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Pet Mod Megas for All v7 - Kalos concluded! | Please read the first post! | Fully playable through Kalos Slate 10!
- Thread starter Hematite
- Start date
KakkarrotCake
Banned deucer.
Skoochin' in a bit late again, but here's the deal:
Starting with Electrode, Inkbug's Electrode sounds hella annoying (in a good way).
Okispokis's('s's's's) sub is a solid runner-up and
Hematemesis's('s's) isn't far behind.
For Golurk, I gotta say Sandsong's sub is the most solid, but
KeroseneZanchu's and
Karnachar's Golurks are both really cool as well.
Last but not least, I think Hematemasis' Silvally kind of run away with it here, but
Gekokeso's sub isn't too shabby either, with
KeroseneZanchu's Silvally taking up the rear here.
If none of these win Imma be mad disappointed, but good luck all.
Starting with Electrode, Inkbug's Electrode sounds hella annoying (in a good way).
Okispokis's('s's's's) sub is a solid runner-up and
Hematemesis's('s's) isn't far behind.
For Golurk, I gotta say Sandsong's sub is the most solid, but
KeroseneZanchu's and
Karnachar's Golurks are both really cool as well.
Last but not least, I think Hematemasis' Silvally kind of run away with it here, but
Gekokeso's sub isn't too shabby either, with
KeroseneZanchu's Silvally taking up the rear here.
If none of these win Imma be mad disappointed, but good luck all.
1) Paulluxx
2) Okispokis
3) Gravity Monkey
4) Hematemesis
2) Okispokis
3) Gravity Monkey
4) Hematemesis
1) Blueray
2) Kero
3) JosJet
4) memebitatxt
2) Kero
3) JosJet
4) memebitatxt
1) DrPumpkinz
2) Hematemsesis
3) BlueRay
4) Inkbug
2) Hematemsesis
3) BlueRay
4) Inkbug
late votes here we go
electrode
gekokeso
NANI!?!
okispokis
paulluxx
inkbug
albatross
drpumpkinz
golurk
jazzmat
hematemesis
voolpool
magmajudis
NANI!?!
blastfury0614
vizar
josjet
kerosenezanchu
not_shiva
regic boat
karnachar
memebitatxt.
drpumpkinz
revenge of depressed gay
silvally
drpumpkinz
tapler
NANI!?!
lydian
gekokeso
aurum4
sereg
simpyshrimp
violettes
draco gengar
eeveegirl1380
electrode
gekokeso
NANI!?!
okispokis
paulluxx
inkbug
albatross
drpumpkinz
golurk
jazzmat
hematemesis
voolpool
magmajudis
NANI!?!
blastfury0614
vizar
josjet
kerosenezanchu
not_shiva
regic boat
karnachar
memebitatxt.
drpumpkinz
revenge of depressed gay
silvally
drpumpkinz
tapler
NANI!?!
lydian
gekokeso
aurum4
sereg
simpyshrimp
violettes
draco gengar
eeveegirl1380
FiniteInfinity
Banned deucer.
Greetings, I'm a new user who happened to stumble upon this pet mod, among others, and I have to say I am interested. Could anyone tell me if the voting phase is still open, and if so, for how much longer? I would like to help in the process but I wouldn't want to rush anything and "help" make the wrong decision.
Open for about 20 more minutes! But if you want to take the time to read over the subs and vote, I can wait till you're done. I have done that before and it's not a problem to do so, so let me know ! Welcome to the mod and let me know if I can help you find anything :3
FiniteInfinity
Banned deucer.
Delightful, thank you! To avoid clutter, I'm going to edit my votes into this post and message you when they're ready. I will likely only vote for one or two submissions per Mega Evolution as to not take too long, but I hope to be more thorough the next time around.
The Mimic
For me, Abismal's Defibrillator ability is quite the unique take on Electrode as a concept - very few submissions strayed far from the explosive or classic RPG mimic idea, and yet Abismal's take still feels very flavorful. It also provides interesting play with the new addition of "backrow" healing, but paired with a limitation that deters unhealthy abuse. I expect it to have great synergy with allied users of Toxic Orb and Flame Orb for the purposes of Toxic Heal/Boost, Guts, or similar, but in most other cases it will be a niche and situational tag along with great payoff.
The runner-up here was Paulluxx, who had the best and most unique version of the "explosive" mega direction. I would have liked to have picked a mimic sub, since I really like that aspect of Electrode, but these two subs were simply better.
The Automaton
NANI?! Yes, it was me, FiniteInfinity! Jokes aside, NANI?! provided a really simple but well-executed concept here. Ghost/Ground is already quite solid type coverage, and Golurk has plenty of other tools in Fighting and Rock to use as well - which is why a concept like Eerie Artillery is not as overbearing as it might be on a different Pokemon. Non-grounded is usually an important immunity and balancing feature for many Ground types, so its important not to negate that weakness entirely - so Golurk, a Pokemon that can already get around it decently well, is a good target to play with the concept. Additionally, since it is a Smack Down-like effect and use case, any situations where it would be truly detrimental to the opponent can be avoided through switching, giving it good room for counterplay.
The runner-up here was KeroseneZanchu, who provided a really unique play on the two turn move mechanic that plays into Golurk's strengths.
The Android
KeroseneZanchu had the best submission in this category with his "RKS Megamemory" version of Silvally's mega stone. Trying to maintain base Silvally's identity and Arceus-like gimmick seemed to be a hard task for many of the users here, but KeroseneZanchu's idea solved it elegantly and creatively. The solution was outside the box, and yet seems like it would fit right at home in the real games. Adaptability, while simple, is quite flavorful and opens up a wide array of both offensive and defensive purpose for the various types/forms the Pokemon has.
The runner-up here was DrPumpkinz, who also did a great job of keeping the Silvally-like feel with intentionally selected forms and types.
For me, Abismal's Defibrillator ability is quite the unique take on Electrode as a concept - very few submissions strayed far from the explosive or classic RPG mimic idea, and yet Abismal's take still feels very flavorful. It also provides interesting play with the new addition of "backrow" healing, but paired with a limitation that deters unhealthy abuse. I expect it to have great synergy with allied users of Toxic Orb and Flame Orb for the purposes of Toxic Heal/Boost, Guts, or similar, but in most other cases it will be a niche and situational tag along with great payoff.
The runner-up here was Paulluxx, who had the best and most unique version of the "explosive" mega direction. I would have liked to have picked a mimic sub, since I really like that aspect of Electrode, but these two subs were simply better.
The Automaton
NANI?! Yes, it was me, FiniteInfinity! Jokes aside, NANI?! provided a really simple but well-executed concept here. Ghost/Ground is already quite solid type coverage, and Golurk has plenty of other tools in Fighting and Rock to use as well - which is why a concept like Eerie Artillery is not as overbearing as it might be on a different Pokemon. Non-grounded is usually an important immunity and balancing feature for many Ground types, so its important not to negate that weakness entirely - so Golurk, a Pokemon that can already get around it decently well, is a good target to play with the concept. Additionally, since it is a Smack Down-like effect and use case, any situations where it would be truly detrimental to the opponent can be avoided through switching, giving it good room for counterplay.
The runner-up here was KeroseneZanchu, who provided a really unique play on the two turn move mechanic that plays into Golurk's strengths.
The Android
KeroseneZanchu had the best submission in this category with his "RKS Megamemory" version of Silvally's mega stone. Trying to maintain base Silvally's identity and Arceus-like gimmick seemed to be a hard task for many of the users here, but KeroseneZanchu's idea solved it elegantly and creatively. The solution was outside the box, and yet seems like it would fit right at home in the real games. Adaptability, while simple, is quite flavorful and opens up a wide array of both offensive and defensive purpose for the various types/forms the Pokemon has.
The runner-up here was DrPumpkinz, who also did a great job of keeping the Silvally-like feel with intentionally selected forms and types.
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boom1) KeroseneZanchu - concept is very fun and fitting.
2) inkbug - concept is pretty gimmicky and i could see it working well for literally anything, especially zap cannon (forgot to mention this is the ultimate bright power counter)
3) DrPumpkinz - fast power swap and cool concept flavor wise, surprised many people didn't go with the mimick theme but i guess that's zoroark's thing
4) Violettes - very cool concept. definitely a stretch but i like the idea of giving an electric type ice beam, nobody come after me
bam1) BlueRay - has a good concept flavor wise and sounds fun to use with power trip
2) ViZar - its pretty gimmicky and i mean failsafe is just a cool ability to have in general
3) Exploziff - i like having ground/ghost types be viable now we get regenerator slapped onto it
4) by this point nothing else really peaked my interest
beep1) abismal - yes i voted for myself but i really like reverse protean as a concept and i hoped more people would be fond of it so here i am
2) KeroseneZanchu - best execution for a pokemon with 18 megas, or i guess just 1 mega with 18 flavors. still pretty neat and silvally keeps its gimmick
3) Paullux - honestly its really hard to vote for silvally but you know what, normal/ghost is a combination that's tough to justify so just give it to me already
4) BlueRay - pretty cool type changing gimmick
you can tell these were rushed because they're very last minute and i dont vote often (or at all that is)
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Hi again posting my draft here for yall to browse if that's a thing you would be interested in !
Aaaand the votes are in!
Before I get started, a quick run-down of how this works:
Electrode: KeroseneZanchu !
Golurk: Say it again -- it's KeroseneZanchu !
Silvally: What a twist -- it's KeroseneZanchu !
Instead of providing separate quotes I am just going to blockquote the entire submission post I guess!
Quick announcement before I move on to other news: this has been up for awhile but I don't think we ever formally welcomed our new Competitive Council members in the thread! So a warm (and belated) welcome to Exploziff, ViZar, Paulluxx and pupugugu, whose competitive insight has been invaluable as we've run the last slate of suspect tests!
Speaking of those suspect tests, actually, I'm not sure the results of those were formally announced here yet...
Changes to the format!
I'm going to keep this brief, since the comp council is working on a more thorough announcement post including explanations about why they voted the way they did on any given Pokemon, but since these are going live in the next update I should mention it here!
This slate of suspect tests Hematemesis and the rest of the comp council carried out recently came to a close.
Tornadus-Therian has already been unbanned from the format for awhile now, but the rest of these are new:
Blaziken (base, not mega), 
Deoxys-Speed and 
Cinderace (base, not mega) are no longer banned from MfA OU!
These Pokemon will be usable in battles when the next update to the mod goes live. That update will also include the item bans (Bright Powder/Lax Incense, Razor Fang/King's Rock) that BlueRay mentioned in this post, as well as a ban on Cinderace-Mega in M4A VGC as well until an appropriate nerf for it is found, as it has turned out to be a very unhealthy presence there.
Speaking of things that'll be going live in the next update that Blue mentioned in that post...
Results for our recent Buffs and Nerfs survey!
As you might recall, we recently held a poll on a variety of buffs and nerfs to some of our existing Mega Evolutions. That closed a little while ago, so here are the results!
Trevenant will be gaining access to Bulk Up
Mega Trevenant will be having amended stats (namely a shift to a physical attack bias, and better Speed)
Ariados will be gaining access to Strength Sap
Ariados will be gaining access to U-Turn
Mega Ariados will be having amended stats (less Attack, improved bulk, and much more Speed)
Mega Sawsbuck-Winter will be having amended stats (a shift to a physical attack bias, better physical bulk)
Sawsbuck-Winter will therefore be losing access to its added Special moves (Blizzard, Ice Beam, Freeze-Dry)
Cacturne will be gaining access to Brine
Gigalith will be gaining access to Trick Room
Mega Lycanroc-Dusk will be having amended stats (namely reducing Speed)
Mega Meowstic-F will be having amended stats (namely reducing Speed)
Meowstic-F will be losing access to Mystical Fire
These balance changes will be going live in the next update, alongside the other changes mentioned earlier in the post.
Upcoming Events!
We have some events planned for this break, but the timing of it hasn't been set in stone yet. Expect another announcement about that once we hammer out the details. In the meantime, we're planning on running a couple tournaments!
... But we don't know what kind yet! So head on over to this poll right here and let us know what kind of tournaments you want to see!
As I have said several times over my last few announcement posts, rather than moving directly into a new submission slate, we are taking some time to reorganize how we have the mod structured and are now going to move on to M4a V7's first-ever discussion phase! Over the next few weeks, we're going to work on expanding our metagame and teambuilding resources.
I'm not sure how other mods usually run discussion phases, but I figure it can't hurt to give a prompt; what are your favorite Mega sets to use, and how do you use them? Are there any hidden gems you think the metagame has overlooked?
We're trying to cultivate a discussion here, so if you do share please elaborate on your sets a bit and the reasoning behind the choices you made on it!
Aaaand the votes are in!
Before I get started, a quick run-down of how this works:
- Each vote contributes one point to its first-place choice
- The candidates are ordered based on both the number of first-place votes and the number of total votes, and eliminated from the bottom
- Any vote whose first choice has been eliminated instead gives its point to its second choice, or whatever its next ranking is. (On the sheet, points that have moved in this manner are highlighted in yellow.)
- The elimination and re-ranking process continues until there are two remaining, upon which the one with more points is the winner.
- You can view the whole thing on this spreadsheet.
Electrode: KeroseneZanchu ! Golurk: Say it again -- it's KeroseneZanchu ! Silvally: What a twist -- it's KeroseneZanchu !C.... Congratulations! :'DMegaElectrode
Type: Electric
Mega Stone: Thermite
Ability: Implode - If this Pokemon's self-damaging or self-destructing moves faint an opposing Pokemon, this Pokemon does not take damage or self-destruct.
Stats:
HP - 60 (+0)
ATK - 150 (+100)
DEF - 70 (+0)
SPA - 80 (+0)
SPD - 80 (+0)
SPE - 150 (+0)
New Moves: Mind Blown
Description:
Dex Entry: Electrode's destructive capabilities have grown to the extent that it actually implodes upon detonation, creating an equal and opposite force to the explosion it produces and keeps its body intact. However, if the explosion fails to properly obliterate the target and instead meets resistance, the rebounding force will be enough to upset this equilibrium and cause its body to collapse completely.
So, Electrode has always been the Pokemon most directly tied to Self-Destruct and Explosion. Even if it hasn't always been the most prominent user mechanically, via frequency or viability (those two seats go to Graveller and Lickilicky/Alolan Golem/Mega Glalie, respectively), almost all of Electrode's Pokedex descriptions explain its self-destructive tendencies, and it is commonly featured in both the main series games, side games, and anime with the sole gimmick of being a bomb. I wanted to create a mega for it that fully embraced this and ran with it, making Explosion not just a viable option, but one that didn't undercut the very risky and potentially self-destructive nature of the move in doing so.Get ready to meet Settle on fucking crack. If you thought Mega Bastiodon rewarded sick reads and outplays, you ain't seen nothing yet. I don't think I need to explain to you exactly what this sub offers, it's pretty straightforward, so instead, for all of you out there who doubt or fail to understand, let me offer you this:
Here's the scene - you've got your Corviknight in play, sitting at half HP. The enemy's Mega Electrode is staring you down, waiting to see what you're gonna do. It doesn't matter that you're max physical defense invested, the 150 ATK STAB Wild Charge is more than enough to finish you off, and the Electrode knows it. In a panic, you switch out to your Therian Landorous to nullify the attack - before groaning at your own mistake. The enemy saw this coming from a mile away, and you can only watch in dread as the opposing Mega Electrode uses Explosion - obliterating your Lando-T in a single strike. Implode activates, and it's gotten off completely scot-free, with that stupid, smug smile on its face. Your opponent sends you a link in chat. It's this.
MegaSilvally
Type: Normal
Mega Stone: RKS Megamemory - If held by a Silvally or any of its forms, this item allows it to Mega Evolve into its corresponding Mega Silvally form in battle. This item also functions as a memory with the same type as the holder's Hidden Power type.
(ie. Silvally holds an RKS Megamemory and its Hidden Power type is Fire. Silvally enters the battle as Silvally-Fire and has a Fire-type Multi-Attack. When it Mega Evolves, it becomes Mega-Silvally-Fire.)
Ability: Adaptability
Stats:
HP - 95(+0)
ATK - 100 (+5)
DEF - 120 (+25)
SPA - 140 (+45)
SPD - 120 (+25)
SPE - 95 (+0)
New Moves: Fire Pledge, Water Pledge, Taunt
Description:
Dex Entry: With the help of a new memory created by Type: Null's original creators at Gladion's insistence, Silvally has unlocked the capability of Mega Evolution. Coincidentally, this lets it break the chains of the technology that formed it, casting aside its reliance on artificial augments and instead uses the bond it has with its trainer, brought to the surface by Mega Evolution, to utilize its own innate power and heighten it to its fullest potential.
Both mechanically and flavorfully, I have always liked Silvally as an imitation Arceus (RKS). I've seen many people trying to make use of form-changing abilities to solve the "18 mega stone" issue, but these, I feel, defeat the purpose of Silvally as a whole and undermine its gimmick. Silvally is supposed to only "change form" out of combat, because it's not really supposed to change form so much as it is just changing what type it is based on what it holds. This is what differentiates Silvally from a teambuilding standpoint when compared to something like a Protean/Libero user. This is what I'd imagine a Mega Arceus would look like (though if we wanted to just go full send down the "I'm literally god" route for Arceus I'd totally be down for that as well xP).Sandbox code is *xx100120140120095 (Remember to choose the right Silvally form! It also has to hold the right memory if you want to use Multi-Attack)Silvally is a really solid and versatile Pokemon - jack of all trades, master of some. I wanted to encapsulate this fluid potential with my mega design for it, and, in my honest opinion, think I've accomplished it. Silvally is made to be a teambuilding choice - its powerful versatile STAB in Multi-Attack and wide movepool for both offensive and defensive options allow it to fill most any role you need it to, and being able to form change on the fly undermines that position by turning the intentional decision-making behind its inclusion into an afterthought.
As it stands, Silvally is already extremely customizable through its even statline and Arceus-like "choose a type" gimmick. While its strongest move is almost always the 120 physical STAB it gets in Multi-Attack, Silvally has a strong special movepool that's even, in a lot of cases, better than its physical movepool outside of Multi-Attack specifically, so Silvally has potential both as a hard-hitting physical menace when going full attack and a great offensive typing, or it can choose a solid defensive typing and go full special for amazing coverage in its movepool. My Mega Silvally capitalizes on this with Adaptability - solidifying both gameplans beautifully by causing physically offensive Silvally to hit that much harder with Multi-Attack, while it also shores up specially offensive Silvally's coverage by covering up Multi-Attack's complete lack of physical investment with the Adaptability power boost and/or boosting the coverage moves of its special movepool with a heightened special attacking stat.
Adaptability also enables defensive Mega Silvally by allowing it to still hit hard and apply pressure in ways that a regular Silvally without offensive investment simply can't - all while maintaining the same surprising levels of tankiness that Silvally can reach with Iron Defense and Confide. This enables its extensive supportive movepool in Parting Shot, weathers, Defog, Toxic, Tailwind, and more. Going a defensive typing and/or build can also supports its potential as a scary setup sweeper with Substitute and Swords Dance - which combined with the power boost of Adaptability and a 120 BP STAB physical attack can give it incredibly good damage without any offensive investment at all.
Silvally - and Mega Silvally - may not always be the Pokemon you want to build your team around, but it has a build for it for every team around. If you're making a solid team and you don't have a mega yet, Silvally has got you more than covered. Do you need a Defogger? Mega Silvally-Ground to resist SR and kill the users or Mega Silvally-Poison to be immune to toxic spikes. Do you need to deal with enemy Defoggers? Mega Silvally-Electric with Stone Edge to deal with Zapdos or Mega Silvally-Rock with Thunder Fang to deal with Corviknight. Do you need a tank? Try something spicy like special Mega Silvally-Steel with Surf and Air Slash, or something classic like Tailwind/Parting Shot.
It should be noted that due to Game Freak's quirks with Hidden Power, Mega Silvally-Fairy is unavailable due to Hidden Power being made before the calculations were made and them deciding (for some reason?) not to update them. Additionally, Mega Silvally-Fighting is technically unavailable as well due to needing four even IVs and all Gen 6+ legendaries having three guaranteed perfect IVs. Incidentally, these two are some of the most widely used Silvally types.
However, and this may be a hot take, this is kind of a blessing in disguise. While some people may not like it, mono-Fairy and mono-Fighting Silvally, with the coverage it has, are very potent Pokemon and Adaptability + the stat boosts may very possibly make them oppressive. Even if they aren't in relation to the rest of the meta, they always have been in relation to other Silvally types, with only Ghost and Steel ever really managing to compare. (Fairy is pretty obvious, and no drawback Close Combat + Shadow Claw coverage go brrrr). This is completely unintentional, and I never would have intentionally left these two types out if they hadn't been already - and if there was an easy way to include them into this concept, I would. However, with the way things stand, I'm perfectly okay with their exclusion (a sentiment that I've seen shared by others) and I think it's healthy for Silvally as a whole, as this promotes great diversity among Mega Silvally's uses by giving a great power boost to the rest of its types to let it compete while still letting base Silvally-Fairy and Silvally-Fighting shine at the same power level they always have.
MegaGolurk
Type: Ground/Ghost
Mega Stone: Golurkite
Ability: Buildup - If this Pokemon has used an attacking move, but has not been attacked, at the end of turn, it recovers 1/8th of its HP.
Stats:
HP - 89 (+0)
ATK - 150 (+26)
DEF - 122 (+42)
SPA - 55 (+0)
SPD - 122 (+42)
SPE - 45 (-10)
New Moves: None
Description:
Dex Entry: In Mega Evolution, Golurk has achieved a heightened sense of strength and versatility, able to repair its body using materials around it if given even a moment of respite. This gives it the ability to come back and better than ever, ready to drop in on an unsuspecting and unprepared opponent out of the sky, out of the earth, or from the shadows.Golurk is one of the few Pokemon that has three of the semi-invulnerable moves. It has STAB on two of them, one of the two STABs also being one of the least common of the semi-invulns, and Ground/Ghost/Flying has perfect neutral or better coverage across all Pokemon. I really wanted to use this, especially because Golurk already has good attack (with all of the semi-invulns being physical) and is plenty bulky already to make use of the ability I decided to give it to synergize with these moves. This is why I also focused on building up its attack and defenses even more with its mega stats.
This is a pretty straightforward concept as well - if you're using a semi-invuln every turn, this is essentially free Leftovers on a Pokemon with 89/122/122 bulk and decent attack. This punishes opponents who choose to switch on the second turn of your semi-invuln by giving you a second proc of your ability, which is effectively double leftovers. It also punishes the use of status moves by the opponent (unless it's toxic) by also giving you double leftovers on those turns. This has good synergy with Curse - the ability itself helps recover the health lost by using the move, and pressures switches, which in turn creates another turn for Golurk to regen on whenever they do switch. It also make the curse itself more effective whenever the enemy chooses to stay in, as the enemy can only retaliate once every two turns - meaning twice the curse pings and a leftovers ping for Golurk. Overall this is a bulky, hard-hitting bruiser with great sustain that can be the core of any team who needs damage or walls, and can benefit from team support via hazards/screens effectively or do just fine without them.
Quick announcement before I move on to other news: this has been up for awhile but I don't think we ever formally welcomed our new Competitive Council members in the thread! So a warm (and belated) welcome to Exploziff, ViZar, Paulluxx and pupugugu, whose competitive insight has been invaluable as we've run the last slate of suspect tests!
Speaking of those suspect tests, actually, I'm not sure the results of those were formally announced here yet...
Changes to the format!
I'm going to keep this brief, since the comp council is working on a more thorough announcement post including explanations about why they voted the way they did on any given Pokemon, but since these are going live in the next update I should mention it here!
This slate of suspect tests Hematemesis and the rest of the comp council carried out recently came to a close.
Tornadus-Therian has already been unbanned from the format for awhile now, but the rest of these are new: Blaziken (base, not mega), Deoxys-Speed and Cinderace (base, not mega) are no longer banned from MfA OU!These Pokemon will be usable in battles when the next update to the mod goes live. That update will also include the item bans (Bright Powder/Lax Incense, Razor Fang/King's Rock) that BlueRay mentioned in this post, as well as a ban on
Cinderace-Mega in M4A VGC as well until an appropriate nerf for it is found, as it has turned out to be a very unhealthy presence there.Speaking of things that'll be going live in the next update that Blue mentioned in that post...
Results for our recent Buffs and Nerfs survey!
As you might recall, we recently held a poll on a variety of buffs and nerfs to some of our existing Mega Evolutions. That closed a little while ago, so here are the results!
Trevenant will be gaining access to Bulk Up Mega Trevenant will be having amended stats (namely a shift to a physical attack bias, and better Speed) Ariados will be gaining access to Strength Sap Ariados will be gaining access to U-Turn Mega Ariados will be having amended stats (less Attack, improved bulk, and much more Speed) Mega Sawsbuck-Winter will be having amended stats (a shift to a physical attack bias, better physical bulk) Sawsbuck-Winter will therefore be losing access to its added Special moves (Blizzard, Ice Beam, Freeze-Dry) Cacturne will be gaining access to Brine Gigalith will be gaining access to Trick Room Mega Lycanroc-Dusk will be having amended stats (namely reducing Speed) Mega Meowstic-F will be having amended stats (namely reducing Speed) Meowstic-F will be losing access to Mystical FireThese balance changes will be going live in the next update, alongside the other changes mentioned earlier in the post.
Upcoming Events!
We have some events planned for this break, but the timing of it hasn't been set in stone yet. Expect another announcement about that once we hammer out the details. In the meantime, we're planning on running a couple tournaments!
... But we don't know what kind yet! So head on over to this poll right here and let us know what kind of tournaments you want to see!
As I have said several times over my last few announcement posts, rather than moving directly into a new submission slate, we are taking some time to reorganize how we have the mod structured and are now going to move on to M4a V7's first-ever discussion phase! Over the next few weeks, we're going to work on expanding our metagame and teambuilding resources.
I'm not sure how other mods usually run discussion phases, but I figure it can't hurt to give a prompt; what are your favorite Mega sets to use, and how do you use them? Are there any hidden gems you think the metagame has overlooked?
We're trying to cultivate a discussion here, so if you do share please elaborate on your sets a bit and the reasoning behind the choices you made on it!
Take all this with a grain of salt, since I don't actually battle too often and I'm not all that good; I just wanted to give an example what kind of elaboration I would personally hope to see! Obviously you don't have to go into this much detail, but this is the kind of thing I would love to see thoughts on alongside your sets.
Drapion @ Drapionite
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fire Fang
- Ice Fang / Knock Off / Pursuit
- Swords Dance
- Shore Up
I haven't actually tested this one yet since I haven't actually finished the team it's on, but I put it together after getting just completely humiliated by my nemesis BitBitio and his pet Mega Corviknight when we were experimenting with sets awhile ago.
Fire Fang isn't Mega Drapion's strongest option overall (as it usually prefers to run EQ), but it is its strongest option against Mega Corviknight, which is a constant, looming presence in MfA's metagame that Mega Drapion is in a unique position to handle due to its Ability. Steelbreaker guarantees critical hits against Steel-type Pokemon, and critical hits ignore Attack drops (like those caused by Mega Corviknight's Intimidate) and Defense boosts (like those touted by its Bulk Up sets).
Max Attack Mega Drapion at +0 will do a minimum of 55% to a Mega Corviknight with Fire Fang, assuming 252/252+ bulk investment (which it virtually never runs, as it usually prefers to EV into SpD due to Intimidate; it does 75% minimum to 252/4). It doesn't need Speed investment to outspeed most sets (though M-Corv usually runs min speed to better slow pivot into allies), and has good enough physical bulk to not be too threatened by BU/Brave Bird sets, even after they've set up a little.
The second attacking move slot can go a variety of different directions; my first pick is Ice Fang to handle Ground- and Dragon-type switchins like Landorus and Garchomp. Knock Off is a much more conventional and less situational pick for Mega Drapion that in combination with SD helps it better threaten just about everything, especially bulky waters that otherwise resist both Fire- and Ice-type attacks.
Drapion @ Drapionite
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fire Fang
- Ice Fang / Knock Off / Pursuit
- Swords Dance
- Shore Up
I haven't actually tested this one yet since I haven't actually finished the team it's on, but I put it together after getting just completely humiliated by my nemesis BitBitio and his pet Mega Corviknight when we were experimenting with sets awhile ago.
Fire Fang isn't Mega Drapion's strongest option overall (as it usually prefers to run EQ), but it is its strongest option against Mega Corviknight, which is a constant, looming presence in MfA's metagame that Mega Drapion is in a unique position to handle due to its Ability. Steelbreaker guarantees critical hits against Steel-type Pokemon, and critical hits ignore Attack drops (like those caused by Mega Corviknight's Intimidate) and Defense boosts (like those touted by its Bulk Up sets).
Max Attack Mega Drapion at +0 will do a minimum of 55% to a Mega Corviknight with Fire Fang, assuming 252/252+ bulk investment (which it virtually never runs, as it usually prefers to EV into SpD due to Intimidate; it does 75% minimum to 252/4). It doesn't need Speed investment to outspeed most sets (though M-Corv usually runs min speed to better slow pivot into allies), and has good enough physical bulk to not be too threatened by BU/Brave Bird sets, even after they've set up a little.
The second attacking move slot can go a variety of different directions; my first pick is Ice Fang to handle Ground- and Dragon-type switchins like Landorus and Garchomp. Knock Off is a much more conventional and less situational pick for Mega Drapion that in combination with SD helps it better threaten just about everything, especially bulky waters that otherwise resist both Fire- and Ice-type attacks.
Alright, that's about it from me for now! Stay tuned for more event announcements that we have in the works, metagame resources, and eventually Slate 34! Have a good one everybody!
Hiya Everyone! ARandomPerson / ASnomPlaysShowdown / IndigoRewrite Here! I contribute a lot towards the VGC and MNM side formats of M4A, so in addition to the standard format, I'll be giving some insight and sets for those too! So, Let's Get Started!!!
Standard M4A: The Devilbeast Awakens
I was a participant in the M4a Premier League, on the team named the Sea Star Spirits Den, coached by BlueRay(Also tied for the best win record let's go me). One of my teammates, JosJet, who I'm collabing with for this portion of the sub, Participated mostly in the format "Restricted", where 5 mega pokemon were randomly picked by a third party, and only those 5 megas could be used. During week 2 (I believe it was week 2), one of the megas was Clefable, which JosJet Chose. JosJet was up against Bolivia, and if it weren't for some misplays, we would have won the match (and the week). The particular Clefable set used, Bolivia actually referenced in his Premier League experience post, describing it as " one of the most devastating and underexplored sets". Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, JetClef! (For Those of you Unaware (haha clefable pun), Mega Clefable can be found here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...telle-conkeldurr.3666825/page-14#post-8560501)
JetClef (Clefable) @ Clefabite
Ability: Magic Guard/Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Cosmic Power
- Soft Boiled
- Nasty Plot / Stored Power
- Moonblast / Shadow Ball / Stored Power
Anyone remember the annoying Cosmic/Stored power Clefable Set? Well, this is that but on steroids and 4 Gallons of Energy Drink. I'll explain what makes this set so great. Firstly, The surprise factor. Clefable isn't as obvious of a mega as, lets say, Dhelmise or Bibarel, as clefable is an amazing mon even without a mega. This means you can bluff a different mega on team preview, causing your opponent to prioritize keeping checks for your bluffed mega alive over Clefable, who they'll assume is a standard pivot/wall. This particular bluffing strategy works best on balance or bulky offense, as stall would prefer using other megas, or at least other clefable sets, and regular clefable just looks odd on Hyper Offense. However, Surprise isn't everything to this set, like Linoone in gen 3 OU. Instead of free sweeps, clefable works as an amazing cleaner, akin to Pre-Nerf Mega Lycanroc Dusk, and sweeping is still an option, as prankster means you can set up on pokemon that would otherwise ko you. JosJet first ran the set with one attacking move, a choice between moonblast and shadow ball as stab, or stored power for more damage when set up, as well as ignoring blissey and unaware users, in exchange for needing heavy anti-dark support and less immediate damage. Your Pre-Mega Ability is Also a big decision, As magic guard means you're unaffected by hazards that could be detrimental to the sweep, and means you can actually set up or even sweep in non-mega form to take no damage from toxic. Unaware means you can switch in and set up on setup pokemon.
Stored power is the most linear move to pick, as dark types wall you completely, which also means you likely need more than one dark counter. Fully powered stored power can deal with other resists and blissey, aside from certain steel and ghost types that immediately threaten you. Shadow ball means you're also walled by dark types momentarily, but your main worry are normal types. fortunately, only Blissey/ Chansey, Diggersby and Mega Exploud are common in my experiences. Moonblast has no immunities, so it's just a matter of setting up to a point where you can't be threatened out. For stored power and shadow ball, Fighting types are going to be your top choice. Those include Keldeo, Terrakion, Urshifu-Rapid, Buzzwole and Kommoo. The tapus deal with darks well, however they stack types with clefable. Other, more specific checks for each common dark type may be used as well. Moonblast means that you're especially vulnerable to certain steels, such as Heatran, Magnezone, Kartana, Scizor, Aegislash and Mega Dhelmise. fighting types work here as well,, however ground must be mentioned, as they deal with annoying poison types such as toxapex, amoonguss, nidoqueen and mega, glowking, dragalge and mega, drapion and mega, and mega garbodor. However, something every version of this set is weak to is toxic, especially toxic from blissey and toxapex, as clefable doesn't immediately threaten them (another reason why fighting and ground types are great partners). Cleric support is appreciated if a sweep attempt is halted, but not manditory. This is most commonly filled by blissey, which also fits on stall and balance. Really though, you should only attempt to sweep with clefable when it's checks are eliminated.
Also, remember when I stated that it doesn't fit on Hyper Offense? Well, it definitely loses it's surprise factor, but it still rips teams apart regardless. Plus, the momentum-based nature of HO means you most likely won't have to worry about status, unless you really mess up, or you're against the most hardcore of hardcore stall. Screens HO is where it fits best IMO, as you can stomach more hits (even those from the likes of kartana!) and set up faster, and with the recent unbanning of deoxys speed, we might start seeing more clefables on Hyper Offense.
As a final note for this section, I recently thought of a version of the set where you drop nasty plot for another attacking move, namely moonblast, to pair with stored power to hit pesky darks. The tradeoff for the coverage is the fact that your stored power does much less damage since you aren't boosting your attacking stat, and as such may fail to ohko certain targets, allowing them to halt your sweep. You also lose the ability to threaten steels completely until you've set up stored powers.
Mix N' Mega M4A: A Glimpse into Insanity
Alright, so the Mix and Mega portion of M4a is still heavily under renovations. The meta is extremely powercrept compared to normal mnm, since the mega stones were specifically designed for certain pokemon to use, and can be extremely broken otherwise, such as lurantisite or meowsticite (Since some pokemon share a stone name, the format will only use the ones shown in the spreadsheet. Link to the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...lC-3X_npmwLNn-HqjIn5tKcEw10/edit#gid=89278669 still a work in progress)
However, We do have a few consistent meta threats, so I'd like to highlight 3 sets in particular.
Firstly, The king of Atespeed:
Entei @ Typhlosionite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Double Edge / Sacred Fire
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
So basically, 186 Atk stab extreme speed, and a meaty double edge too. What's even more surprising is that THIS IS CONSIDERED BALANCED . Without it, threats like Samurite Kartana, Inteleonite Dragapult, Garbodorite/Mimikyunite Jirachi, And almost every variant of scolipede and genesect (however, genesect runs flygonite with dgales for an opposing espeed counter, and while it doesn't outspeed immediately, after a shift gear there's almost nothing you can do aside from letting dgales run out.) Sawsbuckite and Dhelmite are used to coutneract it, and are quite good stones on their own, however their matchup against this set is a reason why Dhelmite is Rated so high, and why Sawsbuckite isn't outclassed. Defensive pokemon Like alolomola and to a lesser extext toxapex since it has earthquake are great checks,
Next, Zacian's Sister steps out of the shadows:
Zamazenta @ Kricketite
Ability: Dauntless Shield
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Play Rough
- Crunch
- Iron Head
Yeahhhhh this is pretty crazy. The same atk as kartana and higher speed than regieleki. Dauntless shield premega provides it with defensive utility, and it hits pretty much everything for a lot of damage, as it has more than enough coverage for everything. It's defensive checks include the next set on the list, as well as Mimikyunite (everything wants mimikyunite) Sylveon, Alomomola, Toxapex, Reuniclus, and Magearna, plus Sawsbuckite Jirachi. It's offensive checks include the previous Entei set as well as Inteleonite Dragapult, Variants of Scolipede, Bulky variants of Altarianite Toxtricity, Bibarelite Gyarados if not carrying wild charge, Trevenite Kommoo and Samurite Kartana.
Finally, A Taste of absolute Defensive Behemoth:
Alomomola @ Mimikyunite / Odd Keystone / Floatzelite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic / Calm Mind
yeah, uh, 165 / 145 / 90 Bulk with mimikyunite is Insane. It can support it's teammates with wish passing, giving everything a second shot at a sweep. Often used in one of my self-named "Deathwish" Cores with 2 wish passers supporting each other and the rest of the team. Even then, ff mimikyunite is taken, it can viably run Odd keystone, Garbodorite or Floatzelite as well, the latter of which supports Typhlosionite Entei greatly, and slows down a rising new threat, shell smash dhelmite blastoise. Calm mind allows it to sweep and makes it unkillable of the special side, and toxic provides reliable damage against pokemon that aren't immune. Setup sweepers that are immune to toxic are this pokemon's biggest problem, which include latiasite magearna and Cosmic power/ Calm mind Jirachi.
M4A VGC: New Contenders
After the recent Kalos Dex Tournament and numerous games between me and BlueRay (greentastic) testing different megas:
I've come to report on 3 Different Megas, As well as suggesting tiers for pokemon I have tested.
Gumshoos-Mega > Suggested Tier: C (Too specially frail, prone to intimidate, outclassed by Durant)
Nidoqueen-Mega > Suggested Tier: B (Hates Intimidate, Rain, Hail and Mega Slowking. However, Almost perfect coverage for the meta, Winning matchup versus Mega Dhelmise itself, Can deal with almost every physical attacker, Body press can be very powerful.)
Zapdos-Galar > Suggested Rerank: C --> B+ (Deters Intimidators, Packs Taunt for TR setters, quick guard for priority such as fake out or grassy glide. Can run many items, Such as focus sash, life orb, or a z crystal.)
Murkrow > Suggested Tier: A- (Amazing Support Pokemon, prankster tailwind, prankster quash, new addition of parting shot, foul play hits a surprising amount of opponents well, reliable recovery, taunt for opposing tr/screens/wind, plus same tier as comfey.)
Rotom-Wash > Suggested Tier: A- (One of the only pokemon to resist Ice/Water/Ground, as such does amazing against Glastrier Slowking duo. Many support options including ally switch, will o wisp, eerie impulse and helping hand, as well as nasty plot for sweeping. Loses to almost every grass and dragon)
Gigalith Mega > Suggested Tier: A+ (With the addition of TR, sun teams are much more viable, and gigalith is the reason for that. Dominates Glastrier and Incineroar, Has earth power for rock resists, torkoal hits everything else hard, and venu deals with waters and sand)
Torkoal and Venu should both rise to B+ In relation to Gigalith.
Whimsicott should drop to A-, in lieu of it's other support pokemon. It hasn't been seeing much usage, and the meta is quite hostile to it with the abundance of glastrier, mega dhelmise, mega aurorus, aegislash, amoonguss and kartana right now.
Alright, Now for the 3 megas I want to report on in a more detailed fashion. First up:
Mega Falinks is an amazing attacker with many viable sets on both sides of the attacking spectrum. Steel/Fighting coverage is great, and Fighting pairs well with ghost pokemon like spectrier for perfect neutral coverage, and to deal with the likes to mega dhelm, Chandelure and it's mega, and aegislash. It has access to defiant pre mega to deter intimidators like incineroar, which also threaten spectrier. It's setup options are numerous, including no retreat, swords dance and bulk up. It's form changing means it can be used semi-effectively in trick room as well, but also gives your opponent a means to play around falinks. It fits well with the afformentioned ghost types, as well as incneroar and rotom-w. Overall a solid A tier mega.
Next, we have Mega Lycanroc Midnight, which just shreds everything not super bulky or a fighting type with stab reckless 155 atk head smash, god forbid you get a swords dance up. It's dark stab lets it effectively deal with metagross, aegislash and mega dhelm. it also has access to sucker punch, which is extremely powerful priority and can help vs mega slowking since tr gets set up. However, you're weak to almost every relevant type and not super bulky like tyranitar. In particular to fightings, fairies, waters and grasses. Examples of common pokemon include Tapu Fini, Urshifu, Rillaboom, Kartana and rain abusers not named zapdos. Also, Intimidate really cuts down your maximum damage output. As such, partners may include Zapdos-G (best offensive partner), Tapu Fini, Tapu Bulu, Rillaboom, Comfey (which also has healing to offset head smash recoil), Regieleki, Tapu koko and Zapdos. It's burst damage cannot be ignored, and as such I rate it A-.
Finally, me and Blue have decided to Rerank Mega Rillaboom to A+. After some tester games, With redirection support, it does insanely well against many teams and archetypes. Hail seems to be it's worst matchup, however this can be fixed with the addition of a steel type, such as heatran or aegislash, the latter which has wide guard to protect against spread moves. Since it has a negative matchup against incineroar and glastrier, redirectors such as blastoise or starmie (since it gets follow me) are preferred. To further deter intimidators, Zapdos-G may be used, and it's coverage partners well with rilla, able to deal with opposing grass types such as venusaur and kartana. Rillaboom functions well under screens, so regieleki ro tapu koko may be good partners too, as they also deal with galarian moltres. Finally, a trick room mode may be nice, as Glastrier's ice stab deals with annoying flying and grass types, while rillaboom still spams it's best move without drawbacks.
Aaaand that's all, folks! This was the longer post I've made so far, and this took me a few hours to make. I wish everyone who reads this a great day/night, and I hope this is a good Kickstarter to the discussion phase!
Standard M4A: The Devilbeast Awakens
I was a participant in the M4a Premier League, on the team named the Sea Star Spirits Den, coached by BlueRay
JetClef (Clefable) @ Clefabite
Ability: Magic Guard/Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Cosmic Power
- Soft Boiled
- Nasty Plot / Stored Power
- Moonblast / Shadow Ball / Stored Power
Anyone remember the annoying Cosmic/Stored power Clefable Set? Well, this is that but on steroids and 4 Gallons of Energy Drink. I'll explain what makes this set so great. Firstly, The surprise factor. Clefable isn't as obvious of a mega as, lets say, Dhelmise or Bibarel, as clefable is an amazing mon even without a mega. This means you can bluff a different mega on team preview, causing your opponent to prioritize keeping checks for your bluffed mega alive over Clefable, who they'll assume is a standard pivot/wall. This particular bluffing strategy works best on balance or bulky offense, as stall would prefer using other megas, or at least other clefable sets, and regular clefable just looks odd on Hyper Offense. However, Surprise isn't everything to this set, like Linoone in gen 3 OU. Instead of free sweeps, clefable works as an amazing cleaner, akin to Pre-Nerf Mega Lycanroc Dusk, and sweeping is still an option, as prankster means you can set up on pokemon that would otherwise ko you. JosJet first ran the set with one attacking move, a choice between moonblast and shadow ball as stab, or stored power for more damage when set up, as well as ignoring blissey and unaware users, in exchange for needing heavy anti-dark support and less immediate damage. Your Pre-Mega Ability is Also a big decision, As magic guard means you're unaffected by hazards that could be detrimental to the sweep, and means you can actually set up or even sweep in non-mega form to take no damage from toxic. Unaware means you can switch in and set up on setup pokemon.
Stored power is the most linear move to pick, as dark types wall you completely, which also means you likely need more than one dark counter. Fully powered stored power can deal with other resists and blissey, aside from certain steel and ghost types that immediately threaten you. Shadow ball means you're also walled by dark types momentarily, but your main worry are normal types. fortunately, only Blissey/ Chansey, Diggersby and Mega Exploud are common in my experiences. Moonblast has no immunities, so it's just a matter of setting up to a point where you can't be threatened out. For stored power and shadow ball, Fighting types are going to be your top choice. Those include Keldeo, Terrakion, Urshifu-Rapid, Buzzwole and Kommoo. The tapus deal with darks well, however they stack types with clefable. Other, more specific checks for each common dark type may be used as well. Moonblast means that you're especially vulnerable to certain steels, such as Heatran, Magnezone, Kartana, Scizor, Aegislash and Mega Dhelmise. fighting types work here as well,, however ground must be mentioned, as they deal with annoying poison types such as toxapex, amoonguss, nidoqueen and mega, glowking, dragalge and mega, drapion and mega, and mega garbodor. However, something every version of this set is weak to is toxic, especially toxic from blissey and toxapex, as clefable doesn't immediately threaten them (another reason why fighting and ground types are great partners). Cleric support is appreciated if a sweep attempt is halted, but not manditory. This is most commonly filled by blissey, which also fits on stall and balance. Really though, you should only attempt to sweep with clefable when it's checks are eliminated.
Also, remember when I stated that it doesn't fit on Hyper Offense? Well, it definitely loses it's surprise factor, but it still rips teams apart regardless. Plus, the momentum-based nature of HO means you most likely won't have to worry about status, unless you really mess up, or you're against the most hardcore of hardcore stall. Screens HO is where it fits best IMO, as you can stomach more hits (even those from the likes of kartana!) and set up faster, and with the recent unbanning of deoxys speed, we might start seeing more clefables on Hyper Offense.
As a final note for this section, I recently thought of a version of the set where you drop nasty plot for another attacking move, namely moonblast, to pair with stored power to hit pesky darks. The tradeoff for the coverage is the fact that your stored power does much less damage since you aren't boosting your attacking stat, and as such may fail to ohko certain targets, allowing them to halt your sweep. You also lose the ability to threaten steels completely until you've set up stored powers.
Mix N' Mega M4A: A Glimpse into Insanity
Alright, so the Mix and Mega portion of M4a is still heavily under renovations. The meta is extremely powercrept compared to normal mnm, since the mega stones were specifically designed for certain pokemon to use, and can be extremely broken otherwise, such as lurantisite or meowsticite (Since some pokemon share a stone name, the format will only use the ones shown in the spreadsheet. Link to the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...lC-3X_npmwLNn-HqjIn5tKcEw10/edit#gid=89278669 still a work in progress)
However, We do have a few consistent meta threats, so I'd like to highlight 3 sets in particular.
Firstly, The king of Atespeed:
Entei @ Typhlosionite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Double Edge / Sacred Fire
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
So basically, 186 Atk stab extreme speed, and a meaty double edge too. What's even more surprising is that THIS IS CONSIDERED BALANCED . Without it, threats like Samurite Kartana, Inteleonite Dragapult, Garbodorite/Mimikyunite Jirachi, And almost every variant of scolipede and genesect (however, genesect runs flygonite with dgales for an opposing espeed counter, and while it doesn't outspeed immediately, after a shift gear there's almost nothing you can do aside from letting dgales run out.) Sawsbuckite and Dhelmite are used to coutneract it, and are quite good stones on their own, however their matchup against this set is a reason why Dhelmite is Rated so high, and why Sawsbuckite isn't outclassed. Defensive pokemon Like alolomola and to a lesser extext toxapex since it has earthquake are great checks,
Next, Zacian's Sister steps out of the shadows:
Zamazenta @ Kricketite
Ability: Dauntless Shield
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Play Rough
- Crunch
- Iron Head
Yeahhhhh this is pretty crazy. The same atk as kartana and higher speed than regieleki. Dauntless shield premega provides it with defensive utility, and it hits pretty much everything for a lot of damage, as it has more than enough coverage for everything. It's defensive checks include the next set on the list, as well as Mimikyunite (everything wants mimikyunite) Sylveon, Alomomola, Toxapex, Reuniclus, and Magearna, plus Sawsbuckite Jirachi. It's offensive checks include the previous Entei set as well as Inteleonite Dragapult, Variants of Scolipede, Bulky variants of Altarianite Toxtricity, Bibarelite Gyarados if not carrying wild charge, Trevenite Kommoo and Samurite Kartana.
Finally, A Taste of absolute Defensive Behemoth:
Alomomola @ Mimikyunite / Odd Keystone / Floatzelite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic / Calm Mind
yeah, uh, 165 / 145 / 90 Bulk with mimikyunite is Insane. It can support it's teammates with wish passing, giving everything a second shot at a sweep. Often used in one of my self-named "Deathwish" Cores with 2 wish passers supporting each other and the rest of the team. Even then, ff mimikyunite is taken, it can viably run Odd keystone, Garbodorite or Floatzelite as well, the latter of which supports Typhlosionite Entei greatly, and slows down a rising new threat, shell smash dhelmite blastoise. Calm mind allows it to sweep and makes it unkillable of the special side, and toxic provides reliable damage against pokemon that aren't immune. Setup sweepers that are immune to toxic are this pokemon's biggest problem, which include latiasite magearna and Cosmic power/ Calm mind Jirachi.
M4A VGC: New Contenders
After the recent Kalos Dex Tournament and numerous games between me and BlueRay (greentastic) testing different megas:
I've come to report on 3 Different Megas, As well as suggesting tiers for pokemon I have tested.
Gumshoos-Mega > Suggested Tier: C (Too specially frail, prone to intimidate, outclassed by Durant)
Nidoqueen-Mega > Suggested Tier: B (Hates Intimidate, Rain, Hail and Mega Slowking. However, Almost perfect coverage for the meta, Winning matchup versus Mega Dhelmise itself, Can deal with almost every physical attacker, Body press can be very powerful.)
Zapdos-Galar > Suggested Rerank: C --> B+ (Deters Intimidators, Packs Taunt for TR setters, quick guard for priority such as fake out or grassy glide. Can run many items, Such as focus sash, life orb, or a z crystal.)
Murkrow > Suggested Tier: A- (Amazing Support Pokemon, prankster tailwind, prankster quash, new addition of parting shot, foul play hits a surprising amount of opponents well, reliable recovery, taunt for opposing tr/screens/wind, plus same tier as comfey.)
Rotom-Wash > Suggested Tier: A- (One of the only pokemon to resist Ice/Water/Ground, as such does amazing against Glastrier Slowking duo. Many support options including ally switch, will o wisp, eerie impulse and helping hand, as well as nasty plot for sweeping. Loses to almost every grass and dragon)
Gigalith Mega > Suggested Tier: A+ (With the addition of TR, sun teams are much more viable, and gigalith is the reason for that. Dominates Glastrier and Incineroar, Has earth power for rock resists, torkoal hits everything else hard, and venu deals with waters and sand)
Torkoal and Venu should both rise to B+ In relation to Gigalith.
Whimsicott should drop to A-, in lieu of it's other support pokemon. It hasn't been seeing much usage, and the meta is quite hostile to it with the abundance of glastrier, mega dhelmise, mega aurorus, aegislash, amoonguss and kartana right now.
Alright, Now for the 3 megas I want to report on in a more detailed fashion. First up:
Mega Falinks is an amazing attacker with many viable sets on both sides of the attacking spectrum. Steel/Fighting coverage is great, and Fighting pairs well with ghost pokemon like spectrier for perfect neutral coverage, and to deal with the likes to mega dhelm, Chandelure and it's mega, and aegislash. It has access to defiant pre mega to deter intimidators like incineroar, which also threaten spectrier. It's setup options are numerous, including no retreat, swords dance and bulk up. It's form changing means it can be used semi-effectively in trick room as well, but also gives your opponent a means to play around falinks. It fits well with the afformentioned ghost types, as well as incneroar and rotom-w. Overall a solid A tier mega.
Next, we have Mega Lycanroc Midnight, which just shreds everything not super bulky or a fighting type with stab reckless 155 atk head smash, god forbid you get a swords dance up. It's dark stab lets it effectively deal with metagross, aegislash and mega dhelm. it also has access to sucker punch, which is extremely powerful priority and can help vs mega slowking since tr gets set up. However, you're weak to almost every relevant type and not super bulky like tyranitar. In particular to fightings, fairies, waters and grasses. Examples of common pokemon include Tapu Fini, Urshifu, Rillaboom, Kartana and rain abusers not named zapdos. Also, Intimidate really cuts down your maximum damage output. As such, partners may include Zapdos-G (best offensive partner), Tapu Fini, Tapu Bulu, Rillaboom, Comfey (which also has healing to offset head smash recoil), Regieleki, Tapu koko and Zapdos. It's burst damage cannot be ignored, and as such I rate it A-.
Finally, me and Blue have decided to Rerank Mega Rillaboom to A+. After some tester games, With redirection support, it does insanely well against many teams and archetypes. Hail seems to be it's worst matchup, however this can be fixed with the addition of a steel type, such as heatran or aegislash, the latter which has wide guard to protect against spread moves. Since it has a negative matchup against incineroar and glastrier, redirectors such as blastoise or starmie (since it gets follow me) are preferred. To further deter intimidators, Zapdos-G may be used, and it's coverage partners well with rilla, able to deal with opposing grass types such as venusaur and kartana. Rillaboom functions well under screens, so regieleki ro tapu koko may be good partners too, as they also deal with galarian moltres. Finally, a trick room mode may be nice, as Glastrier's ice stab deals with annoying flying and grass types, while rillaboom still spams it's best move without drawbacks.
Aaaand that's all, folks! This was the longer post I've made so far, and this took me a few hours to make. I wish everyone who reads this a great day/night, and I hope this is a good Kickstarter to the discussion phase!
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Hello everyone! It's Shrimp here! I'm a council and a contributor of Mix and Megas For All, a side format of Megas for All. Today, i want to reintroduce you to the meta (because this side meta is quite dead for now, i'm reviving it :D). This meta, like what Indigo said is "extremely powercrept compared to normal mnm, since the mega stones were specifically designed for certain pokemon to use, and can be extremely broken otherwise". Yeah, the metagame right now is quite chaotic, so i decided to held a tour around the middle of August(it was suppose to be this week, but nobody either interested in it, or know that it exist). So yeah, for the next 2 weeks you guys can look into the meta, and build your set. The tournament is meant for rebalancing the meta, so don't be afraid of showing out your beast. Also, here's a spreadsheet and guide made by Indigo and I(and shoutout to Carpet Monster(Hema ig?) for making the original one that i could just copy and paste), that might help you more: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...lC-3X_npmwLNn-HqjIn5tKcEw10/edit#gid=89278669 . If you have anything that you found it strong around some stone, or having some specific set that's strong, just tell me and i will help out. I'd really be grateful if you spend your time into this side meta.
Here's some of my sample set, that i've built to break the metagame in the past :D
First off, Inteleonite Dragapult:
B-2 (Dragapult) @ Inteleonite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Darts
- U-turn
- Sucker Punch
Well, Dragapult is known for its 142 speed, and thanks to Inteleonite, its speed raise up by 6 point, which isn't a big change but now it can outspeed base zeraora :). What i want to tell you here isn't really the speed boost, but the enormous attack boost and great defense boost, in addition with the bug typing, that works really well with its U-turn. Its bulk is decent, speed tier is amazing and having a great attack stat and moveset.
Second, Flygonite Genesect:
Genesect @ Flygonite
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Extreme Speed
- Shift Gear
Mnm4a is an uber based metagame, so ubers are allowed in this metagame. For some ubers, losing its ability is a big lost, so they're able to hold a mega stone themselves. Genesect losing its download can be a big deal, but the new ability Dessert Gale from Mega Flygonite helps it. Having a wonderful typing that's only weak against one type-Fire, this thing is amazing. However, as a base pokemon, it can't learn any ground type to kill those fire type. Dessert gale basically gives it a ground move, while also boosting its stab Iron Head. This is a decent mon, and like what Indigo said, you can't stop it after +1 Atk and +2 Speed, and you must stall out its Dgales
Last but not least, Orbeetlite Darkrai:
Darkrai @ Orbeetlite
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Thunder
- Blizzard
- Hypnosis
Darkrai without Bad Dream?What can it possibly do? Well with gravity, nothing can be awake(beside koko the rooster). Having the Ability to guaranteed makes the opponent fell asleep helps darkrai. Gravity also allow it to run the fancy version of BoltBeam- ThunderBlizz, known as one of the best coverage moves in the game. Or you can just run nasty plot and spam dark pulse. Its base speed is 120, not so slow but it's not that fast in this metagame, so it can be easily check out.
If you have any set, just ping me in mnm4a discussion!
Hope you have a great day!
Here's some of my sample set, that i've built to break the metagame in the past :D
First off, Inteleonite Dragapult:
B-2 (Dragapult) @ Inteleonite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Darts
- U-turn
- Sucker Punch
Well, Dragapult is known for its 142 speed, and thanks to Inteleonite, its speed raise up by 6 point, which isn't a big change but now it can outspeed base zeraora :). What i want to tell you here isn't really the speed boost, but the enormous attack boost and great defense boost, in addition with the bug typing, that works really well with its U-turn. Its bulk is decent, speed tier is amazing and having a great attack stat and moveset.
Second, Flygonite Genesect:
Genesect @ Flygonite
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Head
- Extreme Speed
- Shift Gear
Mnm4a is an uber based metagame, so ubers are allowed in this metagame. For some ubers, losing its ability is a big lost, so they're able to hold a mega stone themselves. Genesect losing its download can be a big deal, but the new ability Dessert Gale from Mega Flygonite helps it. Having a wonderful typing that's only weak against one type-Fire, this thing is amazing. However, as a base pokemon, it can't learn any ground type to kill those fire type. Dessert gale basically gives it a ground move, while also boosting its stab Iron Head. This is a decent mon, and like what Indigo said, you can't stop it after +1 Atk and +2 Speed, and you must stall out its Dgales
Last but not least, Orbeetlite Darkrai:
Darkrai @ Orbeetlite
Ability: Bad Dreams
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Thunder
- Blizzard
- Hypnosis
Darkrai without Bad Dream?What can it possibly do? Well with gravity, nothing can be awake(beside koko the rooster). Having the Ability to guaranteed makes the opponent fell asleep helps darkrai. Gravity also allow it to run the fancy version of BoltBeam- ThunderBlizz, known as one of the best coverage moves in the game. Or you can just run nasty plot and spam dark pulse. Its base speed is 120, not so slow but it's not that fast in this metagame, so it can be easily check out.
If you have any set, just ping me in mnm4a discussion!
Hope you have a great day!
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Hello everyone! ViZar here and I'd like to talk about my favourite format in M4A, which is Monotype. I've created a spreadsheet for this formats here and I've recorded a video about this format here. I know, self-advertisement sucks and I normally don't do stuff like this, but the video goes into much more detail, why I like this format. I have to say that both are quite outdated, but I'll work on a better spreadsheet, while making a new M4A Mono video in the near future.
In this post, I'd like to focus more on the winners of Slate 33 and their potential impacts on Monotype and a small RMT for a MonoElectric team.
First off, let's talk about Kero's submissions (congrats on the sweep btw)
Electrode is a weird case for MonoElectric. Normally Electric teams go for the defensive utility of Mega Eelektross or the wallbreaking potential of Mega Raichu. Electrode makes the Grass matchup a bit easier thanks to Mind Blown, but it doesn't do much damage when it comes from 80 SpA with no STAB on it. It can blow (pun intended) some holes in those teams, but those holes won't be that big (as a reference it does a maximum of 79.5% to a specially defensive Ferrothorn). It doesn't help against a Ground match-up either. It is completely walled by Hippowdon or Gastrodon. All in all Electrode doesn't add much to Mono Electric, but it is still a nice Pokemon.
Golurk is a really cool mon. While it doesn't really fit onto Ground teams, since they prefer Mudsdale, Krookodile, Flygon or Nidoqueen as their Mega, Ghost teams appreaciate such a strong breaker. While it competes with Dhelmise, Gourgeist, Sableye and Spiritomb as a Mega, it has its own unique traits that makes it worth using. First of, it is the second slowest of them all and unlike Sableye, which is slower, it can fully abuse Trick Room. TR is a viable strategy for Ghost teams and Golurk fits perfectly. It can punish the attemps to stall out TR turns with its ability. Switches and constant healing won't help against Golurk since it can heal off chip damage. Second, it is the only Mega to learn Stealth Rock, which means that Corsola-G can use a different move such as more status or Spite. It also opens up Marowak-A, which is also a TR abuser. Overall, Golurk is a solid Pokemon on Ghost teams.
Oh man, this things adds so much. Silvally adds to every type except Fairy (since there is no HP Fairy) and it is viable for many of them. General things, it has good bulk alongside good attacking stats, Adaptability and solid speed, which makes it a menacing offensive Pokemon. I will now go over every type and give a brief explanation for its role on them. Also here's a list of all HP IVs.
Bug teams can utilise Silvally's traits pretty well. First of, it has amazing utility and support moves in Magic Coat, Defog, Parting Shot, Tailwind and Taunt. It becomes an amazing lead, with great power to prevent being passive. Really good choice, you can't do something wrong.
It provides either a defensive support role for Balance or a strong wallbreaker for Hyper Offense teams. Silvally's Adaptability makes Multi-Attack, coming of its lower Attack, a fearsome move, while its Special movepool gives it amazing coverage, even if you have to use HP Dark or Snarl as STAB.
This won't use Multi-Attack, instead it will spam Adaptability Draco Meteors with coverage in Flash Cannon and Flamethrowers. Slap on HP Ground for Heatran and melt everything in sight. Noivern and Tyrantrum give it competition, but the former lacks power while the latter needs set-up first. Silvally has great immediate power.
It is hard to give up Eelektross due to its defensive utility, but Silvally has an amazing special movepool which helps it against Ground teams, since it can utilise Grass Pledge and HP Ice. Thunderbolt becomes a really strong attack under Electric Terrain.
Sadly, it struggles a bit more on Fighting teams. As a physical attacker, Multi-Attack is a drawbackless Close Combat and Adaptability makes up for its 100 base attack. It struggles with its coverage option, since Shadow Claw and Iron Head are nice, but they don't help against Ghost teams, since it struggles against Corsola-G. Special sets are bad since it has to use HP Fighting, yikes.
Just like on Bug teams, it provides great support with Magic Coat, Taunt, Defog and such. On the other hand, Adaptability Heat Wave under Sun is extremely strong. Multi-Attack comes near to Pyro Ball levels from Cinderace.
Again, just like for Bug and Fire (trust me I'll mention this point again), it has great support options and frees up other members like Tornadus-T, Landorus-T, Corviknight since they won't have to run Defog and Tailwind gives them easier chances to sweep and doesn't necessitate Rock Polish on Lando-T and Agility on Thundurus-T. It can do some attacking stuff, but I think it would be better as a support Pokemon.
Ghost teams appreciate its ability to break through defensive Pokemon with Taunt, while it has a great offensive prowess with its movepool and Adaptability. Physical sets have Reversal and Multi-Attack with Swords Dance for great breaking power.
Silvally adds much needed Hazard Control for Grass teams. While it removes Ferrothorns Hazards and Rillabooms or Bulus Terrain, which really hurt hit, removing the Hazards on once side is valuable since they usually make Grass teams easier to break. It also opens a moveslot on Whimsicott which adds more to the support.
Ground teams don't utilise Silvally that well. Multi-Attack + Rock Slide are a good combination alongside U-turn and Swords Dance, but Ground teams have either Excadrill, Lando-T or both for a Ground/Rock coverage + SD combination and removing hazards isn't needed since Lando-T, Gliscor and Flygon fulfill this role.
It has great support options just like for Bug, Fire and Flying, but normally Froslass does a better job of denying Hazards and being a better lead, while Avalugg is a better Hazard Removal option thanks to Recover, Rapid Spin and not needing a Mega Stone to be effective. It can use its attacking prowess to pressure the opponent, but Darm-G and Kyurem usually do a better job.
Silvally adds a Defogger for Normal teams, but other than that, it doesn't add much. It doesn't improve the match-up against Fighting teams and while its special set can be devastating, it is mostly outclassed by regular or Mega Exploud. Mega Exploud might be weaker, but it does a better job against Steel teams.
Silvally adds another Defogger thus freeing a moveslot on Weezing-G or Crobat. It also adds another offensive Pokemon thanks to its coverage and Adaptability. It can't normally fit into the defensive role, since it lacks Recovery, but bulkier variants are way less passive, so they can't be taken advantage of so easily.
Silvally will, yet again, fulfill a support role. Offensive sets are outclassed by Alakazam and Gallade, which are way better Mega Pokemon. Defog sets free up Latias or Latios on their Scarf sets, which allows them to run more coverage, Trick or Healing Wish. The Mega Latis can also run CM on their defensive sets.
Rock teams usually run Sticky Webs with Shuckle, so support sets don't fit well on those teams and Mega Diancie is a better anti-lead. Silvally would fit better onto more Balanced builds, cause these builds won't rely on Sticky Web to outoffense the opponent. the SpDef boost from Sandstorm also helps out a lot.
Silvally adds some utility for Steel teams and doesn't necessitate Corviknight for a Defog role, so you could run Celesteela or Skarmory. It's offensive sets have strong moves on both sides. Multi-Attack with SD hits hard and when coupled with Melmetal, they can beat their checks. Special variants have a nuclear Steel Beem, which also allows it to fulfill a lead role.
I know I sound like a broken record, but Support sets with Defog, SD sets or specially offensive sets are the best options here. Defog removes some pressure from Mantine, Pelipper and Empoleon, while SD sets have Flame Charge to chip Grass-types and Multi-Attack, which is really strong under rain. Special sets give up the set-up potential for a higher immediate damage output. It has Flamethrower, which really threatens Grass-types, and Surf is really strong under Rain.
Man that took a while, but we aren't done yet. Now I'll show you a MonoElectric team, that I've build a while back.
Inspired by the discussion in SS Monotype, I wanted to build a team around Choice Specs Zapdos. Flying teams can provide Rain for it, but I wanted to use it on Electric, since it can beat Grass- and Ground-types like Ferrothorn, Rillaboom, Bulu, Sawsbuck, Serperior, Excadrill, Gastrodon, Hippowdon and other threats like Melmetal and Aegislash.
I use Mega Eelektross on this team since it provides counterplay towards Grass- and Ground-teams while also being a Pivot. It takes advantage of the holes punched by Zapdos, while Zapdos can fall back on it when it can't OHKO a Grass- or Ground-type or is locked in the wrong move.
Rotom-Wash checks Special attacking Pokemon while either crippeling them with Toxic or hitting them hard with its STABs. It punishes Gastrodon for switching into it with Toxic and thus helping Zapdos break through easier. Defog removes Stealth Rock for it, so it can switch in more often.
The core of Tapu Koko and Raichu-Alola add the offensive support that this team needs. Tapu Kokos Electric Terrain is only abused by Eelektross and Raichu-Alola, but it is still valuable since those two make great use of it and it provides Terrain Control, since either Rillaboom or Tapu Lele would run through this team. Raichu-Alola can either break holes for Zapdos to abuse, or the other way around.
Lastly, I added Magnezone, which removes Excadrill, the biggest threat to this team, and Ferrothorn. Air Balloon forces Arkwards plays from Ground-types. It also traps other threats like Melmetal, Scizor, Celesteela, Corviknight, Skarmory and potentially Heatran.
This was a pretty brief preview of this team, but I hope you enjoy it either way. (Paste is in the sprites)
Anyways, I'm finally done with this post, hope you found interest in Monotype. Have a nice day!
Cya!
In this post, I'd like to focus more on the winners of Slate 33 and their potential impacts on Monotype and a small RMT for a MonoElectric team.
First off, let's talk about Kero's submissions (congrats on the sweep btw)
Electrode is a weird case for MonoElectric. Normally Electric teams go for the defensive utility of Mega Eelektross or the wallbreaking potential of Mega Raichu. Electrode makes the Grass matchup a bit easier thanks to Mind Blown, but it doesn't do much damage when it comes from 80 SpA with no STAB on it. It can blow (pun intended) some holes in those teams, but those holes won't be that big (as a reference it does a maximum of 79.5% to a specially defensive Ferrothorn). It doesn't help against a Ground match-up either. It is completely walled by Hippowdon or Gastrodon. All in all Electrode doesn't add much to Mono Electric, but it is still a nice Pokemon.
Golurk is a really cool mon. While it doesn't really fit onto Ground teams, since they prefer Mudsdale, Krookodile, Flygon or Nidoqueen as their Mega, Ghost teams appreaciate such a strong breaker. While it competes with Dhelmise, Gourgeist, Sableye and Spiritomb as a Mega, it has its own unique traits that makes it worth using. First of, it is the second slowest of them all and unlike Sableye, which is slower, it can fully abuse Trick Room. TR is a viable strategy for Ghost teams and Golurk fits perfectly. It can punish the attemps to stall out TR turns with its ability. Switches and constant healing won't help against Golurk since it can heal off chip damage. Second, it is the only Mega to learn Stealth Rock, which means that Corsola-G can use a different move such as more status or Spite. It also opens up Marowak-A, which is also a TR abuser. Overall, Golurk is a solid Pokemon on Ghost teams.
Oh man, this things adds so much. Silvally adds to every type except Fairy (since there is no HP Fairy) and it is viable for many of them. General things, it has good bulk alongside good attacking stats, Adaptability and solid speed, which makes it a menacing offensive Pokemon. I will now go over every type and give a brief explanation for its role on them. Also here's a list of all HP IVs.
Man that took a while, but we aren't done yet. Now I'll show you a MonoElectric team, that I've build a while back.
Inspired by the discussion in SS Monotype, I wanted to build a team around Choice Specs Zapdos. Flying teams can provide Rain for it, but I wanted to use it on Electric, since it can beat Grass- and Ground-types like Ferrothorn, Rillaboom, Bulu, Sawsbuck, Serperior, Excadrill, Gastrodon, Hippowdon and other threats like Melmetal and Aegislash.
I use Mega Eelektross on this team since it provides counterplay towards Grass- and Ground-teams while also being a Pivot. It takes advantage of the holes punched by Zapdos, while Zapdos can fall back on it when it can't OHKO a Grass- or Ground-type or is locked in the wrong move.
Rotom-Wash checks Special attacking Pokemon while either crippeling them with Toxic or hitting them hard with its STABs. It punishes Gastrodon for switching into it with Toxic and thus helping Zapdos break through easier. Defog removes Stealth Rock for it, so it can switch in more often.
The core of Tapu Koko and Raichu-Alola add the offensive support that this team needs. Tapu Kokos Electric Terrain is only abused by Eelektross and Raichu-Alola, but it is still valuable since those two make great use of it and it provides Terrain Control, since either Rillaboom or Tapu Lele would run through this team. Raichu-Alola can either break holes for Zapdos to abuse, or the other way around.
Lastly, I added Magnezone, which removes Excadrill, the biggest threat to this team, and Ferrothorn. Air Balloon forces Arkwards plays from Ground-types. It also traps other threats like Melmetal, Scizor, Celesteela, Corviknight, Skarmory and potentially Heatran.
This was a pretty brief preview of this team, but I hope you enjoy it either way. (Paste is in the sprites)
Anyways, I'm finally done with this post, hope you found interest in Monotype. Have a nice day!
Cya!
Hello yall! I'm EeveeGirl and welcome to my Ted Talk... yeah, this isn't a Ted Talk obviously. So, as most of you should have guessed, I am a huge Eevee and Eeveeloution fan, which is why I couldn't resist checking out all the Eeveeloution megas. From what I've heard, Mega-Flareon seems to be pretty meh, its only real niche being able to use Burn Up to remove its fire typing and take 3/4 damage from every attack, and I have tried out Mega-Vaporeon, but the Eeveeloution mega that I really enjoyed using was Mega-Jolteon. With it's ability Tempestuous, which for those of you that don't know give it the Charge effect (+1 Special Defense and boosts electric moves for a turn) after it switches in after an ally Pokemon faints, it is the definition of a revenge killer. I toyed around with it and realized that it only really had trouble with Blissey (which still took over half heath from a Charge boosted Tbolt) and bulky ground types that weren't quad weak to ice. So, the solution? Put it on a rain team! Rain allowed Mega-Jolteon to have 100% accuracy Thunders, and allow it (see later) and its teammates to be able to deal with the ground types.
So, you might be wondering how in the world would Jolteon be able to deal with ground types just with rain? Well, the answer comes with a very heat move: Weather Ball. Weather Ball in the rain becomes a 100 BP rain boosted Water type move in the rain.
Being the crazy and indecisive person I am, we couldn't just have one team, right? So of course there are two teams!
https://pokepast.es/33054c2582aa29be - This team boils down to 3 pokemon: M-Jolteon, Barraskewda, and Pelipper. Pelipper just has to stay alive and set rain, Bandaskewda shreds anything that doesnt resist with Liquidation, and even if it does, it still chunks it, and M-Jolteon is your other wincon. Charge Beam with the Charge boost can quickly kill weakened mons while also possibly giving you a SPA boost, Thunder and Weather Ball we already went over, and HP Ice is for Grass types and Garchomp. One thing about this team is that if Ferrothorn is weakened enough, then Rillaboom just wrecks this team. Oh, and also if Blissey dies, then you lose to Kyurem.
https://pokepast.es/1f40b5ee7d65126f - The main 3 pokemon are still on this team, but Ferrothorn has been replaced with Tangrowth for Regenerator stuff and Magnezone>Blissey. So the Magnezonehas heat Teleport which is very fun, you have your opponent swap into a ground type and then TPort into Bandaskewda. However this team gets 6-0'd by Kyurem, like very badly.
So this has become wayyyy longer then I thought it would be, so I think I'll wrap it up here. I hope you all get to experience the satisfiying feeling that you get when you Weather Ball and OHKO that ground type that your opponent expected to wall you, and I'm out!
So, you might be wondering how in the world would Jolteon be able to deal with ground types just with rain? Well, the answer comes with a very heat move: Weather Ball. Weather Ball in the rain becomes a 100 BP rain boosted Water type move in the rain.
Being the crazy and indecisive person I am, we couldn't just have one team, right? So of course there are two teams!
https://pokepast.es/33054c2582aa29be - This team boils down to 3 pokemon: M-Jolteon, Barraskewda, and Pelipper. Pelipper just has to stay alive and set rain, Bandaskewda shreds anything that doesnt resist with Liquidation, and even if it does, it still chunks it, and M-Jolteon is your other wincon. Charge Beam with the Charge boost can quickly kill weakened mons while also possibly giving you a SPA boost, Thunder and Weather Ball we already went over, and HP Ice is for Grass types and Garchomp. One thing about this team is that if Ferrothorn is weakened enough, then Rillaboom just wrecks this team. Oh, and also if Blissey dies, then you lose to Kyurem.
https://pokepast.es/1f40b5ee7d65126f - The main 3 pokemon are still on this team, but Ferrothorn has been replaced with Tangrowth for Regenerator stuff and Magnezone>Blissey. So the Magnezonehas heat Teleport which is very fun, you have your opponent swap into a ground type and then TPort into Bandaskewda. However this team gets 6-0'd by Kyurem, like very badly.
So this has become wayyyy longer then I thought it would be, so I think I'll wrap it up here. I hope you all get to experience the satisfiying feeling that you get when you Weather Ball and OHKO that ground type that your opponent expected to wall you, and I'm out!
Hi! Bolivia here! I just wanted to plug my teambuilding resource, as well as most of my m4a teams, on here. It gives a lot of my thoughts on the metagame as well and hopefully can help people!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nmt0hpytAygsrTmZxm8Hh6gLk-bhRj5A9rKIJlbRa0g/edit?usp=sharing
I hope you guys use this well
!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nmt0hpytAygsrTmZxm8Hh6gLk-bhRj5A9rKIJlbRa0g/edit?usp=sharing
I hope you guys use this well
!
Hello!
I'm here with a new report on the first M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament, which took place on July 25. As the name already suggests, the tournament was centred around Pokémon you can catch or get in the Kalos region. The only catch was that you were not allowed to use canon Mega Pokémon, like Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Mawile, thus allowing players to explore the metagame in a way never seen before and putting the spotlight on M4A's custom Mega Pokémon. After all, players could no longer rely on old Kalosian staples like the aforementioned Mega Pokémon. Nor could they use good old support options or threats, such as Incineroar, Landorus-T, Tapu Fini, Rillaboom, and Mega Dhelmise since these Pokémon were not part of the Kalos dex.
As a result, there was less emphasis on terrain effects, busted weather forms, and Intimidate cycling. Players really had to go out of their way to explore the metagame and find new threats. While they still had access to some of M4A's biggest threats in Mega Reuniclus, Mega Aurorus, and Mega Slowking, they managed to find new ones. In a format devoid of other terrain setters, Mega Dragalge could maintain its Acidic Terrain consistently and launch powerful Sludge Wave and Terrain Pulse. To improve the matchup against Poison Pokémon like Amoonguss and maintain offensive pressure, it was paired with Musharna which, thanks to Telepathy, didn't take damage from Sludge Wave and could set up Trick Room to mess up with fast offensive Pokémon. Moreover, it also had access to Helping Hand to further increase Mega Dragalge's damage output. Musharana rarely saw play in 2014 / 2015, and the same could be said about Mega Dragalge in M4A, so it was certainly nice to see them shining in this tournament. On top of that, they help people to realize what kind of support Mega Dragalge might need outside of the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament and how Musharna could potentially and effectively support other slow Mega Pokémon that want to rely on spread moves. Perhaps, in the near future, we will see Musharna being paired with Mega Mudsdale or Mega Araquanid? I don't know about you but I, for one, am certainly looking forward to new cores and directions!
That said, another new threat that arose was Mega Walrein to the surprise of some players. Initially, some players assumed that, without Mega Dhelmise or Mega Empoleon, rain was gone or, at the very least, not as strong as Hail, Sand, or Sun if (Mega) Gigalith were to get Trick Room on time in the latter's case. Furthermore, Mega Walrein never saw play in the first M4A VGC tournament nor in the VGC matches of the M4A Premier League. However, during the testing phase and the tournament, rain was still a very dominant and powerful archetype and helped IndigoRewrite / ARandomPerson / ASnomPlaysShowdown to pave the way through victory in the recent event. To that, all I can say is 'Chapeau! Congratulation to your first tournament win!'.
Like Musharna and Mega Dragalge, Mega Walrein also had a very effective core it was part of, namely Zapdos and Metagross. The former could set up Tailwind for speed control and take care of bulky Fighting Pokémon, like Scrafty and Hariyama, which would be a huge problem to Mega Walrein, otherwise; Metagross, on the other hand, was immune to Intimidate and threatened Pokémon that were bulky enough to stop special attackers from wreaking havoc, such as Sylveon. It also provided a decent answer to Trick Room teams, especially those that run Mega Reuniclus. Ludicolo could round up the potent rain core as it provided invaluable support in Fake Out and Icy wind. What's fascinating is that both Zapdos and Ludicolo saw a change in their use. Normally, outside of dynamax, Zapdos is much more defensive oriented but the addition of Hurricane and the rise of Fighting Pokémon likely contributed to its more aggressive playstyle, especially when its partner--Mega Walrein--could guarantee accurate Thunder and Hurricane and was particular good at taking out or heavily weakening opposing Pokémon. As for Ludicolo, it's generally used as a strong bulky attacker with Assault Vest or the occasional Waterium-Z. Yet, the Ludicolo that saw play in both the testing phase and the tournament was much more defensive oriented and supportive. Since Ludicolo could stay very long on the field and with additional Tailwind support from Zapdos, the rain player could always maintain the speed advantage against opposing Tailwind users through Icy Wind. Besides, it was good at chip damage, thus helping out its teammates to secure OHKOs or 2HKOs against their targets. Now, it will be interesting to see if this Ludicolo variant will still prove effective outside of the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament.
Some other notable discoveries were Mega Meowstic-M and Murkrow. The former was a good pick for the recent tournament since, due to Dark Aura, it could form a very dangerous and hard hitting offensive core with Bisharp, which could take advantage of Intimidate as well. Moreover, thanks to Fake Out and Parting Shot, Mega Meowstic-M could further apply pressure, soften opposing damage, and generate momentum. Murkrow, on the other hand, was one of the very few Pokémon that had priority Tailwind, the other being Talonflame. With the new speed mechanic of generation 8, Pokémon could immediately take advantage of Tailwind and likely attack the opponent before they could do anything. This meant that a Pokémon like Mega Luxray could apply immense pressure and ignore Intimidate since it would always land a critical hit if it moved before the target diid. Like Mega Meowstic-M, Murkrow also had access to Parting Shot to mess up with an opponent's gameplan. Lastly, both Pokémon could threaten Aegislash, which was a big threat in the tournament and found a place on many teams since it could easily devastate Pokémon in and outside of Trick Room and had Wide Guard to stop spread moves.
As you can see, the tournament proved to be full of surprises and could, to some extent, shape the way players build and play with their teams in the next M4A VGC tournaments to come. Speaking of which, I haven't decided on a concrete date yet but there will be a M4A VGC tournament towards the end of August. Similar to generation 8's series 6, there will be a temporary ban on the following Pokémon to create more diversity and fun in the metagame:
1) Mega Slowking
2) Mega Dhelmise
3) Tapu Fini
4) Incineroar
5) Amoonguss
6) Mega Rillaboom & Rillaboom
7) Urshifu-Rapid-Strike & Urshifu-Single-Strike
8) Spectrier
9) Glastrier
10) Regieleki
11) Mega Registeel and Registeel
12) Mega Orbeetle
13) Landorus-T
14) Mega Alolan Ninettales
15) Galarian Moltres
Moreover, canon Mega Pokémon are also banned for this event. If, by the time the tournament starts, we still don't have the balance changes implemented, we'll play in the M4A VGC Sandbox on Dragonsheaven to account for them. I'd also like to mention that you are only allowed to use one team for the entirety of this tournament and that people will have access to an open full team sheet. Meaning, you know which Pokémon, moves, and items your opponent runs, excluding EVs, IVs, and nature. This is to make sure that players really feel like as if they were to participate in an actual, official VGC tournament. Furthermore, this kind of tournament rewards consistent teambuilding!
If you want to participate, let me know in advance, especially if you aren't on Discord. Just shoot me a private message so that I can inform you once I managed to come up with the exact date and time.
With that being said, I now want to show you an interview with the participants of the recent tournament. At the end, you will see some sample teams for the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament, which might get updated from time to time.
pupugugu:
Eeveekid-ANerdGlaceon
IndigoRewrite
SimpyShrimp
ry
Sample teams
I'm here with a new report on the first M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament, which took place on July 25. As the name already suggests, the tournament was centred around Pokémon you can catch or get in the Kalos region. The only catch was that you were not allowed to use canon Mega Pokémon, like Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Mawile, thus allowing players to explore the metagame in a way never seen before and putting the spotlight on M4A's custom Mega Pokémon. After all, players could no longer rely on old Kalosian staples like the aforementioned Mega Pokémon. Nor could they use good old support options or threats, such as Incineroar, Landorus-T, Tapu Fini, Rillaboom, and Mega Dhelmise since these Pokémon were not part of the Kalos dex.
As a result, there was less emphasis on terrain effects, busted weather forms, and Intimidate cycling. Players really had to go out of their way to explore the metagame and find new threats. While they still had access to some of M4A's biggest threats in Mega Reuniclus, Mega Aurorus, and Mega Slowking, they managed to find new ones. In a format devoid of other terrain setters, Mega Dragalge could maintain its Acidic Terrain consistently and launch powerful Sludge Wave and Terrain Pulse. To improve the matchup against Poison Pokémon like Amoonguss and maintain offensive pressure, it was paired with Musharna which, thanks to Telepathy, didn't take damage from Sludge Wave and could set up Trick Room to mess up with fast offensive Pokémon. Moreover, it also had access to Helping Hand to further increase Mega Dragalge's damage output. Musharana rarely saw play in 2014 / 2015, and the same could be said about Mega Dragalge in M4A, so it was certainly nice to see them shining in this tournament. On top of that, they help people to realize what kind of support Mega Dragalge might need outside of the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament and how Musharna could potentially and effectively support other slow Mega Pokémon that want to rely on spread moves. Perhaps, in the near future, we will see Musharna being paired with Mega Mudsdale or Mega Araquanid? I don't know about you but I, for one, am certainly looking forward to new cores and directions!
That said, another new threat that arose was Mega Walrein to the surprise of some players. Initially, some players assumed that, without Mega Dhelmise or Mega Empoleon, rain was gone or, at the very least, not as strong as Hail, Sand, or Sun if (Mega) Gigalith were to get Trick Room on time in the latter's case. Furthermore, Mega Walrein never saw play in the first M4A VGC tournament nor in the VGC matches of the M4A Premier League. However, during the testing phase and the tournament, rain was still a very dominant and powerful archetype and helped IndigoRewrite / ARandomPerson / ASnomPlaysShowdown to pave the way through victory in the recent event. To that, all I can say is 'Chapeau! Congratulation to your first tournament win!'.
Like Musharna and Mega Dragalge, Mega Walrein also had a very effective core it was part of, namely Zapdos and Metagross. The former could set up Tailwind for speed control and take care of bulky Fighting Pokémon, like Scrafty and Hariyama, which would be a huge problem to Mega Walrein, otherwise; Metagross, on the other hand, was immune to Intimidate and threatened Pokémon that were bulky enough to stop special attackers from wreaking havoc, such as Sylveon. It also provided a decent answer to Trick Room teams, especially those that run Mega Reuniclus. Ludicolo could round up the potent rain core as it provided invaluable support in Fake Out and Icy wind. What's fascinating is that both Zapdos and Ludicolo saw a change in their use. Normally, outside of dynamax, Zapdos is much more defensive oriented but the addition of Hurricane and the rise of Fighting Pokémon likely contributed to its more aggressive playstyle, especially when its partner--Mega Walrein--could guarantee accurate Thunder and Hurricane and was particular good at taking out or heavily weakening opposing Pokémon. As for Ludicolo, it's generally used as a strong bulky attacker with Assault Vest or the occasional Waterium-Z. Yet, the Ludicolo that saw play in both the testing phase and the tournament was much more defensive oriented and supportive. Since Ludicolo could stay very long on the field and with additional Tailwind support from Zapdos, the rain player could always maintain the speed advantage against opposing Tailwind users through Icy Wind. Besides, it was good at chip damage, thus helping out its teammates to secure OHKOs or 2HKOs against their targets. Now, it will be interesting to see if this Ludicolo variant will still prove effective outside of the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament.
Some other notable discoveries were Mega Meowstic-M and Murkrow. The former was a good pick for the recent tournament since, due to Dark Aura, it could form a very dangerous and hard hitting offensive core with Bisharp, which could take advantage of Intimidate as well. Moreover, thanks to Fake Out and Parting Shot, Mega Meowstic-M could further apply pressure, soften opposing damage, and generate momentum. Murkrow, on the other hand, was one of the very few Pokémon that had priority Tailwind, the other being Talonflame. With the new speed mechanic of generation 8, Pokémon could immediately take advantage of Tailwind and likely attack the opponent before they could do anything. This meant that a Pokémon like Mega Luxray could apply immense pressure and ignore Intimidate since it would always land a critical hit if it moved before the target diid. Like Mega Meowstic-M, Murkrow also had access to Parting Shot to mess up with an opponent's gameplan. Lastly, both Pokémon could threaten Aegislash, which was a big threat in the tournament and found a place on many teams since it could easily devastate Pokémon in and outside of Trick Room and had Wide Guard to stop spread moves.
As you can see, the tournament proved to be full of surprises and could, to some extent, shape the way players build and play with their teams in the next M4A VGC tournaments to come. Speaking of which, I haven't decided on a concrete date yet but there will be a M4A VGC tournament towards the end of August. Similar to generation 8's series 6, there will be a temporary ban on the following Pokémon to create more diversity and fun in the metagame:
1) Mega Slowking
2) Mega Dhelmise
3) Tapu Fini
4) Incineroar
5) Amoonguss
6) Mega Rillaboom & Rillaboom
7) Urshifu-Rapid-Strike & Urshifu-Single-Strike
8) Spectrier
9) Glastrier
10) Regieleki
11) Mega Registeel and Registeel
12) Mega Orbeetle
13) Landorus-T
14) Mega Alolan Ninettales
15) Galarian Moltres
Moreover, canon Mega Pokémon are also banned for this event. If, by the time the tournament starts, we still don't have the balance changes implemented, we'll play in the M4A VGC Sandbox on Dragonsheaven to account for them. I'd also like to mention that you are only allowed to use one team for the entirety of this tournament and that people will have access to an open full team sheet. Meaning, you know which Pokémon, moves, and items your opponent runs, excluding EVs, IVs, and nature. This is to make sure that players really feel like as if they were to participate in an actual, official VGC tournament. Furthermore, this kind of tournament rewards consistent teambuilding!
If you want to participate, let me know in advance, especially if you aren't on Discord. Just shoot me a private message so that I can inform you once I managed to come up with the exact date and time.
With that being said, I now want to show you an interview with the participants of the recent tournament. At the end, you will see some sample teams for the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament, which might get updated from time to time.
pupugugu:
1) What were your first thoughts when you heard about the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament? And what were your expectations?
I thought it was a super neat idea! It's kinda like going back in time a bit to previous generations, or the regional roundups we did for M4APL, but still its own thing. I was expecting a loooot of interesting new things to pop up that we haven't seen before, as well as just an overall fun environment for teambuilding and playing.
2) How was teambuilding for you?
I enjoyed it! I initially wanted to just rely on old structures (with slightly different mons that filled the same roles), but found that it wasn't so simple pretty quickly. However, that allowed for more fun and creativity, rather than locking myself into a previous mindset.
That being said, the VGC teambuilding process is a bit more difficult for me because of my lack in experience in it. Of course, teams should be tested in singles, too, but it's easier for me to keep track of what I think are all the threats I need to have an answer to, and to build my team around well known cores or offensive structures. On the other hand, I'm less familiar with VGC's meta, playstyles, and the threats were also going to be a bit unexpected. I also didn't find that much time to test stuff like leads, different movesets, and EVs. Overall, a difficult but still really fun learning experience!
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
Tired - as Blue knows, I played it preeetty late at night, but I was so excited for it since we haven't had a VGC tour in a while and I enjoyed the first one a ton. I had a lot of fun, enjoyed seeing all the new mons and trends, and wasn't too stressed out because it seemed like something that leaned more towards fun than hardcore competitive. Surprisingly, though, there were a lot of overall trends that didn't change from our original metagame, probably because of the availability of some already top tier megas, and some other very powerful threats that were still around.
Maybe the pick I was most pleased by was Aegislash - it felt very dominant, probably being the most commonly run mon. It can do really well both against more offensive structures due to its bulk and King Shield, while also scaring out a lot of different mons under Trick Room. It also has various good items, although Ghostium Z was probably the most common (and consistent) one, destroying bulky mons really easily.
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
In something like this in the future, it might be interesting to add more restrictions? Most likely to some of the Megas, and maybe a few other big threats for the sake of more diversity. It's not something often seen in VGC, but I know they've done it for 1 or 2 seasons, based on usage I believe?
I think also trying to follow more specific formats (1 team for the whole tour, open team formats, etc.) could be interesting and force players to build more consistently rather than going purely off surprise! That would put more emphasis on practice, testing, and playing with known info rather than trying to guess, which could be a nice change of pace.
I thought it was a super neat idea! It's kinda like going back in time a bit to previous generations, or the regional roundups we did for M4APL, but still its own thing. I was expecting a loooot of interesting new things to pop up that we haven't seen before, as well as just an overall fun environment for teambuilding and playing.
2) How was teambuilding for you?
I enjoyed it! I initially wanted to just rely on old structures (with slightly different mons that filled the same roles), but found that it wasn't so simple pretty quickly. However, that allowed for more fun and creativity, rather than locking myself into a previous mindset.
That being said, the VGC teambuilding process is a bit more difficult for me because of my lack in experience in it. Of course, teams should be tested in singles, too, but it's easier for me to keep track of what I think are all the threats I need to have an answer to, and to build my team around well known cores or offensive structures. On the other hand, I'm less familiar with VGC's meta, playstyles, and the threats were also going to be a bit unexpected. I also didn't find that much time to test stuff like leads, different movesets, and EVs. Overall, a difficult but still really fun learning experience!
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
Tired - as Blue knows, I played it preeetty late at night, but I was so excited for it since we haven't had a VGC tour in a while and I enjoyed the first one a ton. I had a lot of fun, enjoyed seeing all the new mons and trends, and wasn't too stressed out because it seemed like something that leaned more towards fun than hardcore competitive. Surprisingly, though, there were a lot of overall trends that didn't change from our original metagame, probably because of the availability of some already top tier megas, and some other very powerful threats that were still around.
Maybe the pick I was most pleased by was Aegislash - it felt very dominant, probably being the most commonly run mon. It can do really well both against more offensive structures due to its bulk and King Shield, while also scaring out a lot of different mons under Trick Room. It also has various good items, although Ghostium Z was probably the most common (and consistent) one, destroying bulky mons really easily.
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
In something like this in the future, it might be interesting to add more restrictions? Most likely to some of the Megas, and maybe a few other big threats for the sake of more diversity. It's not something often seen in VGC, but I know they've done it for 1 or 2 seasons, based on usage I believe?
I think also trying to follow more specific formats (1 team for the whole tour, open team formats, etc.) could be interesting and force players to build more consistently rather than going purely off surprise! That would put more emphasis on practice, testing, and playing with known info rather than trying to guess, which could be a nice change of pace.
Eeveekid-ANerdGlaceon
1) What were your first thoughts when you heard about the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament? And what were your expectations?
I was thrilled about not having access to the tigers [Landorus-T & Incineroar], terrain (other than mdragalge) and the Dhelmise-M, while was surprised that mega from the canon gens werent even there (I wanted to make a classic 2013 VGC team containing the Mega Kangaskhan, Salamence etc.)
2) How was teambuilding for you?
I do VGC teambuilding with 2v2 Doubles in my mind, Trick Room teams are the best driven by me, so I decided to make use of Hariyama-Chandelure lead withAmoonguss as a supporter and Mega Reuniclus, Rhyperior and Aegislash.
In general I dont really keep Z moves in my team but i did that this time, with my Aegislash having Ghostium z for hitting certain targets harder while also guaranteeing a KO on Mega Reuniclus.
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
I had a lot fun on the tournament, watching the finals was just pure hype, I absolutely loved the plays of everyone there.
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
It's a perfect format with nothing that broken (Trick Room's main abusers are gone so are many other things)
I was thrilled about not having access to the tigers [Landorus-T & Incineroar], terrain (other than mdragalge) and the Dhelmise-M, while was surprised that mega from the canon gens werent even there (I wanted to make a classic 2013 VGC team containing the Mega Kangaskhan, Salamence etc.)
2) How was teambuilding for you?
I do VGC teambuilding with 2v2 Doubles in my mind, Trick Room teams are the best driven by me, so I decided to make use of Hariyama-Chandelure lead withAmoonguss as a supporter and Mega Reuniclus, Rhyperior and Aegislash.
In general I dont really keep Z moves in my team but i did that this time, with my Aegislash having Ghostium z for hitting certain targets harder while also guaranteeing a KO on Mega Reuniclus.
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
I had a lot fun on the tournament, watching the finals was just pure hype, I absolutely loved the plays of everyone there.
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
It's a perfect format with nothing that broken (Trick Room's main abusers are gone so are many other things)
IndigoRewrite
1) What were your first thoughts when you heard about the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament? And what were your expectations?
I was quite exited, as we haven't had a tournament in a while, and I haven't had the chance to play vgc with people who weren't blue since the PL. I actually asked blue about a vgc tour (maybe even hosting one myself) earlier than when it was revealed to the rest of the server. My first expectations for the kalos dex meta included the dominance of TR and Sun, as Reuniclus and Slowking were still part of the kalos dex, And I expected gigalith to gain access to TR before the tournament started.
2) How was teambuilding for you?
I would like to say that teambuilding for the kalos dex was split into 2 stages. The first was based on my assuptions about the top meta threats when i first started theorycrafting, where the top threats would be TR and Sun, as well as Luxray, Meowstic-F and Aurorus. Rain would be less prevalent, due to the absence of mega dhelmise, and since darks and ghosts are known for being good against tr, the best new ones would be scrafty, bisharp and Aegislash. Phase 2 is when I discovered that rain was still completely dominant and sun was still less viable, as gigalith wouldn't get tr, and the new discovery of Walrein by blue, which he paired with Zapdos, Metagross and Ludicolo to create a fearsome core, one which I would later add to with the use of Shedinja. Speaking of new discoveries, After a few losses against blue, I was looking for a replacement for the talonflame originally on the team known as the Duality (Double mega team with luxray and reuniclus), which was underperforming. This lead to my realization of Murkrow (and sableye's by extension) potential. With prankster quash, taunt and tailwind, foul play for the staples of aegislash and metagross, and the new addition of parting shot, murkrow was to be recognized as an amazing support pokemon. Other projected staples included Aegislash, Rotom wash, Musharna, Sylveon, Arcanine, Hariyama and Mega Dragalge.
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
As the tournament was starting, I felt, quoting to blue, "Uncalm and Unstressed", as I was nervous, yet confident in my abilities. The first battles of the tournament, up to to second battle of the first BO3 with Pugu, I felt this way. In the second battle, Rng Screwed me up, and I couldn't recover in time to save the match, and the Bo3 (hey I wonder where this has happened to me before?). I could be described as "Incredibly uncalm and Egregiously stressed". After bouncing back and defeating Eeveekid/ Glaceon, I won the following bo3s against Pupu and the tour itself. I could then be described as, and I quoted to blue, "uncalm and stressed, but quite happy too".
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
I didn't fully understand this question, so I'm going to say my thoughs on the m4a vgc meta as a whole. i've recently been experimenting with different megas with blue, Including the mega Nidos, Mega Lycanroc-Midnight, Mega Rillaboom, Mega Typhlosion, Mega Corviknight (these 2 done by blue) and Mega Klinklang, for tiering purposes. I would probably give mega flygon something to make it more viable, so all 4 weathers are represented by a specific mega in some way. Next, I could consider the effects of vanilla megas, and whether they should be allowed, restricted somewhat or outright banned, as each changes the meta in a completely unique way. Lastly, I would consider buffing some unranked megas to make them more suited to vgc (an idea I've discussed with blue). Mega Alolan Ninetales and Mega Floatzel are definitely more viable in vgc than singles, as such, Megas like Nidoking could be given a chance to shine.
I was quite exited, as we haven't had a tournament in a while, and I haven't had the chance to play vgc with people who weren't blue since the PL. I actually asked blue about a vgc tour (maybe even hosting one myself) earlier than when it was revealed to the rest of the server. My first expectations for the kalos dex meta included the dominance of TR and Sun, as Reuniclus and Slowking were still part of the kalos dex, And I expected gigalith to gain access to TR before the tournament started.
2) How was teambuilding for you?
I would like to say that teambuilding for the kalos dex was split into 2 stages. The first was based on my assuptions about the top meta threats when i first started theorycrafting, where the top threats would be TR and Sun, as well as Luxray, Meowstic-F and Aurorus. Rain would be less prevalent, due to the absence of mega dhelmise, and since darks and ghosts are known for being good against tr, the best new ones would be scrafty, bisharp and Aegislash. Phase 2 is when I discovered that rain was still completely dominant and sun was still less viable, as gigalith wouldn't get tr, and the new discovery of Walrein by blue, which he paired with Zapdos, Metagross and Ludicolo to create a fearsome core, one which I would later add to with the use of Shedinja. Speaking of new discoveries, After a few losses against blue, I was looking for a replacement for the talonflame originally on the team known as the Duality (Double mega team with luxray and reuniclus), which was underperforming. This lead to my realization of Murkrow (and sableye's by extension) potential. With prankster quash, taunt and tailwind, foul play for the staples of aegislash and metagross, and the new addition of parting shot, murkrow was to be recognized as an amazing support pokemon. Other projected staples included Aegislash, Rotom wash, Musharna, Sylveon, Arcanine, Hariyama and Mega Dragalge.
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
As the tournament was starting, I felt, quoting to blue, "Uncalm and Unstressed", as I was nervous, yet confident in my abilities. The first battles of the tournament, up to to second battle of the first BO3 with Pugu, I felt this way. In the second battle, Rng Screwed me up, and I couldn't recover in time to save the match, and the Bo3 (hey I wonder where this has happened to me before?). I could be described as "Incredibly uncalm and Egregiously stressed". After bouncing back and defeating Eeveekid/ Glaceon, I won the following bo3s against Pupu and the tour itself. I could then be described as, and I quoted to blue, "uncalm and stressed, but quite happy too".
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
I didn't fully understand this question, so I'm going to say my thoughs on the m4a vgc meta as a whole. i've recently been experimenting with different megas with blue, Including the mega Nidos, Mega Lycanroc-Midnight, Mega Rillaboom, Mega Typhlosion, Mega Corviknight (these 2 done by blue) and Mega Klinklang, for tiering purposes. I would probably give mega flygon something to make it more viable, so all 4 weathers are represented by a specific mega in some way. Next, I could consider the effects of vanilla megas, and whether they should be allowed, restricted somewhat or outright banned, as each changes the meta in a completely unique way. Lastly, I would consider buffing some unranked megas to make them more suited to vgc (an idea I've discussed with blue). Mega Alolan Ninetales and Mega Floatzel are definitely more viable in vgc than singles, as such, Megas like Nidoking could be given a chance to shine.
SimpyShrimp
1) What were your first thoughts when you heard about the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament? And what were your expectations?
I was thinking of a restricted tour that banned Rillaboom and Incineroar. My expectation is just to see otherer playing
2) How was teambuilding for you?
Teambuilding was fun.
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
I feel a bit disappointed.
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
Nope
I was thinking of a restricted tour that banned Rillaboom and Incineroar. My expectation is just to see otherer playing
2) How was teambuilding for you?
Teambuilding was fun.
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
I feel a bit disappointed.
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
Nope
ry
Note: More will be included if they want to answer the questions. For now, I'll include what they've written so far.
"uuhhhh, well, I joined bc I like playing the game but I don't really have anyone to play with, especially since the ladder isn't too active. I think I had fun? Nothing against the format but I did get destroyed every game. LMAO."
1) What were your first thoughts when you heard about the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament? And what were your expectations?
- i was excited and i expected to just have some fun playing pokémon
2) How was teambuilding for you?
- it was fine, i tried out a really hard to pull of strat that never worked and kinda built the whole team around it so it didn’t really work lol
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
- good, i didn’t expect to get far so i wasn’t really disappointed
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
- nah
"uuhhhh, well, I joined bc I like playing the game but I don't really have anyone to play with, especially since the ladder isn't too active. I think I had fun? Nothing against the format but I did get destroyed every game. LMAO."
1) What were your first thoughts when you heard about the M4A VGC Kalos Dex tournament? And what were your expectations?
- i was excited and i expected to just have some fun playing pokémon
2) How was teambuilding for you?
- it was fine, i tried out a really hard to pull of strat that never worked and kinda built the whole team around it so it didn’t really work lol
3) How did you feel during the tournament?
- good, i didn’t expect to get far so i wasn’t really disappointed
4) Is there anything you would like to change?
- nah
Sample teams
Eeveekid-ANerdGlaceon
SimpyShrimp
IndigoRewrite
BlueRay
Pupugugu
https://pokepast.es/5cba89f2d79cfb34
Just another trick room team
Now here's the catch:
Hariyama-Chandelure is one of the best single turn trick room combo in kalos
Another thing is that chandelure has a speed tier where it can defeat faster teams under trick room and slower teams without trick room, basically making it the best speed tier for a trick room setter which doesnt abuse it
Swaps:Mind blown can be swapped with imprison to stop mirrors or heat wave
Shadow ball already has nice neutcoverage
Hariyama is a mon with fake out and huge bulk helping out with chandelure to setup t.r., while it also works nicely under t.r.
Swaps: Flame orb can be swapped with a berry, Guts can be swapped with Thick fat which synchronizes well with mind blown
While heavy slam can be swapped out with protect which also synchronises well with mind blown
Next is support:
Amoonguss is my general t.r. support mon which can put mons to sleep easily while also providing rage powder, huge bulk and pollen puff for giving aegislash and hariyama recovery(also chandelure if it goes full offensive against slow mons cuz its going to use mind blown) and clear smog for removing stat changes from -def -spdef hariyama, -Atk -def m reun and aegislash's cc
Swaps:Protect can be used isntead of clear smog if we are afraid of going against slow mons where chandelure goes offensive cuz it might KO amoonguss with mind blown
Now are the abusers:
Mega reuniclus has calm mind photon geyser superpower and trick room
Photon geyser and superpower provides it with nice coverage while calm mind is for getting a boost so that we dont have to reduce our defense for getting boosts and trick room is for setting up t.r. again
Swaps:Calm mind can be swapped with shadow ball super power can be swapped with focus blast(we kinda just have two minded for the sake of intimidate and it can just use one side of the spectrum giving it a choice to run calm mind easily)
Talking of the aegislash, it has z never ending nightmare for the sake of opposing mreun if we fight t.r. while also providing a powerful stab
Other than that, its just a standard trick room physical aegislash
Swaps: We can swap gyro ball with iron head for more consistency and swap cc for sacred sword (cuz its immune to clear smog LMAO)
The weakness policy rhyperior is a 4 move mon with eq and rock slide for stabs and heat crash and heavy slam for coverage
Swaps in generality: Hariyama can be swapped out for hitmontop while simultaneously swapping out chandelure's focus sash for a better item(like firium z) while also giving it spdef spread instead of hp
Just another trick room team
Now here's the catch:
Hariyama-Chandelure is one of the best single turn trick room combo in kalos
Another thing is that chandelure has a speed tier where it can defeat faster teams under trick room and slower teams without trick room, basically making it the best speed tier for a trick room setter which doesnt abuse it
Swaps:Mind blown can be swapped with imprison to stop mirrors or heat wave
Shadow ball already has nice neutcoverage
Hariyama is a mon with fake out and huge bulk helping out with chandelure to setup t.r., while it also works nicely under t.r.
Swaps: Flame orb can be swapped with a berry, Guts can be swapped with Thick fat which synchronizes well with mind blown
While heavy slam can be swapped out with protect which also synchronises well with mind blown
Next is support:
Amoonguss is my general t.r. support mon which can put mons to sleep easily while also providing rage powder, huge bulk and pollen puff for giving aegislash and hariyama recovery(also chandelure if it goes full offensive against slow mons cuz its going to use mind blown) and clear smog for removing stat changes from -def -spdef hariyama, -Atk -def m reun and aegislash's cc
Swaps:Protect can be used isntead of clear smog if we are afraid of going against slow mons where chandelure goes offensive cuz it might KO amoonguss with mind blown
Now are the abusers:
Mega reuniclus has calm mind photon geyser superpower and trick room
Photon geyser and superpower provides it with nice coverage while calm mind is for getting a boost so that we dont have to reduce our defense for getting boosts and trick room is for setting up t.r. again
Swaps:Calm mind can be swapped with shadow ball super power can be swapped with focus blast(we kinda just have two minded for the sake of intimidate and it can just use one side of the spectrum giving it a choice to run calm mind easily)
Talking of the aegislash, it has z never ending nightmare for the sake of opposing mreun if we fight t.r. while also providing a powerful stab
Other than that, its just a standard trick room physical aegislash
Swaps: We can swap gyro ball with iron head for more consistency and swap cc for sacred sword (cuz its immune to clear smog LMAO)
The weakness policy rhyperior is a 4 move mon with eq and rock slide for stabs and heat crash and heavy slam for coverage
Swaps in generality: Hariyama can be swapped out for hitmontop while simultaneously swapping out chandelure's focus sash for a better item(like firium z) while also giving it spdef spread instead of hp
SimpyShrimp
Sand Team: https://pokepast.es/0de5260f1c39f970
This is pretty straight forward, sand team. Greninja may provide good help, having its mat block. Hyper Beam under Dessert gales can surprise the opponent. Excadrill is an obvious choice. Tyranitar can be a nice backup plan. Meowstic and Togekiss really helps this team with their set up moves. And Finally, Flygon is a powerhouse with its boomburst, heat wave to hit ice type and draco meteor as a last resort.
This is pretty straight forward, sand team. Greninja may provide good help, having its mat block. Hyper Beam under Dessert gales can surprise the opponent. Excadrill is an obvious choice. Tyranitar can be a nice backup plan. Meowstic and Togekiss really helps this team with their set up moves. And Finally, Flygon is a powerhouse with its boomburst, heat wave to hit ice type and draco meteor as a last resort.
IndigoRewrite
https://pokepast.es/6e6d65412e20f902
The reason this is named this is because it takes a lot of inspiration from blue's walrein team, including 4/6 members and most of the ev spreads for those members. My editions include giving slack off to walrein for longevity, and the additions of shedinja and scrafty. Shedinja is an absolute showstopper, and the reason i included it was because of a recent trend of shedinja on kyogre teams in gen 8 vgc series 10, where it checks zacian, xerneas, calyrex ice and opposing kyogre, and if psychic terrain isn't up, it can ohko calyrex shadow with shadow sneak. Blue's team had a bad matchup against trick room, especially reuniclus, and Scrafty is a decent trick room disruptor with taunt, and has a naturally good matchup against the sand and hail setters present in kalos, which hinder shedinja. The highlight of this team is the Walrein-Zapdos-Metagross core, which during my testing with blue, blew almost every team i had out of the water, Except for one.
- - -
https://pokepast.es/2d207641e82c6a2e
This is the one team that was able to consistently beat the walrein team blue had, and proved to be incredibly solid during the tourney and my other tests. The team is named this way since it's a dual emga team. Luxray is the standard mega sat, so not much to describe there. Hariyama is bulky as shote, evd to outspeed opposing scrafty and sylveon, and has nearly perfect coverage. It can tank a sylveon hyper voice and use throat chop to block sound, and mystical fire won't ko due to thick fat unless the sylveon has throat spray.
I chose to drop protect on reuniclus, optiong for photon geyser for consistent damage. It always lives a max atk talonflame brave bird when mega evolved as well. Murkrow is this team's supportive backbone, and one of my favorite pokemon. Its newfound access to parting shot helps immensely with softening blows, and threatens common physical attackers, as well as aegislash, with foul play. Its priority tailwind is second only to uninjured talonflame, and was frequently used to one-up zapdos. Quash, is it's main selling point however, is what allows luxray, sylveon and reuniclus to absolutely dominate under the right circumstances.
Amoonguss is the best redirector in kalos, and helps with fairy types, since this team has 3 fairy weak mons. I considered running both Amoon-glace (eject button) and fast focus sash amoonguss for sleep, but standard sitrus berry won out. Finally, Sylveon is just a great attacker, fitted with mystical fire to beat the likes of aegislash, metagross and ferrothorn, as well as the spa drop, moonblast to bypass wide guard, and throat spray to boost it's damage and ensure koes, this hits almost everything for big damage, and is extremely reliable too.
The reason this is named this is because it takes a lot of inspiration from blue's walrein team, including 4/6 members and most of the ev spreads for those members. My editions include giving slack off to walrein for longevity, and the additions of shedinja and scrafty. Shedinja is an absolute showstopper, and the reason i included it was because of a recent trend of shedinja on kyogre teams in gen 8 vgc series 10, where it checks zacian, xerneas, calyrex ice and opposing kyogre, and if psychic terrain isn't up, it can ohko calyrex shadow with shadow sneak. Blue's team had a bad matchup against trick room, especially reuniclus, and Scrafty is a decent trick room disruptor with taunt, and has a naturally good matchup against the sand and hail setters present in kalos, which hinder shedinja. The highlight of this team is the Walrein-Zapdos-Metagross core, which during my testing with blue, blew almost every team i had out of the water, Except for one.
- - -
https://pokepast.es/2d207641e82c6a2e
This is the one team that was able to consistently beat the walrein team blue had, and proved to be incredibly solid during the tourney and my other tests. The team is named this way since it's a dual emga team. Luxray is the standard mega sat, so not much to describe there. Hariyama is bulky as shote, evd to outspeed opposing scrafty and sylveon, and has nearly perfect coverage. It can tank a sylveon hyper voice and use throat chop to block sound, and mystical fire won't ko due to thick fat unless the sylveon has throat spray.
I chose to drop protect on reuniclus, optiong for photon geyser for consistent damage. It always lives a max atk talonflame brave bird when mega evolved as well. Murkrow is this team's supportive backbone, and one of my favorite pokemon. Its newfound access to parting shot helps immensely with softening blows, and threatens common physical attackers, as well as aegislash, with foul play. Its priority tailwind is second only to uninjured talonflame, and was frequently used to one-up zapdos. Quash, is it's main selling point however, is what allows luxray, sylveon and reuniclus to absolutely dominate under the right circumstances.
Amoonguss is the best redirector in kalos, and helps with fairy types, since this team has 3 fairy weak mons. I considered running both Amoon-glace (eject button) and fast focus sash amoonguss for sleep, but standard sitrus berry won out. Finally, Sylveon is just a great attacker, fitted with mystical fire to beat the likes of aegislash, metagross and ferrothorn, as well as the spa drop, moonblast to bypass wide guard, and throat spray to boost it's damage and ensure koes, this hits almost everything for big damage, and is extremely reliable too.
BlueRay
Kalos Dragalge: https://pokepast.es/16b0abad59bcdca3
Musharna is the team's primary source of speed control and can take good advantage of spread moves like Earthquake and Sludge Wave as it doesn't take any damage thanks to Telepathy. Moreover, with Helping Hand, it could increase the damage output of its teammates to make up for its rather passive nature. Its Psychic type and low speed is particulary helpful to underspeed Amoonguss and Mega Reuniclus and threaten the former while not taking much damage from the latter.
Mega Dragalge works similar to Mega Charizard Y in that it too relies on two STAB moves to severely weaken one or two opposing Pokémon, in this case: Sludge Wave and Terrain Pulse. With no other terrain setter in the format, there really wasn't a disadvantage to use Terrain Pulse aside from the 5 turn limitation but it's one that I'm willing to take as Terrain Pulse could achieve OHKOs or 2HKOs where Sludge Bomb couldn't, such as Sylveon or Assault Vest Hariyama. To improve the matchup against Sand and to not be totally helpless against Aegislash, I went for Hydro Pump on Mega Dragalge.
Speaking of Aegislash, Scrafty was the next chosen Pokémon as its bulk and typing was beneficial for dealing with this Pokémon. Moreover, it provided Fake Out and Intimidate to help out its teammates, Musharna in particular as it hates opposing Fake Out user.
Then, Metagross was chosen to deal with Mega Reuniclus and threaten Pokémon that were bulky on the special side but were more susceptible to physical attacks. It also made sure I could take out an opposing Mega Dragalge and improved the matchup against Amoonguss, Hariyama, Mega Aurorus, Metagross, and Aegislash, the latter three being OHKOed or heavily weakened by Groundium.
I then wanted a Pokémon that could override an opponent's weather and resist Ground moves. Abomasnow fits this criteria perfectly and even threatened Tyrannitar, Gigalith, and Mega Walrein with Life Orb boosted Grass Knot.
Garchomp was the final member of this team and could function well outside of Trick Room. Moreover, it improved my matchup against Sand and
Sun as Pokémon on these archetypes tend to be weak to Ground, like Excadrill or Torkoal. Yache Berry made sure it could still apply pressure in the face of Water and Ice Pokémon.
Musharna is the team's primary source of speed control and can take good advantage of spread moves like Earthquake and Sludge Wave as it doesn't take any damage thanks to Telepathy. Moreover, with Helping Hand, it could increase the damage output of its teammates to make up for its rather passive nature. Its Psychic type and low speed is particulary helpful to underspeed Amoonguss and Mega Reuniclus and threaten the former while not taking much damage from the latter.
Mega Dragalge works similar to Mega Charizard Y in that it too relies on two STAB moves to severely weaken one or two opposing Pokémon, in this case: Sludge Wave and Terrain Pulse. With no other terrain setter in the format, there really wasn't a disadvantage to use Terrain Pulse aside from the 5 turn limitation but it's one that I'm willing to take as Terrain Pulse could achieve OHKOs or 2HKOs where Sludge Bomb couldn't, such as Sylveon or Assault Vest Hariyama. To improve the matchup against Sand and to not be totally helpless against Aegislash, I went for Hydro Pump on Mega Dragalge.
Speaking of Aegislash, Scrafty was the next chosen Pokémon as its bulk and typing was beneficial for dealing with this Pokémon. Moreover, it provided Fake Out and Intimidate to help out its teammates, Musharna in particular as it hates opposing Fake Out user.
Then, Metagross was chosen to deal with Mega Reuniclus and threaten Pokémon that were bulky on the special side but were more susceptible to physical attacks. It also made sure I could take out an opposing Mega Dragalge and improved the matchup against Amoonguss, Hariyama, Mega Aurorus, Metagross, and Aegislash, the latter three being OHKOed or heavily weakened by Groundium.
I then wanted a Pokémon that could override an opponent's weather and resist Ground moves. Abomasnow fits this criteria perfectly and even threatened Tyrannitar, Gigalith, and Mega Walrein with Life Orb boosted Grass Knot.
Garchomp was the final member of this team and could function well outside of Trick Room. Moreover, it improved my matchup against Sand and
Sun as Pokémon on these archetypes tend to be weak to Ground, like Excadrill or Torkoal. Yache Berry made sure it could still apply pressure in the face of Water and Ice Pokémon.
Pupugugu
https://pokepast.es/d8bf4adcfa43afac
Leavanny is sort of at the core of this team, providing both great speed control and allowing teammates to break more easily. Volcarona provides a check to the fighting and grass types and, in general, a lot physical attackers that would otherwise threaten the team (and also rage powder support is always nice). Aegislash is Aegi, it's just a fantastic breaker while also being solid defensive glue Ghostium can nuke most of the metagame, especially things such as Reu (which it easily outspeeds most of the time). Milotic deters intimidates, and has a good matchup against rain even despite the slew of Zapdos and Freeze-Dry Walrein, just because it's that bulky. Lead Weavile can easily get off a Fake Out, and still get to throw off a powerful Knock or Crash due to its great speed tier and thanks to sash - this can allow a mon like Azu or Aegi to get off strong hits/set up, and covers Ghost types that might threaten out Aegi. Azumarill was mostly amazing against TR, being fairly slow itself while checking common TR mons like Rhyperior and Conkeldurr - to be honest, it never got the chance to set up, so maybe a different set could be better on this team.
Leavanny is sort of at the core of this team, providing both great speed control and allowing teammates to break more easily. Volcarona provides a check to the fighting and grass types and, in general, a lot physical attackers that would otherwise threaten the team (and also rage powder support is always nice). Aegislash is Aegi, it's just a fantastic breaker while also being solid defensive glue Ghostium can nuke most of the metagame, especially things such as Reu (which it easily outspeeds most of the time). Milotic deters intimidates, and has a good matchup against rain even despite the slew of Zapdos and Freeze-Dry Walrein, just because it's that bulky. Lead Weavile can easily get off a Fake Out, and still get to throw off a powerful Knock or Crash due to its great speed tier and thanks to sash - this can allow a mon like Azu or Aegi to get off strong hits/set up, and covers Ghost types that might threaten out Aegi. Azumarill was mostly amazing against TR, being fairly slow itself while checking common TR mons like Rhyperior and Conkeldurr - to be honest, it never got the chance to set up, so maybe a different set could be better on this team.
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Howdy People, its the GOAT here, The Blazing Kicking Chicken of M4A, The Man of Many Alts, Comp Council Member Paulluxx.
With a fancy shmancy RMT.
I've been wanting to do a post here for quite awhile but really haven't had the best song for this RMT in my mind, but to fit the story I've finally decided on Blood on the Rooftops by Genesis
The Mysterious Disappearance of Friendly Ball
By Paulluxx, with Assistance from Blueray
^Link in Paste
This team was built for and won the Lycanroc-Day Teambuilding competition all the way back in May but it has proved to be one of the most consistent, and fun to play teams in my lineup. I would be remiss for neglecting it here.
"Sherwoof"
Sherwoof (Lycanroc) @ Lycanite
Ability: Down-To-Earth (Premega:Sand Rush)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
The Lead of this Whodunnit murder mystery Sherwoof is an amazing cleaner, with a staggering 137 Base speed coupled with STAB Priority in Extreme Speed, its 130 Attack and Swords dance, Secondary STAB in Stone Edge, and coverage for Steels in Close Combat, Outspeeding most everything in the meta, and everything faster dead to boosted Extreme Speeds, this thing is a dominant offensive threat, sometimes able to sweep opposing teams with just a little bit of chip or free setup gained from Amoongus. All it needs is a little momentum and the Mystery is solved.
For people new to M4A Mega Lyanroc-Day has the ability Down-To-Earth which nullifies the effects of terrain allowing it to for example Spam Extreme Speed under Psychic Terrain, but its most useful role is preventing it from being revenge killed by Rillaboom, and if you're setup its just another Kill on the Board for Sherwoof.
"ThisisnotanAmogus"
ThisisnotanAmogus (Amoonguss) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 2 Spe
- Spore
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
Witness number one, and Sherwoofs Right hand man, Amoongus provides a lot for this team, defensively checking threats such as Ash Greninja, and Urshifu-Rapidstrike, but its mostly here to switch into walls and sack them to sleep as to clear way for Lycanroc when its ready to sweep. It is not a suspect.
"Algorhythm"
Algorhythm (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 92 SpD / 96 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Roost
The method of solving the crime, Gliscor is here to act as glue, provide defog support, pivot, absorb status, check heatran(and electrics), and essentially do any sort of oddjobs that the rest of the team cant handle. The EV spread is my personal set, that not only allows it to check physical and special attackers such as Blaziken(banded or swords dance), or Tapu Koko.
"No Missing People"
No Missing People (Thundurus) (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot
- Thunderbolt
- Nasty Plot
Despite the ability to break past many walls with setup or sleep support, we realized in play that not everything could simply be muscled past and having a special wallbreaker to deal with everything that Lycanroc couldn't would be necessary, we experimented with many different options but eventually decided Nasty Plot Thundurus would be the best option definitively, with BoltBeamKnot Coverage it is able to break through/chip any manner of physical wall, the most important one obviously being Hippowdown but various Landorus sets and Gliscor as well. There will be no more Missing People on Thundurus's watch
"Wanted"
"Wanted" (Slowbro) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Future Sight
- Teleport
- Slack Off
- Scald
Whats a physical attacker without Customary Future Sight support and Regenerator Pivoting support in a Slowtwin, thats why we wanted "Wanted". It fit the needs of the team and also baits in dark types to easily break through via Lycanroc, or sack to sleep with Amoongus. It is minspeed to slow pivot out, it also checks Physical Attackers with ease, as only a Slowbro does.
"Friendly Dead Ball"
Friendly Dead Ball (Clefable) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
What else to do when things are dead, but throw out a Friendly Ball and win, Calm mind Unaware Clef is a staple because it acts as a nearly impenetrable Kommo-o Check, while also providing midgame Cleric support if needed, and lategame can sweep with ease, it also easily wins the matchup against opposing Calm Minders and other setup sweepers such as SD Garchomp, or perhaps even opposing Lycandays. Additionally its the teams best answer to Weavile.
Threat List
: This team struggles against weavile, but it should be managable if you don't let it get in safely and keep Clefable healthy. Just outplay the Weavile user, and then get a free kill with Lycanroc
: Similar to the one above, as long as it hasn't gotten a kill which if played right it shouldn't be able to, sleep it or giga drain it, to later just be setup fodder/free kill for Lycanroc.
Other than these 2, watch out for weird sets and keep Clefable healthy and you should be able to beat anybody.
Replays
I have many replays with this team, but Smogon doesn't let you send the replays in File Format, and Dragon Heaven the files, but if you @ me on discord I can provide you many of these replays.
Glad to finally work on this, and post it, this is one of the teams I'm most proud of, and I'm glad to share it with all of you. I will also say that the Teambuilding competition will return. Soon...
With a fancy shmancy RMT.
I've been wanting to do a post here for quite awhile but really haven't had the best song for this RMT in my mind, but to fit the story I've finally decided on Blood on the Rooftops by Genesis
The Mysterious Disappearance of Friendly Ball
By Paulluxx, with Assistance from Blueray
^Link in Paste
This team was built for and won the Lycanroc-Day Teambuilding competition all the way back in May but it has proved to be one of the most consistent, and fun to play teams in my lineup. I would be remiss for neglecting it here.
"Sherwoof"
Sherwoof (Lycanroc) @ Lycanite
Ability: Down-To-Earth (Premega:Sand Rush)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
The Lead of this Whodunnit murder mystery Sherwoof is an amazing cleaner, with a staggering 137 Base speed coupled with STAB Priority in Extreme Speed, its 130 Attack and Swords dance, Secondary STAB in Stone Edge, and coverage for Steels in Close Combat, Outspeeding most everything in the meta, and everything faster dead to boosted Extreme Speeds, this thing is a dominant offensive threat, sometimes able to sweep opposing teams with just a little bit of chip or free setup gained from Amoongus. All it needs is a little momentum and the Mystery is solved.
For people new to M4A Mega Lyanroc-Day has the ability Down-To-Earth which nullifies the effects of terrain allowing it to for example Spam Extreme Speed under Psychic Terrain, but its most useful role is preventing it from being revenge killed by Rillaboom, and if you're setup its just another Kill on the Board for Sherwoof.
"ThisisnotanAmogus"
ThisisnotanAmogus (Amoonguss) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 2 Spe
- Spore
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
Witness number one, and Sherwoofs Right hand man, Amoongus provides a lot for this team, defensively checking threats such as Ash Greninja, and Urshifu-Rapidstrike, but its mostly here to switch into walls and sack them to sleep as to clear way for Lycanroc when its ready to sweep. It is not a suspect.
"Algorhythm"
Algorhythm (Gliscor) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Def / 92 SpD / 96 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Defog
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Roost
The method of solving the crime, Gliscor is here to act as glue, provide defog support, pivot, absorb status, check heatran(and electrics), and essentially do any sort of oddjobs that the rest of the team cant handle. The EV spread is my personal set, that not only allows it to check physical and special attackers such as Blaziken(banded or swords dance), or Tapu Koko.
"No Missing People"
No Missing People (Thundurus) (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot
- Thunderbolt
- Nasty Plot
Despite the ability to break past many walls with setup or sleep support, we realized in play that not everything could simply be muscled past and having a special wallbreaker to deal with everything that Lycanroc couldn't would be necessary, we experimented with many different options but eventually decided Nasty Plot Thundurus would be the best option definitively, with BoltBeamKnot Coverage it is able to break through/chip any manner of physical wall, the most important one obviously being Hippowdown but various Landorus sets and Gliscor as well. There will be no more Missing People on Thundurus's watch
"Wanted"
"Wanted" (Slowbro) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Future Sight
- Teleport
- Slack Off
- Scald
Whats a physical attacker without Customary Future Sight support and Regenerator Pivoting support in a Slowtwin, thats why we wanted "Wanted". It fit the needs of the team and also baits in dark types to easily break through via Lycanroc, or sack to sleep with Amoongus. It is minspeed to slow pivot out, it also checks Physical Attackers with ease, as only a Slowbro does.
"Friendly Dead Ball"
Friendly Dead Ball (Clefable) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
What else to do when things are dead, but throw out a Friendly Ball and win, Calm mind Unaware Clef is a staple because it acts as a nearly impenetrable Kommo-o Check, while also providing midgame Cleric support if needed, and lategame can sweep with ease, it also easily wins the matchup against opposing Calm Minders and other setup sweepers such as SD Garchomp, or perhaps even opposing Lycandays. Additionally its the teams best answer to Weavile.
Threat List
: This team struggles against weavile, but it should be managable if you don't let it get in safely and keep Clefable healthy. Just outplay the Weavile user, and then get a free kill with Lycanroc : Similar to the one above, as long as it hasn't gotten a kill which if played right it shouldn't be able to, sleep it or giga drain it, to later just be setup fodder/free kill for Lycanroc.Other than these 2, watch out for weird sets and keep Clefable healthy and you should be able to beat anybody.
Replays
I have many replays with this team, but Smogon doesn't let you send the replays in File Format, and Dragon Heaven the files, but if you @ me on discord I can provide you many of these replays.
Glad to finally work on this, and post it, this is one of the teams I'm most proud of, and I'm glad to share it with all of you. I will also say that the Teambuilding competition will return. Soon...
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helo it is me the monkey of gravity today i will talk about regional roundup okay
So yeah during M4APL I played pretty much exclusively so I think I got some insight at the tier in general. For those who don't know, rr is basically M4A monogen where regional variants are put in the region they began in. So I think the best way to approach the meta is by looking at each gen individually to see what each one of them brings to the table. I also decided to rank them with my personal and biased opinion in the tier list. We'll start from the worst and go up to the best. (everything is ordered btw)
Gen 6
Gen 6 unfortunately got the shortest stick out of the bunch, and boy oh boy is its stick short. In my eyes, outside or greninja, dragalge-mega and some cool light screen setters, this generation has basically nothing. Its only half-decent defensive options are like sylveon and avalugg so anything outside of HO is outside the window. And it's not even like the HOs this gen produces are anything stellar, cough cough gen 7. You do get some nifty abusers like the aforementioned gren, hoopa-u, talonflame and like maybe hawlucha? But like, come on, the best SR setter of the gen is diancie ffs. Truth be told I was even struggling to find 3 mons to put on the header lmao. Honestly, outside of wanting to wreck teams with no access gren checks (which, like, some gens do actually have), you're better off with anything else.
Gen 2
Gen 2 has something that gen 6 doesn't have which is actually viable pokemon rofl. But yeah this gen gets access to skarmory and blissey, forming the dreaded skarmbliss core and providing a strong backbone to any offense you'd wanna make. This gen also gets access to both slowking and slowking-mega which are both great options for BOs/balances. You get access to good glue mons like ttar and scizor, and you also get access to some more niche but powerful options like azumarill, raikou and suicune. The problems with gen 2 are first of all that it has close to zero viable ground types outside of quag (and donphan if you are into that sort of thing) which is a very big problem. It's hard to make a gen 2 team that's not wrecked by raichu-mega or zeraora, for instance. Second, the utility is restricted to very few pokemon and those kinda overlap with one another. For instance, you can't really bring a spikes whirlwind skarm cause the only other viable defogger is scizor and having both a skarm and a defensive scizor on the same team is not that good an idea honestly since their weaknesses overlap so much. Same thing, you'll often be forced to put SRs on blissey cause skarm and ttar are not always able to carry those moves. This coupled with the lack of true offensive powerhouses make gen 2 kind of a hard choice to justify. It can be used, but like you have to know what you're doing. Or playing stall ig.
Gen 3
Honeslty the second I looked at gen 3's roster my mind immediately jumped to rain: you got pelipper, ludicolo and swampert-mega all in the same tier. That's the only way I played gen 3 and in my eyes the best way to play it, but tbh I think gen 3 is pretty unexplored. It has a lot of cool megas like regice, latias, flygon and huge power megas and it has insane glue mon jirachi and other stuff like blaziken. Honestly the problem with gen 3 is that even though it got a fair amount of mons to cover everything most of them are pretty mid, like yeah latios is strong and regice-mega is scary but compared to what other gens have they're both like low B-tier mons. It kinda has a problem with defoggers as well, if you're not carrying pelipper you have to put defog on like latias or flygon and it's all very awkward. Another reason why I think rain shines in this gen.
Gen 1 is a very well-rounded gen, as well as a very versatile one. Most good pokemons it has can be used both offensively and defensively which is really cool compared to some other more one-note gens. By virtue of being gen 1 it also has access to a lot of good megas, including clefable, raichu, nidoqueen, starmie, zards, the list goes on. Honestly I'd say gen 1 only has two problems holding it back, the first one being a lack of speed control outside of megas and the second, most handicapping, the total absence of steel types – magneton does not count. Thats a whole lot of defensive compression you just cannot get access to. Other than that yeah I think it's pretty decent. Also it can run sun which is cool ig.
Gen 8
Gen 8 is a gen that I kinda overlooked during M4APL, and that came to bite me as I lost to BlueRay's take on the gen. Gen 8 doesn't have a lot of very viable mon but the few it has are excellent. The boomer + corv + lowkey-mega core is absolutely frightening, perfect for wearing down anything short of mirror matchups. Also a lot of "unmons" it has are... surprisingly usable, stuff like sandaconda or polteageist. All in all it's a very weird gen and I don't really know where to put it, but here sounds about right.
Gen 7
I think this gen is forever bound to my name in the M4Asphere lol. "But gravity you spammed the hell out of this gen why's it not your number one?" I'll tell you why. It is true that this gen is insane for HOs. You get access to some of the most power crept offensive threats out of all mons in the game, including koko, blace, kartana,lele [REDACTED] and a lot of mons that enable those monsters with screens like ninetails alola and, again, koko. And most important of all you get access to kommo-o which has the best set ever under screens in sub salac seconded only by stored power mag which is banned but would be in this gen anyway. The problem here is that screens HO are not everything – if you were to face, say, a gen 2 stall, there's probably not much that a screen HO can do without its most broken mons magearna and tapu lele. And against a skilled player, there is often not much you can do with a screen HO. While it has some options for balance with toxapex, steela and the likes, gen 7 has, like a lot of other gen, overlapping weakness (to ground, this time) as well as problems with fitting SR/Defog (did I mention its only spiker is golisopod?). While usable, this makes it a very shaky BO/balance option, and so thats why it falls right above the middle in my eyes.
We are now entering the realm of gens that don't actually have major flaws. Ain't that exciting? Gen 5 gets a lot of incredibly solid mons in eternal S-Tier lando, ferrothorn and matchup fishers volcarona, serperior and keldeo who can basically solo-win games has the opponent brought the wrong gen. Honestly this gen is just full of solid mons, you got like mandi, reuni, kyurem, terrakion, thundurus-t, excadrill, hydreigon? like look at all of that selection. Thats not even counting viable niche picks which this gen overflows with. This gen has ways to make BO, balance, HO, sand?? and even stall work it's insane. It also has a variety of viable megas that don't force you to chose between having the base form and the mega. It's also very easy to make cores that handle everyrthing, there are ways to get 0 overlap. Honestly would torn-t be playable this gen would probably be s-tier but alas this omission means this gen is slightly more easier to pressure + there's one less defogger, meaning you'll have to bring one of hydrei, mandi or drill every game. Honestly I shouldve tried different things with this gen a bit more instead of focusing on making zebstrika-mega work
.
and now, drumrollssssss
Honestly, this gen might have less archetype options than gen 5 but this is easily overshadowed by just how insanely consistent its balances/BOs are. You get some of the straight up best mons in the game here. Your only way of getting access to heatran, to z-chomp, to gliscor, to weavile or to m-lop is to play gen 4. It also has a great selection of mons to fill in the blanks and check other gens including rotom, tangrowth, magnezone, spiritomb-mega and empoleon-mega. Plus it has like 3000 viable ground options which idk i just think its funny considering how some other gens are under famine. Also it gets azelf to enable HO which is just like chef's kitchen you know. Outside of keldeo and greninja (lol) there's very few threats it actively fears. Best gen in my eyes.
So yea thats my perception of the metagame as a whole. Id love to discuss with other ppl who played rr during M4APL and get yalls input. Im now gonna drop some of the better teams I built for the tournament to maybe hopefully spark some ppl to play the format.
And thats gonna be it! Thank you for reading all of this. I hope we're gonna get more opportunities like M4APL to play rr in the future!
So yeah during M4APL I played pretty much exclusively so I think I got some insight at the tier in general. For those who don't know, rr is basically M4A monogen where regional variants are put in the region they began in. So I think the best way to approach the meta is by looking at each gen individually to see what each one of them brings to the table. I also decided to rank them with my personal and biased opinion in the tier list. We'll start from the worst and go up to the best. (everything is ordered btw)
- F TIER -
pls don't use
pls don't use
Gen 6
Gen 6 unfortunately got the shortest stick out of the bunch, and boy oh boy is its stick short. In my eyes, outside or greninja, dragalge-mega and some cool light screen setters, this generation has basically nothing. Its only half-decent defensive options are like sylveon and avalugg so anything outside of HO is outside the window. And it's not even like the HOs this gen produces are anything stellar, cough cough gen 7. You do get some nifty abusers like the aforementioned gren, hoopa-u, talonflame and like maybe hawlucha? But like, come on, the best SR setter of the gen is diancie ffs. Truth be told I was even struggling to find 3 mons to put on the header lmao. Honestly, outside of wanting to wreck teams with no access gren checks (which, like, some gens do actually have), you're better off with anything else.
- C TIER -
niche picks
niche picks
Gen 2
Gen 2 has something that gen 6 doesn't have which is actually viable pokemon rofl. But yeah this gen gets access to skarmory and blissey, forming the dreaded skarmbliss core and providing a strong backbone to any offense you'd wanna make. This gen also gets access to both slowking and slowking-mega which are both great options for BOs/balances. You get access to good glue mons like ttar and scizor, and you also get access to some more niche but powerful options like azumarill, raikou and suicune. The problems with gen 2 are first of all that it has close to zero viable ground types outside of quag (and donphan if you are into that sort of thing) which is a very big problem. It's hard to make a gen 2 team that's not wrecked by raichu-mega or zeraora, for instance. Second, the utility is restricted to very few pokemon and those kinda overlap with one another. For instance, you can't really bring a spikes whirlwind skarm cause the only other viable defogger is scizor and having both a skarm and a defensive scizor on the same team is not that good an idea honestly since their weaknesses overlap so much. Same thing, you'll often be forced to put SRs on blissey cause skarm and ttar are not always able to carry those moves. This coupled with the lack of true offensive powerhouses make gen 2 kind of a hard choice to justify. It can be used, but like you have to know what you're doing. Or playing stall ig.
Gen 3
Honeslty the second I looked at gen 3's roster my mind immediately jumped to rain: you got pelipper, ludicolo and swampert-mega all in the same tier. That's the only way I played gen 3 and in my eyes the best way to play it, but tbh I think gen 3 is pretty unexplored. It has a lot of cool megas like regice, latias, flygon and huge power megas and it has insane glue mon jirachi and other stuff like blaziken. Honestly the problem with gen 3 is that even though it got a fair amount of mons to cover everything most of them are pretty mid, like yeah latios is strong and regice-mega is scary but compared to what other gens have they're both like low B-tier mons. It kinda has a problem with defoggers as well, if you're not carrying pelipper you have to put defog on like latias or flygon and it's all very awkward. Another reason why I think rain shines in this gen.
- B TIER -
aka the all rights
Gen 1 aka the all rights
Gen 1 is a very well-rounded gen, as well as a very versatile one. Most good pokemons it has can be used both offensively and defensively which is really cool compared to some other more one-note gens. By virtue of being gen 1 it also has access to a lot of good megas, including clefable, raichu, nidoqueen, starmie, zards, the list goes on. Honestly I'd say gen 1 only has two problems holding it back, the first one being a lack of speed control outside of megas and the second, most handicapping, the total absence of steel types – magneton does not count. Thats a whole lot of defensive compression you just cannot get access to. Other than that yeah I think it's pretty decent. Also it can run sun which is cool ig.
Gen 8
Gen 8 is a gen that I kinda overlooked during M4APL, and that came to bite me as I lost to BlueRay's take on the gen. Gen 8 doesn't have a lot of very viable mon but the few it has are excellent. The boomer + corv + lowkey-mega core is absolutely frightening, perfect for wearing down anything short of mirror matchups. Also a lot of "unmons" it has are... surprisingly usable, stuff like sandaconda or polteageist. All in all it's a very weird gen and I don't really know where to put it, but here sounds about right.
Gen 7
I think this gen is forever bound to my name in the M4Asphere lol. "But gravity you spammed the hell out of this gen why's it not your number one?" I'll tell you why. It is true that this gen is insane for HOs. You get access to some of the most power crept offensive threats out of all mons in the game, including koko, blace, kartana,
- A TIER -
*finally, some good fucking food*
Gen 5 *finally, some good fucking food*
We are now entering the realm of gens that don't actually have major flaws. Ain't that exciting? Gen 5 gets a lot of incredibly solid mons in eternal S-Tier lando, ferrothorn and matchup fishers volcarona, serperior and keldeo who can basically solo-win games has the opponent brought the wrong gen. Honestly this gen is just full of solid mons, you got like mandi, reuni, kyurem, terrakion, thundurus-t, excadrill, hydreigon? like look at all of that selection. Thats not even counting viable niche picks which this gen overflows with. This gen has ways to make BO, balance, HO, sand?? and even stall work it's insane. It also has a variety of viable megas that don't force you to chose between having the base form and the mega. It's also very easy to make cores that handle everyrthing, there are ways to get 0 overlap. Honestly would torn-t be playable this gen would probably be s-tier but alas this omission means this gen is slightly more easier to pressure + there's one less defogger, meaning you'll have to bring one of hydrei, mandi or drill every game. Honestly I shouldve tried different things with this gen a bit more instead of focusing on making zebstrika-mega work
.and now, drumrollssssss
- S TIER -
the only gen with 8 A mons in NatDex
Gen 4 the only gen with 8 A mons in NatDex
Honestly, this gen might have less archetype options than gen 5 but this is easily overshadowed by just how insanely consistent its balances/BOs are. You get some of the straight up best mons in the game here. Your only way of getting access to heatran, to z-chomp, to gliscor, to weavile or to m-lop is to play gen 4. It also has a great selection of mons to fill in the blanks and check other gens including rotom, tangrowth, magnezone, spiritomb-mega and empoleon-mega. Plus it has like 3000 viable ground options which idk i just think its funny considering how some other gens are under famine. Also it gets azelf to enable HO which is just like chef's kitchen you know. Outside of keldeo and greninja (lol) there's very few threats it actively fears. Best gen in my eyes.
So yea thats my perception of the metagame as a whole. Id love to discuss with other ppl who played rr during M4APL and get yalls input. Im now gonna drop some of the better teams I built for the tournament to maybe hopefully spark some ppl to play the format.
And thats gonna be it! Thank you for reading all of this. I hope we're gonna get more opportunities like M4APL to play rr in the future!
... Aaand we're back! Hi, everyone!
If you're a part of the Discord (and you absolutely should be! there's an incredible community there, and I've met so many wonderful people through it myself; please think about joining if you haven't!), you've known this slate was coming up for a few days now, but this is my first time posting on Smogon for quite some time, huh?
Before I go any further, I want to express my thanks to the incredibly important people who have helped to make this mod what it is.
It is unbelievable how much each and every member of the council and competitive council has done to overcome the difficulty of these last few months and elevate the competitive spirit, supportive environment and constant desire to learn from one another that define our community. On top of that, there are people in this server who have helped to shape this project by welcoming and teaching new contributors, helping to develop underexplored formats and coming up with completely original ways to play the mod, or just taking downright crazy amounts of initiative to carry out innovative ideas for the betterment of the community.
Some of you are really like family to me, and it means so much to be a part of something that has grown to be so beautiful; I can't say I expected anything like this when I first joined the project (more than a year ago now, and what a year it's been!), nor when I took up the mantle of leader last September. I know it's been a difficult road sometimes, especially in the last few months with my repeated absences and new slates stalling quite a lot as a result, so I just want to stress how much all of you mean to me and how much I appreciate how supportive everyone has been in spite of everything.
After discussing our long-term situation more thoroughly, the rest of the council has kindly agreed to accept some of the responsibilities I've taken on in the past, and we're all hoping that dividing the workload a bit differently amongst ourselves will help us to run things more smoothly from now on and that we can move beyond the lull of new slates we've been in for some time; I really appreciate their help, and I'll do my best to keep up my part going forward as well!
With that in mind, uh, guess what!
There's no poll for slate 35 this time, since that one has already been announced as a fixed celebration slate (in case you missed it, slate 35 is
Alola's starter Pokémon!), but we'll probably be back to regular polls after that one! We'll let you know when it's time to vote as always. C:
New slate aside, there are also some exciting new updates!
First, as the thread title suggests, we are live through slate 33, meaning you can finally try out KeroseneZanchu's Mega Electrode, KeroseneZanchu's Mega Golurk and KeroseneZanchu's Mega Silvally on DH!
The previously announced balance changes are also live, and for those who haven't been following the Discord, it's also worth noting that
Mega Butterfree has been temporarily banned and is awaiting a balance revision by the competitive council - please feel free to join us in the #balance-changes channel to weigh in with your own thoughts!
Mega Electrode's Ability, Implode, currently has a significant, battle-ending bug and should not be used until this is addressed! A battle will crash (meaning that it will end abruptly and can no longer be played) if Mega Electrode attempts to use a move that is not affected by Implode. To be clear: moves that are affected by Implode are safe, but any move that does not have recoil or cause Electrode to self-destruct, such as Volt Switch, will cause a crash.
full disclosure: there is also a purely aesthetic bug with Silvally that has proven way harder to fix but I promise I will do my best to make it look right eventually
be aware that this bug will never cause it to function improperly; it just occasionally looks like a Silvally-Dark when it's not, but the interface still reports the correct type in these cases and you can safely ignore it
really sorry ;-;
Lastly, we have an exciting upcoming tournament that's being run by BlueRay!
This will be a VGC tournament called 15 Ban, so named because 15 of the most prominent Pokémon in the format are banned from use!
The following Pokémon, including both their base forms and their Mega Evolved forms where applicable, may not be used during the 15 Ban tournament:
In addition, no Mega Evolutions from the official games are legal for use - if you're using a Mega Evolution, it must be one from M4A!
The 15 Ban tournament will be held on Saturday, the 28th of August, at 16:30 GMT; we hope to see you there!!
If you're a part of the Discord (and you absolutely should be! there's an incredible community there, and I've met so many wonderful people through it myself; please think about joining if you haven't!), you've known this slate was coming up for a few days now, but this is my first time posting on Smogon for quite some time, huh?
Before I go any further, I want to express my thanks to the incredibly important people who have helped to make this mod what it is.
It is unbelievable how much each and every member of the council and competitive council has done to overcome the difficulty of these last few months and elevate the competitive spirit, supportive environment and constant desire to learn from one another that define our community. On top of that, there are people in this server who have helped to shape this project by welcoming and teaching new contributors, helping to develop underexplored formats and coming up with completely original ways to play the mod, or just taking downright crazy amounts of initiative to carry out innovative ideas for the betterment of the community.
Some of you are really like family to me, and it means so much to be a part of something that has grown to be so beautiful; I can't say I expected anything like this when I first joined the project (more than a year ago now, and what a year it's been!), nor when I took up the mantle of leader last September. I know it's been a difficult road sometimes, especially in the last few months with my repeated absences and new slates stalling quite a lot as a result, so I just want to stress how much all of you mean to me and how much I appreciate how supportive everyone has been in spite of everything.
After discussing our long-term situation more thoroughly, the rest of the council has kindly agreed to accept some of the responsibilities I've taken on in the past, and we're all hoping that dividing the workload a bit differently amongst ourselves will help us to run things more smoothly from now on and that we can move beyond the lull of new slates we've been in for some time; I really appreciate their help, and I'll do my best to keep up my part going forward as well!
With that in mind, uh, guess what!
Submissions for Slate 34 are now open!
Submissions for Mega Golduck, Mega Sirfetch'd and Mega Porygon-Z are now open!
I plan to follow up with a feedback and veto post around midnight GMT on Monday, August 23rd (that's 92 hours from this post!, which will also serve as the 24-hour warning to make any final changes before submissions properly close at the same time on Tuesday, August 24th.
Be aware that, depending on your time zone, "midnight GMT" might be the day before the one listed for you!
For example, I'm currently in the midwest of the United States and my time zone is GMT-6, so for me, submissions will close at 6 PM on Monday, August 23rd!
If it helps, in GMT, this post was made at 04:25 on Thursday, July 19th!
Submissions for Mega Golduck, Mega Sirfetch'd and Mega Porygon-Z are now open!
I plan to follow up with a feedback and veto post around midnight GMT on Monday, August 23rd (that's 92 hours from this post!, which will also serve as the 24-hour warning to make any final changes before submissions properly close at the same time on Tuesday, August 24th.
Be aware that, depending on your time zone, "midnight GMT" might be the day before the one listed for you!
For example, I'm currently in the midwest of the United States and my time zone is GMT-6, so for me, submissions will close at 6 PM on Monday, August 23rd!
If it helps, in GMT, this post was made at 04:25 on Thursday, July 19th!
As a brief heads-up, I would like to recommend caution when it comes to balancing 
Mega Porygon-Z in particular!
Mega Porygon-Z in particular!Unusually, Porygon-Z has the Ability Download before it Mega Evolves, which means it can start out with a free +1 Attack or Special Attack the first time it Mega Evolves in addition to whatever new Ability it has. It also learns the boosting move Nasty Plot and has wide special coverage, making it a dangerous offensive Pokémon.
Please take these into account when balancing your stats! I'll do my best to give more specific feedback when the time comes for the veto post, but as a rule of thumb, one of the biggest factors that will make or break a Mega Porygon-Z is its Speed stat - please refrain from making an exceptionally fast Porygon-Z (most submissions should definitely be less than base 110) unless something unusual about your sub makes you believe it's not as affected by these characteristics as others might be.
Edit to be clear: The way this was written before was meant as a very high-end estimate to discourage subs that were seen to go even higher than base 110, not as a suggestion to go with base 110 or even just above it - please go lower if you're willing, and be aware that this was a rough estimate, not a rigid Speed tier and definitely not a guarantee that a sub would be accepted unconditionally if it were base 110. I have edited the line to suggest specifically going lower than 110 and will clarify that this was because 110 felt instinctively like a particularly crowded Speed tier among Megas, not to say that "barely outspeeding" base 110s was a good thing! If your sub is already at or around base 110, expect further clarification in the veto post when there has been more discussion on what is and is not safe to outspeed.
Thanks for your understanding! Again, we can definitely make more case-by-case judgments as needed, so don't worry about asking for an exception if you really believe it's warranted - just be aware of how easy it would be to go over the top and do your best to play it safe!
There's no poll for slate 35 this time, since that one has already been announced as a fixed celebration slate (in case you missed it, slate 35 is
Alola's starter Pokémon!), but we'll probably be back to regular polls after that one! We'll let you know when it's time to vote as always. C:New slate aside, there are also some exciting new updates!
First, as the thread title suggests, we are live through slate 33, meaning you can finally try out KeroseneZanchu's
Mega Electrode, KeroseneZanchu's Mega Golurk and KeroseneZanchu's Mega Silvally on DH!The previously announced balance changes are also live, and for those who haven't been following the Discord, it's also worth noting that
Mega Butterfree has been temporarily banned and is awaiting a balance revision by the competitive council - please feel free to join us in the #balance-changes channel to weigh in with your own thoughts!That said, a quick warning regarding the new slate - despite my best efforts, there is an important bug in one of the new Mega Evolutions!
Mega Electrode's Ability, Implode, currently has a significant, battle-ending bug and should not be used until this is addressed! A battle will crash (meaning that it will end abruptly and can no longer be played) if Mega Electrode attempts to use a move that is not affected by Implode. To be clear: moves that are affected by Implode are safe, but any move that does not have recoil or cause Electrode to self-destruct, such as Volt Switch, will cause a crash.I strongly recommend that no one use Mega Electrode until this is fixed! Terribly sorry for the inconvenience here ;-; I wish I had been more thorough in testing so I could catch these sooner;;
I have submitted a patch to address this issue, but it might be a bit before it goes live, so please sit tight and wait for updates!
full disclosure: there is also a purely aesthetic bug with Silvally that has proven way harder to fix but I promise I will do my best to make it look right eventually
be aware that this bug will never cause it to function improperly; it just occasionally looks like a Silvally-Dark when it's not, but the interface still reports the correct type in these cases and you can safely ignore it
really sorry ;-;
Lastly, we have an exciting upcoming tournament that's being run by BlueRay!
This will be a VGC tournament called 15 Ban, so named because 15 of the most prominent Pokémon in the format are banned from use!
The following Pokémon, including both their base forms and their Mega Evolved forms where applicable, may not be used during the 15 Ban tournament:
In addition, no Mega Evolutions from the official games are legal for use - if you're using a Mega Evolution, it must be one from M4A!
The 15 Ban tournament will be held on Saturday, the 28th of August, at 16:30 GMT; we hope to see you there!!
That's all for this evening - have fun, everyone! We can't wait to see your submissions for slate 34!
Last edited:
Sir Duckington'd:
Mega Sirfetch'd
Typing: Fighting
Ability: Coup De Grass
Stats: 62/155(+20)/130(+35)/68/127(+45)/65
New moves: None
Flavour: This is the one and only time, where you have a mon, having Coup De Grass that actually make senses outside of Cacturne. Coup De Grass is a pun, from Coup De Grâce and Grass. Coup de Grâce is an honorful act, end the mortally wounded suffer. Sirfetch'd is a honorful knight. Its weapon is made of leek too, so yeah, Coup de Grass
Competitive Design: Coup de Grass is an interesting ability. It lets user move first if opponent's hp is under 50%. This ability is a perfect revenge killer ability. Sirfetch'd with its sky high attacking stat can definitely blow opponent's that's weak. The differences between this and Mega Cacturne is, Mega Cacturne can heal itself, while this thing can't, but this Mega Sirfetch'd's atk stat is gonna punch more hole than Mega Cacturne.
Duckvirus.exe
Mega Porygon-z
Type:Normal/Ghost
Ability: Glitched
Use Court Change whenever user use a normal type move
Stats:85/80/120(+50)/135/110(+35)/105(+15)
New moves: Volt Switch
Flavour: duckvirus.exe
Competitive Design: Court change is an amazing move. It helps the user swap the field with the opponent. This can come in handy when your opponent has a screen or you have stacks of hazards. It may seems like Glitch is a hinder ability sometime, because it abuse normal moves often, and it can just switch the hazard back to yourself? Well, it's a skill-based ability. You have access to protect and recover, so if you just switch the hazard back to yourself and your opponent wall you by a ghost type? Easy, just use recover. This thing, unlike the its non mega counterpart, is an utility mon more than a glass cannon. Also, normal/ghost is an awful offensive typing (defensively it's not that amazing too, but yeah) but also giving this a spinblock and immune to trapping.
Kappuh:
Mega Golduck:
Type:Water/Psychic
Ability: WIP
-If user get hitted by a super effective move, opponent will get locked in that move for the next 2 turn.
Stats:80/95(swap spatk)/118(+40)/82(swap atk)/120(+40)/105(+20)
New Moves: Recover
Flavour:Confusive Duck
Competitive Design: So basically, every super effective move hit this thing, will turn into outrage for the next 2 turn, and without the confusion part, for balance purpose. You take a super effective hit, you switch out for the next 2 turn, into sth that would be ok to tank the hit. You just sit there and set up anyway you want for the second turn. It has 5 weaknesses, and each one of them have at least one way to play around with. Rattle for Bug, Ghost and Dark. Justified for Dark. Sap Sipper for Grass. Ground types, Motor Drive, Lightning Rod, Volt Absorb for Electric. Normal types for Ghost. And WP for everything that share a weakness with this thing.
Mega Sirfetch'd
Typing: Fighting
Ability: Coup De Grass
Stats: 62/155(+20)/130(+35)/68/127(+45)/65
New moves: None
Flavour: This is the one and only time, where you have a mon, having Coup De Grass that actually make senses outside of Cacturne. Coup De Grass is a pun, from Coup De Grâce and Grass. Coup de Grâce is an honorful act, end the mortally wounded suffer. Sirfetch'd is a honorful knight. Its weapon is made of leek too, so yeah, Coup de Grass
Competitive Design: Coup de Grass is an interesting ability. It lets user move first if opponent's hp is under 50%. This ability is a perfect revenge killer ability. Sirfetch'd with its sky high attacking stat can definitely blow opponent's that's weak. The differences between this and Mega Cacturne is, Mega Cacturne can heal itself, while this thing can't, but this Mega Sirfetch'd's atk stat is gonna punch more hole than Mega Cacturne.
Duckvirus.exe
Mega Porygon-z
Type:Normal/Ghost
Ability: Glitched
Use Court Change whenever user use a normal type move
Stats:85/80/120(+50)/135/110(+35)/105(+15)
New moves: Volt Switch
Flavour: duckvirus.exe
Competitive Design: Court change is an amazing move. It helps the user swap the field with the opponent. This can come in handy when your opponent has a screen or you have stacks of hazards. It may seems like Glitch is a hinder ability sometime, because it abuse normal moves often, and it can just switch the hazard back to yourself? Well, it's a skill-based ability. You have access to protect and recover, so if you just switch the hazard back to yourself and your opponent wall you by a ghost type? Easy, just use recover. This thing, unlike the its non mega counterpart, is an utility mon more than a glass cannon. Also, normal/ghost is an awful offensive typing (defensively it's not that amazing too, but yeah) but also giving this a spinblock and immune to trapping.
Kappuh:
Mega Golduck:
Type:Water/Psychic
Ability: WIP
-If user get hitted by a super effective move, opponent will get locked in that move for the next 2 turn.
Stats:80/95(swap spatk)/118(+40)/82(swap atk)/120(+40)/105(+20)
New Moves: Recover
Flavour:Confusive Duck
Competitive Design: So basically, every super effective move hit this thing, will turn into outrage for the next 2 turn, and without the confusion part, for balance purpose. You take a super effective hit, you switch out for the next 2 turn, into sth that would be ok to tank the hit. You just sit there and set up anyway you want for the second turn. It has 5 weaknesses, and each one of them have at least one way to play around with. Rattle for Bug, Ghost and Dark. Justified for Dark. Sap Sipper for Grass. Ground types, Motor Drive, Lightning Rod, Volt Absorb for Electric. Normal types for Ghost. And WP for everything that share a weakness with this thing.
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(Normal/Ghost)Hp : 85
Atk : 135 (+50)
Def : 80 (+10)
SpA : 145 (+10)
SpD : 85 (+10)
Spe : 110 (+20)
Ability : Binary Conversion --> this pokemon special moves turn physical every 2 turn;
New move : Work up
So for my digital duck mega , i decided to remind of its buggy aspect in both ability and type change. Its ability allow it to change its attacking special move into physical every 2 turn allowing P-Z to be difficult to wall by traditional one dimentional check such as blissey and buzzwole for exemple , as they'll have to face the opposing side of what they usually check the next turn after switching on a hit they tank. The ability also allow P-Z to take full adavantage of pre-mega download , as both boost now became usefull. Its typing is here to reflect the dead aspect of an infected files (P-Z being basically a porygon that have been infected by a virus from the corrupted and became buggy). It also interesting competitively as the first Ghost/normal pokemon, being immune to the infamous fighting/ghost combo. This unique typing offer P-Z a defensive niche to check specific pokemon like gengar for exemple , and is only weak to dark. It is also an interesting offensive combo as the only relevant mon checking that are TTar and bisharp, giving P-Z a more open field to abuse its wallbreaking power. The addition of work up is basically an alternative to nastyplot to take better advantage of its ability.
However, by needing to be mixed to take full advantage of its ability it lose in raw firepower allowing mon like toxapex to check it more easily than they would a standard P-Z. The ability can also be akward to work around (what more normal for such a buggy pokemon) and might need a good skill level to take full adavantage of.
Mega Porygon-Z
Mega Stone: Porygon-Zite.exe
Normal/Electric
Ability: Input Lag
The user's STAB attacking moves have a 1-turn delay (Future Sight but only 1 turn). (Additional note: negative effects on the user if the user switches out affect the switch-in.)
HP: 85
ATK: 121 (+41)
DEF: 85 (+15)
SPA: 158 (+23)
SPD: 81 (+11)
SPE: 100 (+10)
Flavor:
Dex Entry: Porygon-Z has contracted a virus that makes it unable to execute commands at the proper time. However, this has also advanced its intellect, now being capable of using this supposed downside to set traps for its enemies.
Porygon-Z is a Pokémon known for being a computer program that's constantly being modded and updated. Imagine if its mega stone was more software than physical item, and that was coded by someone who wanted to put EVERYTHING in- to the point of turning to the dark web, where they got a virus on it that couldn't be removed. While it did end up slowing down and delaying the outputs, Porygon-Z then gained increased functionality and became able to use the delays to trap opponents.
Competitive:
Imagine this: a Porygon-Z starts blasting your team with delayed Hyper Beams, then switching into a Slowbro with Leftovers to tank for the recharge turn, only to Teleport back into Porygon-Z. You decide to throw in a Corviknight in an attempt to wall it, but your enemy predicted that would come long ago. They set down a delayed Thunderbolt, forcing you to switch or burn. However, once you go into your Hippowdon, they add an Ice Beam, ensuring that it takes heavy damage (252+ SpA Porygon-Z Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 328-386 (78 - 91.9%), factoring in buffed base SpA, no Nasty Plot). Meanwhile, if Corv stays in, it is sure to be defeated by the BoltBeam. However, while this alone seems overpowered, you must remember that Porygon-Z has to take a turn of vulnerability in order to set its traps, a turn that can be very capitalized on by enemy switches, setup, and attacks (252+ Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Porygon-Z: 190-224 (61 - 72%)). Paired with its mediocre Speed tier and terrible defenses, this makes it a very high-risk/high-reward mon that excels at wallbreaking under the right conditions, but can fall flat otherwise.
I kind of just wanted an excuse to make a Pokémon that can fire off a BoltBeam in one turn, and since Porygon-Z is one of the more feared users of this combination from (Z)Conversion + Adaptability, I found it a great candidate for the role.
Also, since I've gotten some flak about Input Lag being too similar to Clairvoyance, here are the differences:
- Only 1 turn of delay vs. 2 turns of delay
- Only works on attacking moves of the type vs. all moves of the type
- Works on all STAB types (including type changes), vs. one specific type regardless of changes
While the two seem similar on paper, they'll end up different in practice; Clairvoyance has some more supportive applications, whilst Input Lag is a lot more offensively oriented and much more flexible in that regard (especially since there's no Normal- or Electric-type Future Sight).
Mega Stone: Porygon-Zite.exe
Normal/Electric
Ability: Input Lag
The user's STAB attacking moves have a 1-turn delay (Future Sight but only 1 turn). (Additional note: negative effects on the user if the user switches out affect the switch-in.)
HP: 85
ATK: 121 (+41)
DEF: 85 (+15)
SPA: 158 (+23)
SPD: 81 (+11)
SPE: 100 (+10)
Flavor:
Dex Entry: Porygon-Z has contracted a virus that makes it unable to execute commands at the proper time. However, this has also advanced its intellect, now being capable of using this supposed downside to set traps for its enemies.
Porygon-Z is a Pokémon known for being a computer program that's constantly being modded and updated. Imagine if its mega stone was more software than physical item, and that was coded by someone who wanted to put EVERYTHING in- to the point of turning to the dark web, where they got a virus on it that couldn't be removed. While it did end up slowing down and delaying the outputs, Porygon-Z then gained increased functionality and became able to use the delays to trap opponents.
Competitive:
Imagine this: a Porygon-Z starts blasting your team with delayed Hyper Beams, then switching into a Slowbro with Leftovers to tank for the recharge turn, only to Teleport back into Porygon-Z. You decide to throw in a Corviknight in an attempt to wall it, but your enemy predicted that would come long ago. They set down a delayed Thunderbolt, forcing you to switch or burn. However, once you go into your Hippowdon, they add an Ice Beam, ensuring that it takes heavy damage (252+ SpA Porygon-Z Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 328-386 (78 - 91.9%), factoring in buffed base SpA, no Nasty Plot). Meanwhile, if Corv stays in, it is sure to be defeated by the BoltBeam. However, while this alone seems overpowered, you must remember that Porygon-Z has to take a turn of vulnerability in order to set its traps, a turn that can be very capitalized on by enemy switches, setup, and attacks (252+ Def Corviknight Body Press vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Porygon-Z: 190-224 (61 - 72%)). Paired with its mediocre Speed tier and terrible defenses, this makes it a very high-risk/high-reward mon that excels at wallbreaking under the right conditions, but can fall flat otherwise.
I kind of just wanted an excuse to make a Pokémon that can fire off a BoltBeam in one turn, and since Porygon-Z is one of the more feared users of this combination from (Z)Conversion + Adaptability, I found it a great candidate for the role.
Also, since I've gotten some flak about Input Lag being too similar to Clairvoyance, here are the differences:
- Only 1 turn of delay vs. 2 turns of delay
- Only works on attacking moves of the type vs. all moves of the type
- Works on all STAB types (including type changes), vs. one specific type regardless of changes
While the two seem similar on paper, they'll end up different in practice; Clairvoyance has some more supportive applications, whilst Input Lag is a lot more offensively oriented and much more flexible in that regard (especially since there's no Normal- or Electric-type Future Sight).
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