did you ever end up making the challenge code for the doubles version? cus im tryna do that rn with little success
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Pet Mod Legends Z-A OU
- Thread starter dhelmise
- Start date
I heavily agree, some, if not most megas have no direction they can go in, and even their best ones they're really bad at. There needs to be an ability update for all the mostly unused megas or stat redistribution to make all megas much more viable.
Is there any plan to make further ZA tiers or will that happen once Champions is out?
I think this tier might just get deleted after Champions comes if it has the new megas
I just want ZA 1v1. Imagine all of the megas actually being "viable" in a tier.
how do I tell you Mega Audino still isn't gonna see any use
Curious if anyone has had any success running Mega Chimeco.
On paper this Mega is amazing. Levitating Steel-type gives it broken defensive utility very few other Pokemon can replicate, not only giving it a complete immunity to entry Hazards, but amazing match-ups into key threats like Baxcalibur, Garchomp, etc. with tools like Knock Off and Psychic Noise letting it win longevity wars into most of its standard checks like Excadrill and Heatran. And this normally does play out as one would expect in practice, but it does lead to a few annoyances in teambuilding.
1. Its playstyle of playing the long game lends itself best to Bootspam. However, while these teams are definetly not bad, they feel a bit clunky to play imo due to having several awkard MUs. These teams don't have a great catch all special wall that isn't weak to Pursuit (Magearna and Clefable I guess, but these two can get overwhelmed by strong special threats). Chimecho can handle some of the strong guys into these Bootspam teams on its own (Mega Meowstic for Example), but picking it to do the job always feels risky because of Pursuit. Its biggest hinderance is letting in Gholdengo, which is a bit difficult to handle for these passive, do-nothing teams since their best check is Hippowdown, which can easily get stretched thin handling other key Pokemon like Magearna (though Chimeco helps against that mon as well).
2. In Chimeco's case, it feels as though you need to resort to very similar Pokemon to cover its key poor MUs. In my case, I'm running Corv and Magearna on the same team, which is fine - but it does feel that a lot of the cool roles or situations I imagine with Chimecho don't come up as frequently as I like. The mon is great against Baxcalibur for what its worth, and I've found it useful at staving off Mega Chesnaught. However, a lot of other MUs like Dragonite feel a bit shaky, and I feel it lets a few too many mons in for free or is prone to getting pivoted out on, which lets the opp bring in a mon like Ghold or Darkrai without you having an oppurtunity to get that Knock Off hit. This kinda is why it feels easier to default to using Corv / Magearna for a given task - they have pivoting moves, which is crucial in giving you that one turn advantage. Chimeco still fulfills its own important defensive role, but it just feels a bit secondary, which is a shame.
3. 4MSS. For my team, I think the set of Knock Off, Psychic Noise, Flash Cannon gives you most of the coverage you need vs the metagame, hitting Bax, Clefable, Mega Chesnaught, and more for good damage, while Knock off is indeed great at crippling most of Chimecho's switch-ins and letting it win the long game. That said, it does feel like it doesn't have a lot of room to run many of its cooler options like Encore, Thunder Wave, Defog or Heal Bell without sacrificing key MUs. I think maybe you could opt for these options over Flash Cannon, but its not ideal .
4. Mega Opportunity cost. Many of the best Balance megas like Dragalge or Floette have Regen and unique blanket special walling capabilities, which Mega Chimeco is not quite as proficient at despite being able to cover a decent swath of the metagame on its own. Regen is nice since you dont need to spend as much time clicking Recover. On the flipside, Chimeco's total immunity to hazards is also a great boon.
Broadly speaking, I think the Mega's traits are fine. The typing is solid, the stats are good, and Levitate is probably the best ability it could have gotten given how good levitating Steels are. The mon also has a great movepool. But I feel I'm not making use of its talents correctly. I'm wondering if it would be better to save this Knock Off hazards stack gameplan for when it gets added to a less limited dex w/o Pursuit (this is the current team I am running and I think it could use some additional tweaks to make it truly excellent). I'm curious if players have had success in other roles like running it as CM mon or using other sets relying on Tools like Future Sight, CM, T-Wave, etc.
On paper this Mega is amazing. Levitating Steel-type gives it broken defensive utility very few other Pokemon can replicate, not only giving it a complete immunity to entry Hazards, but amazing match-ups into key threats like Baxcalibur, Garchomp, etc. with tools like Knock Off and Psychic Noise letting it win longevity wars into most of its standard checks like Excadrill and Heatran. And this normally does play out as one would expect in practice, but it does lead to a few annoyances in teambuilding.
1. Its playstyle of playing the long game lends itself best to Bootspam. However, while these teams are definetly not bad, they feel a bit clunky to play imo due to having several awkard MUs. These teams don't have a great catch all special wall that isn't weak to Pursuit (Magearna and Clefable I guess, but these two can get overwhelmed by strong special threats). Chimecho can handle some of the strong guys into these Bootspam teams on its own (Mega Meowstic for Example), but picking it to do the job always feels risky because of Pursuit. Its biggest hinderance is letting in Gholdengo, which is a bit difficult to handle for these passive, do-nothing teams since their best check is Hippowdown, which can easily get stretched thin handling other key Pokemon like Magearna (though Chimeco helps against that mon as well).
2. In Chimeco's case, it feels as though you need to resort to very similar Pokemon to cover its key poor MUs. In my case, I'm running Corv and Magearna on the same team, which is fine - but it does feel that a lot of the cool roles or situations I imagine with Chimecho don't come up as frequently as I like. The mon is great against Baxcalibur for what its worth, and I've found it useful at staving off Mega Chesnaught. However, a lot of other MUs like Dragonite feel a bit shaky, and I feel it lets a few too many mons in for free or is prone to getting pivoted out on, which lets the opp bring in a mon like Ghold or Darkrai without you having an oppurtunity to get that Knock Off hit. This kinda is why it feels easier to default to using Corv / Magearna for a given task - they have pivoting moves, which is crucial in giving you that one turn advantage. Chimeco still fulfills its own important defensive role, but it just feels a bit secondary, which is a shame.
3. 4MSS. For my team, I think the set of Knock Off, Psychic Noise, Flash Cannon gives you most of the coverage you need vs the metagame, hitting Bax, Clefable, Mega Chesnaught, and more for good damage, while Knock off is indeed great at crippling most of Chimecho's switch-ins and letting it win the long game. That said, it does feel like it doesn't have a lot of room to run many of its cooler options like Encore, Thunder Wave, Defog or Heal Bell without sacrificing key MUs. I think maybe you could opt for these options over Flash Cannon, but its not ideal .
4. Mega Opportunity cost. Many of the best Balance megas like Dragalge or Floette have Regen and unique blanket special walling capabilities, which Mega Chimeco is not quite as proficient at despite being able to cover a decent swath of the metagame on its own. Regen is nice since you dont need to spend as much time clicking Recover. On the flipside, Chimeco's total immunity to hazards is also a great boon.
Broadly speaking, I think the Mega's traits are fine. The typing is solid, the stats are good, and Levitate is probably the best ability it could have gotten given how good levitating Steels are. The mon also has a great movepool. But I feel I'm not making use of its talents correctly. I'm wondering if it would be better to save this Knock Off hazards stack gameplan for when it gets added to a less limited dex w/o Pursuit (this is the current team I am running and I think it could use some additional tweaks to make it truly excellent). I'm curious if players have had success in other roles like running it as CM mon or using other sets relying on Tools like Future Sight, CM, T-Wave, etc.
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I have been enjoying the ladder as of late, seems a lot that has changed so far has took the extreme power level that we were given and tuned it down just a few notches. Perfect for BO / Balance to come back to fruition. So here is a team I decided on bringing with a bit of a twist to a mon that I hate with a burning passion. Today we go back to the joyful days of DPP OU with this Clefable set. Hope you enjoy!
THE TEAM:
:sv/lopunny-mega: :sv/clefable: :sv/rotom-wash: :sv/melmetal: :sv/slowking-galar: :sv/krookodile: (team is embedded with links).
Description:
This team looks as basic at preview. Lots of defensive switchin's to a lot of powerful attackers. Clefable and Rotom Wash give a decent swap in to a lot of potent attackers running amongst the format. Melmetal is a designated bulky tank with Assault Vest that stops most Magearna set's while also being able to live quite a lot of hits and fire off strong attacks back with Double Iron Bash to break multiscale, hit hard on magearna's neutral side, and bolt beam tactics to deal with annoying flyers. The Slowking set can be tweaked but I just wanted something with max hp and mixed defenses that can be able to slow pivot. I opted for Toxic to throw a timer on bulkier mons that it can't flat out KO. (It can be swapped to Twave if you have fear of certain scarfers that aren't immune.) I needed some form of hazard as they just bring me joy watching the chipped damage roll in each switch. So I threw in Krookodile with Intimidate to act as a niche garchomp except you know, the luxury of threatening Gholdengo and Aegislash with Knock & Pursuit (Yes I know MLop already does it do NOT judge me). The clef set I derived from my many past times of playing DPP OU and the set still does wonders to this day. Your goal is to chip down pesky defensive mon's that have access to recovery and force them to have to either play the waiting game by spamming it or have them force out. Seismic Toss does decent damage already so I opted for that for the off chance there is a Clef 1v1 (God help me if I end up doing that.) Mega Lopunny just feels so niche now since more mega's were added, so I decided to bring the OG Mother back to the battlefield with 4 attacks 1 being U-turn to create a Turn Volt momentum team.
Honorable Replay to showcase:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9legendszaou-2518802065-ylyqrskyjyk09v7vfp6914nhq2k58s5pw
Overall this is such a cool format with a lot of fun things at our disposal. Thank you for the users who created this and the council who keeps this tier fun.
THE TEAM:
:sv/lopunny-mega: :sv/clefable: :sv/rotom-wash: :sv/melmetal: :sv/slowking-galar: :sv/krookodile: (team is embedded with links).
Description:
This team looks as basic at preview. Lots of defensive switchin's to a lot of powerful attackers. Clefable and Rotom Wash give a decent swap in to a lot of potent attackers running amongst the format. Melmetal is a designated bulky tank with Assault Vest that stops most Magearna set's while also being able to live quite a lot of hits and fire off strong attacks back with Double Iron Bash to break multiscale, hit hard on magearna's neutral side, and bolt beam tactics to deal with annoying flyers. The Slowking set can be tweaked but I just wanted something with max hp and mixed defenses that can be able to slow pivot. I opted for Toxic to throw a timer on bulkier mons that it can't flat out KO. (It can be swapped to Twave if you have fear of certain scarfers that aren't immune.) I needed some form of hazard as they just bring me joy watching the chipped damage roll in each switch. So I threw in Krookodile with Intimidate to act as a niche garchomp except you know, the luxury of threatening Gholdengo and Aegislash with Knock & Pursuit (Yes I know MLop already does it do NOT judge me). The clef set I derived from my many past times of playing DPP OU and the set still does wonders to this day. Your goal is to chip down pesky defensive mon's that have access to recovery and force them to have to either play the waiting game by spamming it or have them force out. Seismic Toss does decent damage already so I opted for that for the off chance there is a Clef 1v1 (God help me if I end up doing that.) Mega Lopunny just feels so niche now since more mega's were added, so I decided to bring the OG Mother back to the battlefield with 4 attacks 1 being U-turn to create a Turn Volt momentum team.
Honorable Replay to showcase:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9legendszaou-2518802065-ylyqrskyjyk09v7vfp6914nhq2k58s5pw
Overall this is such a cool format with a lot of fun things at our disposal. Thank you for the users who created this and the council who keeps this tier fun.
How do we explain calmly that mega Glalie is never going to be touched?
Hello everynyan! I feel the need to make a metagame post, because I do not think it's in a good state right now LOL, I believe this is because Mega Golisopod got nerfed LOL, we need something else now as a balance teams glue. Offense is currently WAY too strong. I am gonna format this post exactly like last time! So, let's GO!
1) The NERFS :clefable:
Mega Clefable HAS to go; it needs a different ability. Prankster makes it IMPOSSIBLE to check with its PRIORITY recovery. That is not ok, it is without a doubt the strongest mega to date. and it does NOT stop offence, if anything, it enables it with its countless sweeper sets. Encore is great, but it is not enough to stop offense; it's not a real check. It does more damage as a mon than good in this meta. It has to go.
It also forces teams basically to run ceruledge mandatory to not lose to it, and forces you to run insane coverage like power gem mega chomp z. This isn't healthy.
I'd say give it either Magic Guard or Magic Bounce, they are more in line with the mon lore-wise, and probably way more balanced!
2) The BANS :magearna:
Well, well, well. Y'all already know what I'm gonna say! BAN Magearna. It is probably the first reason why Offence is so broken right now. The Iron defense set is also a lot more popular, making it even harder to prepare for it. Now that it can run even more sets thanks to grassy terrain, like grassy seed, it's even more oppressive and even harder to check. It still does the same thing as before, that is, winning turn one. And it's still insanely easy to pull off. The ZA Discord is FULL of examples, and I am sure you guys know.
3) The BUFFS
Paradoxically, this is probably the thing we need the most? More precisely, we need a golisopod replacement! LOL, or at the very least, we need a "balance glue" mon. I will now propose some Mons for a Golisopod replacement!
Regenerator Candidates:
While lazy, this is probably the easiest way to create a "balance glue" mon. Which we desperately need right now. It's needed. We just need to be careful and not overtune it. (like clef) It probably also needs to function as a pivot!
Mega Hawlucha: :hawlucha:
It's said that its muscles are all pumped up. Maybe every time he gets into the field, he gets RE pumped, giving this mon regen would also give us a good defogger, which we kinda need, and probably a mon similar to torn-t gameplay-wise. It also has a U-turn!
Mega Scrafty: :scrafty:
It's said that its mega evolution made its skin "regenerate" in a way, so it would be a good fit! It's bc its a slow and fat mon, so it fits the regenerator archetype very well! it also brings some utility since he has Parting Shot! He could act as a pivot pretty well.
Mega Scolipede: :scolipede:
It's a fat, poison type! Literally, his design change to a more defensive one, let's give it a defensive ability! He is also a bug type, just like Golisopod was. Poison types are famous for having regenerator! It also has a U-turn, spikes, and toxic spikes! he could be a mini Golisopod. It would bring a lot of utility to balance teams!
Obviously, only 1-2 of these can actually get Regenerator. I think Hawlucha would be the best mon and Scrafty the worst. With Scolipede as a compromise, one could also just give all 3 regen and call it a day, but idk LOL, I don't think these would be too much tho, and I definitely think we need at least one more regen mega, a Golisopod replacement. (he was too much indeed tho)
Other buffs unrelated to Regenerator! :
Mega Meganium: :meganium:
Right now, this sees ZERO usage, I believe he would be a positive presence in the meta with its fairy typing! I think we could give it Misty Terrain, so it would be a counterpart to Mega Chesnaught! Misty Terrain basically works the same as its current ability, but also supports its teammates! I believe this would be just enough to make it viable, at least. Big fan of this Misty Terrain idea ngl.
Mega Falinks: :falinks:
I STILL think it should get parental bond! cmon! It doesn't even get Power Up Punch. I don't think it would be broken!
Mega Malamar: :malamar:
Still thinking about Simple too! bro sees ZERO usage. While I think it wouldn't be strong even with simple, it would at least be, well, better?
Mega Glimmora: :glimmora:
This thing has no hope LMFAO. At this point, I think some great offensive ability, like Adaptability, could be the only way to save it; last time with Levitate I was wrong. It happens, LOL. One could also think about neuroforce, but I don't think it's enough. It needs more power. Even Rocky Payload wasn't enough. So you gotta give it some broken offensive ability for sure, I think. Beads of Ruin could be an option to not always use Adaptability! He looks mystical enough.
Ps: If Scrafty ends up not getting regen, cuz in the first place the other 2 options are kinda better imma let y'all decide anyway, give it Fur Coat! still fits really well for me.
1) The NERFS :clefable:
Mega Clefable HAS to go; it needs a different ability. Prankster makes it IMPOSSIBLE to check with its PRIORITY recovery. That is not ok, it is without a doubt the strongest mega to date. and it does NOT stop offence, if anything, it enables it with its countless sweeper sets. Encore is great, but it is not enough to stop offense; it's not a real check. It does more damage as a mon than good in this meta. It has to go.
It also forces teams basically to run ceruledge mandatory to not lose to it, and forces you to run insane coverage like power gem mega chomp z. This isn't healthy.
I'd say give it either Magic Guard or Magic Bounce, they are more in line with the mon lore-wise, and probably way more balanced!
2) The BANS :magearna:
Well, well, well. Y'all already know what I'm gonna say! BAN Magearna. It is probably the first reason why Offence is so broken right now. The Iron defense set is also a lot more popular, making it even harder to prepare for it. Now that it can run even more sets thanks to grassy terrain, like grassy seed, it's even more oppressive and even harder to check. It still does the same thing as before, that is, winning turn one. And it's still insanely easy to pull off. The ZA Discord is FULL of examples, and I am sure you guys know.
3) The BUFFS
Paradoxically, this is probably the thing we need the most? More precisely, we need a golisopod replacement! LOL, or at the very least, we need a "balance glue" mon. I will now propose some Mons for a Golisopod replacement!
Regenerator Candidates:
While lazy, this is probably the easiest way to create a "balance glue" mon. Which we desperately need right now. It's needed. We just need to be careful and not overtune it. (like clef) It probably also needs to function as a pivot!
Mega Hawlucha: :hawlucha:
It's said that its muscles are all pumped up. Maybe every time he gets into the field, he gets RE pumped, giving this mon regen would also give us a good defogger, which we kinda need, and probably a mon similar to torn-t gameplay-wise. It also has a U-turn!
Mega Scrafty: :scrafty:
It's said that its mega evolution made its skin "regenerate" in a way, so it would be a good fit! It's bc its a slow and fat mon, so it fits the regenerator archetype very well! it also brings some utility since he has Parting Shot! He could act as a pivot pretty well.
Mega Scolipede: :scolipede:
It's a fat, poison type! Literally, his design change to a more defensive one, let's give it a defensive ability! He is also a bug type, just like Golisopod was. Poison types are famous for having regenerator! It also has a U-turn, spikes, and toxic spikes! he could be a mini Golisopod. It would bring a lot of utility to balance teams!
Obviously, only 1-2 of these can actually get Regenerator. I think Hawlucha would be the best mon and Scrafty the worst. With Scolipede as a compromise, one could also just give all 3 regen and call it a day, but idk LOL, I don't think these would be too much tho, and I definitely think we need at least one more regen mega, a Golisopod replacement. (he was too much indeed tho)
Other buffs unrelated to Regenerator! :
Mega Meganium: :meganium:
Right now, this sees ZERO usage, I believe he would be a positive presence in the meta with its fairy typing! I think we could give it Misty Terrain, so it would be a counterpart to Mega Chesnaught! Misty Terrain basically works the same as its current ability, but also supports its teammates! I believe this would be just enough to make it viable, at least. Big fan of this Misty Terrain idea ngl.
Mega Falinks: :falinks:
I STILL think it should get parental bond! cmon! It doesn't even get Power Up Punch. I don't think it would be broken!
Mega Malamar: :malamar:
Still thinking about Simple too! bro sees ZERO usage. While I think it wouldn't be strong even with simple, it would at least be, well, better?
Mega Glimmora: :glimmora:
This thing has no hope LMFAO. At this point, I think some great offensive ability, like Adaptability, could be the only way to save it; last time with Levitate I was wrong. It happens, LOL. One could also think about neuroforce, but I don't think it's enough. It needs more power. Even Rocky Payload wasn't enough. So you gotta give it some broken offensive ability for sure, I think. Beads of Ruin could be an option to not always use Adaptability! He looks mystical enough.
Ps: If Scrafty ends up not getting regen, cuz in the first place the other 2 options are kinda better imma let y'all decide anyway, give it Fur Coat! still fits really well for me.
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Nah, I love clicking explosion man...
im starting to wonder if axing custom abilities was a good idea or not, the list of viable abilities is already quite small, and only gets slightly expanded depending on the pokemon
i get that abilities like brass bond were weird and complex to balance around, but surely reskinned abilities couldnt be that bad?
i get that abilities like brass bond were weird and complex to balance around, but surely reskinned abilities couldnt be that bad?
mega scizor has always been one of my favourite megas and have been having fun laddering with this team. new to smogon overall so feedback / replays from more competent players would be sick, would like to see how this performs on the higher end of the ladder.
https://pokepast.es/c6dbef9872160b48
https://pokepast.es/c6dbef9872160b48
Ok, I'll comment on your ideas for Scrafty because it's my favorite new mega. I honestly think it shouldn't get Regenerator. Regen on any bulky Pokémon is too hard to handle, and I don't want to deal with any more of that, even if I love the mega. Yes, the fairies keep it in check, but against anything else, it's a big hassle. I also think fur coat would be ok, but in this meta it's very dangerous. Ice Scales Crabominal is one thing, but having to deal with max spdef dragon Dance would be really annoying, and parting shot to escape instantly? Just too much. I think it needs a defensive ability, yes, but not anything busted. Maybe something simple first, like filter instead to see how a weaker version does, then work up to fur coat. I like the other ideas, though, very nice
Never gonna happen, this mon has been disadvantaged since the beginning. Its ridiculous. Various changes across the board, but yeah sure lets keep the useless ability on Meganium.
Honestly trying to make Meganium work is getting overrated like seriously
I believe people requesting for Misty Surge on Mega Meganium haven't actually thought out its niche. With Flower Veil, Mega Meganium will never get poisoned by Toxic Spikes. Misty Surge, while it would help Mega Meganium support its allies, means Mega Meganium would be vulnerable to status whenever Misty Terrain is not up, which is removing Mega Meganium's niche of being immune to status. Not every mon needs to be a top mon for consideration on every team. Mega Meganium does not need its Ability changed from Flower Veil, especially not to Misty Surge, when it's in a better spot than before 'cause of the nerfs to Mega Golisopod and Mega Heatran.
On this, I'm not totally sure why customs got axe'd other then they were confusing/gimmicky/overpowered, which is fair, but i think that's because we took the wrong path with customs.
We put far too much emphasis on matching lore/dex entries in ZA, which I would say is a big mistake. Reading over the X/Y, ORAS and USUM Mega dex entries, hardly any of them even suggest what their abilities are. Some of which could be misleading!
(source (1)): https://www.deviantart.com/celestcsilvari/journal/All-Mega-Pokemon-Pokedex-Entries-736403897
(yes im citing a fuckin deviantart page, please bear with me. If you want to find specific dex entries go look for them yourself)
I get that this whole metagame is speculative and based mostly off assumptions, but given how the tier has progressed, its fair to say that there is a sembalence of balanced to be maintained.
:sableye-mega: (Magic Bounce) "Ultra Moon: It blocks any and all attacks with its giant-sized gemstone. However, the stone's a heavy burden, and it limits Mega Sableye's movements." This dex entry may suggest Wonder Guard, as absurd as it may sound. Its only mildly in the direction of Magic Bounce, but not close enough to be a for-sure answer.
:mawile-mega: (Huge Power) "Ultra Sun: It has an extremely vicious disposition. It grips prey in its two sets of jaws and tears them apart with raw power." As far as I know, this is the closest a dex entry is somewhat tied to a Mega's ability. Even still, very few would of guessed Huge Power and may have thought of other offensive abilities like Sheer Force.
:banette-mega: (Prankster)
"Ultra Sun: Extraordinary energy amplifies its cursing power to such an extent that it can't help but curse its own Trainer."
"Ultra Moon: Mega Evolution increases its vindictiveness, and the cursing power that was held back by its zipper comes spilling out."
Okay sure, this dex is close to Prankster, but its only approaching the ballpark.
My point is, many dex entries don't reflect a Mega Pokemon's actual ability. Therefore, i believe we should at the very least give customs one more chance, on the basis that:
1) The effect would be something already found in the series
2) The effect could easily be read in battle.
I also want to emphasize that I'm not trying to suggest that every new Mega, or even every Mega, can be viable in OU. Some Megas will remain UU and RU, and thats okay. But I also think that its unfair to let some megas, like Malamar and Glimmora (arguably) rot for the rest of the tier's existence because we cant give them anything that would balance them, especially considering that we're probably not gonna get ZA UU. To put simply: I think that we had a fairly poor vision for a lot of these Megas due to new toy syndrome and thus we should give customs another shot.
Every ZA Mega doesn't need an absurdly powerful custom, or even an ability with a "new" effect. Most megas could get away with copying another Pokemon's ability, but just rebranded. Examples include:
:scrafty: (mega) Due to Mega Scrafty's x4 weakness to Fairy, it would love Tera Shell. Unfortunately Tera Shell only works on Terapagos because John Gamefreak and Barry Council said so. Therefore, i dont see why we cant just remake Tera Shell, then give it some quirky name like "Shielded Skin" with the activation text "Its skin is reducing the effectiveness of attacks!" or something.
:malamar: (mega) We don't and shouldn't bring back Contrarian. Although i do think Pranskter would actually be pretty great on Mega Malamar since it gets priority screens, Topsy Turvy, Octolock and various other useful tools, I am curious on where Mega Malamar would be if it set Trick Room on switch in.
:falinks: (mega) Falinks is actually quite close to being good. But it needs 2 tools: Something to help it click No Retreat, and something to block Intimidate. An idea was a version of Download that also blocks Intimidate, but instead it grants a defensive boost based on the opponents preferred attacking stat. We also know that Game Freak gave various abilities an Intimidate immunity and/or an alternate Intimidate interaction, such as Scrappy and Inner Focus, so an Intimidate immunity isn't that absurd of a trait to tack on Given the council gave it Dauntless Shield to help it click No Retreat, I don't think this would be too out of place.
These are only examples I gave, because I want to drive home the point that we basically pulled ideas from Reddit and prayed it worked, so when it didnt we went back to what already exists, but now we realise that the existing list of abilities dont actually help many of the existing ZA Megas. So I think we should have some sort of middleground where Customs are allowed, but only to the extent that we know exists in the franchise already. These ideas pull from what we know is already viable on whoever their ability holders are (Terapagos, Porygon) but shake them up just enough to give the Mega some much needed viability without giving it some wildly unbalanced effect. "Erm but werent most customs already based on existing abilities?" I hear you say and to that I rebut with: Yes. But the abilities we gave were more like Calyrex's As One, an already conceptually broken ability, or did some crazy unorthodox effects, like Brass Bond, and not true "Pokemon-like" abilities.
TLDR: We should consider retrying customs but only basing those customs off existing abilities and adjusted to fit the purpose of the ability holder.
Meganium has one use.
"(Magic Bounce) 'Ultra Moon: It blocks any and all attacks with its giant-sized gemstone. However, the stone's a heavy burden, and it limits Mega Sableye's movements.' This dex entry may suggest Wonder Guard, as absurd as it may sound. Its only mildly in the direction of Magic Bounce, but not close enough to be a for-sure answer." You sir, madam, or whatever... are a sick individual. And I love it.
I like this idea a lot, but I want to propose that maybe have it keep Shed Skin as a built in ability? Through my testing, Shed Skin has proved to be a really good ability, but not enough alone. Also, if it has Shielded Skin, that would mean it would still have the ability to shed, right? I just think that avoiding burn is very useful for it, and if it's too broken, we can always change it back to normal later. I just want to do my pal justice, it's getting overshadowed and held back by a lot of other mons. I get it if it's too much to ask, but I figured I just suggest something.
No this is far too much and going into Protective Thorns/Ion Battery territory. You shouldnt be letting your Mega Scrafty get status'd
wa
wait are you admin? 0_0
no? im just giving ideas...
Soooooo.... Emboar. Has anyone tried the knockoff Kingambit at all? I feel like it has so much going for it and yet so little too.
Honestly building it around the current meta is obsolete as it is just so slow and doesn't have access to niche recovery besides rest. Even then it still gets power crept by so many other forms of physical offense.
I feel given a few bans or changes to some megas, etc, it can potentially be brought in again. No access to leftovers or boots, you have to pair it with either a good defogger like rotom wash or rapid spin like excadrill in order to prevent it from being whittled to little to nothing solely on each switch in.