off of the 'aumakua. Here's the description given on Wikipedia:

In Hawaiian mythology, an ʻaumakua (/ʔaʊmɑːˈkuə/; often spelled aumakua, plural, 'aumākua) is a personal or family god that originated as a deified ancestor, and which takes on physical forms such as spirit vehicles. An 'aumakua may manifest as a shark, owl, bird, octopus, or inanimate objects such as plants or rocks.​

I imagine that the Decidueye decides to shield it's team mates from harm when it comes in.
Competitively, Mega Decidueye will be a great pivot, as it will allow frailer Pokemon to come in more easily. I decided to give it the Flying type, as owls and spirits are both known to be able to fly, and it give Decidueye a weakness to Stealth Rocks.

InCENAroar

Mega Incineroar
Type: Fire/Fighting
Stats: 95 / 155 (+40) / 110 (+20) / 100 (+20) / 90 / 80 (+20)
Ability: Attitude Adjustment (This Pokemon's throwing moves deal 1.2x damage. If this Pokemon KOs a Pokemon with a throwing move, it gains +1 Atk.)
Move additions: Slam, Storm Throw, Vital Throw
Description: Incineroar is a wrestler. You know who else is a wrestler? John Cena. Here's what Wikipedia states on John Cena (that is relevant to my submission):

During WWE's change from TV-14 to TV-PG in mid-2008, the name of Cena's finishing move, the FU, was changed to the Attitude Adjustment... Cena has portrayed a heroic character throughout his WWE career, except for a villainous run in 2002–2003.​

Attitude Adjustment? That sounds cool. So I went and looked that up on Wikipedia:

Fireman's Carry Takeover

The wrestler performs the fireman's carry from a standing position, then tosses the opponent off their shoulders as they drop down to their knees, causing the opponent to land on their back. The standing variant is a higher impact version of the move because the wrestler falls from a greater height, and is a move closely associated with John Cena through his use of it as his finishing maneuver, which he calls the Attitude Adjustment.

That's what I decided to do for the ability. The Fighting Type is there because there aren't enough Fire Fighting starters John Cena is usually portrayed in a heroic manner, which contrasts with the Dark type.

Throwing moves (Slam, Storm Throw, Vital Throw, and Circle Throw are the only ones I can think of) now hit extra hard, and let it potentially snowball with the attack buff.

Primarina

Mega Primarina
Type: Water/Fairy
Stats: 80 / 94 (+20) / 126 (+52) / 126 / 126 (+10) / 78 (+18)
Ability: Colorful Bubbles (Whenever this Pokemon uses a Fairy type move, it uses Bubble.)
Movepool Additions: None
Description: Remember that one Pokemon Sun and Moon anime episode where Lana is trying to get Brionne to make colorful bubbles? Somehow, I remembered it despite not watching it in like a year. Anyway, this ability is supposed to be based off of that. It's goal is to set up with Calm Mind and then destroy stuff. Moonblast (and Dazzling Gleam in Doubles) will hit exceptionally hard due to Colorful Bubbles.

 

[shinxthe17!]

Alola kids

Incineroar-Mega
Fire/Dark
Ability: Counter Break

Ability Description

Based on SSBU Incineroar's Down Special, Revenge.
When the user is hit by a physical attack, reduces damage taken by 50% and its next attack is a critical hit. Only usable once-per-switch-in.

New moves: Yawn (learned through Litten/Torracat)
New moves that are there for pure flavor, because Incineroar uses moves similar to them in SSBU: Seismic Toss, Rolling Kick, Sky Uppercut

Stats:
HP: 95
Atk: 155 (+40)
Def: 130 (+40)
SpA: 80
SpD: 120 (+30)
Spe: 50 (-10)

f l a v o r
Of all the Pokemon that are also Smash Bros characters, Incineroar is the sole remaining Pokemon that hasn't had a Mega yet (laughs in Ash-Gren), and you know what? I'm just gonna turn Mega Incineroar into Smash Ultimate Incineroar, fuck it!

Incineroar is notorious for being the slowest character in the game, even slower than Ganondorf, and that's saying something. It is also, however, one of the hardest-hitting characters in the game, being able to dish out mountains of damage with its Smash attacks and more importantly, its Side-B, Alolan Whip.

But what makes Alolan Whip so good? Well, for starters, it's a command grab that has powerful knockback, capable of interrupting the actions of the opponents. On the other hand, Down-B.

Revenge, according to the official Smash Wiki, functions as a counterattack, albeit much differently: Incineroar retaliates with a weak burst of flame after receiving significantly reduced damage from the retaliated attack, and its next move is powered up. This is the basis for my Mega Incineroar sub.

Obligatory Long AF Essay

the essay in question (was significantly shortened due to the removal of slack off:

This Mega is moreso there for the fun factor and also serves as an alternate to Buzzwole to some extent? The main difference here is that Incineroar-Mega also has decent Special bulk and a better movepool to boot, with the capability of shutting down physical attackers with burns and having incredible pivoting with Parting Shot.

However, being weak to Rocks hinders its capabilities quite a bit, forcing it to delete 1/4 of its health bar every time it steps on a pebble. The slow speed tier also makes Incineroar incapable of reaping the benefits of Counter Break, as the damage reduction only lasts for one hit. Hence, hazard removal, slow pivoting and high-skill prediction plays are necessary whenever using Incineroar-Mega. It also has no recovery, so Wish support is advisable.

It's not the most meta-defining Pokemon out there, but with the right teammates and maintenance to back it up, you'll find Incineroar-Mega a really fun and interesting Mega to play around with, all while being completely faithful to its Smash Bros counterpart.

 

[SimpyShrimp]

Mega Incineroar

New Ability: Exacerbate
(Crit if opponents has been damaged this turn)
Type: Fire/Dark

New stats:
HP: 95
Attack: 120(+5)
Defense: 100(+10)
Special Attack: 100(+20)
Special Defense: 100(+10)
Speed: 115(+55)

New moves: Court Change, Coaching, Pursuit
Description:
-Single: Yeah, there are a few ways to trigger this ability in single. Either opponent recoil/crash hit rocky helmet(but it can't since incineroar can't hold a rocky helmet) and hazards. In incineroar's case, hazard is the quickest way to trigger this ability. Just set your own rock or steal opponent's rock, and sweep afterward.
-Double: Incineroar's favourite meta -VGC. Incineroar is infamously known for stat lowering and its pre-mega ability -Intimidate. So how to make it somewhat equivalently good? Make it an excellent stallbreaker. We all know that crit always has been an important thing in VGC, and this thing may now crit its opponent easily. The way this ability triggers in double is a bit more fun in single, such as hitting the same target twice (fake out + move) or redirecting opponent's moves into a rocky helmet, and if they made contact, this thing can crit that opponent.|

Mega Decidueye
New Ability: Failsafe
(If user's move fail, use haze)
Type:Grass/Ghost

New stats:
HP: 78
Attack: 111(+4)
Defense: 115(+40)
Special Attack: 100
Special Defense: 115(+15)
Speed: 111(+41)

New moves:Grass Whistle, Will-O-Wisp
Description:
So, good bulk, good speed tier, decent attack, being able to set up. Is this a set up sweeper? Well, yeah, if you'd like to reset your own stat boost and set up again. The ability which seems to be hinder for a set up sweeper, is actually quite good for a fast wall that stop set up sweeper. Using its move grass whistle, it can either reset opponent's stat boost or make them fell asleep, stoping them from stat boosting. The same goes with will o wisp, beside the fact that it'd "permanently" halves the power of opponent's physical moves. Using moves with non-perfect accuracy, this thing will almost likely has no drawback.

 

[Exploziff]

Here we go, the Alola Trio is here. For my subs i decided to center them around their respective signature moves. Thos move being currently overshadowed by better option on base form ( scald/Hpump on prima, poltegeist on deci and Koff on inci), made me want to give a new life to this rather unused move.


Primarina : Collab with Bencaua
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...through-slate-34.3671140/page-67#post-8971624


My take on the mega :

Relatively self explanatory, the pokemon is based on opera singer. We probably all have that vision of opera singer breaking glass with just their voice and so i wanted to traduce that in this ability.

Competitively speaking, this ability allow primarina to act as an offensive defogger. It differentiate greatly from Fini due to its sheer power and its ability to not "lose a turn" to defog. It obviously come with the downside of it being stopped by water absorb (in the case of sparkling aria) and soundproof mon giving some counterplay to the relatively free defog.
Stat wise , primarina good special bulk and improved physical bulk help it take on threat such as ash gren, heatran or buzzwole. The increase in physical bulk allow for CM variant to be harder to take down once enough investment are put into def (For exemple it can live 2EQ from LO garchomp with full def investment).
The extra point in attack where put there for balance sake as Primarina is already an incredibly strong mon with a powerfull Typing and stats.
Snarl is being added as a tool for VGC , while the hazard aren't that common here, Primarina's ability can double snarl utility by removing screen while lowering the opponent spa giving primarina a great utility boost in that format.

Moving on to the archer:


Decidueye @ Decidueyeite
Ability: Night Haunt (This pokemon take 3/4 damage from trapped target)
Hp : 78
Atk : 127 (+20)
Def : 103 (+28)
SpA : 117 (+17)
SpD : 113 (+13)
Spe : 92 (+22)

The name of the ability come from a playword beetween haunted and hunt, to reflect the Ghost aspected of Decidueye as well as the hunting aspect of archer and owl. Ability wise, it take advantage of Spririt shackle to gain extra bulk allowing it for easier setup.
Coupled with roost and setup move decidueye can easily setup on even strong attacker granted they don't have a super effective move against you once trapped. Ghost move being pretty spammable, mono attacker with only Spirit shackle is also probably a good option, as you can apir it with roost , set up and substitute to setup on weaker mon.
Overall decidueyes is an all rounder with mixed offense allowing for really wacky mixed set , special or physical setup , or even defensive set. The speed is just enough to outspeed landorus-T, while the def as been put low enough to allow LO kartana to 2HKO with Koff even if trapped.

Finally, last but not least. Our favorite VGC mon is ready to rumble !


Incineroar (Dark/fire)
Ability : Cheap-Heat (When attacking a opposing mon with a positive stat change , apply the taunt effect for 3 turn)
Hp : 95
Atk : 145 (+30)
Def : 110 (+20)
SpA : 95 (+15)
SpD : 110 (+20)
Spe : 75 (+15)

Based on catch , i wanted an ability that remind that aspect of incineroar being a heel , taunting is opponent. I also wanted to create synergie with its signature move ignoring opponent stat change, therefore by combining both you can have a perfect counter to opponent bulky setter that rely on stuff like CM/BU alongside recovery move and huge bulk to sweep late game.
The name of the ability came from a catch term where an heel trash talk the public to taunt them (And also there is Heat in the name and you know inci is fire so yeah )

 

[Rosiario]

Stop to listen, or be silenced.

Mega Primarina
Primarinite

Ability - Staccato
When this Pokemon cures an enemy of a status condition, it replaces that status condition with paralysis.

HP: 80 (+0)
ATK: 74 (+0)
DEF: 96 (+22)
SPA: 144 (+18)
SPD: 133 (+17)
SPE: 103 (+43)

New Moves: Purify

Description

Mega Primarina is the star of the show - capturing your mind in rapture, and leaving you speechless with its song. Working as a fast and disruptive support by providing Scald burns and speed control paralysis with its ability, a traditional bulky water with great special bulk and an excellent Water/Fairy defensive typing, offensive options with Calm Mind and Sparkling Aria, and even doubles support, it truly is a soloist that can do it all.

Mega Primarina can utilize both its signature move, Sparkling Aria, as well as the new move Purify with its ability. Sparkling Aria works best on offensive sets with ally Wisp users, allowing it to choose whether it wants to bonus protection from the burn or if it wants to outspeed the opponent. Purify is a lot more widely useful, as it can interact with anything, not just burns, including the paralysis from this ability. This means Purify is just Recover to Primarina, along with the option of converting any other status into Paralysis. Did you get your Scald burn but don't need the attack drop due to it being a special attacker? Do you need to get around sleep clause because the enemy screwed up your Spore plans? Did you want to use Toxic Spikes as Sticky Webs but better? This Primarina can perform a wide variety of functions for you and add a lot to any team, so show up or show out because this one's taking the stage.

 

[Rcook]

Mega Incineroar
New Ability: Dancer
Type: Fire/Dark

New stats:
HP: 95
Attack: 80 (-35)
Defense: 110 (+20)
Special Attack: 125 (+45)
Special Defense: 110 (+20)
Speed: 110 (+50)
(630)

New moves: Fiery Dance
Description: Incineroar is always after strength however after seeing some other pokemon dancing Incineroar had it's world open. Instead of focusing on strength Incineroar has a new passion in dance. Upon mega evolving Incineroar becomes much quicker and with it's world open it has gained more mental strength, refusing to hide it's true passion, dance. Incineroar gets Nasty Plot as well as having decent stab moves in Fire Blast and Dark Pulse with coverage in Scoring Sands and Focus Blast. 125 spatk with Nasty Plot and Fire Blast can deal decent amount of damage however Incineroar can be revenge killed easily with weaknesses to Stealth Rocks taking 25% on switch in being unable to hold HDB and a weakness to fighting and not having any way to boost it's speed makes it hard for Incineroar to sweep and having an almost always useless ability in singles and normal Incin being better in VGC help to alleviate issues such as it's bulk which could be concerning with it's offensive stats.

Mega Decidueye
New Ability: Sharpened Leaves (All Grass moves that make contact deal double damage on crit and have their crit rate increased by one stage)
Type: Grass/Ghost

New stats:
HP: 78
Attack: 127 (+20)
Defense: 85 (+10)
Special Attack: 130 (+30)
Special Defense: 100
Speed: 110 (+40)
(630)

New moves: Focus Blast, Pursuit, Sacred Sword
Description: Some Decidueye have realized they aren’t good at closer quarters combat and as such have honed their leaf like feathers to be more sharp and dangerous. When a Decidueye mega evolves this gets amplified allowing it to make it‘s feathers as sharp as steel, however this makes them heavier so they can’t be shot by it’s bow-like arms. I thought this ability is not broken since grass is not a great stab that can be spammed freely. By forcing it to be contact moves it really only makes it leaf blade which already has a crit rate boost so Mega Decidueye can hit hard on a crit giving merit to the physical sets and sacred sword allows it to hit steel types easily however it is a weaker move without stab so it shouldn’t be too broken.