Pet Mod [Gen 1] - Azure Version | Slate 1 TBA

[gastlies]

OP partially adapted from Burgundy and RBY CAP
Approved by Pet Mods Staff here

Pokemon: Azure Version ​

Welcome to Pokemon: Azure Version! This RBY Mod aims to enhance the existing RBY metagame by adding new moves and pokemon, and buffing some of RBY's weaker Pokemon to make a more diverse metagame. The new additions should aim to improve on RBY OU, not overhaul it, so famillar faces such as Tauros, Snorlax, and Exeggutor should still be relavant. To keep the spirit of RBY afloat, mechanics will not be adjusted, and we encourage people to make submissions with RBY's unique mechanics in mind!

Things that will be in the mod:

Addition of later-generation Pokemon
Pokemon from future generations that seem like they would fit well into RBY will be one of the main focuses of the mod. The council will make sure that these are balanced additions and do not throw the metagame into a frenzy.

Addition of later-generation moves
Similar idea as the previous but with moves. They should feel like they belong in RBY, and the council will make sure that these moves are balanced. Specifically, strong Fighting- or Bug-type moves must be added with caution.

Buffs to existing Pokemon
Pokemon that are currently weak in RBY OU will be buffed to make them more viable competitively. The council will make sure the power level of these pokemon are reasonable.

Rebalances
We are not perfect and will probably misjudge the power level of new additions! Because of this, we will have rebalances from time to time when something is too strong or too weak.

Things that might be added in the mod:

Changes to existing moves
These are harder to implement than changing a single Pokemon because you need to consider how EVERY pokemon that learns the move is affected. If there is enough interest we will look at this but for now we don't plan on it.

New, Original Pokemon
If there is enough interest we may add new Pokemon rather than adding existing Pokemon from later generations

Things that will not be added to the mod:

Mechanics Changes
Other attempts at a mod like this have shown that most mechanics changes actually harm RBY. Despite how annoying they may seem, things like sleep are nessecary for RBY to exist as it currently does, so we are playing it safe and leaving all mechanics untouched.

Addition of new types
The addition of a new type has the potential to throw the RBY metagame into an imbalance. Adding dark-types nerf several of RBY's core Pokemon, for example.

Submission Guidelines (adapted from RBY CAP)

1. Make the power level reasonable! Ideally buffed Pokemon/new Pokemon should be somewhere in the range of 9th-20th in power on a theoretical viability rankings rather than overtaking staples like Tauros or Starmie, unless we are specifically doing a slate for an Ubers or low-tier Pokemon.

2. Some types, such as Ghost, are objectively fantastic in RBY, so anything given these types should be balanced accordingly (bad stats, hindering secondary type, etc.). Similarly, brand new Fighting- and Bug-type moves need to be balanced in a way that ensures they don't completely destroy the tier's balance by crushing Normal- or Psychic-types.

3. Keep the general RBY metagame in mind. For example a strong physical attacker with a sleep move could warp the metagame by pushing sleep past Chansey, making turn 1 paralysis more viable and changing the lead metagame. The council is here to help with vetoing or modifying ideas with far-reaching effects, so don't be afraid to take a shot at it or ask for help/second opinions on a concept.

4. Don't directly outclass an OU or OU-adjacent mon. For example "Jolteon but better" will be vetoed, but you can make a Swords Dance user that is more viable than the existing D-rank options. The general guideline is that you cannot outclass anything Persian or higher on the current VR. Similarly, don't make a submission that completely deletes an existing OU Pokemon from the metagame by being valuable on every team and completely exploiting/walling said Pokemon.

5. Current staple OU teams should remain viable in Azure. Players should not be forced to use any of the new or buffed Pokemon or moves to have a viable team, though they should fill roles that make them worth bringing for team diversity.

If you have any other questions, please contact the council!

Council
gastlies
Wanted in 49 States

Discord Server

 

[gastlies]

reserved

 

[gastlies]

reserved

 

[gastlies]

reserving one more just in case

 

[gastlies]

Slate 1: Time Machine!
​

The first slate will be focusing on improving the movepools of current Pokemon. This will be done in a tradebacks-like approach. There are many moves that Pokemon do not have access to in RBY, but they have in later generations. Some examples include Earthquake on Venusaur, Soft-Boiled on Clefable, and Rock Slide on Aerodactyl. This slate aims to buff weak Pokemon in RBY OU by giving them some of the tools they have in later generations.


Submission Instructions

• You are allowed to propose a buff for up to three (3) Pokemon
• The buff must be in the form of adding a move, or set of moves, that the Pokemon has in future generations, but not RBY. The move itself must exist in RBY, though
• Pokemon eligible for buffs must be ranked lower than Dragonite on the current Viability Rankings, no point in making good mons even better!
• The council will make sure that buffs don't make Pokemon broken or upend the metagame

HELPFUL TIP: An easy way to check a list of eligible moves is by going on showdown, and typing the following command in a chat window:

/nms [pokemon name], gen1, all

No hard deadline on submissions, probably somewhere around a week, and a 24 hour warning will be given in advance.
Happy submitting!

SUBMISSION TEMPLATE:

Name:
New Moves:
Description:

 

[gastlies]

Name: Aerodactyl
New Moves: Earthquake, Rock Slide
Description: The tragedy of Aerodactyl's Movepool is one of the most infamous things about RBY. Give him quakeslide, he deserves it. If this turns out to be too broken, we can remove Earthquake later on, but Aero still gets owned by Starmie/Exeggutor so I think it will be fine.


Name: Sandslash
New Moves: Agility
Description: Double Dance on Sandslash is something it would greatly appreciate. It is still balanced by getting fucked by Exeggutor, Cloyster, and Starmie but it now has potential to be a dangerous lategame threat, with a prime setup opportunity on Zapdos


Name: Dodrio
New Moves: Swords Dance
Description: The strongest Normal-type in the game now has Swords Dance to bring its power to nuclear levels. However, It still suffers from its frailty and low speed (still slower than Tauros, Gengar, ties Zapdos). I also intentionally did NOT give it Jump Kick so it is still completely walled by Rhydon.

 

[THE_CHUNGLER]

Name: Gyarados

New moves: Thunder Wave
Sample set:
-Thunder Wave
-Hydro Pump
-Blizzard
-Hyper Beam
Gyarados has a lot going for it in RBY, with great all around stats as a mixed attacker, but such a crippling thunderbolt weakness limits it against meta defining pokemon. Giving gyarados thunder wave, which it has access to in future generations, lets it paralyze pokemon like starmie for its teammates, and threatens paralysis absorbers like chansey with its high attack stat. Earthquake along with twave could be considered since the coverage isn’t THAT great for gyarados (doesn’t hit zapdos/eggy starmie very hard)

Name: Rapidash

New moves: Swords Dance, Double Kick
Sample set
- Swords Dance
- Fire Blast
- Hyper Beam
- Double Kick
Rapidash has a decent but not amazing speed tier in RBY ou, but would be the fastest swords dance user, along with the addition of double kick to let it bust through chansey and do decent damage to Snorlax. Rapidash would need to choose between swords dance, fire blast, double kick, hyper beam, and body slam and still runs into issues vs the premier lategame fastmons starmie and tauros. Fire blast at least gives it some immediate pressure letting it threaten exeggutor, jynx, and snorlax with a burn.


Name: Kabutops

New moves: Rock Slide
Sample set
-Rock Slide
-Swords Dance
-Surf
-Hyper beam
Kabutops like aerodactyl appreciates a spammable rock type stab, trading aero’s amazing speed tier for access to swords dance and a stab that OHKOs rhydon without a boost. Rock slide lets kabutops drop slash and go all in on SD. Kabutops can still duel mono normal lax decently though earthquake hurts a lot from physlax, it should still win the trade as +2 rock slide into +2 hyper beam kills snorlax. Kabutops also really needs paralysis support and can’t defend against para itself, so it’s still pretty much only a lategame mon. At the very least, kabutops gives teams a normal resist to catch tauros’ hyper beam.

Edit: some moves I gave to pokemon they don’t actually learn in future generations, so those have been edited out

 

[Ryzzantheguy]

Name:Machamp
New Moves:High Jump Kick
Description:Don't get me wrong, this sounds very good, but like everything in life, the psychic type exists. However, this still leads to significantly more usage for machamp, as it can now easily clear Chansey and Snorlax alongside somewhat Tauros aswell due to Machamp's somewhat good physical side.

Name:Arbok
New Moves:Swords Dance
Description:Yes, Double Dance and Wrap sounds broken alongside glare and good physical moves, BUT, it still has a plain a simple weakness to not just psychics but also Rhydon and Golem who it struggles to easily counter, so dont let it set up and you'll likely be fine.

Name:Nidoking/Nidoqueen (counting them as one for this)
New Moves:Amnesia
Description:As tradebacks have shown, Amnesia on queen and king are very good, weakening their 3 brutal weaknesses and leaving one of their only 2 weakness as the manageable ground weakness, they are still slower than alot of scary psychic types and they are still susceptible to alot of very common great moves, mainly Blizzard, which unless if they get stun spored or another team member gets frozen, they cannot stop that brutal freeze.

 

[gastlies]

Golduck

New moves: Barrier
Golduck currently has no niche in rby OU compared to slowbro, which benefits from psychic typing and thunder wave as an amnesia user. However, reflect amnesia slowbro has been used without thunder wave on some teams to better shield it versus normals. Golduck could use a similar set but with the stronger move Barrier + paralysis support to really threaten teams in the endgame. Being able to boost defense multiple times makes it easier for duck to compensate for its lower defense stat compared to slowbro and better take explosions. Barrier doubles as a paralysis speed drop reapplicator along with amnesia, similar to barrier mewtwo in ubers. It also makes thematic sense that golduck could use barrier as its associated with psychic types despite not being one.

Electrode

New moves: Night Shade
Electrode is the fastest pokemon in RBY, but isn’t used in OU partially because it has no coverage and thuds into rhydon/exeggutor, meaning it can’t push past them to twave more important targets. Night Shade would give electrode “coverage” that it can use to push through paralyzed exeggutor and do at least some damage to rhydon while not breaking its subsitute. Night shade would still not break past chansey meaning electrode needs to weakly boom on it to break, but it still had the option of doing this. Electrode would give teams at least a partial check to zapdos and speed control in the endgame versus tauros starmie and cloyster.

Name:Machamp
New Moves:High Jump Kick
Description:Don't get me wrong, this sounds very good, but like everything in life, the psychic type exists. However, this still leads to significantly more usage for machamp, as it can now easily clear Chansey and Snorlax alongside somewhat Tauros aswell due to Machamp's somewhat good physical side.


Name:Arbok
New Moves:Swords Dance
Description:Yes, Double Dance and Wrap sounds broken alongside glare and good physical moves, BUT, it still has a plain a simple weakness to not just psychics but also Rhydon and Golem who it struggles to easily counter, so dont let it set up and you'll likely be fine.

Reminder:
"The buff must be in the form of adding a move, or set of moves, that the Pokemon has in future generations, but not RBY."
these moves are not learned by the pokemon in later generations, so do not fit the guidelines for this slate, remember you can check with this command:
/nms [pokemon name], gen1, all

 

[MinorBug]

Name: Golbat
New Moves: Agility, Hypnosis, Hyper Beam, Super Fang
Description: I think you can give Golbat all these moves and they'd still be bad, but at least it gives them something unique (no other Agility + sleep mon in RBY) and makes it easier for a future slate to boost them to relevance.


Name: Clefable
New Moves: Amnesia
Description: Clefable's wide movepool means they could definitely get good use out of Amnesia. Lack of special STAB and unexceptional bulk keep them in check. Softboiled is also an option, but Amnesia + Softboiled is probably too much.


Name: Magneton
New Moves: Reflect, Light Screen, Explosion
Description: Reflect and Light Screen lean into Magneton's identity as the bulky electric. Explosion is good and I keep forgetting they don't actually get it in RBY.

 

[Yoshiblaze]

non-rby attempts to sub to rby mod, chaos ensues


Name: Pinsir
New Moves: Earthquake, Rock Slide
Description: Gives an already pretty scary Swords Dancer more than just Normal moves so it's not completely owned by Zapdos or Rhydon, though it does still need a boost to really do anything to either of them


Name: Ninetales
New Moves: Night Shade, Hypnosis
Description: Hit 97 Fire Spins and then kill whatever doesn't die to Fire Blast with a Night Shade. Also becomes a rare Partial Trapping mon with a Sleep move, much like in Tradebacks


Name: Hitmonlee
New Moves: Swords Dance, Low Kick, Rock Slide
Description: This mon has an infinite amount of problems, but now you can realistically cheese wins with SD + Low Kick/Rolling Kick + Flinches with paralysis support (tragically doesn't get Hyper Beam though)