Hey, everyone!!! Sorry this is so late this slate :<
I've had a super busy week and did not mean to fall so far behind on M4A!
Slate 19 is now playable!
That means
Ausma's
Mega Eelektross,
BlueRay's
Mega Dragalge and
Mossy Sandwich's
Mega Dhelmise can now be used.
Their Mega Stones are called
Eelektrossite,
Dragalgite and
Dhelmite!
The mod can be played
here, on Dragon Heaven. C:
I'm also now here with the poll for slate 21!
This will not be closed as far in advance as usual, to compensate for the fact that it's coming up so late - I'll announce the next slate during the voting phase rather than before it starts, at least 48 hours after this announcement!
You can still always check the poll results yourself to get an idea of what's in the lead if it helps, but I felt that it would be a bad idea to close the poll outright after less than a day even if it meant giving somewhat shorter notice than usual on what slate 21 would be; sorry if this is less convenient for anyone. :x
There's also another poll in light of the results of slate 19!
After discussing with the rest of the council, we've concluded that this seems like a fair enough option to offer:
Would people like to have an Acidic Seed that is consumed in Acidic Terrain to raise Special Defense?
We do not feel that our reservations with introducing custom moves apply here - while we would not take the addition of a new item lightly, it was brought up that teams with Mega Dragalge cannot currently be used the same way as teams with other terrain setters for want of an associated consumable. For example, someone on the Discord was interested in using a Hawlucha/Dragalge team but realized this wasn't an option because there was no such item.
Unlike with, say, custom moves, an item like this would have no impact on the game whatsoever unless a Mega Dragalge were involved, which we feel is an important distinction and keeps in check the potential for changing the meta more significantly than the one Mega per team would imply. There is no way to use an Acidic Seed unless one is using a Mega Evolution with Acidic Surge, which is very different from introducing a custom move that goes to both a Mega Evolution and its base form, and which helps to ensure that all custom elements continue to require committing a Mega slot.
In addition, an item like this is standard for terrain and improves mechanical consistency, which we feel is probably to the benefit of optics rather than to their detriment.
We think that all of this makes it a reasonable inclusion, and I don't think any of the other concerns with "customs that can be run on the same team as another Mega" apply to this case.
I would like to emphasize that our policy on custom moves is the same as always and that we will not be introducing custom items except in extreme cases like this. Custom items in this vein will also still not be a part of the standard submission process and will only be offered at council discretion.
That said!!! Even with all of that taken into account, we're going to poll this like any other potential retcon - although the council is in agreement, it's important to us that we consider the public opinion as well and don't force this if it turns out to be controversial.
This poll will be open
until voting for slate 20 closes and will require a 60% supermajority as usual.
Mega Typhlosion
New Ability: Wildfire (Pokemon that make contact with Mega Typh are trapped and lose 1/12 of their health every turn for five turns (Like fire spin)
Type: Fire,Ground
New stats:
HP: 78 -> 78
Attack: 84 -> 84
Defense: 78 -> 78 (+20)
Special Attack: 109 -> 159 (+50)
Special Defense: 85 -> 115 (+30)
Speed: 100 -> 100
BST: 534 -> 634
New moves: Earth Power, Scorching Sands
Hey again! This is going to have to be vetoed - we discussed it on the Discord, and we're not really comfortable with the ease of trapping this offers. Given that a given Pokémon loses to Typhlosion, just having it on a team makes it unsafe for that Pokémon to use contact moves other than U-turn
(which Typhlosion also notably resists), or the Typhlosion player can safely eliminate it with no available counterplay. While it's less extreme than something like Dugtrio, which only needs to be able to check a Pokémon rather than counter it to do the same, any cases when Typhlosion does have an advantage can still unfairly remove too many options from the opposing player and also dangerously enable other Pokémon that are vulnerable to more contact moves than non-contact moves.
In general, if a Pokémon loses to Typhlosion, it cannot use contact moves for the entire battle on anything else or it will just be removed; it seems
really limiting and binary to me and generally unsafe to introduce, and we were generally in agreement that it would be uncompetitive.
For an alternative that would be more acceptable, you could consider making Typhlosion's own moves trap the opponent, like some of the Eelektross and Dhelmise submissions - if it needs to take a turn to set up the trap, it can't excessively punish Pokémon just by being on a team, because the opponent can tell when it has the option to trap them and respond accordingly. However, we will not allow an Ability that can potentially let it trap something on the same turn that it switches in.
Mega Meganium
Grass/Fire
New Ability: Drought
Stats: +60 Spa, +20 SpD, +20 Spe
New Moves: Weather Ball, Growth
Solar Beam spammer. Can switch into rocks and mega, has Sun Synthesis Recovery, neutral to fire (although admittedly Boosted). Weather Ball allows it to have Boosted STAB fire, grass coverage and neutral water resist in case of water switch in.
This one is also veto-worthy - with Weather Ball, it has a 150 BP STAB move on turn one, while Drought means that Growth acts as Nasty Plot (and also Swords Dance at the same time if it wants to run Earthquake for coverage) and Synthesis grants it the longevity it needs to boost safely. I would allow this if it either lost Growth or didn't have STAB on Fire-type moves, but I'm not comfortable with it as an addition the way it is.
Mega Feraligatr
Water
Stats: +60 Attack, +10 Def, +30 Spe
New Ability: Ambusher (Gorilla-Tactics Clone)
New Moves: Croc-Roll: Physical Water Type Magma Storm, Triple Axel, Hone Claws
There isn't much which can out damage a Sheer Force Life Orb, so that is why there is a Choice Band and a massive attack boost, and a new 100 BP trapping move. Works well if you can combine with a Gravity, or set up with a Hone Claws beforehand for some additional accuracy. The ability to choose when to trigger Gorilla Tactics I think could be an important part in how Mega Feraligatr operates. CrocRoll can help force good set up opportunities, either by trapping a set up bait, or using that to set up with before Mega transforming.
As stated in the submission rules and guidelines, we also don't allow custom moves (so Croc-Roll is not a legal part of this sub), and we're pretty against adding custom Abilities that do the same thing as official Abilities without changing anything but the name.
We're also pretty concerned about a Gorilla Tactics Mega in the context that it can set up boosts through Dragon Dance before it Mega Evolves (one of the primary drawbacks of an effect like that), although it's hard to say how that would manifest in practice. I
think you would have to tone it down a bit even if you addressed the other concerns here, really.
Those could be useful in a hypothetical MFA doubles
M4A doubles already exists, actually! You can play it on DH just like the singles format and the currently-ongoing Mega Spooky Cup format. C:
That said, you seem to make short, one-line posts like this a lot here - do you think you could maybe come to the Discord where stuff like this is easier to discuss? More people would be able to respond to you there, too!
Aaand I also have a sub! .w.
Mega Typhlosion
New Ability: Blaze/Flash Fire ->
Convection Current
(Mega Typhlosion's Speed is doubled when gravity is intensified.)
Type: Fire/Ground
New Stats:
HP: 78
Attack: 84 ->
99 (+15)
Defense: 78 ->
108 (+30)
Special Attack: 109 ->
149 (+40)
Defense: 85 ->
115 (+30)
Speed: 100 ->
85 (-15)
(
634 BST)
New moves: Earth Power, Gravity, Morning Sun, Scorching Sands
Description:
This is actually an idea I've wanted to do for a while, but when I was narrowing down what Pokémon would be the best for it, I settled on Typhlosion as definitely the best pick for it - pretty much this exact sub has been sitting in my personal notes for months!
Appreciate DrPumpkinz pointing out that it should get Scorching Sands as well, though! I had totally forgotten about that, but it really is a perfect fit!
It's pretty intuitive on the surface why Ground-types appreciate Gravity - it's a field effect that lets them bypass all immunities, and every type likes that, right? (Both of our last two slates also had Megas designed to work around other types' immunities in their own ways!)
But
if you'll forgive me for gushing about the type chart again (this happens a lot) it actually runs a bit deeper than just that - there's a
reason Ground-type moves are the focus of so many special effects (not just Flying-types, but Levitate, Magnet Rise, Air Balloon and Grassy Terrain to add immunities or resistances and Smack Down, Thousand Arrows and Gravity to remove them - all
specifically revolving around Ground alone).
Why is that? What makes the official games so much more interested in effects that buff and nerf Ground than any other type?
It's because Ground
without immunities is not only a good type but
the best type. The only types that resist Ground without immunities are Bug and Grass, which happen to have two other weaknesses in common and are extremely easy to cover. Meanwhile, it hits no fewer than five (!!) types super effectively, including Steel, the most important defensive type in the game
and also, incidentally, every type with an innate status immunity - I'm not sure if that part was on purpose but I find it really neat and I think it's why Stomping Tantrum was chosen to be a Ground-type move. Creating so many varied effects that mess with Ground's matchups is one of the coolest ways to capitalize on its distinctive qualities, and every single one of those effects has made a competitive impact.
Mega Typhlosion isn't just a Ground-type, though
(duh) - what makes Typhlosion so uniquely equipped to take advantage of Gravity like this?
There are a few reasons!
Like I said, Ground is an insanely good type under Gravity - in fact, any of
three other types can gain
perfect two-move coverage when paired with a Ground move in the environment of Gravity. These types are Fairy (all three types that resist Fairy are weak to Ground), Flying and
Fire (Grass and Bug - the only types that resist Ground - are each weak to both of these). That means that as soon as immunities are gone, so are resistances - under Gravity, dual Fire/Ground STAB hits every Pokémon neutrally and nearly half of all Pokémon super effectively (second only to Flying/Ground, and only barely).
But Fire also takes advantage of Gravity in a completely different way! As it happens, Gravity has a second effect - in addition to removing immunities to Ground, Gravity also boosts the accuracy of every Pokémon by 5/3.
Between Fire, Flying and Fairy, one move in particular stands out as both incredibly unique and
incredibly... uh, inaccurate. With a mere 50% accuracy under normal circumstances, it rarely sees use in normal play - but hitting five times out of six under Gravity, about as accurate as the common Will-o-Wisp, suddenly
Inferno's 100 base power and 100% burn rate become a whole lot more appealing.
If the Will-o-Wisp comparison scares you at all, you can also have Fire Blasts that never miss!
In other words, Fire/Ground is, hands down, the best possible type combination to make use of Gravity, and Mega Typhlosion has everything it needs to be one of the most unique users of the field effect. (Even Camerupt and Groudon, our existing Fire/Ground-types, don't have Inferno - there's no other Pokémon that can use Gravity the way Mega Typhlosion does!)
I felt that a Swift Swim-esque Ability was the most appropriate way to incentivize running Gravity directly. There are plenty of other Pokémon that would spend a turn on Agility or Rock Polish, after all, and running Rain Dance on Swift Swim users wasn't necessarily a bad idea before Drizzle was a part of OU, either!
I did feel that it was important not to give it, say, Gravitas, Thousand Arrows or a Scrappy clone - making that coverage come for
free would just be a copout and totally miss the potential of the cool interactions that I love so much, you know?! Instead, I did my best to make Mega Typhlosion
want to use Gravity. I know people usually aren't big on running field effects like this without an autosetter (and with Typhlosion being a Mega itself, you can't use it alongside Orbeetle), but with an Ability like Convection Current, it's hardly different from any other boosting move - it's almost like Shift Gear, but instead of raising Attack, it has ridiculously cool and unique interactions with each of its STABs instead.
It can also easily spare the moveslot, too - like I was getting at earlier, Typhlosion only actually needs
two attacks to hit every Pokémon, which gives it the freedom to run Gravity and still have a moveslot to spare.
Morning Sun is one way Typhlosion can compensate for its reliance on setup and make the most of Inferno's burns, and it's pretty important to note that - despite its unresisted coverage and high Speed under Gravity - Typhlosion's offenses are deliberately low to compensate, and it will probably still be taking hits if it attempts to sweep, which its added bulk and the safety offered by reliable burns and Morning Sun can help to alleviate.
Naturally, with how optimized Mega Typhlosion's types, moves and Abilities are to work together, I opted to be on the careful side with its stats, and I chose to hold it back in other ways in exchange.
With this in mind, I chose to make sure that Mega Typhlosion wasn't likely to cleave through entire teams in one go, and I think that's for the best! Fast, accurate Infernos to cripple every physical attacker, perfect neutral coverage and super effective coverage this wide in two moves, and reliable recovery on top of that are more than enough to justify using it - I think it would be
incredibly irresponsible to make it as proficient offensively as a more conventional setup sweeper at the same time, haha.
It's best used as a breaker or a cleaner for the most part, with the added bonus of its exceptional utility against physical attackers and its ridiculous super effective coverage; in return, this is actually pretty tame in raw sweeping power to compensate.
Finally, a small note on flavor: changes in gravity can indicate or even cause volcanic activity, and researchers can use these shifts in gravity to predict when a volcano might erupt; the association with Gravity isn't out of nowhere at all for a volcano Pokémon, and I'm surprised neither of our other volcanic Fire/Grounds have taken advantage of this idea!
Convection (a form of heat transfer) is accelerated when gravity is stronger, and convection currents in Earth's mantle are what cause tectonic plates to collide and volcanoes to erupt, so that's where the Ability name came from!
Disclaimer: I am not a volcanologist and this may not be 100% correct use of this terminology, but it is my understanding at least OTL
edit: typo aaaa
Mega Meganium
Mega Feraligatr
