(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

I wouldn't say this annoys me, more that it makes me Sad :( :

I decided to look back at UU because I was reading some old ORAS UU threads, and saw Sylveon mentioned. I decided to check the UU VRs and apparently in all of ORAS, SM and SWSH it was considered wayyy worse, and now I have myself questioning if it was ever even good Now I want more buffs for my Eevee mons, damnit. Even Sylveon can't get shit.

At least Tera seems to make it okay in VGC?
 
At least Tera seems to make it okay in VGC?
Sylveon with tera has the niche option of having Tera Blast as both stab pre-tera and stab post-tera, but really it's just a relative buff. It was good until Primarina happened and Primarina is a much better special fairy type even in the current regulation (no legendaries allowed), expecially with water type Psychic Noise added to its arsenal to shutdown several meta threats that rely on self healing moves.
Umbreon actually got a world 2nd place a couple VGCs ago, which is cool I suppose.

Realistically speaking Eevolutions are doomed to never have competitive viability and remain as just "fun in game cute gimmick" due to just being monotypes with very little going for them. Tera lets them do "some" shenenigans in lower tiers as "budget X" (Jolteon can cosplay Regieleki for example, Vaporeon can be Suicune at home, etc.), but powercreep in general has reached a point where just being a monotype requires some kind of special shenenigan (usually strong abilities or signature moves on top of actually good stat distribution) to stand out.

Vaporeon is stuck with being "just another generic water defensive mon", Espeon is Alakazam but worse, Leafeon is clorophyl sweeper n° 50, you get my point.
 
Sylveon with tera has the niche option of having Tera Blast as both stab pre-tera and stab post-tera, but really it's just a relative buff. It was good until Primarina happened and Primarina is a much better special fairy type even in the current regulation (no legendaries allowed), expecially with water type Psychic Noise added to its arsenal to shutdown several meta threats that rely on self healing moves.
Umbreon actually got a world 2nd place a couple VGCs ago, which is cool I suppose.

Realistically speaking Eevolutions are doomed to never have competitive viability and remain as just "fun in game cute gimmick" due to just being monotypes with very little going for them. Tera lets them do "some" shenenigans in lower tiers as "budget X" (Jolteon can cosplay Regieleki for example, Vaporeon can be Suicune at home, etc.), but powercreep in general has reached a point where just being a monotype requires some kind of special shenenigan (usually strong abilities or signature moves on top of actually good stat distribution) to stand out.

Vaporeon is stuck with being "just another generic water defensive mon", Espeon is Alakazam but worse, Leafeon is clorophyl sweeper n° 50, you get my point.
Tbf I think Sylveon is genuinely a pretty good Pokemon in UU generally, I think it ages badly in UU tiers because the metas just change really. I mean in one of the tiers, Clefable came to exist in UU and like that just outclasses Sylveon because of so much utility, so.

The other Eevees yeah they're just bad not much you can do about it
 
In fairness, Espeon does have a top ability in Magic Bounce, which gives it a niche compared to other mono-psychics. Unfortunately, adding Fairy doesn't really give enough downsides for Hatterene to not eclipse that niche.
I tried Espeon like a few months into Gen 9 as a Magic Bouncer and seeing Great Tusk do like a bajillion % made me so sad lol

It just doesn't have the bulk- the speed and support could be nice, and be an actual differentiator from Hatterene, but it doesn't have the movepool nor does it have the stats. Psychic is such a bad type, too.

While I mentioned sylv earlier, and my pfp may be hard to tell, my favorite Pokemon is actually Espeon lol, so I really wish it got buffs.
 
In fairness, Espeon does have a top ability in Magic Bounce, which gives it a niche compared to other mono-psychics. Unfortunately, adding Fairy doesn't really give enough downsides for Hatterene to not eclipse that niche.
Truth be told, it’s because Fairy is far better than Psychic of a type, especially when it comes to attacking Fighting-type Pokémon. As an aside, Espeon’s base 130 Special Attack and high Speed just doesn’t gel well with the more defensive oriented Magic Bounce.

The Fairy-type alone makes the Hatterene line worth using over all other Magic Bounce users that aren’t Mega Evolutions.
 
Revealing my own ancient-ness here but I was around when Gen 6 was the current generation and while I can't testify as to how good Sylveon is nowadays in the Gen 6 Smogon UU metagame because old gen metas have shifted a lot even post-generation, I do remember Sylveon was pretty good in ORAS UU. It's a good cleric with Wish and Heal Bell and has great bulk, Fairy is a great defensive type, and 95 HP leads to solidly sized Wishes for its teammates to receive, but I also do remember its Specs set was legitimately a fantastic wallbreaker, especially since Sylveon has the unique benefit of using Pixilate Hyper Voice, which is very powerful coming off Sylveon's 110 Special Attack and has the ability to bypass Substitutes. I remember Choice Band Krookodile+Choice Specs Sylveon being a genuinely great offensive wallbreaking core on many offensive teams. Back in those days it was quite good in UU and while not meta defining, it was definitely a staple.

Power creep definitely pushed it down the tiers over the later generations but back in its debut gen it enjoyed solid success in ORAS UU. Iirc it was OU in the XY metagame (note: before ORAS) and was a good cleric at the time, of course then power creep pushed it down in ORAS, but then UU was a very welcoming environment for it.

I would argue Sylveon as a whole is one of the better Eeveelutions in terms of competitive viability, even if it's in lower tiers nowadays. It can be a good wallbreaker with 110 SpA and Pixilate Hyper Voice (and either Mystical Fire or Tera Blast nowadays) or a good cleric thanks to its good bulk in earlier gens or a good Calm Mind user in SV NU. It's textbook and straightforward but does its job well in whatever tier it ends up in: and in the context of Smogon SV, being NU is by no means bad: the power creep is just utterly insane nowadays to the point where OU is now basically legendaries, mythicals, and pseudo-legendaries or other 600+ BST mons and other mons of similar calibre, meanwhile NU consists mainly of Pokemon who are just good, but not exceptional or unique. Most reasonably good Pokemon sit in NU and the power creep of modern generations has made NU the "average" tier now, for Pokemon who are in fact good overall in a vacuum. A very quick glance through the list of Pokemon who are NU in SV makes that picture clear.

So I'd say for an Eeveelution, Sylveon has and always has had it pretty good.
 
Revealing my own ancient-ness here but I was around when Gen 6 was the current generation and while I can't testify as to how good Sylveon is nowadays in the Gen 6 Smogon UU metagame because old gen metas have shifted a lot even post-generation, I do remember Sylveon was pretty good in ORAS UU.
This was the same in USUM, because the main reason I was even thinking about Sylveon in UU is because during active gen I remember one of the first teams in the Samples was a Sylveon balance team, and in general it was very good.

But then you look at the VRs nowadays and

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like what happened
 
If the Eeveelutions can't get coverage, then I wish that they'd all get their respective STAB -ate abilities - I'm pretty sure they've all got one empty ability slot, so it wouldn't be hard to fit in or anything. The Special attackers getting STAB Hyper Voice is a lot better than what the Physical attackers get - have fun with Body Slam and Quick Attack, I guess - but it'd be a fun way to link them all together and give them a little something new to do.

Given how popular Eevee and its evolutions are, I'm surprised this hasn't happened already - or at least some kind of buff to the Eeveelutions.
 
If the Eeveelutions can't get coverage, then I wish that they'd all get their respective STAB -ate abilities - I'm pretty sure they've all got one empty ability slot, so it wouldn't be hard to fit in or anything. The Special attackers getting STAB Hyper Voice is a lot better than what the Physical attackers get - have fun with Body Slam and Quick Attack, I guess - but it'd be a fun way to link them all together and give them a little something new to do.

Given how popular Eevee and its evolutions are, I'm surprised this hasn't happened already - or at least some kind of buff to the Eeveelutions.

As an Eevee enjoyer, I have to say that this would be a very lazy way to solve Eeveelutions. In some cases they wouldn,t even make them good (Jolteon for example would still be walled by Ground types). You are right in that the empty ability slot is infuriating, though, and I have been thinking about some abilities that would fit on each Eeveelution:

Vaporeon
Regenerator: Many Waters get this, broken ability.
Poison Heal: Vaporeon learned Acid Armor from the very beginning. Another broken ability.
Puryfing Salt: Lives in sea, tolerant to salt temperature, fits. Very good ability that makes it immune to Status and resistant to Ghost.
Color Change/Protean: Several Pokedex entries say its invisible in water. Protean is pretty good, since Vaporeon has Ice, Ghost and Fairy coverage.
Swift Swim: This one is obvious, common for Water types. Specs or Calm Mind with this is good.

Jolteon
Electric Surge: No explanation needed, this fits on many (not all) electric Mons.
Some new ability that makes Jolteon throw Spikes if contacted.
Some new ability that allows electric moves to hit ground types. Endless Specs Volt Switch is fun.

Flareon
Fut Coat/Fluffy: Just look at him, so fluffy. Solves the physical bulk problem.
Contrary: Learns Superpower + Overheat and wouldn,t be broken with it.
White Smoke: Fits on many Fire mons, though not particularly good.
Thermal Exchange: Has Pokedex entries that give some clues about this.

Espeon
Anticipation/Forewarn: Many psychics can use this, though these are not good abilities. Notably, the first one is an ability Eevee has.
Magic Guard: Only ability that fits on Espeon and is better than Magic Bounce.

Umbreon
Magic Guard: Umbreon shares Syncronoize with Espeon, so it could share another ability too.
Magic Bounce: Same reason.
Shadow Tag: Lurks in darkness, ideal ability for a Mon like this. Banned in Competitive, but would be pretty heat to see in VGC.
Poison Heal: Relic of its Poison type past + broken ability.
Poison Touch: Not as broken, but there is a Dex entry like this: "When this Pokémon becomes angry, its pores secrete a poisonous sweat, which it sprays at its opponent's eyes. "
Illuminate: Worthless abily but it fits on Umbreon.

Leafeon
Natural Cure: Many Grass Mons have this.
Sharpness: Sharp ears + Leaf Blade + X-Scissors + Aerial Ace.

Glaceon

Tinted Lens: Those eyes somewhat resemble Bug ones. Very good ability for something with 130 Special Attack that most of the time just uses STAB Moves.
Snow Warning: No explanation needed.
Slush Rush: No explanation needed either, ideal for strong Ice Mons.

Sylveon
As the only non-Mega Pixilate Mon, I don,t think it needs a new ability. Would be better if it got something like Rapid Spin, Tidy Up or Recover instead.
 
As an Eevee enjoyer, I have to say that this would be a very lazy way to solve Eeveelutions. In some cases they wouldn,t even make them good (Jolteon for example would still be walled by Ground types). You are right in that the empty ability slot is infuriating, though, and I have been thinking about some abilities that would fit on each Eeveelution:

Vaporeon
Regenerator: Many Waters get this, broken ability.
Poison Heal: Vaporeon learned Acid Armor from the very beginning. Another broken ability.
Puryfing Salt: Lives in sea, tolerant to salt temperature, fits. Very good ability that makes it immune to Status and resistant to Ghost.
Color Change/Protean: Several Pokedex entries say its invisible in water. Protean is pretty good, since Vaporeon has Ice, Ghost and Fairy coverage.
Swift Swim: This one is obvious, common for Water types. Specs or Calm Mind with this is good.

Jolteon
Electric Surge: No explanation needed, this fits on many (not all) electric Mons.
Some new ability that makes Jolteon throw Spikes if contacted.
Some new ability that allows electric moves to hit ground types. Endless Specs Volt Switch is fun.

Flareon
Fut Coat/Fluffy: Just look at him, so fluffy. Solves the physical bulk problem.
Contrary: Learns Superpower + Overheat and wouldn,t be broken with it.
White Smoke: Fits on many Fire mons, though not particularly good.
Thermal Exchange: Has Pokedex entries that give some clues about this.

Espeon
Anticipation/Forewarn: Many psychics can use this, though these are not good abilities. Notably, the first one is an ability Eevee has.
Magic Guard: Only ability that fits on Espeon and is better than Magic Bounce.

Umbreon
Magic Guard: Umbreon shares Syncronoize with Espeon, so it could share another ability too.
Magic Bounce: Same reason.
Shadow Tag: Lurks in darkness, ideal ability for a Mon like this. Banned in Competitive, but would be pretty heat to see in VGC.
Poison Heal: Relic of its Poison type past + broken ability.
Poison Touch: Not as broken, but there is a Dex entry like this: "When this Pokémon becomes angry, its pores secrete a poisonous sweat, which it sprays at its opponent's eyes. "
Illuminate: Worthless abily but it fits on Umbreon.

Leafeon
Natural Cure: Many Grass Mons have this.
Sharpness: Sharp ears + Leaf Blade + X-Scissors + Aerial Ace.

Glaceon
Tinted Lens: Those eyes somewhat resemble Bug ones. Very good ability for something with 130 Special Attack that most of the time just uses STAB Moves.
Snow Warning: No explanation needed.
Slush Rush: No explanation needed either, ideal for strong Ice Mons.

Sylveon
As the only non-Mega Pixilate Mon, I don,t think it needs a new ability. Would be better if it got something like Rapid Spin, Tidy Up or Recover instead.
It's worth remembering that the Eeveelutions have ability themes grouped together based on which batch they came in (except Espeon and Umbreon having Magic Bounce and Inner Focus, I dunno what happened there) so their hypothetical third ability should be as well.
 
It's worth remembering that the Eeveelutions have ability themes grouped together based on which batch they came in (except Espeon and Umbreon having Magic Bounce and Inner Focus, I dunno what happened there) so their hypothetical third ability should be as well.

I don,t undestand what you mean by ability themes grouped together, could you explain?
 
I don,t undestand what you mean by ability themes grouped together, could you explain?
The Gen 1 eevees have Absorbing abilities and Status abilities
The Gen 2 eevees have Synchronize . Magic Bounce & Inner Focus have less of a theme though, as pumpkinz noted.
The Gen 4 eevees have weather-focused abilities

Some of this could just be coincidental, with them just selecting abilities they felt fit their elemental themes or niche, but there does seem to be some parallelisms in play.
 
As the #1 Eeveelution fan here (Sylveon, Espeon, Glaceon, Vaporeon, Umbreon, Leafeon are all in my Top 15, most of them Top 10) I'm going to give my ideal Eeveelution buffs while being somewhat fair. I am going to make up new abilities because I feel like it's easier to do that for them rather than to use existing abilities and invent a theme in reverse. This is not going to account for Tera (if you know, you know, but also I am expecting the next generation to have Tera). Also, all of the current Hidden Abilities are now regular secondary abilities. All of the abilities that exist are going to be outclassed.

:Vaporeon: I do not believe this mon needs a big buff, but my ideal new ability for it is "Purification" based on the concept of Vaporeon being made of water, it self-purifying Poison status would be nice for it. As a unique ability, it's also immune to Water. This is a direct upgrade from Water Absorb, but considering this would be a Hidden Ability and Game Freak has in fact pretty much had Hidden Abilities be direct upgrades from regular abilities before, I don't mind. I think this ability alone would make it just a lot better in Singles with Toxic no longer being counterplay.

As for moves, I think it's in a very good place with a lot of utility, in both Singles and VGC. Even when I looked at what VGC support Pokemon are running, basically anything that makes sense thematically is something Vaporeon learns; Helping Hand, Yawn, Haze, Icy Wind, etc. The only move I could think of was maybe Life Dew, but I don't think that's actually used in any format. Dew just gives a water-y vibe, y'know?

Overall, this wouldn't make it much better in VGC, but VGC is much tougher to get Pokemon to a majorly viable state with. Tanky Water-Types simply aren't the type for the job without something like Gastrodon Storm Drain or Milotic with Contrary SWSH, Storm Drain maybe fitting but I feel it would still not compete with Gastrodon, nor do I think it'd be better in Singles with that, and Contrary not really fitting.

:Jolteon: This Pokemon, on the other hand, definitely needs a big buff. It's tough because Electric is such a type that just relies on coverage with its immunity being one of the best types, and it being a part of it being one of the best types. The ideal ability I came up with, based on its theming is "Ionic", and it's based on the Pokedex entries referring to Jolteon getting its power through negative ions. Every turn Jolteon remains in battle, up to a maximum of five, it gains a small (1.1x) power boost to all Electric attacks, and after the second boost it is able to hit Ground-Type Pokemon for neutral damage. After the attack, the charge resets. With its Speed, it'd be able to stall with Protect/Sub/else shenanigans after a switch in order to break the Ground immunity, I feel like this would make Jolteon not only better, it'd also make it IMO interesting as a competitive element. Obviously it can stall, but it has no recovery and using it in this way also means Specs is almost certainly not widely viable, and it isn't about to break down Blisseys. I think this would be balanced but make it interesting to work with, at least bumping it up a tier with the ability to gain all-but-Grass coverage for one turn every few turns. As with all three of these, this ability is also immune to Electric moves.

As for moves, I'm going to give Jolteon Dazzling Gleam and Grass Knot.

With a set where you mainly just run Thunderbolt with something like Substitute Calm Mind, you could play mindgames with if the Ground-Type will switch or not and try to go for midground plays if you still have the sub up. For VGC I think this + Electric Terrain would go crazy assuming that Gen 10 actually has a good setter. The main problem would be Amoonguss which still resists + has the ability to redirect, so I don't think it'd actually be that good, but I think it could still be a fun niche pick. For moves, I'd like to give it Charge Beam and Taunt.

:Flareon: Let's cut to the chase. This Pokemon is trash, as we all know, but I don't know what direction to take it on first glance. It feels like it should be something like Ursaluna, huge damage at the cost of longevity, but it has worse longevity because of the status it requires and it is too frail for the job. 65 HP and 60 Defense doesn't let it take those trades a Pokemon like Ursaluna can. We are going to give it a very good Hidden Ability.

"Insulation" is essentially a combination of several abilities, based on the fact that its fur coat is supposed to release heat into the air due to its body being like 1,600F. The first mixture of this ability concoction is Flame Body, Pokemon that make contact will be burned. The second part is essentially Guts with the ability for Flareon to get burnt still. The idea being that the Flame Orb or any other source of burn would cause it to start overheating, but that would let it do more damage. So it essentially has non-Fire-Type Guts, too. Lastly, it's immune to Fire moves as usual. I think this is a very convoluted ability, but if I'm honest I just couldn't find a way to just make Flareon work with just one function in its ability, and this Pokemon is still probably not even that good.

For moves we're going to give it Stomping Tantrum, Knock Off, U-Turn and if Thunderous Kick was no longer a Signature Move in Generation 10, give it that too. Fuck it. This shit's still like NU at best, but we try.

:Umbreon: This Pokemon really isn't that bad, but with this I'd like to buff it to keep it relevant among power creep, but even more than that I want to differentiate it further from Vaporeon because the main difference is just that their monotypes have different resistances. Notably it's one of the few Eeveelutions to have never really gotten a good ability, so frankly I think giving it a busted ability is an over-buff. Even right now, with it almost having no ability for its role in Singles, it's been consistently good in the middle-of-the-pack tiers.

"Venomous Rings" takes, of course, inspiration from the fact this Pokemon was originally going to be a Poison-Type. It's not going to make it immune to Poison, since you can still poison creatures that secrete poison, and Umbreon is more spinned as a predator that happens to use poison rather than being naturally Poison-Type adjacent. However, it is going to have a 30% chance of the opponent being Poisoned when they make contact with Umbreon, punishing Physical Attackers for U-Turning it consistently and not breaking it. Taking some inspiration from Pokemon Unite, if a Pokemon is trapped by it or a teammate, Umbreon will deal double damage- this will only really matter with Foul Play if the target is a Physical Attacker, but may make it interesting in VGC or make for interesting Mean Look sets in Singles. As a fun bonus, something for the main game only, not any competitive format, Umbreon will also heal double HP when it is nighttime based on your system clock. This will not effect competitive.

As for moves, give it Follow Me for VGC specifically, and Knock Off more generally.

These buffs would make it better in this constant-pivot world, and I think it would be nice for it. Anywho,

:Espeon: Alright, I'm biased, this is my favorite Pokemon of all-time (and is literally my fucking furry OC, so don't be surprised if I seem more explicit here) so I'm going to give it some stuff to make it way better. I am disappointed with how it went especially in early Scarlet/Violet formats, being one of the few fast Psychic-Types with actual power in the entire game was not enough, nor was its utility. I want to give it far more utility and make it stronger coverage wise. This one may be too big of a buff.

"Precognitive Fur" is based on the lore that Espeon's fur can immediately get the opponent's next move using the minutia of air currents generated. While it would be easy to take this logic in an accuracy direction, that's cringe so we're going to take the direction that it uses that prediction to reduce damage instead, partially dodging but not completely. This is a 0.67x modifier on Physical and Special attacks, status effects do the normal amount of damage. Now, allow me to defend this:

252 Atk Landorus-Therian U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Espeon: 250-296 (92.2 - 109.2%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO

Now, let's assume that Espeon essentially has Intimidate:
-1 252 Atk Landorus-Therian U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Espeon: 168-198 (61.9 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The non-STAB 80 BP super-effective attack only does an average of 65%! Yippee!!! Espeon gets to take one U-Turn! Of course, this will be more significant for Special Attacks, but it's not like Espeon has that much bulk there either.

252 SpA Enamorus Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Espeon: 166-196 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252 SpA Enamorus Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Espeon: 111-132 (40.9 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Now, don't get me wrong, I know this is a major buff that is probably cringe in of itself, but I think it would be cool so I'm writing it in anyways. This ability also has blockage of hazard stacking. It does not block other status moves, only hazard stacking. What is the explanation with the ability theme? Fuck you, that's what. This makes it have that utility of Magic Guard while not making theoretical Calm Mind sets impossible to check for tanky Special oriented Pokemon, such as Blissey. They can still status it and check it in other ways even if it has some boosts up, and that will allow physical threats to still deal with it- and they still will. Like Umbreon, as a cheeky easter egg, HP moves will heal double during the midday based on in-game clock. This does not effect competitive whatsoever.

As for moves, it's getting Mystical Fire. There's literal official merch of Espeon with a witch hat, I see it as a magician and I am the biggest Espeon fan, and I'm saying it's a witch so that's that. And now Game Freak has to give it Mystical Fire. As like other magician-type Pokemon like Delphox and Meowstic, we're giving it Nasty Plot too, fuck you.

:Leafeon: Leafeon is a Pokemon that was doomed to fail because it's a Grass-Type, and that's really the theme of this duo in general. Leafeon got a dogshit offensive typing on an offensive build, and Glaceon got a dogshit defensive typing for an offensive build; quite a lot of dogshit going on in these two, despite the fact they're clearly foxes. Kanto Trio are dogs, Espeon and Umbreon are cats, Glaceon and Leafeon are foxes, Sylveon is a dog, debate over, the end. With the abilities I'm going to try to write some wrongs with the opposite-world type-to-build, and hopefully even out their properties. For Leafeon, moves will deal a lot of the heavy lifting with the ability just being there to help it branch out its builds if it wants to. The Pokedex says Leafeon in the wild do not fight, so a bulky build more similar to Tangrowth is something I'd enjoy seeing.

"Photosynthesis" is an ability derived from the fact Leafeon, well, uses photosynthesis in order to get its nutrients. When Leafeon is in neutral or Sunny weather, it heals Leftovers every turn for free. This makes it a much better tank than it was before, which it can pull off with a theoretical set running Knock Off and Leech Seed as utility moves. The heal doubles in Sunny weather, which will also combine with Leafeon having Chlorophyll included into the ability essentially. Leafeon has Base 130 Defense with a bad HP stat, so hopefully this can help it be a tank if it so pleases.

Giving it the moves Taunt, U-Turn, Triple Axel, Follow Me, Spiky Shield, Sleep Powder/Grass Whistle (if Grass Whistle still doesn't return), Stomping Tantrum and Wild Charge. That's a lot of moves, but I always felt the Sinnoh duo to have awful movesets.

I think this change wouldn't necessarily make Leafeon go up many tiers, but it'd make it have enough variety to endure in having some viability above ZU for a while, I'd hope. The moves let it be better as an offensive threat and give it more utility for a defensive set.

:Glaceon: Garbage tier garbage, unfortunate for one of the best designs in the series. Awful Speed meaning it has to make use of its natural bulk in order to attack, which outside of HP isn't that bad, but the Ice-Type holds it back hard. We're going to give it a good ability for sure.

Glaceon's Pokedex entries mainly talk about how it can freeze the atmosphere around it to create diamond dust, so "Diamond Dust" it is, and I'm going to take some inspiration from Pokemon Unite for this. For anyone who has never played Unite, Glaceon is bullshit in it, with it gaining these icicles with each auto attack which its skills use in order to lock on and target someone, using all of them at the same time from very far away. That is not my takeaway for the turn-based game of course, but I do think the idea of rewarding it for getting consecutive attacks is interesting. Every time Glaceon uses an Ice-Type attack, it will gain a 1.1x damage increase to its Ice attacks until switch out. This will be combined with the rest of the ability, which is weather themed, that will make you experience the Glaceon Unite wombo combo in turn-based form.

Firstly, we are combining Ice Body and Slush Rush into the ability. Secondly, if Glaceon hits a 1.5x on its own, it will summon Snow temporarily. This will make it a gigantic threat. This will only work once per switch in, so if you can weather the storm it will be neutered until next time, but I imagine it will be hard to deal with it at double speed with free Leftovers, the Snow +1 Defense boost and the fact it has Substitute Calm Mind. In fact, even my brain considers if this is too much synergy, but I think it'd be funny. Getting 1.5x on its own would also require it to get 5 Ice attacks in one switch in, so I also doubt that that will happen much if ever in a serious battle, so realistically you will need two Pokemon to get this to work. One may consider it privilege for Glaceon to get more buffs than regular Slush Rush ability Pokemon, and you're correct; Eeveelutions simply deserve privilege, next question.

As for moves, because I feel like I potentially made Glaceon extremely annoying as is, I'm not going to give it nearly as many moves as I did Leafeon. However, the other side of the dex entries notes it makes its fur act like spikes when it freezes them, so it gains Spike Shield with a bit of synergy with Leafeon. It also obtains Aura Sphere so that it can defeat Steel-Types, since I feel it is still never worth running if it can't deal with Steel-Types in any capacity. Ideally I'd prefer a Ground move, but Earth Power 90 BP feels a bit strong and for some reason the next lowest power Special Ground move is Mud Shot, which it learns so.

:Sylveon: My second-favorite Pokemon of all-time! And also my furry OC! So yeah, I'm gonna buff it quite a bit. Not too hard, though, because this Pokemon is already sometimes viable. That being said I'd like it to be viable-er, and I feel like in Singles Pokemon like Clefable just outclass it too hard. Because Sylveon runs solo, I don't have any theme with another Pokemon to contend with. The original three I kept the immunity abilities, Espeon and Umbreon both had the healing thing and not much else similar I suppose (like the real games!) and Leafeon/Glaceon have their abilities largely tied to weather. Sylveon? I can do anything.

"Ribbons" is the final fanmade ability here, and it's based on the dex entries about it putting its ribbon feelers around its trainer's arm, in the original Y dex entry just because it likes walking with its trainer, in Ultra Moon's entry because it has a practical purpose of reading its trainer's emotions. For the sake of battle, what does this mean, however? It means that Sylveon will do better if it feels positive emotions and vibes; better Friendship with its trainer, the more damage it will deal. Less friendship, less damage. Essentially we will add a Return-like multiplier onto all attacking moves, maxxing out at 1.3x more damage for a free Life Orb. This will not combine with Pixilate because it does not get Pixilate back, it will have to settle for Dazzling Gleam to hit both opposing targets. On top of the effectively free extra damage, when it has max friendship it will also have Shed Skin effect applied at the end of each turn, kind of a reference to the affection features.

As for moves, Follow Me, Mystical Fire back from Generation 8 and Thunderbolt as another general offensive move, and that will round out its kit. It already has decent moves, and a lot of the moves I could add are moves that don't fit its character (like Taunt or Nasty Plot).

These changes will make Sylveon more of a general Attacker mage while giving it the ability to mostly-reliably get rid of status, letting it be a better tank with less disruption from other tanks or other moves. I think this could genuinely make it a really good Pokemon, and with its Speed being its lowest stats, I do not think this would break it. And if it does? It deserves it anyways.

I spent an hour and a half on this post already, so uhhh. That's all!
 
It's a fun reflection of where power creep has gotten us that people can propose the most laughably broken buffs imaginable, for mons that already have a lot of on-paper strength, and then (correctly!) conclude that the end result wouldn't even be that good in the current metagame.
Hey, I'm tryin' my best LOL don't judge me iuzfsfiernfivsviuustidg
 
It's a fun reflection of where power creep has gotten us that people can propose the most laughably broken buffs imaginable, for mons that already have a lot of on-paper strength, and then (correctly!) conclude that the end result wouldn't even be that good in the current metagame.
Definitely has me missing Megas, even if the already-good popularity picks got in the way of a perfect execution. If even an amazing regular ability isn't going to cut it, might as well throw in an extra 100 stat points while you're at it.
 
Honestly, while the Eeveelutions as a whole are cool, the individual Pokemon themselves are super boring. They're all just bare-bones charicatures of their respective types.

Except Umbreon. There wasn't really anything similar to Umbreon until Mandibuzz. Umbreon's cool.

And Jolteon getting Double Kick and Pin Missile is neat.
 
Definitely has me missing Megas, even if the already-good popularity picks got in the way of a perfect execution. If even an amazing regular ability isn't going to cut it, might as well throw in an extra 100 stat points while you're at it.
Tbh it's less about BST and more that the BST is just put in the wrong areas, because all the Eeveelutions have to have formatted stats

And it's not even just that, it's also they made bad combination choices in the past because they didn't know what good ones were.

If Flareon was say, 95 / 130 / 65 / 60 / 65 / 110 it'd be pretty fucking good.

Honestly, while the Eeveelutions as a whole are cool, the individual Pokemon themselves are super boring. They're all just bare-bones charicatures of their respective types.

Except Umbreon. There wasn't really anything similar to Umbreon until Mandibuzz. Umbreon's cool.
No. Most of them are some of the best designed Pokemon. And Umbreon is not even close to the best designed Eeveelution.

I'd rank them in terms of actually good design from an objective standpoint:

Vaporeon > Sylveon > Glaceon > Leafeon > Umbreon = Espeon > Jolteon > Flareon

Also like. Wtf do you mean "oh its just a caricature of the type", the fun part is that they are cute animals mixed with Pokemon elements. That is the point. Not everything is trying to be Flygon. Espeon is great because it is a cat that has Psychic powers that conveys that personality extremely well.

1725061054233.png


Look at the Sugimori art, for instance. It looks sassy as fuck, and it's great. Cats are sassy, often read as quiet, mysterious and are one of the most mythologized animals on Earth. And this design captures it with the Psychic type entirely.

Umbreon is only interesting because of the rings. That is basically it.

Personal Eeveelution Tier List:

Espeon = Sylveon > Glaceon = Umbreon > Vaporeon > Leafeon > Flareon > Jolteon
 
I mean like, mechanically. Stats and movepool and stuff.

The actual visual creatures themselves are fine.
I mean I'd actually go there to say Umbreon is the most boring one. Like what does it do?

It's a tank that has no real attacking ability I guess. It has no real ability. It has Foul Play and Toxic to make progress I guess. And then WishTect. Like in competitive history it's had a few things ig? I kinda have always seen it as a more boring Vaporeon, with Vaporeon's stats being less hyper-maxxed for defensive potential, and its sets throughout gens being more interesting with its usable Spatk.

Last gen during IoA I was making Sand Balance Vappy teams work with WishTect + Yawn to beat even Giga Drain Volcaronas setting up in its face, a lot of attackers really. Yeah, Umbreon could do that too, but then I also had Vaporeon during Vish meta, and it put in work against a lot of threats you wouldn't expect it to given its tier. Water Absorb was clutch. Flip Turn then gave it flexibility when it got it, too. In Gen 4 it was good in the old era and ran cool stuff like Ice Beam, mostly relying on 1v1ing certain threats, etc.

Jolteon has had fun stuff with HP Ice v Grass and deciding on moves on choiced sets which was really fun when I was new to Gen 4 OU, when people actually had it on like a Sample Team (its really bad nowadays lol). Sylveon has a cool VGC presence, Flareon is bad but the Guts angle is interesting with the low speed (kinda like a really terrible Ursaluna), Leafeon is actually a really cool attacker, etc. etc. etc.

I'd say Umbreon is probably like the most boring one competitively, yeah. It's stable, for sure, but it just does what it does zero thrills. It has the sheer stats and that's basically it

its basically scream tail but with toxic so its RU
 
I mean I'd actually go there to say Umbreon is the most boring one. Like what does it do?

It's a tank that has no real attacking ability I guess. It has no real ability. It has Foul Play and Toxic to make progress I guess. And then WishTect. Like in competitive history it's had a few things ig? I kinda have always seen it as a more boring Vaporeon, with Vaporeon's stats being less hyper-maxxed for defensive potential, and its sets throughout gens being more interesting with its usable Spatk.

Last gen during IoA I was making Sand Balance Vappy teams work with WishTect + Yawn to beat even Giga Drain Volcaronas setting up in its face, a lot of attackers really. Yeah, Umbreon could do that too, but then I also had Vaporeon during Vish meta, and it put in work against a lot of threats you wouldn't expect it to given its tier. Water Absorb was clutch. Flip Turn then gave it flexibility when it got it, too. In Gen 4 it was good in the old era and ran cool stuff like Ice Beam, mostly relying on 1v1ing certain threats, etc.

Jolteon has had fun stuff with HP Ice v Grass and deciding on moves on choiced sets which was really fun when I was new to Gen 4 OU, when people actually had it on like a Sample Team (its really bad nowadays lol). Sylveon has a cool VGC presence, Flareon is bad but the Guts angle is interesting with the low speed (kinda like a really terrible Ursaluna), Leafeon is actually a really cool attacker, etc. etc. etc.

I'd say Umbreon is probably like the most boring one competitively, yeah. It's stable, for sure, but it just does what it does zero thrills. It has the sheer stats and that's basically it

its basically scream tail but with toxic so its RU
Competitively it's maybe the most boring (though I remember it being pretty fun in a draft league I used it in) but I was more talking about how it's interesting in the sense that it's unlike almost any other Dark-type. Plenty of Electric-types are fast special attackers like Jolteon, plenty of Ice-types are strong, slow, and bulky like Glaceon, but for a long time Umbreon was the only pure-defense no-offense Dark-type. And there still aren't that many. It's pretty much just Mandibuzz, Mega Sableye, and Wo-Chien.
 
Yeah, my boi Umbreon is cool because it at least tries to be different. Specially considering it was part of second gen so it was already more of an unique niche even in the first Dark batch.
 
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