Pet Mod Fusion Evolution Under Used (Conclusion | Fully Playable! | Please read posts #1, #3 and #4 | Not open for submissions!)

[earl]

With PMPL coming up, I thought I would do a sort of reflection on each winning submission through the eras, starting with:

SLATE 1​

90/97/114/100/86/65
Porous: Water Absorb+Unaware

Volquag

Volquag @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Porous
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald / Steam Eruption
- Toxic
- Recover
- Flamethrower / Defog

Volquag, the original fusion. Originally a nicheless fatmon, Volquag received a buff in the form of Unaware (much to bob's delight). This has allowed it to retain viability as the only real Unaware option for stall teams unless one wishes to draft Aromarel from FERU. Not much to say here, as it does basically exactly what you would expect it to do and has rarely cared about the metagame around it once it got buffed.

75/51/121/109/126/57
Despicable: This Pokemon's attacks are critical if the opponent is burned or poisoned.

Toxalure

Toxalure @ Leftovers
Ability: Despicable
EVs: 164 HP / 252 SpA / 92 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hex
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover

Another slate 1 stinker, Toxalure has essentially done nothing of note throughout its FEUU career. While it has received a favorable stat rearrangement in a past balance slate it simply does not have a meaningful niche as a wallbreaker or a wall. What's even more tragic about this fusion is that there is little that can be done to fix it- While it could swap out Merciless for Regenerator that would completely void its concept, and it cannot drop in FERU for fear of outclassing the similar Vishitomb. Truly a despicable existence for this little guy.

65/145/117/50/74/80
Monarchy Enforcement: Queenly Majesty+Sheer Force

Kingstar

Kingtsar @ Life Orb
Ability: Monarchy Enforcement
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Power Whip
- Triple Axel / Agility
- Swords Dance

Wow, slate 1 had 3 waters and they all sucked pretty hard. Kingstar was the epitome of a conservative submission, boasting pretty good attack but lacking the truly-nuclear Sheer Force that one would expect from a Kingler fusion. Unsurprisingly, Kingstar fell off rather quickly and soon found itself getting its attack and speed maximized to an eye-opening 145/91. Still, however, it saw little usage as a wallbreaker due to competition from other physical waters and grasses like Maroligatr and Arctovic, who boasted priority, unresisted coverage, and/or Bolt Beak and a million speed. The council found fit to give it even more POWER, so it saw itself getting buffed again with the (long-awaited) addition of Sheer Force at the cost of 11 points of Speed. Unfortunately, a lot of its best moves don't actually abuse Sheer Force, but the nuclear Liquidation is enough to attract at least a little usage as a wallbreaker. It's still mostly outclassed by Maroligatr but at least hit hits hard asf now

60/50/100/95/80/57
Growth Veil: Flower Veil + Regenerator

Tanette

Tanette @ Eviolite
Ability: Growth Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Moonblast
- Knock Off / Aromatherapy
- Leech Seed / Synthesis
- Sleep Powder / Synthesis

Finally, a fusion that has had a real, tangible impact on the FEUU metagame. Tanette came out of the gate strong, checking the myriad Waters and physical attackers in the early metagame. With its great eviolite-boosted bulk, an immaculate defensive ability (pour one out for Toxalure), and a deep utility movepool, Tanette has been preforming admirably since essentially day way. Perhaps too admirably early on, where the regen core of Tanette+Slowton answered essentially everything in the metagame with ease. However, Tanette's long streak of high-tier status would soon be broken by the Thornbro buff, which rendered it a much more splashable physically bulky Grass-type regen pivot and leaving Tanette restricted mostly to stall, where its access to Aromatherapy is greatly appreciated. The little ball of flowers had a good run either way.

92/62/97/115/100/50
Surgeon Eye: Regenerator + Analytic

Slowton

Slowton @ Assault Vest
Ability: Surgeon Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 72 SpA / 184 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Sludge Bomb
- Scald / Ice Beam
- Flamethrower

Last but certainly not least, behold Slowton, the first tier king of FEUU. It is really hard to find a flaw in this Pokemon: It hits disgustingly hard, has great bulk all around, and it has a typing that is great both offensively and defensively, especially for checking Special attackers. Its main weakness is its low speed paired with a lethal soil allergy, but its infinite coverage paired with Regenerator left it rarely inconvenienced by incoming grounds. Not to mention Tanette existed to wall any Ground-type for eternity, ready to swap right back to Slowton later. While Slowton's Assault Vest set was the most popular, it also had Black Sludge Teleport sets, Nasty Plot wallbreaking, and Choice Specs hole-punching. It could really do it all. However, Slowton's dominance led to the creation of several submissions designed to snuff it out like Manicuno, Grousle, and Glidol, many of which themselves went on to become metagame staples. Nowadays Slowton is still quite good, but the metagame's power level has left it just a little too weak or frail (depending on your EV investment) to function as a true top tier. Some would also argue the Ground-immune Eeluk is just as good, if not better than Slowton as a Poison/Electric. Fun fact: Slowton was originally going to be Slowzone. Imagine that timeline.

 

[earl]

SLATE 2
​

76/124/109/76/59/109
Hustle

Flaant

Flaant @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grav Apple
- Stomping Tantrum
- Stone Edge
- Hone Claws

Slate 2's "meta" was still far from being formed or even playable, but at least as long as I can remember Flaant was always considered a meme pick. While it has effectively the highest attack in the mod, it also possesses the worst type combo in the game (both offensively and defensively), awkward coverage, and the always-unappealing Hustle. For those unaware, Flaant has a vanilla ability because both components are Hustle here. In return for no funny ability it did get +5 in each stat, though. Somewhere down the line Flaant received +10 Attack and -10 SpD but that didn't really change anything for it either way. It could obviously become way, way better if the Bug-type was replaced with the Steel-type, but it seems most players (including me) are fine with Flaant as a joke pick that occasionally bulldozes teams with a free turn and some luck.

115/82/110/70/110/112
Inner Focus

Umbat

Umbat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 Spe
Impish Nature
- Foul Play
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog

Poor Umbat. While it has disgusting defensive stats, a great defensive typing (in a vacuum, at least), disturbingly-high speed, and STAB Foul Play, it has only ever been particularly good at the very start of the mod. This is due to the fact that the popular offensive Grounds, Ghosts, and Psychics throughout later slates just happened to have secondary STABs that beat it. Back during the Grousle meta it was a laughable Ground check (and nowadays the best offensive Ground, Avarupt-Mega, is an Ice-type), Manicuno has never been bad and absolutely smokes it with Ice Beam, and Grimmlurk's Play Rough punched through it with ease. At least most of its nemeses eventually fazed out of the top metagame, but Manicuno is a huge threat to this day and Umbat therefore continues to be a suboptimal defensive pick for most teams.

129/105/79/105/79/91
Sand Rush

129/145/99/145/89/81
Sand Force

Chomplin

Chomplim @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast / Stealth Rock
- Strength Sap

Chomplim @ Garchompite
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch / Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance

My personal favorite of the early slate Pokemon! Chomplin was originally conceived with some sort of Tankchomp niche in mind, as its original ability had a Rough Skin effect. This niche was rarely exploited, though, as the mega fully outclassed it in every role it attempted. The primary set at the time was a simple STABs+SR+Sap set that stuck around and made good progress against most teams. Other sets like SubCM and SD also cropped up from time to time, but it was always the mega running those sets. This eventually changed once the base form received a reworked ability in Sand Rush (Unburden+Sand Veil), allowing it to fit into sand teams as a sweeper. Ironically, it still faced competition from its mega, which served as a valuable breaker on those same sand teams. In the current metagame Chomplin is still solid enough, but is mostly chained to the Sand archetype. The mega's classic Stealth Rock set isn't bad on non-sand teams, though, if you grow weary of Mega Avarupt.

88/102/99/92/71/111
Eye for an Eye: This Pokemon blocks Dark-type moves and bounces them back to the user.

Xotalion

Xotalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Eye for an Eye
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Roost

4 fusions into this slate recap and this is the first one with a custom ability... Anyways, Xotalion was always an interesting presence in the metagame. Originally a Psychic/Steel type with lower Defense, Xotalion was a flexible offensive pick that severely blanked some Pokemon that would otherwise check it by virtue of its ability. Xotalion's best set was (and still is) SD+Roost, but fully defensive sets, special sets, and choiced sets were not uncommon. Eventually Xotalion found itself powercrept both offensively and defensively, as its low bulk and mediocre offenses made it a pretty unappealing Steel-type for most teams. It was eventually retyped into a Flying/Steel, which alongside +10 Defense made it a much better defensive pick for offensive teams in need of a Steel. While it still competes heavily with Corveot, it has a lot more offensive presence than the base form and doesn't have the opportunity cost of the mega form. Beyond Swords Dance sets, Scarf is also pretty popular, and bouncing Knock Off will always be great. Solid B+ mon.

69/109/72/109/72/122
Natural Heal: Natural Cure+Regenerator

Miemie

Miemie @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Heal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- U-turn

The standout winner of Slate 2, Miemie! Boasting incredible Speed, solid offenses, and debatably the best ability in the whole mod, Miemie has never been bad in FEUU. It was perhaps strongest during peak Manicuno meta, where its Assault Vest set was just about the only check for everyone's favorite apebird that existed at the time. Outside of that short stint as a defensive staple Miemie has mostly just been pivoting around and surprising opponents with its extremely deep coverage movepool. Nothing scarier than watching your Glidol drop to an Ice Beam. It has fallen off over time as other fast pivots like Kokovoir, Zerclef, and especially Ninjacross entered the mod, but it has always seen decent usage. Miemie has actually picked up a bit recently, as the latest balance change gave it a whopping 1 point of speed to let it outspeed Zeraclef (yes, this has shockingly made it significantly better).

75/85/115/105/125/40
Overseeing Monarch: Frisk+Regenerator

Dusking

Dusking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Overseeing Monarch
EVs: 252 HP / 84 SpA / 172 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Scald
- Ice Beam / Focus Blast

Dusking probably has the most extensive (and dramatic!) balance history of any Pokemon in this mod. Dusking was originally a Ghost/Psychic type with King of Power Points (haha), which was: Pressure + restore 1/3rd of this Pokemon's move PP on switch-out. It was unsurprisingly not very good at all. It was therefore the first fusion to be rebalanced in the mod, with a survey taking place to see whether or not it would be changed to Ghost/Poison. The poll ended in a draw with a suspiciously large amount of votes, which everyone would later learn was the result of bob utilizing a VPN to spoof votes. Seriously. It was eventually retyped in spite of the voter fraud. After another long stretch of being complete ass it finally got its current ability, but this still was not enough for it to see any real use in FEUU. This was due to its poor offensive presence (it had 90 SpA at the time) and the prevalence of Slowton. Even more time later FEUU ended and FERU began, where Dusking found itself dropping into FERU with an overhauled statline. Somewhat ironically, this incarnation of Dusking is the most viable it has ever been in FEUU, where it is a decent sidegrade to Slowton on some teams. Either way its meta presence is still pretty low, but at least its a high tier FERU pick. Not a bad place for the King of PP to be, all things considered.

110/100/80/80/100/74
Porous: Water, Ice and Fire moves deal damage to this Pokemon with a halved attacking stat.

Jelliswine

Jelliswine @ Leftovers
Ability: Porous Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off / Will-O-Wisp / Poltergeist
- Stealth Rock
- Recover

Jelliswine is a pretty straightforward defensive Pokemon. While it shared a typing with Chomplin, its ability made it a great counter to most Slowton. However, its original statline was a lot less optimized (105/95/85/97/87/75) which made it pretty vulnerable to Slowton's Shadow Ball, if it elected to run that. It was also just very passive and lacked the raw bulk to check most Pokemon, so Mega Chomplin was usually picked over it even with the worse Slowton MU. It still saw usage as a necessary-but-bad Slowton and Manicuno answer, but after better checks to those two were introduced it was quickly abandoned. After the Sun Meta tours it was buffed to its current statline, which is a lot better in virtually every way and made it an actually usable Pokemon on teams that need its unique defensive profile.

 

[earl]

SLATE 3
​

89/116/65/95/65/118
Inthickinator: This Pokemon's moves ignore Substitutes, Screens, and foe's ability-based resistances.

Pigapult

Pigapult @ Life Orb
Ability: Inthicktrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Flare Blitz
- Thunder Punch
- Dragon Dance

Slate 3's first addition was the humble Pigapult. While it has received a few buffs over time (namely more attack and a better ability), it has never been particularly meta and really just lacks the stats to pull off any role particularly well. Probably didn't help that it entered alongside an Accelrock user (more on that later). It was probably at its best in early meta Screens HO, where it made a solid DD sweeper with a great speed tier once set up. As meta staples like Glidol, Weezlord, and Whimsilotic where introduced Pigapult only spiraled further into irrelevancy. And I haven't even mentioned Altarizard-X, which is essentially a straight upgrade to Pigapult if you have a free mega slot. It's still usable on screens, but it is nowhere near a staple for that niche archetype. It also wasn't dropped to FERU due to being seen as too strong for the slate 5 FERU meta, but nowadays I'm sure it could drop with no trouble.

105/90/90/80/90/90
Reboot System: RKS System+Regenerator

Silvino

Silvino-Steel @ Steel Memory
Ability: Reboot System
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Wish
- U-turn
- Knock Off

Not mentioning the current mega because it is the definition of irrelevant. Silvino originally entered FEUU with a different, much worse ability, which was basically no ability in exchange for any type to be selected in the teambuilder. This was a pretty novel idea, especially due to the fact that it also meant the mega form could be used with any type too. Steel/Fairy, anyone? However, Silvino was still bad. Very bad. It had poor offenses, incredibly awkward stab coverage (as you were not running memories), and a crippling reliance on Wish. Whenever a competent Pokemon of a previously-unused type entered the mod, Silvino's relevance further diminished. One notable moment was Silvino-Fire being used to check Manicuno during the Slate 5 meta, but that was just a case of no other defensive Fire-types existing. Once the FERU drop slate rolled around Silvino was dropped there with a much, much better ability and more optimized statline, where it functions as the ultimate flex pick. Regen+FERU drop is really the best way to fix these historic shitmons

77/118/87/57/87/105
Tough Claws

Lycanserker-Dusk

Lycanserker-Dusk @ Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Accelerock
- Swords Dance

Big Catdog here is definitely slate 3's big winner, and it's not hard to see why. Tough Claws, great offensive stats, and a tight movepool established Lycanserker as a threat from day one. Particularly notable was boosted Accelrock, which was a great asset against the few Pokemon that outsped it and was generally great utility. Both Band and Swords Dance sets see good usage to this day, with Lycanserker easily adapting to most meta shifts thanks to its immaculate psuedo triple STAB. It does have some flaws, however. As the meta has gotten bulkier its awful defensive typing has become more of an actual downside, and there are a fair amount of popular physical walls that pretty safely check it. Particularly awful is Cofazor, who uses standard Lycanserker as setup bait. Regardless, a strong Accelrock will always be a valuable tool and Lycanserker's continued usage shows that.

80/80/79/112/109/103
Magic Surge: Summons Magic Room for 5 turns when switching in.

80/140/89/112/109/133
Scrappy

Tapu Lop

tapulop @ Lopunnite
Ability: Magic Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Triple Axel
- U-turn
- Fake Out

Base Tapu Lop is a famously bad Pokemon. While the ability is intriguing on the surface, there is really no way to truly abuse the effect and outside of that its just a mediocre offensive pivot with crunchy Klutz. Eventually, Tapu Lop's mega was freed while Tapu Lop itself was demoted to FERU (where it still sucks, mind you). Mega Tapu Lop is essentially just Mega Lopunny, which is awesome, but it's a Mega Lopunny in a metagame where arguably the best Pokemon is a Normal/Ghost ability nullifier, which is a lot less rad. Still a solid Mega, just nowhere near as insane as it looks on the surface.

85/125/80/95/85/100
Multi Antlers: User takes half damage when switching in or at full HP (stacks).

Dragontler

Dragontler @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multi Antlers
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 72 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Roost
- Extreme Speed
- Defog
- Earthquake

Oh, I like this fusion! Dragontler wasn't used too much when it initially dropped, as it had a mediocre typing and an ability that initially only halved damage when switching in. It also wasn't a very good Dragon Dance user when its best STAB was Extreme Speed, and it unfortunately didn't get Swords Dance. This all changed, however, once priority spam was discovered as a legitimate offensive archetype in the early metagame. The idea was simple- Run Banded Lycanserker and Dragontler on the same team to chip each others shared checks while cleaning in the lategame. This really only worked because the Steels that were around were pretty frail, but it was a fun and viable archetype nonethless. Once we got real steels and other physical titans like Weezlord this strategy disappeared, but Dragontler still sees a little bit of play. Nowadays it works as a neat compression pick, aided a fair bit by its buffed ability. It can essentially switch into anything while at full HP and then threaten with Extreme Speed, which will always be a niche in itself.

103/73/73/118/73/106
Concussion: While this Pokemon is active, the opponents' held items have no effect.

Eternabat

Eternabat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Concussion
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dynamax Cannon
- Flamethrower
- Nasty Plot
- Roost

Eternabat has a pretty funny history when it comes to its ability. Originally, the ability halved the effect of opposing held item. This was both mediocre and a coding nightmare, so it was changed a treating opponents' stat boosts as if they were half of their current amount. Also pretty confusing and mediocre. Eventually, it became the much better (and simpler!) current version. Outside of the ability history, though, there's not much to say about Umbat (wait). It came into a metagame with AV Slowton and Lycanserker, and the metagame hasn't gotten any friendlier as time has gone on. It's a fine offensive pick, but there just isn't enough there to justify it most of the time.

 

[earl]

SLATE 4​

95/125/90/75/90/60
Not Funny: No Guard + Prankster

Grimmlurk

Grimmlurk @ Choice Band
Ability: Not Funny
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Poltergeist
- Play Rough
- Dynamic Punch
- Trick

Slate 4 was quite the historic slate! Grimmlurk holds the (dubious) title of "Most Broken Playable Fusion" with its original incarnation. This was all due to its original ability, Open Handed, which gave all of its moves +1 priority as long as it wasn't holding an item. Yeah. Unsurprisingly, this 125 Attack 9000 Speed mon was grossly overpowered and received the first actual balance change in the mod, where its ability was changed to what it is now. After this nerf it was still pretty solid, if mostly relegated to being a screens lead. Once Sableior dropped it became outclassed in that regard and languished in near-total obscurity until recently, where its CB set has seen some usage as a physical wallbreaker that can cleanly bypass Weezlord and cripple other walls with Trick. Historically relevant, otherwise unremarkable.

100/112/74/97/88/97
Fowl Behavior: This Pokemon's Special Attack is 1.5x, but it can only select the first move it executes.

Manicuno-Galar

Manicuno-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Fowl Behavior
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Freezing Glare
- Focus Blast
- Freeze-Dry

Here it is: FEUU's first Ice-type (Silvino-Ice notwithstanding), Slate 8's Catalyst, Psyspam's Spear, :monkesmart: itself, Manicuno. As far as the fusion's function is concerned, I don't think too much needs to be explained—It's a scaled-down special version of Darmanitan-Galar, with all the crazy coverage and a nifty secondary STAB. Both Specs and Scarf were very potent from day 1, where a well-played Manicuno could OHKO its way to victory. It also paired beautifully with Slowton, as it had exactly 0 problems breaking down the Ground-types that (sort of) stopped ol' Surgeon Eye. Eventually some actual checks were added, specifically Mesflame, so Manicuno stopped being quite as broken. Much later down the line Kingdeedee, and by extension Psychic Terrain, came into the meta and Manicuno once again found itself unstoppable with its truly-nuclear Expanding Force. However, PsySpam as an archetype had and still has a host of issues and is therefore not a particularly dominant team, but Manicuno alone still works on a wide range of teams (thanks to the tier's great hazard control) and has comfortably sat in the A ranks the entire mod. A fitting position for the mod's de-facto mascot.

67/130/100/55/100/99
Pillage: On switch-in, swaps ability with the opponent.

Yacian-Crowned

Yacian-Crowned @ Leftovers
Ability: Pillage
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Poltergeist
- Ice Fang
- Swords Dance

Yacian is a strange case. It possesses arguably the best (and most-hated) ability in the mod, a top-tier typing, great coverage, and a very well-rounded statline. However, it's never been any better than decent throughout the mod. Why is that? For starters, while it was advertised as a solution to the much-maligned Slowton+Tanette core with its STAB combo and Regenerator-stealing capability, it mostly failed at this job when Slowton could roast it with Flamethrower. Outside of that particular role it struggled offensive due to its subpar original 89 Speed and it struggled defensively due to its mediocre bulk. Worst of all, its lack of Stealth Rock made it a very, very awkward Ground to fit onto most teams. Now, it wasn't awful or anything at this time, when its Assault Vest set could at least stave off Slowton and Manicuno for a bit, but it wasn't anything notable. Once defensive staples like Mesflame, Glidol, Whimsilotic, and Porygrigus dropped offensive Yacian found itself thoroughly lacking, and its defensive stats weren't getting any more appealing. Eventually it received a very favorable stat shuffle, giving it 5 more attack and 10 more speed. With these better offensive stats it sees some use but it's not a particularly consistent nor threatening presence on most teams. Unfortunately best remembered for creating the ability that later fusions would employ to incredible effect (look forward to Porygrigus in slate... 20).

80/105/90/75/100/95
Magnetic Waves: Galvanize + Levitate

Cryogolem-Alola

Cryogolem @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Magnetic Waves
EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Triple Axel
- Volt Switch
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

I like Cryogolem quite a bit! Initially it was pretty overhyped, where its "unblockable" Rapid Spin and BoltBeam STAB combo drew a lot of players before most of them dropped it in favor of the other Slate 4 Ice and/or Slate 1 Electric. Unfortunately, its poor defensive typing, mediocre power, and abysmal survivability (courtesy of Double Edge) made it an inconsistent option. At least it could boom hard. However, several slates later, Cryogolem found itself with an 80% winrate in a highly favorable meta. This was due to the Glidol meta, where Slowton was slowly falling off and Cryogolem could fill in as the Electric of choice, shredding teams that relied on Glidol+Grass as their Electric counterplay. Most important, however, was the new set that had been innovated for it (see above), that dropped previous moveset staples like Ice Shard and Double Edge in favor of pivoting and recovery, making it both splashable and surprisingly sturdy. With Levitate it could repeatedly switch into Glidol and make good progress, whether that be through Spinning, grabbing momentum, or just spamming Triple Axel. Eventually the meta became less Glidol-centric and even bulkier, and that by extension made Cryogolem less of an anti-meta juggernaut. Regardless, Glidol is still great so Cryogolem has its moments.

150/120/70/85/70/85
Doggy's Maw: This Pokemon's Dragon, Normal, and Fighting moves ignore type-based immunities. This Pokemon's Normal attacks deal 1.5x damage.

Stoudrago

Stoudrago @ Choice Band
Ability: Doggy's Maw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Body Slam
- Superpower
- Explosion

You gotta feel sympathy for Stoudrago. For exactly 5 slates, Stoudrago got to live out its dreams as a midtier breaker that clicked Outrage like it was Gen 5. Then, Slate 9 came along and added Weezlord, a 151/97 physical bulk Dark/Fairy with Neutralizing Gas. Suddenly Stoudrago isn't clicking Outrage like it's Gen 5. Weezlord has never been anything but incredible for this mod's whole run (except for when it was bugged), so Stoudrago has festered as a thoroughly suboptimal pick. Way down the line it got the humorous buff of 1.5x damage on all of its Normal attacks. This didn't help its awful Weezlord matchup due to NGas being Ngas, and the addition of Porygrigus also further made the buff mostly pointless, but at least it can Boom like its gen 4 in matchups without those 2.

 

[AquaticPanic]

Important announcement from council now regarding PMPL:

Pokémon from RU Slate 16 are not to be used within PMPL. Council has discussed the matter and come to the conclusion it is best to hold off on adding meta changes until the event ends. In other words, RU slate 16 mons are banned from the PL.

In case you need a refresher, that list includes these Pokémon:

Impert-Female
Koalicuno-Galar
Weezking-Galar
Ferrocario
Mukremie
Acceldrill


That is all. Enjoy!

 

[earl]

SLATE 5​

102/132/109/74/75/64
Sturdy Mold: Sturdy + Mold Breaker

Dongoro

Dongoro @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy Mold
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 172 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
- Swords Dance

Slate 5 was a different kind of slate for FEUU. Instead of the typical submission slate, several old fusions from the various (and oftentimes comically broken) incarnations FEOU were selected by the council and voted on by the playerbase. There were 3 winners from this slate, the first of which was Dongoro. It originally had an ability that functioned like an inverted Mold Breaker, where Dongoro ignored the abilities of the Pokemon attacking it. It was a mess to code and honestly not very good, so it got the basic combined ability it has today. Unfortunately, that's all there is to say about it. It has never been particularly meta, struggling with its low speed and the existence of popular counters like Tanette and Corveot. It is pretty unexplored, though, so perhaps it could get some results in today's Mesflame-infested, Tanette-less metagame.

81/115/93/82/77/81
Therapeutic: Poison Heal effects. When this Pokemon consumes its held item, it poisons itself.

Slurpum

Slurpum @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Therapeutic
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Mach Punch
- Belly Drum
- Spore

Another painfully mediocre Slate 5 addition! Slurpum had a solid enough run in the early metagame, leveraging its access to Spore and Poison Heal to run Breloom classics like SubPunch. However, slates 6 and 7 made its life much, much harder, introducing defensive stops like Mesflame, Corveot, and most damning, fellow PHeal abuser Glidol. It still held a shred of relevance as a Sticky Web setter for a time after that, but then Kyottler arrived, rendering that niche null. Ever since then its been mostly out-offensed and defensively worthless on most team structures, even after it received a buff to encourage using it on Hyper Offense. You see, the original ability was Poison Heal but it also worked with Burn and Paralysis. Cool, but functionally just Poison Heal. The new ability at least let it run a berry while still getting the passive healing eventually. Worth noting for a brief period of time it also had Unburden effects due to a coding oversight, and it was a terror for all 4 hours it was usable.

90/100/90/110/84/102
Solar Panel: Immunity to Electric and Fire. If hit by a move of one of those types, raises Special Attack by 1.

Grousle

Grousle @ Leftovers
Ability: Solar Panel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Volt Switch
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock

Grousle was an absolute menace for exactly 2 slates. Coming into the mod with a great statline, solid utility options, Nasty Plot, and most importantly strong Fire-type coverage, Grousle immediately cemented itself as a top tier pivot, wallbreaker, and rocker. There wasn't really anything in the metagame that could handle the 3 attack coverage of Grousle, and the few that could (like the poor, overworked Jelliswine) were just muscled through with Nasty Plot. Probably the most egregious aspect of Grousle at the time was its ability, which granted a Grass-type immunity in addition to its current effects. Both stretchy and really over-tuned! The removal of this immunity helped tone down Grousle a bit, but the real stop to its rampage was slate 7. From that slate came Glidol, a Gliscor clone that was pretty explicitly made to hard counter Grousle. And it worked! Glidol saw a lot of usage, and Grousle usage responded inversely. In the current meta Grousle has slightly improved now that Glidol isn't on every team, but the meta's power level has increased enough where Grousle's kit is not particularly special, and running it brings the risk of going 5-6 against a Glidol team. A neat piece of history, but mostly irrelevant like the other two.

 

[earl]

Another important PMPL announcement- some midseason balance changes:

Light Ball is now BANNED

Hooparant has been a pretty unhealthy presence in the meta, allowing players to trade 1 for 1 at worst with Light Ball sets. Unlike virtually anything else in the game, Hooparant just has to take a hit to do its job, and as a result is essentially impossible to play around. While a larger rework is planned for the future, for now council is just banning Light Ball. There are no viable users of the item otherwise, so this ban should be otherwise low-impact, even if it is inelegant.

102/108/127/94/60/34 -> 102/118/127/84/60/34

Mega Avarupt has been preforming very well recently and is generally difficult to build and play against, so a slight SpA nerf is in order. Pokemon like SpD Weezlord should be able to check it more consistently. Attack was boosted to compensate the base form while not significantly buffing the mega.

90/89/117/115/102/68 -> 90/89/117/100/102/68

Jirachonator's Shell Smash sets were just too threatening for a fusion that wasn't remotely intended to be a top-tier sweeper. This nerf should leave its Doom Desires threatening while making smash sets a lot less consistent.

FIX: +9 Attack

Noicity's stats were listed incorrectly on Dragon Heaven, where it had 9 less Attack than it should have. Have fun with the stronger U-Turns, I guess.

That's all we have for now. Council has a few more planned changes, but we plan on holding off on them until PMPL concludes. However, for the sake of transparency and community feedback, I'll list the planned changes in a spoiler below (to the coders, please do not implement this yet):

Planned Changes

-10 HP, -10 Atk, +20 SpA
Igglyzenta isn't exactly what one would call "fun" at the moment. This change aims to make it easier to break through while giving it 80 Special Attack, which could give it some coverage options.

-2 HP, -11 Def, +13 Spe
Kingstar just isn't preforming. This brings it up to 93 Speed, which might finally be enough for it to see real use.

+5 HP, +10 Def, -5 SpA, -10 SpD, +Water
Kingdeedee is not a good Pokemon. It only ever sees use on the currently-struggling Psyspam teams, where it is an unfortunate necessity. A better statline and more useful defensive typing should make it more worthwhile and ensure it doesn't get overshadowed by FERU's Impert.

-Psychic, +Ghost
This is a very, very hypothetical change. If Hooparant falls off completely when Light Ball is banned, one potential buff option would be to make it part Ghost, where it could function as a strong Ghost-type breaker in addition to its current niche as an item shuffler. Alternatively, we might just rework the ability entirely.

-10 Def, -10 SpD, -20 Spe, Ability -> Moxie + Hydration: Moxie + heal status on kill

Unban
Swannamence is probably the worst fusion currently in FEUU, so a heavy rework is in order. The proposed changes would completely gut the base form, letting it drop to FENU, while the mega could be safely unbanned. If the mega manages to underperform with this statline, +13 SpA is an option to open up the possibility of special sets.

Unban
The metagame has developed to a point where council believes the face of semisun could return from the shadow realm.

Let us know on the discord what you think of the proposed changes! Any other suggestions for balance changes? We're all ears!
tagging Yoshiblaze to implement these changes ASAP- not the ones in the spoiler, though!

 

[earl]

now that the manicunos manicunos pmpl run is over, might as well post my teams and how I feel about them. In spite of my record, these teams are actually pretty decent

double smash BO

This team was designed during the smash jira wave, where the general gameplan was to use 1 of my smashers to soften up the team enough for the other one to win. Smash Toucosta is definitely my favorite aspect of the team, as any reasonable human being would assume the Toucosta is the physical wall and defogger here. Instead its a Shell Smasher that ended up actually getting a fair number of kills. Ended up losing this game due to a misplay on my behalf, forgetting that magic room exists and losing my slowton to an EQ due to that. Fuck Tapu Lop, really should have just ran Ninjacross. Not particularly fond of this team in retrospect.

gosse hail

My personal favorite team I built this tour. It has the classic core of Arctovic+Ninelands, with the only real heat being the item choice on the Arctovic. Protective Pads made it a lot safer into helmet users and mesflame, which really elongates this mon's lifespan. Gosse gets acces to ice coverage under hail, letting to snipe fat dragons that could otherwise check it safely. Wish I dropped Flamethrower or Mind Blown for Shadow Ball so I could lure Mesflame, though. Taunt Modest Weezlord was my stall antimeasure, while Flygalge+Fat Megacorv were my basic defensive core. Ended up losing the game to extreme hax. Main takeaway from this team is that Flygalge just isn't bulky enough tbh.

psyspam

Really don't have too much to say about this team, it just lost on preview to light ball hooparant. Now that Light Ball is banned I have some more confidence in this team, though. Some points of interest are taunt torna, which suffered a bit from terrain uptime but was overall a splendid mesflame annoyer; and mega venuroar, which preformed far better than I expected. Incredibly bulky, leeches everything, and slow pivots. Pretty great if you can keep rocks off. If the kingdeedee buff goes through and light ball stays banned I could see this team really taking off.

fullrain

By week 5 I was pretty checked out, especially considering my team couldn't possibly make playoffs by the time my game came up. So I didn't really test this at all or anything, but it preformed pretty great honestly and should have won if not for an awful misplay on my part at the end. There's no much to explain here, 3 rain mons are 3 rain mons, I included some weird move picks cuz why not, random feru mon pulled its weight. If I hadn't sacked Goli and instead just let Hatt eventually die to brontun I could've won with banded CC, but I guess that's just the kind of stuff I don't think about after just waking up for a 12 hour timezone difference game.

BONUS

we go chomper here

Here's my alternative w2 team, fullsand. I tested it about as much as the hail team and it's very consistent, but I don't really have too much to say about as its so, so standard. Rhychomp under sand is a complete menace and 3 attacks+sap chomplin is never dies, a rarity for weather sweepers.

Well, those are my teams. Obviously super disappointed with my performance over this tour but sometimes it just be that way

 

[Bobsican]

I'd normally post my sets and whatever meta development, but I'd rather wait to see if we get a tiebreaker.
Anyways, I'll repost what I once said in the Pet Mods Discord so this isn't forgotten:

Igglyzenta: Please buff SpD a bit if it's HP is going to be nerfed, it's barely the only reliable switch-in to Tyranette-Eternal in the meta with an overly optimized EV spread. Beyond that I don't think a nerf is particularly needed when it's passive, this sounds more like the council hates passive mons than it being detrimental to the meta's competitive status

Kingtsar: Probably fine, it has an uncomfortable speed tier and its typing isn't too favorable offensively

Kingdeedee: Give it just Psychic Surge + Regen you cowards : V
For real, the current idea is probably a safer rework for now, but if that fails just give it Regen

Hooporant: Doubt it'll fall off, it can still run stuff like Flame Orb to shut down physical attackers, and so Ghost would just make it sus TBH. Reworking the ability in the first place isn't a bad idea, but time will tell

M-Swannamence: Free the mega (already happened by now, which was a change mid-PMPL, which was avoided as much as recent FERU/FENU stuff is banned on there, but council loves being arbitrary)

M-Alatarizard-Y: Free the mega, sun sucks without it and y'all know it

Other stuff...

Umbat: Mon's unviable and y'all know it, lower the stats and make it Dark/Poison

Tanette: Mon's not even good in stall and should drop to FERU, Thornbro has removed about any niche it has in UU, and a Fire weakness makes it a suboptimal pick for a cleric compared to Goodevoir, a FERU mon, which speaks by itself. Alternatively evolve the mon, Thornbro still keeps hazards and a Poison neutrality, so it'd still fill separate sorts of teams.

Weezking: Mon would be a healthy addition to UU, in FERU it can't be reworked without either becoming unviable or overly redundant:

- Too fat for just NGas even if made pure Poison

- Dusking and Audiyem exist, so giving it Regen would just make it outclassed

- Only letting it spam Overheat out of the ability just gives a worse Koalicuno

- Turning it into a "practically" ability-less mon with raw "high" stats also turns it into niche at best compared to M-Audiyem, especially with the low amount of mega competition in FERU

- Pure Poison + Levitate and filler just makes it a existent mon that's outclassed by mons that do better use of Levitate like Metagon and Vikadrill, as they do anything it'd do better (namely out of having more alternatives such as pivoting and hazards), and it doesn't help is a passive mon without utility to do much, rendering into a passive stat stick I wouldn't even run in stall. Bulky CM sets are the closest to a niche it has, but a single STAB is as terrible as it sounds and there's better bulky setup mons like Rotofable.

- Devolving either of the involved mons sounds like a good way to lower stats, but you end up with a 400 BSTish mon that'd struggle to even be viable even in FENU without a BATR ability like Regen+NGas.

So overall, it'd be best to just send it to FEUU, and note that this is assuming the mon is indeed too much for FERU, which only time will tell.

 

[earl]

idk if it’s actually implemented on dh currently but swannamence should be unchanged in FEUU until the end of the pl, but feel free to air your grievances ig