Hey, everyone! This is a somewhat brief announcement post this time - I'm sorry there's not a ton of exciting news just yet, but I've just been waiting for a lot of things to happen for a while now and it seems like there's no chance that they will happen before an announcement needs to be made, so I will talk about the near future instead. .w.
Uh, I mentioned this on the Discord earlier, but in case it wasn't obvious, submissions... did not, in fact, close yesterday as was planned, haha. The submission phase is being extended by one full day, due in part to personal circumstances that kept me from closing submissions today and in part due to... the aforementioned waiting - I was reeeally hoping certain things would happen well before the submission phase had to close, but they still have not.
Given that it's alright with everyone
(it seemed like a lot of people were on board with it on the Discord!), I think that
five days (instead of four days) will be the
new standard length for the submission phase, because I can already tell this sort of thing is going to happen a lot, now that we have more and more happening in the mod and I've had less free time to spend on it.
A couple of minor updates, though!
First super quick update:
Slate 26 is live on main Showdown at last! That also means that
Dragonite's Mega Stone has been renamed to
Dragonitite I've been asking for this on and off since like last August, and the latest balance changes and the Spectrier ban are included as well!
As previously noted, the new Mega Stones are
Exploudite,
Noivernite and
Toxtricitite 
- you can review all of the information on our available Mega Evolutions on the
spreadsheet if you need it! C:
Next thing: the submission sandbox for the current slate iiis still not live, and while I was hoping the extension would give people the chance to test before they closed for good, it seems like it still won't be happening before we just have to close submissions and move on. I just want to emphasize that I submitted it nearly two days ago now and I am just as frustrated as anyone else that it's not available yet. OTL
Due to personal circumstances and lack of time over the next week at least, I don't anticipate being able to offer the sandbox for next slate; I hope this is okay with everyone! On that note, though, I would like to reiterate that the first sandbox (slate 25) was meant as a test run and not necessarily to debut it as a guaranteed permanent addition. I'm getting the impression that this might not be all that sustainable anyway in the long term, and I will give an update on its status in the near future - just know that it will definitely not be back for slate 28, haha.
Second thing: it's also not live yet
aaa, but M4A Doubles is getting a bit of an overhaul! After some discussion with some respected members of our community, we've made the choice to move it from a Doubles OU-based format to an M4A VGC ruleset.
For a bit of context, our format is currently like...
very vaguely derivative of DOU, but given that a Natdex DOU doesn't currently exist (or didn't at the time), and also given that I don't personally have any prior experience in DOU and it's much less obvious to me what needs to be banned and what does not, the ruleset is a weird hybrid of Gen VII DOU and Gen VIII DOU, as recreated by someone who has played neither. XP
It seems like it's almost never played as it is, and while admittedly I'm aware that an overwhelming majority of Smogon and Pet Mods players prefer singles and it will always be a niche format, this seemed like the right call to make our potentially interested players happy. There are a lot of cool elements of VGC that can't be experienced anywhere else, so I for one am super interested to try learning the format
and hopefully there will be a few more opponents this time!
At the moment, this is a non-Dynamax format with a ruleset most closely inspired by VGC 2017 (a National Dex-based format with Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves, but no Restricted Pokémon and no Mythical Pokémon), but of course Generation VIII Pokémon, moves and items are allowed, too!
One thing we weren't totally sure about was whether (or to what extent) to limit learnsets. For total accuracy to the format as Game Freak usually handles it, it would appear to make the most sense to limit Pokémon to moves they can learn in the most current Generation - but some Pokémon don't exist in Generation VIII or even have official Generation VIII learnsets, while others deliberately lost moves in the transition between the Generations, so it's difficult to accommodate for both groups.
At the moment, any set that would be legal between Generation VII and Generation VIII is allowed with no issues, but is this the right call? We're probably going to have further discussion in the near future (or perhaps just a poll!) to decide between this, an attempt at limiting Pokémon to moves that exist in Generation VIII, or just the same (complete) learnsets as our main format and National Dex OU, which is probably the simplest and most accessible option even if it's not quite accurate to how VGC usually works. Feel free to join us on the Discord to talk about this if you have any concerns or alternative proposals!
Next up, I think it would be best to give some last-minute feedback on submissions before they close!
Ema Skye: this is a super minor flavor thing and not a competitive issue, so you're not required and it's not a veto, but would you consider removing Poltergeist from your Cacturne? Aside from the fact that it would never make use of it, that's a move that only goes to Ghost-type Pokémon in canon (and has pretty specific flavor with nothing to do with Cacturne), and neither base Cacturne nor your Mega are Ghost-types, so it's not realistic for it to have that. That said, I like your Cacturne as a whole and I don't have a problem with anything else about it!! That was just one thing that stood out to me as maybe worth recommending to change? .w.
ChoiceScarfed:
Hi! This is more a clarifying question than a request - I notice that your
Hawlucha's description says the "first move in its moveslot changes," but you don't go into that anywhere. Was this meant to be replaced with an -ate effect like Mossy brought up, or did you have something else in mind?
(For what it's worth, I think it would be pretty unwieldy to change mid-battle based on moveset order, so I would lean away from the effect you seem to be describing rather than going back to finish it - but I do think changing the type of its Normal-type moves, or even its Flying-type moves, to match the terrain would be a good way to accomplish what you want!)
I like it a lot in general, though!!! This is a cool way to tie Hawlucha's flavor in with the Pokémon it usually pairs with in battle!
Your
Cacturne unfortunately strikes me as a little... over the top and sort of convoluted? I actually love the general idea that its Ability sometimes hurts it and sometimes makes up for that depending on the opponent's HP - that's super unique and reflects its flavor really well! - but I think this goes a little bit too far in the negative direction by committing to Slow Start, then makes too many things happen at once trying to make up for it.
I would maybe pick one of the effects you like the most and create a dichotomy out of just that - like, I notice that you have an Attack buff to cancel out the Attack drop from Slow Start, paralyze the foe to cancel out the Speed drop from Slow Start and trap the foe to help with stalling for turns. That's actually really clever and I love the way you made these effects mirror each other!! But I also think a Pokémon being trapped and paralyzed at once just because Cacturne switched in on it at low HP sort of takes too much control away from the other player; it punishes them very heavily and very permanently for something that's supposed to happen very often, you know?
I think something subtler, like making it start with one stat decreased if its opponent has high HP or increased Attack if its opponent has low HP - or the same for Speed instead (that would go well with Swords Dance!) - would probably get across the idea you want without going to quite such an extreme? Or you could give it an effect like the reverse of Berserk - raising one of its stats when it takes an opponent below half HP, so it sort of snowballs in a unique way that sticks with the above half/below half idea you had!
I think this has a lot of potential and I love the premise so far - I just think it could be a little more streamlined and a little more friendly to the other player!
Also, I want to say, uh... thank you so much for trying so hard to guide new members and being so responsible about it!
I'm really impressed, and I'm sorry that I didn't have as much patience with you when you were starting out.
sovietsympathizer: Really small clarifying question on your Araquanid! Is Refreshing Tides meant to restore 20% of Araquanid's maximum HP, or 20% of the amount that would have been healed? It looked on the Discord like you expected it to be healing a lot with this
(notably turning Life Dew into something close to Recover, I think?), so I just thought I should make sure I was understanding it correctly - if it is just multiplying the recovery by 1.2x, I would encourage you to go a lot higher, personally!
(DrPumpkinz was right to say that doubling the amount of HP restored would be fine and actually pretty cool on this!)
also I love your description it's adorable I love this
AP5Fanboy:
I know it's only 5 points and it really shouldn't matter, but your Cacturne sub doooes break the optics rules on stats in the tiniest way, and it doesn't seem to me like that was at all necessary to accomplish what you wanted - could you possibly take 5 points out of any other stat and put them back into Special Attack so your sub follows the rules?
VoolPool: I am okay with your
Hawlucha as you have it, but I am not okay with the Abilities on either of your other two.
Your
Araquanid definitely has way too many effects, and they're all ones that would be amazing on their own - total status immunity nearly identical to Comatose without the flavor drawbacks (and a much better version of Leaf Guard and Hydration), which is extremely good against stall all by itself; boosting its STABs by 1.5 times is just better Adaptability; and passively reducing all direct damage is basically just ignoring the stat limits and raising Defense and Special Defense more than you said you did. Any of these effects
on their own would be very good Abilities on this
if you tried to do the middle one even by itself, I would still stop you and ask you to use Adaptability instead - that's already a very strong Ability, but they have no reason at all to go together and there isn't even any meaningful drawback here. Please don't just slap every strong effect you can think of onto an Ability - it's not good practice at all. We are all about streamlining here, not about making the strongest thing you can; you can make a better sub if you take what's most necessary and most unique and work with it in a creative way.
Your
Cacturne is also a problem in my eyes - setting random hazards unconditionally at the end of every turn, while being designed to stall and last many turns, is just... too much? You're very easily going to set every possible layer of all of these without even trying - you can just wait several turns by healing, using Spiky Shield or setting up and your opponent can't stop you from setting them. I think you've definitely underestimated this effect, since you didn't even mention it in your description, but it's easily the most problematic part of the submission. You should ideally pick just one of these three possible hazards and make Cacturne set them by doing something more active.
Slaty fildrong: I uh... I would not support this Cacturne even after your nerf. This Ability makes it so that, if you can get it in against anything it beats at all, it not only becomes impossible to switch anything in on it safely but actively worse to do that than just to stay in and let it KO. This has the potential to be super uncompetitive and harshly limits the other player's options in a way that severely limits team styles and can sometimes let Cacturne just win a game at preview, which isn't something we can allow. The first take was definitely worse and please don't just change it back, but this one also can't be allowed, I'm afraid;;
(Also, please don't take other artists' work without making sure you have their permission and crediting them! I can tell you didn't make the file you attached, and you need to make sure it's okay with them to repost it - and provide a source so we know it is! We can't use this anyway because we make our own designs here, and this one doesn't belong to any of us any more than it belongs to you, so I don't know why you even posted it, but it's really important to be respectful of the artist if you do.)
PalpitoadChamp: Oh, uh! I do like your other two, but on
Araquanid--
I did (try to) give you this feedback on the Discord, but I think you may only have gotten part of it - I really don't think this needs to be anything but an immediate one-time stat change when activated, personally. It just feels a bit inconsistent and unnecessary for some of these effects to repeat over the course of several turns when others don't. I would strongly prefer for this to modify the affected Pokémon's stats just once each time it uses a Water move; it would be a lot neater that way.
Yago2012: After discussing a bit on the Discord, we came to the conclusion that it would be okay for your
Araquanid to have either Flip Turn or Recover, but not both - the combination of the two makes this too safe to use, consistent at making progress and difficult to punish, but either one on its own would tentatively be okay. Could you possibly pick the one you like more and drop the other?
greyllama8: I think your
Cacturne has a lot more moves than it needs that wouldn't make sense for its base form to use, so I would reevaluate which of these you think are most necessary to it.
also I think you still have 20 more points to add
I'mmm also just going to make the executive decision to veto/ignore your
Hawlucha because it's almost exactly the same as StarFalcon555's but with move changes that don't make any sense on it.
stinky potato: Maaay I suggest Hydration? It's a very comparable effect with basically the same flavor, but it seems more practical to me. I don't think anyone uses burn for the damage it does (the part Araquanid cares about is the Attack reduction), freeze can't reliably be shortened because it doesn't have a set duration, and the idea of this just being Early Bird but more effects doesn't sit well with me; it would be more focused if you stuck with the idea an Ability that protected from or cured status and made something more clear-cut and reliable out of it, and Hydration looks close to what you want here and already exists.
lydian:
sorry I think you were already given some advice on the Discord and just haven't gotten to implement it so you might already know this but
I think I would lean away from including regular Intimidate in your Cacturne's Ability and from including every effect of regular Water Bubble in your Araquanid's - we reeeally try hard to avoid doing just "Ability but better" or "multiple Abilities in one" here when we can avoid it, and it looks like both of these kinda fall prey to that.
Your Cacturne's Ability has a lot more going for it than its similarity to Intimidate, so I think it would be better to commit to the more unique side of it - it doesn't
need to be a straight upgrade of Intimidate (which is something to avoid and which will reflect badly on the Ability and the mod) to work, because the more important part of its concept doesn't rely on that and it has more than enough potential to stand on its own.
Your Araquanid meanwhile... kinda does a ton of things at once, and Water Bubble is
already notorious for having a lot more effects than any other Ability; rather than taking that exactly as it is and purely adding onto it, it would be best to go for something more streamlined that accomplishes more with less? I wouldn't mind passively boosting Water moves and applying one other effect to Water moves, but doing all of this at once is definitely too much, not because of the power level but because of the complexity and optics issues of the Ability. It looks like that was a conscious choice on your part, but I really think it's a problematic one and I don't think it works;;
At the least, I would probably drop the Fire resistance and burn immunity; boosting Water moves, trapping and lowering Speed after using a Water move at least have a clear throughline of Water moves, while the other two aren't bridged and don't belong as part of the same group.
StealthGhost: I'm afraid a lot of concerns were brought up with all three of your subs, but I'm not really in a position to write any more than I already have right now
(for context, this is the last thing I'm writing in this post chronologically - I've jumped around a lot) - I can follow up in the thread later, but would you care to join
the Discord so other people can give you feedback in the meantime? I understand if not, but I just thought I should let you know in case that's more convenient for you! Thanks for understanding and I will talk more when I'm back if you haven't gotten to see anyone about them yet C:
I also have a couple of subs of my own! I posted this Araquanid on the Discord ages ago and got great feedback on and then was waiting to post in the thread until it was time to make an announcement
I expected that to be sooner too XP
Mega Araquanid
New Ability: Water Bubble/Water Absorb ->
Body of Water
(Mega Araquanid's Water-type moves are calculated using its Defense instead of Attack and its Special Defense instead of Special Attack.)
Type: Water/Bug
New Stats:
HP: 68
Attack: 70
Defense: 92 ->
147 (+55)
Special Attack: 50
Special Defense: 132 ->
177 (+45)
Speed: 42
(
554 BST)
New moves: Hypnosis, Life Dew, Pain Split, Purify
Description:
First of all, GrandSmasher suggested this for the Ability name and I love it
That's a fantastic pun
So, uh... as I think most of the M4A regulars know by now, Araquanid is pretty close to being my favorite Pokémon ever!
This isn't just because of its mechanics, but they're no small part of it - it's on basically all of my teams
except my Slowking one but only because Trick Room does not mix with webs D: and I find every excuse possible to use it because it's just
so much fun. I love the way it adds an offensive twist to a traditionally supportive role, in a way that takes thought to use and puts more pressure on the opponent because the Pokémon that can interfere with its support may not be the same ones that can actually afford to switch in on it.
I was pretty excited for this slate, and I'm hoping I have something that does justice to it, without taking a radical departure from its style or undermining what makes me like it but also without being totally obvious and while bringing something new to the table.
This Ability with these stats might look pretty crazy on paper, but hear me out a bit! There are more tradeoffs at work here than it looks.
First of all, as I said, Araquanid is set apart by the offensive edge it brings to its role - and that comes down almost entirely to its base form's Ability, Water Bubble. Water Bubble doubles the power of its Water-type moves
(and incidentally comes with a handy immunity to burns, which is excellent for it because its base form is physically offensive), which accounts for basically all of its breaking power; as low as its base 70 Attack looks on the surface, its 170 BP Liquidations are more than enough to pressure its opponents.
The reason I bring up the importance of Water Bubble is that this Mega Araquanid doesn't have that - and while it may be firing Liquidations from base 147 Defense and Scalds from base 177 Special Defense, its breaking power with its most reliable moves is actually only around the same level as its base form - it's actually slightly less for most of its important moves! Water Bubble really carries it that far by itself - while this Ability might look at a glance like an extreme way to cheat and give Araquanid four crazy stats instead of two, I promise it's balanced carefully around it and it's not going any further offensively than Water Bubble itself.
But if it's not giving an advantage in breaking power, what does this Ability do for it?
On one level, Body of Water is an excuse for Araquanid to commit alllll the way to investing in its bulk, because it no longer has to spend its EVs and nature on Attack to reach its maximum offensive potential. This bulk increase is
pretty substantial relative to base Araquanid with that in mind - given that base Araquanid doesn't usually invest in Defense or Special Defense in my experience, you can end up with up to twice as much invested bulk as the base form on the physical side, or up to about 62% more on the special side, depending which side you choose to prioritize with EVs.
In exchange for this... well, like I said, there are tradeoffs - in this case, you may get a lot of bulk, but you lose access to Heavy-Duty Boots, which are pretty important to base Araquanid. Mega Araquanid can be super rewarding, but it requires good hazard control from its teammates to come in reliably to take hits.
There's one other cool thing about the Ability, though - while Araquanid's offenses are physically biased, its defenses, which matter here, are specially inclined instead! Through that change, Body of Water indirectly grants Araquanid access to one of the most dangerous tools a defensive Water-type can have. While its breaking power may be
just shy of its base form's Liquidations, Mega Araquanid doesn't need to rely on Liquidation any more - its best move is
Scald, a reliable spammable move loved by defensive Water-types for how much it deters physical attackers from coming in. Burns are a status Araquanid would appreciate a lot, but running Scald comes at much too high a cost for its base form, so it doesn't really have the opportunity to exploit it.
It's possible that it will need the help later, and we're always open to buffing things later as they come up, but I'm tentatively opting not to give Araquanid fully reliable recovery for the time being, because I think it's more interesting when it requires more thought to use effectively.
Instead, its most relevant new moves are
Pain Split on the downright brilliant suggestion of
BlueRay, slotting in neatly for the base form's Attack-reliant Leech Life and giving it a way to restore some of its HP and make the most of its impressive bulk without being the most consistent walling option, and maybe (though it's not the most reliable)
Hypnosis, a fairly rare option among webbers that pairs well with Mega Araquanid's other enhanced status spreading and can occasionally help it to neutralize the threats that think they can come in safely on it if used carefully.
For fun but niche and mostly flavorful options, I also felt like adding
Life Dew, which it will probably not use in singles but suits its behavior of supporting other Pokémon by sharing its bubble with them and also meshes well with its substantially increased bulk, and
Purify, which...
...
... okay realistically it will probably not use Purify either but h
ear me out okay--
The
only Pokémon that has Purify right now has that
and Recover, so it's never been worth trying to exploit it in singles. There's no reason to pull off wacky status techs to try to squeeze every bit of longevity you can out of a Pyukumuku - if you're not using Purify primarily to cure your allies, you can will always just fall back on Recover. Araquanid doesn't have that option, and it does have three different ways to set three different status conditions itself and the potential to rely on ally support like Toxic Spikes to try to enable Purify.
It sounds really unwieldy and I don't think many people would seriously choose it over Pain Split or... well... any better move Araquanid has to offer (it's not like it's struggling to fill its moveslots!), but it just sounds so much more engaging than Recover in a casual environment and like the kind of move that would be fun to have when you're messing around, and it suits Araquanid's nature quite well.
It's probably obvious by now that I'm not setting out to create something radically meta-shaping and epic here, but I think this could be a fun Mega to use, and I hope it offers enough over its base form to be worth considering while sticking close to what makes me love Araquanid so much. C:
---
Mega Cacturne
New Ability: Sand Veil/Water Absorb ->
Coup de Grass
(When using a single-target move, if the intended target's HP is one half or less, Mega Cacturne acts immediately, moving at the first possible opportunity within its priority bracket.)
Type: Grass/Dark
New Stats:
HP: 70
Attack: 115
Defense: 60 ->
115 (+55)
Special Attack: 115
Special Defense: 60 ->
105 (+45)
Speed: 55
(
575 BST)
New moves: Assurance, Knock Off, Strength Sap
Description:
The wise people of the Discord have decreed that I should go sleep now, so this is not gonna be nearly as long a description as Araquanid, oops
In short, though, this is sort of the same idea that's inspired many of the other subs - the fact that Cacturne are known for lurking silently and motionlessly until their opponents are worn down, then striking decisively to take them down when they're weak.
In a singles context, the main set this would run is probably the combination of Strength Sap and either Swords Dance or Nasty Plot to boost safely
super fun combination on Vileplume by the way I have used it before, paired with a spammable STAB (like Knock Off on Swords Dance sets) and... either another attack or some way to wear down opponents or make progress over time, like Leech Seed, Spiky Shield, Spikes or Toxic (probably Toxic? I would do Toxic) until they're in range of its Ability.
Knock is one of the most spammable moves in the game and it can get away with running it as its only attack if it wants to commit to the biding-its-time lifestyle, but it would probably help to have a coverage move to complement it!
One convenient thing about this Mega Cacturne is that it doesn't necessarily need to bother investing in Speed, so its bulk should definitely be more than workable for what it is!
Incidentally, in
doubles, all bets are off - this can attack just as soon as its target falls into range and can potentially pull off crazy offensive combinations without needing to bide its time too long. Assurance on this sounds fun as
heck and I would so use it.
It's totally coincidental but still very funny that this has exactly the same stat changes as my Araquanid I swear it wasn't on purpose
Okay so I'm gonna disappear for a few hours now I think haha
but as noted, submissions are still open for at least a day from the time it was supposed to close (midnight last night in GMT, so about four hours from now), and you'll prooobably have until a bit later than that under the circumstances
There will be a few more announcements, including the next slate, next slate poll, balance changes, and information on a tournament being hosted by
BitBitio this Saturday (but check the Discord if you want the details now!), alongside the voting phase - check back for more updates then! C:
edit: removed the initial criticism of the avatar I recognized as a white supremacist icon and a popular symbol of the alt right, because apparently this may be a more benign usage of said icon and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with that? I'm still personally against it and would encourage treating it with more sensitivity and taking into account the societal connotations of the way you represent yourself, but the biting comment was uncalled for and I apologize
Mega Meganium is a threatening but time-sensitive sweeper that functions at its best in the sun, but it suffers from being too easily walled during its limited time to shine, especially by common Flying-types like Corviknight. We felt that the coverage that would help it the most without pushing it too far was Rock-type coverage, making it capable of hitting Flying-types without giving it super effective coverage on Grass-types so that defensive counterplay could remain intact; however, with how hard Meganium can hit under optimal circumstances, we were wary of jumping all the way from nothing to Stone Edge without any middle ground and wanted to make sure it could still be handled defensively, particularly since it already has Earthquake and that can't be taken away from it - the two are known to pair well together. We've decided to run with Rock Slide for the time being - a weaker Rock coverage move that keeps it from being helpless against Flying-types without being overly strong in neutral situations. If it needs it, we can still revisit this later to give Stone Edge a chance! but we agreed to try the smaller step of Rock Slide first before going all the way.
Mega Dhelmise has been one of the strongest Pokémon in our metagame since its introduction - with its impressive bulk and defensive type (augmented by Primordial Sea's built-in Fire immunity) combined with Swords Dance access and raw power, it can come in safely and make progress on an extremely wide range of Pokémon. It also has trapping to pair with its boosting and dangerously exploit opposing stall teams, and if it's ever in any danger, it can easily pivot out with Flip Turn often without taking a hit first. Dhelmise doesn't always need to outspeed everything, either - it can still get the jump on most defensive Pokémon easily with little to no investment, so it can pick a Speed tier below its own and use excess EVs to augment its bulk even further. With all of this in mind, it's been decided by our competitive council that the combination of these traits is too much on Dhelmise, and we're hoping to nerf it by substantially lowering its Speed, which has a number of benefits - making it harder to use Flip Turn when actually faced with a threat 
Mega Alolan Ninetales, 
Mega Zoroark and 
Mega Delphox!
