Pet Mod Megas for All v8 - Start of Paldean Season! | Please read the first post!

[Lord Pxperto]

Snek:
1. Dr Pumpkinz
2. Lydian

Nose:
1. Paulluxx
2. DrPumpkinz

Horizontal spinning oger:
1. Lord Pxperto
2. Okispokis
3. DrPumpkinz

 

[Gekokeso]

1. jazzmat
2. DrPumpkinz
3. Lydian


1. Paulluxx
2. Ausma
3. Anaconja
4. Lydian
5. NANI


1.Jazzmat
2.Lydian
3.Lordpxperto
4.Drpumpkinz

 

[jazzmat]

Milotic
1. jazzmat
2. DrPumpkinz
3. lydian

Probopass
1. ausma
2. jazzmat
3. NANI?!
4. Paullux
5. okispokis
6. lydian

Ogerpon
1. lydian
2. jazzmat
3. DrPumpkinz

 

[okispokis]

1. lydian
2. DrPumpkinz
3. okispokis
4. jazzmat


1. okispokis
2. lydian
3. Paulluxx
4. ausma
5. Seito Chinchou


1. PalpitoadChamp
2. okispokis
3. DrPumpkinz
4. Lord Pxperto

 

[inkbug]

Hi gamers! Sorry for the wait, the results are now in!

Voting rules reminder

• 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.

Mega Milotic: lydian !!

Mega Milotic

Ability - Marvel Scale, Competitive; Cute Charm ➝ Multiscale

HP - 95 ➝ 95
Atk - 60 ➝ 70 (+10)
Def - 79 ➝ 109 (+30)
SpA - 100 ➝ 130 (+30)
SpD - 125 ➝ 155 (+30)
Spe - 81 ➝ 81
BST - 540 ➝ 640 (+100)

Movepool Changes - n/a
Competitive Corner - I've always been curious about a defensive Pokémon with Multiscale and I think it fits very well for Milotic, with its high SpA, its not passive like something like Lugia would be in Ubers, and by being forced to hold a Mega Stone, it cannot avoid taking hazard damage to protect itself from having its Multiscale be broken like Dragonite or Lugia can with Heavy-Duty Boots. I think this would lead to a very interesting dynamic of trying to keep hazards off at all costs to preserve your defensive backbone, but without it being locked to stall, as Milotic still has plenty of offensive pressure, especially if it can force Competitive to activate pre-Mega (alternatively, you can have Marvel Scale and elect not to Mega if you get burned and the pure Water-typing is more useful? I'm not sure...) The Dragon-typing gives it a very unique defensive profile and negates both its pre-Mega weaknesses.

BlueRay also brought up an interesting point that I originally overlooked: with high bulk and Multiscale, if you can keep hazards off Milotic can take most boosted hits and hit the set up sweeper with Haze or Dragon Tail, so it could act as a roadblock to set up users!

Flavor Corner - The Dragon-typing comes from Milotic's inspiration on the Loch Ness monster (and the fact that it's always using Tera Dragon '^^ or at least used to when it was being used in OU for DLC1 - looking at smogdex it also likes that tera in PU, RU and NU). Multiscale is pretty self-explanatory! The stats are rearranged from Mega Gyarados as they are counterparts.

Mega Probopass: Paulluxx !!

Mega Probopass
Ability: Congestion
Status moves used when this Pokemon is on the field don't take effect until it switches out.
Things to mention, stat-changing and healing moves/self-damaging moves only effect the Pokemon who used the move.
Relevant moves with Probopass: Stealth Rocks, Protect, Taunt, Thunder Wave, Block, Endure, Gravity, Lock-On, Helping Hand, Magnet Rise, Metal Sound, Sandstorm, Sunny Day.
Type: Rock | Steel
Stats:
HP - 60
Atk - 55 (+90) --> 145
Def - 145 (+35) --> 180
SpA - 75 (-20) --> 55
SpD - 150 (+15) --> 165
Spe - 40 (-20) --> 20

New Moves: Trick Room
Description:
Flavor Description
Everybody is going all in on the magnet and electric connection. Why can't it just be a bigass nose. I added trick room because it fits pretty well flavorwise with the whole congestion concept. I also made it a physical attacker because Probopass's movepool works better with the physical toolkit, it doesn't really have access to many great special moves.

Competitive Description
Okay so this Mon can work a few different ways, it can be a disruptor pivot, preventing spikes setters from making instant momentum and messing with their switchins with strong heavy slams or stone edge. And then volt switch into your defogger, it is one of the best rockers on spikestack as you can pivot it into gholdengo and fully stop any defog from taking place. It can help your setup sweepers extremely well, with thunder wave or force switches later with metal sound. It can set sand and sun decently well for a manual setter. And then its primary niche will be Trick Room, it can benefit from TR set by other Pokemon or it can set its own and pivot. It has enough longevity with its ridiculous bulk that it can set it up, pivot, and then set it again later in the game. And it hits hard enough with its moves to threaten out issues. It has access to moves like Ice Punch and Fire Punch to deal with threats.

Mega Ogerpon: jazzmat !!

Mega Ogerpon
Grass/Fairy (Fairy Ivy Cudgel)
stats
HP- 80
ATK- 135(+15)
DEF- 134(+50)
SPA- 70(+10)
SPD- 106(+10)
SPE- 115(+5)
BST- 650
Masquerade: (Created by BlueRay for Mega Hawlucha) This Pokémon inherits the Ability of the last unfainted Pokémon in its party until it takes direct damage from another Pokémon's attack.

The Hawlucha/Cacturne/Araquanid slate of v7 was the first M4A slate I participated in, making this one of the first custom abilities I ever saw for this mon and thus has really stuck with me. Ogerpon being known for its array of masks I thought an ability like this would be very fitting and with the wide array of moves Ogerpon can abuse with the abilities of its allies such as Rock Head/Regenerator Wood Hammer, Triage Horn Leech, Protean, etc. While it has a similar stat spread to Mega Hawlucha (which isnt in the format), Mega Ogerpon trades some speed for more power and has a pretty solid defensive type and defense stat which helps it deal with comon physical threats such as Roaring Moon, Mega Quaquaval, Mega Lokix, and Iron Hands

Congrats to the winners, and thank you all for your submissions!

As usual, I also come bearing news for Paldea Slate 9:

This slate will be centred arround the Hive Mind theme, featuring Pokémon such as Hydrapple, Alolan Dugtrio, and Farigiraf.
Bear in mind this slate will now feature DLC2!

You have until Tuesday, 03.08.2024, 23:59, GMT +2, to sub.

So there you have it! As always, I'll see you next time, and we look forward to seeing your submissions!
​

 

[lydian]

Mega Dugtrio

Ability - Sand Veil, Tangling Hair; Sand Force ➝ Incandescent Mane: User is immune to Fire-type moves, upon making contact with any Pokémon, be the user attacking that Pokémon or that Pokémon attacking the user, that Pokémon takes 1/8 maximum HP and is burned)

HP - 35 ➝ 35
Atk - 100 ➝ 129 (+29)
Def - 60 ➝ 74 (+14)
SpA - 50 ➝ 64 (+14)
SpD - 70 ➝ 84 (+14)
Spe - 110 ➝ 139 (+29)
BST - 425 ➝ 525 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Temper Flare
Competitive Corner - Incandescent Mane allows Alolan Dugtrio to strongly threaten the opposing team with burns, especially as the usual burn immunities in Fire-types and Clefable are scared out by its STABs, and Gliscor needs to have activated its Poison Orb before trying to come in but otherwise this fella is pretty effective at spreading burns! Sucker Punch can also be helpful to stop or force out a physical set up sweeper that doesn't use a contact move (at Dugtrio's expense). The main drawback here is that it still doesn't hit absurdly hard with Iron Head, and it is very frail. But hopefully the burn damage over time can make its usefulness worth it, and it can act as a nice deterrent to Rapid Spin Great Tusk, for example, especially if they're running Headlong Rush over Earthquake, which puts them in a position of getting burned no matter if they spin or ohko you as you switch in your Dugtrio.
Flavor Corner - Alolan Dugtrio is inspired by Pele's hair, a volcanic glass formation that strongly resembles hair. This term has been in use in the Hawaiian language since at least the 18th century, and references Pele, a major diety of their culture associated with volcanism. The idea here is that upon Mega Evolving, Alolan Dugtrio is able to harness the volcanism and heat that made up its hair and turn its hair on fire, damaging anything that touches it, or is touched by it. The chip damage on the ability also refers to the fact that real life Pele's hair are made of volcanic glass so they are incredibly sharp and damaging to touch.

Mega Farigiraf

Ability - Cud Chew, Armor Tail; Sap Sipper ➝ Palindrome: At the end of each turn, all Pokémon in the field that have used a move, except the last one to have moved, attempt to use the same moves they used earlier in the turn, in the opposite order they used it. For example:

• Rillaboom used Fake Out on Maushold; Maushold flinches; Annihilape uses Bulk Up; Farigiraf uses Psychic on the Rillaboom.
  • At the end of the turn, Annihilape uses Bulk Up, Maushold remains flinched, and Rillaboom attempts to Fake Out the Maushold, and it would fail.
• Maushold used Protect; Annihilape used Rage Fist on Rillaboom at 50 BP; Rillaboom used Wood Hammer on Annihilape; Farigiraf used Trick Room.
  • At the end of the turn, Rillaboom uses Wood Hammer on Maushold; Annihilape uses Rage Fist on Rillaboom at 150 BP; Maushold uses Protect, it doesn't fail as for the precedent set by Instruct.

HP - 120 ➝ 120
Atk - 90 ➝ 111 (+21)
Def - 70 ➝ 101 (+31)
SpA - 110 ➝ 121 (+11)
SpD - 70 ➝ 101 (+31)
Spe - 60 ➝ 66 (+6)
BST - 520 ➝ 620 (+100)

Movepool Changes - ∅
Competitive Corner - So... Yeah this is wonky, I know! But it doesn't seem incredibly broken because it is an ability that in theory can be used against you. It adds a lot of complexity to the game, especially in Doubles, but i think it could have some interesting effects. I gave it a middle-of-the-pack speed tier so that it's easily outsped by most Pokémon but so that you can still outspeed it under Trick Room with dedicated users of it and/or support it with Tailwind or other forms of speed control.

In singles the main niche is allowing Farigiraf to hit twice, or set up twice in Trick Room if it survives the incoming hit thrown at it. This gives it some very serious oomph as a Trick Room sweeper, but as soon as its Trick Room runs out and you're stuck in the Mega forme YOU'RE the one having to take twice as many hits! Also if the opponent switches out Farigiraf will only move once.

In doubles this can make a Trick Room duo very deadly, with both your Trick Room Pokémon being able to attack twice, but, again, they must eat the incoming attacks from your opponent AND an extra one of them or top, assuming you have another slow Pokémon alongside Farigiraf to make use of Trick Room. Farigiraf could also help support a faster Pokémon by having it move twice, but generally you might want some sort of speed control, not to give two extra moves to your opponent as opposed to just your one. This ability is one that strongly favors having the speed advantage on your side, and thus I think it can enpower some interesting strategies. Setup moves also benefit as opposed to just raw damage, as do stat debuffing moves like Snarl or Icy Wind. Another niche interaction is that upon Mega Evolving, Farigiraf can prevent opponents from trying to revert your Trick Room in the same turn, i.e. if Mega Farigiraf goes for Trick Room and the opponent doesn't, Trick Room is set up, at the cost of both Pokémon on the opposing side moving twice. If they attempt to Trick Room, though, the faster Trick Room user will move twice, which means Trick Room will be used thrice in the same turn, having it be set up, reverted, and set up again! Another thing to note is that this strategy requires bulkier Pokémon to be able to make the best use of it, as if they're going first they might need to survive more hits to act again at the end of the turn, this is especially anti-synergistic with Torkoal's Eruption, as well as Ursaluna Bloodmoon's Blood Moon. So this might push for more unique Trick Room exploiters!

Flavor Corner - renroC rovalF

 

[LordThemberchaud]

Hydrapple

Hydrapple-Mega
Type: Grass/Dragon
Ability: Dragon's Maw
HP: 106
Atk: 120 (+40)
Def: 130 (+20)
Sp. Atk: 140 (+20)
Sp. Def: 100 (+20)
Spd: 44
New Moves: N/A

Description: 252+ SpA Dragon's Maw Hydrapple-Mega Draco Meteor vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit: 211-249 (53.5 - 63.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Anyway, Hydrapple's Draco Meteors and Fickle Beams now hit like hydrogen bombs. Feel free to run Nasty Plot, which can be useful when this guy forces a switch. In addition, Recover can allow it to last longer and click it's Dragon move more. Fairy and Steel types can struggle to come in safely, as it has access to Grass STAB which can threaten Fairies like Primarina and Clefable, while Steel types can be dispatched with Earth Power or EQ. However, Steel or Fairy types that resist Grass and Ground like Corviknight and Tinkaton-Mega can come in on Hydrapple fairly easily.

Speaking of physical options, Hydrapple-Mega can also run a physical set, with Outrage being only slightly weaker than Draco Meteor, while also getting options like Power Whip and even Sucker Punch. Curse can be used to set up while also boosting Hydrapple's already high Defense. The speed drop can also help if you are crazy and elect to run Gyro Ball.

In VGC, Hydrapple can be used on Trick Room teams, taking advantage of it's extremely high damage regardless of if it's Physical or Special. In addition, Breaking Swipe offers a spread move that will deal a lot of damage while also weakening physical attackers. However, a bad matchup into Tinkaton-Mega holds it back slightly.

Flavor: Hydrapple, a dragon, has a a whopping 5 mouths, also called maws!

Dugtrio-Alola

Dugtrio-Alola-Mega
Type: Ground/Steel
Ability: Fur Coat
HP: 35
Atk: 110 (+10)
Def: 110 (+50)
Sp. Atk: 60 (+10)
Sp. Def: 80 (+10)
Spd: 130 (+20)
New Moves: Pain Split, Thunder Wave, Taunt

Description: Alolan Dugtrio's hair grows to cover it after Mega Evolution, acting as a form of armor that is hard to penetrate. If it has 252 EVs and a +Defense nature, Dugtrio-Alola-Mega can reach 700 points of Defense just by existing! Here's a silly little calc showing how bulky it becomes:
252 Atk Protosynthesis Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Dugtrio-Alola-Mega: 174-206 (63.5 - 75.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Ground/Steel is also a good defensive typing, offering Electric and Poison immunities in addition to valuable resistances to Dragon (takes 40% minimum from Raging Bolt's Dragon Pulse), Fairy, and Steel. Dugtrio-Alola's new moves help with this role by providing more utility, since base Dugtrio-Alola is lacking in that area. Pain Split turns Dugtrio-Alola's pitiful 35 HP into an advantage by letting it recover a lot of health from bulkier foes like the aforementioned Great Tusk while also dealing damage! Thunder Wave lets it paralyze a faster threat like Cinderace or Lokix-Mega, while Taunt can stop a Pokemon like Kingambit from setting up.

Alolan Dugtrio isn't merely a physical wall now, however. It is still very bulky on the physical side without investment, and it can utilize that and it's many resistances to set up on something like Tinkaton-Mega with Swords Dance.

However, Dugtrio-Alola-Mega has some limitations. It folds to most special attackers, including Brambleghast-Mega, Arboliva-Mega, and Primarina. Certain physical attackers, such as Ogerpon-Wellspring, Great Tusk, and Pawmot-Mega can also overwhelm it, with Great Tusk in particular not caring too much about what Dugtrio-Alola-Mega throws at it.

Flavor: Alolan Dugtrio's hair grows and creates a dome around itself, acting like a nearly-impenetrable barrier.

 

[War Incarnate]

Mega Hydrapple
New Ability: Sickening Sweetness (At the end of each turn, lower the opponents' speed by 1 stage.)
Type: Grass/Dragon

New stats:
HP: 106
Attack: 80
Defense: 145 (+35)
Special Attack: 140 (+20)
Special Defense: 110 (+30)
Speed: 59 (+15)
(640 BST)

New moves: no
Description:
The energy of mega evolution was too much for Hydrapple to handle, granting its serpents increased strength and aggression, but causing the syrup apple the serpents inhabit to start overflowing. Now, not only does the syrup serve as an extremely durable protective barrier (if still extremely sticky), but it also emits a stench of overwhelming sweetness that slowly chokes out even the strongest warriors. Notably, the syrup's stench doesn't set in immediately. At first, you may not even notice the smell, but over time, it will set in, and when it sets in, you can expect nothing but trouble.

Syrup Bomb as a move is quite interesting on paper, being a move that lowers the opponent's speed over time. It obviously plays off of Dipplin and Hydrapple's very syrup-based flavor, but sadly in practice the move is basically never seen in a serious environment. Outside of its low power and extreme inaccuracy (sure, Supersweet Syrup exists, but considering it's only once per battle it's not very good), it also takes up a moveslot and any speed drops accumulated can be easily removed by switching out.

Sickening Sweetness is a way to exemplify Syrup Bomb's positives (lowering speed over time) with none of its downsides. It's an incredibly interesting way to subvert Hydrapple's weakness of extremely low speed, as it's a gradual effect instead of an immediate one-and-done. This ensures that even the fastest foes can eventually be outsped and overcome by Hydrapple, and incentivizes it to stay in longer and use its much improved defenses, somewhat useful (if a bit flawed) defensive typing, and access to Recover tank hits and rack up those speed drops. And unlike Syrup Bomb, the speed drops can't be easily removed via switching, since they will come back as long as Hydrapple is on the field. All of this ultimately seeks to augment Hydrapple's playstyle of tanking hits, healing off the damage, and eventually overwhelming the opponent with your special attacks. There's a lot you can do with this mon, from your prototypical NP user to a standard tank, to even abusing the famed SubSeed combo with the ability. Substitute can shore up damage for Leech Seed to damage the opponent and heal back the lost HP from having to set up a Sub, and the speed drop over time cripples the opponent and ensures that they will be too slow to be able to break past Hydrapple's Substitute (at which point you can finish them off with a powerful attack or let the Leech Seed chip damage finish them). Sure, even with the ability in mind, you still need to watch out for mons that pack super-effective moves, but the speed drops can ensure that even in the situations where you get forced out, those mons can also be forced out and by your allies too, as a single speed drop can be extremely undesirable in the long term.

And all of this is just in a Singles format, mind you! In Doubles, Sickening Sweetness can serve as an extremely potent form of speed control, essentially being the equivalent of using an Icy Wind every turn. Sure, Grass/Dragon isn't the best typing to have (what with all the Flutter Manes and Mega Tinkatons running around with no Tera to save you), and it lacks good spread moves, but even then it still has its perks. Notably, its typing provides an Earthquake resist (and notably no Heat Wave weakness for a Grass-type), and the other miscellaneous resists to Water and Electric can occasionally come in handy. To this extent, it can provide some form of support for your team in the Breaking Swipe, which while weak, can help cripple physical attackers, letting Hydrapple stay on the field longer. In addition, while it lacks proper spread moves, it can still dish out potent single-target damage, and its defenses are good enough to mitigate its defensive shortcomings, letting it function as a powerful support option and a flawed yet potentially effective attacker.

 

[dex]

Mega Alolan Dugtrio

Typing: Ground/Fighting
Ability: Mold Breaker
Stats:
HP- 35
ATK- 130(+30)
DEF- 70(+10)
SPA- 70(+20)
SPD- 70(+0)
SPE- 150(+40)
BST- 525

New Moves: Close Combat

Competitive:
Styled after Mega Beedrill, Mega Alolan Dugtrio is a glass cannon that launches off powerful STAB attacks Close Combat and Earthquake backed up with useful coverage/utility like Stealth Rock, Sucker Punch, Swords Dance, and Stone Edge. The Speed is crazy; however, given just how frail it is (and that Ground/Fighting is a much worse defensive typing than Ground/Steel) + it is still susceptible to scarfers, I think it is withstandable.

Flavor:
Its hair grows into an array of fists and it beats down its opponents. I will give no further flavor reasoning.

Mega Farigiraf

Typing: Normal/Dark
New Ability: Tail Link: This Pokemon's attacks become physical if the user's Attack stat is higher and special if the user's Special Attack stat is higher.
Stats:
HP- 120
ATK- 125(+35)
DEF- 90(+20)
SPA- 125(+15)
SPD- 90(+20)
SPE- 70(+10)
BST- 620

New Moves: Dark Pulse, Knock Off

Competitive:
Farigiraf is a funny Pokemon that I would like to see do funny Pokemon things. This lets you do some wacky stuff like special Body Slam or physical Psychic. It now has that big bulk, but with a quad weakness to the very common Fighting and a reliance on Wish+Protect, I don't see that bulk being too much of an issue.

Flavor: The dark tail takes over the rest of the outer shell, causing Farigiraf to be more in tune with it. I will give no further flavor reasoning.

Mega Hydrapple

Typing: Grass/Dragon
New Ability: Filter
Stats:
HP- 106
ATK- 100(+20)
DEF- 170(+60)
SPA- 140(+20)
SPD- 80(+0)
SPE- 44(+0)
BST- 640

New Moves: n/a

Competitive:
The way Nasty Plot Hydrapple plays reminds me a lot of ORAS Calm Mind Slowbro, so why not go all the way? With a crazy Defense stat and a tad more SpA, Mega Hydrapple is ready to tank all the hits and hit back harder. Filter makes it take simply negative damage from U-turn and survive Weavile's Triple Axel. This mon can take less than half from a 5-hit Garchomp Scale Shot! The balancing factor here is that it is still a little weak on the SpD side and its low Speed makes recovery tough once you have Mega Evoed it.

Flavor: The worm is in the apple. The apple filters the attacks. I will give no further flavor reasoning.

 

[PalpitoadChamp]

Name: Dugtrio-Alola
Type: Ground/Steel
Ability: Entangled (When a Pokemon makes contact with this Pokemon or this Pokemon makes contact with them, lowers their SpD by 1.)

Stats
HP: 35
Att: 100 -> 140 (+40)
Def: 60 -> 90 (+30)
SpA: 50
SpD: 70
Spe: 110 -> 140 (+30)
BST: 425 -> 525 (+100)

Movepool Additions: Brutal Swing, U-Turn

Description: Dugtrio-Alola's hair overflows everywhere, with many different hair styles appearing from the hair bog. Mega Dugtrio-Alola approaches abilities the same way it's based form does, not having a particular reason to use it. Dugtrio-Alola is much to frail to get much use from Tangling Hair and the other two are weak abilities reliant on sand. Dugtrio-Alola has a pitiful 50 SpA and mediocre special options, causing it no reason to go special or mixed. The purpose of this Mega is to fire off incredibly strong physical STABs and weak the opponent's SpD so you can switch to a special Mon to take advantage of the dropped special. Mons like Gliscor or Corviknight can come in and cause trouble for Dugtrio-Alola, allowing it to U-Turn away and bring in a special Fire or Ice-type to obliterate the weakened mon. The ability comes from Tangling Hair which comes from contact and stat lowering which is something I found interesting about the mon. In VGC, you can throw around super powerful EQs or lower your opponent's SpD for your teammate using Brutal Swing.


Name: Farigiraf
Type: Normal/Psychic
Ability: Passive Aggressive (After this Pokemon uses a neutral priority status move, it uses a 60 bp Special move that matches its type, targeting the target of the status move, or a random opponent if it isn't single target.)

Stats
HP: 120
Att: 90 -> 110 (+20)
Def: 70 -> 90 (+20)
SpA: 110 -> 140 (+30)
SpD: 70 -> 90 (+20)
Spe: 60 -> 70 (+10)
BST: 520 -> 620 (+100)

Movepool Additions: Fake Tears

Description: Mega Farigiraf unleashes it's inner power, striking fear in the weak of heart. Farigiraf's main purpose is a horrifying RestTalk set that fires of 60 bp dual stabs when used. Sleep Talk especially is terrifying as it isn't that unreasonable to run all status moves, causing Sleep Talk to be a 120 bp moves with an added CM or something. WishProtect would normally be a possibility better alternative, but Protect doesn't get the 60 bp move since it has increased priority. I realized it took late, but this mon is fairly terrifying with a Calm Mind / Agility / Stored Power set but it only fired off Psychic moves here, takes its item slot, lacks reliable recovery, and has little coverage for Dark-types. Fake Tears is a very funny move, dealing 60 bp coverage after dropping their SpD by 2, increasing the damage significantly.


Name: Hydrapple
Type: Grass/Dragon
Ability: No Guard

Stats
HP: 106
Att: 80 -> 120 (+40)
Def: 110 -> 130 (+20)
SpA: 120 -> 140 (+20)
SpD: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Spe: 44 -> 54 (+10)
BST: 540 -> 640 (+100)

Movepool Additions: Dragon Rush, Swords Dance

Description: Hydrapple has so many heads, that it just can't miss. It has some troubles dodging, due to its size. Hydrapple has dual Draco Meteor and Leaf Storm which cause devastating blows. It can also run physical sets for perfect accuracy Dragon Rush and Power Whip with SD boosting. You could also run a odd mixed set with strong physical moves and SpA lowering moves, ignoring the drop.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Mega Farigiraf
Type: Normal / Dark
Ability: Strong Jaw
Stats:

HP: 120​

Att: 160 (+70)​

Def: 100 (+20)​

SpA: 110​

SpD: 80 (+10)​

Spe: 60​

The power of Mega Evolution has gone primarily to the tail head. Maybe this wouldn't have been too big an issue back with it was a Girafarig, but because the main head and tail head are now physically linked, this imbalance of power causes the tail head to take full control, reducing Mega Farigiraf to a base creature of pure instinct.

While regular Farigiraf does a variety of tricky things like pivoting with Future Sight, set up for a Stored Power sweep, and supporting allies in doubles, Mega Farigiraf does one thing: attack. Its Strong Jaw Crunches hit hard, especially now that it has Dark STAB (just like it and Twins did back in the Spaceworld demo). Supporting that Dark-type offense are STAB Body Slam and Double-Edge, pseudo-STAB Psychic Fangs, Earthquake, Iron Head, and Low Kick.

 

[DarkFairy]

Mega Farigiraf

(art by Kouki Saitou for Farigiraf PAL 155)

Farigiraf, A Gem

Normal / Psychic
Ability: Semordnilap

Semordnilap

The user's Dark-type moves, when used on their own, have no effect. After successfully using a Psychic-type move, the user immediately repeats every Dark-type move it has used since the last time it switched in. Each Dark-type move may only be repeated once per Psychic-type move.

New moves: Jaw Lock, Quash

HP: 120 / ATK: 90 → 110 (+20) / DEF: 70 → 135 (+65) / SPA: 110 → 125 (+15) / SPD: 70 / SPE: 60

Mechanics

So, this is a bit of a weird one, isn't it? Mega Farigiraf's whole shtick is its ability to store Dark moves for later use, and keep using them on every Psychic move. So, it's a simple case of Nasty Plot→Agility+Nasty Plot→Sweep, but here's the kicker: a set like that really only leaves you room for Psychic STAB + a coverage option, and choosing Dazzling Gleam leaves one open to easily being beaten by Steel-types with any modicum of special bulk, and Shadow Ball leaves you unable to hit Dark-types. So, what's the solution here? Get weird! You've got lots of interesting combo tools— if you open with Sucker Punch against a faster opponent, you'll be able to deal bonus damage to any future slower target. But what if they send in a faster mon right after? Well, then you can just Trick Room+Sucker Punch to guarantee going before them on future turns with combined Psychic and Dark attacks, especially if you're using some of Farigiraf's ability to go mixed. As for the new additions to the movepool, Jaw Lock can turn Mega Farigiraf into a high risk-high reward trapper, repeating it after every bit of Psychic STAB and being able to be stored for later. Quash, meanwhile, lets Farigiraf focus on bullying one specific target by layering Quash with Trick Room and necessary Psychic-type attacks.

Some things to note: Farigiraf won't have STAB on any Dark-type moves, and they'll all be going off its weaker attacking stat. Additionally, what moves get repeated aren't infinite, so one can't stack up infinite Crunches to call forth an army of teeth whenever using Psychic Fang. Finally, while they'll repeat after every Psychic move, Farigiraf's Dark-type moves won't have any effect on their first use, but will be revealed to the opponent to play around (especially since, going off of how Taunt works on Dancer, Nasty Plot's boosts can be outright blocked)!

Flavor

A semordnilap is a word-or-phrase which, when spelled backwards, creates an entirely different but still existent word-or-phrase (hence, a semordnilap of Mega Farigiraf would be Farigiraf, a gem). Due to no longer having a head on each side, Farigiraf is much more in-line with the idea of a semordnilap as opposed to a palindrome. The mega would, ideally, include something near the tail, as non-head-shaped as possible, that completely changes what the whole thing looks like from the opposite side. Maybe like a false head that looks like a bird from one end, but just a fluffy tail from the other.

Mega Alolan Dugtrio

(art by SATOSHI NAKAI for Alolan Dugtrio UNB 122)

So Is Your Blonde, Like, Natural, Or,

Ground / Steel
Ability: Settle

Settle

When using a given special move for the first time in at least three turns, this Pokémon uses its Attack stat, and the power is increased by 100%. Has no effect if the same special move has been used in the last three turns. Previously used on Mega Bastiodon.

New moves: Make It Rain

HP: 35 / ATK: 100 / DEF: 60 → 100 (+40) / SPA: 50 → 70 (+20) / SPD: 70 → 110 (+40) / SPE: 110

Mechanics

Mega Bastiodon uses Settle incredibly strategically to launch absolutely devastating predictions and hard reads with its genuinely wild coverage. So what does Alolan Dugtrio do to differ itself with its use of Settle? Simple: it uses its speed and absurdly powerful (effectively-)no-drawback Make It Rain in order to crush anything in its way under a mountain of economic doom. At least, that's what I'd say under ideal circumstances. Firstly, Steel is a poor offensive type, and unlike Bastiodon's access to BoltBeam and Fire, all Dugtrio has outside of its STABs are Poison-type moves. Though it can try to cycle between Make It Rain, Scorching Sands, Earth Power, or potentially have Steel Beam in the mix if one is feeling particularly playful, they're incredibly predictable options, that if deviated from hit incredibly weak. So, what's a trio of lovely-haired moles to do? Protect. Using Protect lets you restore your Z-Move powered Make It Rains. Also worth considering: Alolan Dugtrio has access to Swords Dance. Since you're not dealing with the drawback of Make It Rain, you're free to use SD and flat out double the damage of Make It Rain. Just saying. That's a thing you can do.

Plus, unlike Bastiodon, whose low Speed but high bulk necessitates hard reads, Alolatrio is fragile and relatively fast and fully wants to get its opponents before they can get it. If need be, it can revenge kill— especially useful, given that Settle's counter resets on switch!

Flavor

So, fun fact: Alolan Dugtrio technically knew Make It Rain before Gholdengo did! In the Ultra Prism expansion, it got a card with an attack called Gold Rush in English that discarded energy cards from the user's hand to deal damage proportional to the cards discarded. However, in Japanese, the attack was ゴールドラッシュ, which just so happens to be the future Japanese name of Make It Rain! And when Gholdengo ex was finally released in Paradox Rift, its attack was no other than Make It Rain, an attack that discarded energy cards from the user's hand to deal damage proportional to the cards discarded. Funny how that works!

Settle mainly came as a mechanical consequence of wanting Make It Rain to be added, but given the fact that the trio can allegedly drill through bedrock and detect vibrations, giving it an ability with vaguely tectonic flavor fits!

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Our original Mega Dugtrio has an ability that passively builds Attack boosts but clears them if it's hit. Which is cool, except...


35/112/84/70/98/126

this thing's not surviving any hits in the first place. Let's give this concept another shot, shall we?


Mega Alolan Dugtrio
Type: Ground / Steel
Ability: Mole-a-Whac
Stats:

HP: 35​

Att: 100​

Def: 120 (+60)​

SpA: 50​

SpD: 110 (+40)​

Spe: 110​

With more bulk and the extra resistances of a Steel-type, this take on Mega Dugtrio can actually engage with the interesting part of Mole-a-Whac. Hopefully.

 

[Lysion]

Farigiraf-Mega
Normal/Psychic
Double Spirit: Before using a special move, changes into Diurne form. Before using a physical move, changes into Nocturne form. Nocturne form is the exact same as Diurne form, but Atk and SpA stat are swapped (invests included), and Nocturne form is Normal/Dark. However stat boosts remain in the stat (so a Calm Mind won't give you +1 Atk).

HP: 120
Atk: 90 + 10 = 100
Def: 70 + 30 = 100
SpA: 110 + 30 = 140
SpD: 70 + 30 = 100
Spe: 60

New moves: Superpower, Jump Kick

Description: Time for another A Golden Experience sub in M4A!

Normal/Psychic/Dark mixed mon? A friend of me created an evolution to Girafarig called Girafatak, and that was the concept: being able to switch from Psychic type to Dark type, after a little conv we had about Normal type, and how Girafarig fits the type pretty well. Do note that Girafatak was created before Farigiraf. So yup, you're using a mixed attacker the best way possible, it has Psychic/Dark/Fighting coverage (perfect coverage btw!). It can use its wide physical coverage (Crunch, the newly added Superpower, High Horsepower, Double-Edge/Body Slam...), as well as Psychic, Psychic Noise...

Lore wise: The giraffe and the tail both enter in a state of symbiosis, the giraffe uses its psychic powers in order and the tail bites hard. It's also a callback to Beta Girafarig.



Dugtrio-Mega-Alola
Ground/Steel
Good as Gold

HP: 35
Atk: 100 + 40 = 140
Def: 60 + 30 = 90
SpA: 50
SpD: 70 + 30 = 100
Spe: 110 + 20 = 130

New moves: None

Description: Yeah I have nothing.

A fast Swords Dancer, 130 Speed lets it be super fast and outspeed a lot of threats. Good as Gold is pretty interesting on it because you're a physical attacker (unlike Gholdengo), and so you are immune to Will-o-Wisp. Being a Defog blocker is also always good to have. And GaG gives it a niche even if Excadrill comes back, so it's super cool.

Lore wise: Hair so blonde it's made out of gold. Yeah sorry I'm out.

 

[abismal]

Mega Hydrapple

New Ability: Ample Chant ("On entry, sets a field condition lasting for 5 turns that is separate from other field effects, increasing the critical hit ratio of this side of the fields Dragon-type Pokemon by 1.")
Type:

New stats:
HP: 106
Atk: 80
Def: 130 (+20)
SpA: 130 (+10)
SpD: 100 (+20)
Spe: 94 (+50)
(BST: 640)

New moves: Focus Energy, Light Screen
Description:
i dont have a lot of time to develop much but i wanted to make a hydrapple since there arent many yet. also hey look first submission in a trillion eons
this hydrapple's basis is dragon cheer, the move needed to be learned to even get the mon in the first place, yet it probably rarely uses it
this is because hydrapple wants to be faster than its ally to get the most out of the effects, but the effect also does not persist upon switch anymore like it used to

now a small crit rate boost can be applied to the whole party benefitting both in singles and doubles. its amplified speed makes it stronger as a potential sweeper and it can quickly heighten the damage of other very strong dragon types quickly, like Regidrago (which i am assuming will be introduced with this slate since its dlc2, syrup bomb helps as a form of speed control albeit not perfect.)

This makes it to where Dragon Cheer used on a Dragon-type pokemon gives them near or just straight up guaranteed critical hits
Not to mention supersweet syrup prior to mega evolving, allowing a move like Draco Meteor to get a lethal guaranteed hit effect on the first turn. Does that phrase sound familiar? That's right. Domain Expansion: Draconic Devastation!

in doubles theres still just a little flexibility leftover for how you can approach a team with this though. Your Dragon-type enabler doesn't necessarily have to be dragon-type themselves, just the abuser. A dragon holding a scope lens for example immediately benefits from this, so you could use a non-dragon type pokemon to support them if Hydrapple performs some other role on the team

In singles, Hydrapple can at least benefit itself from its own Leaf Storms or Draco Meteors, having INCREDIBLY strong offensive potential through the newly added Focus Energy, which feels just as potent as its Nasty Plot. Now imagine THAT with Fickle Beam...

Added Light Screen to pair with its Reflect, just adding an extra splash of utility to help it garner more of a supportive role.

Flavor:
ample, because hydrapple boasts many heads. A unified cheer or chant coming off from this pokemon would be a lot louder and more potent, its like a mini dragon choir. It's also slightly pun-ish because ample sounds a bit like apple if you squint your ears

 

[zxgzxg]

Mega Hydrapple
Type:

Ability: Huge Power
Stats: 106 / 100 / 150 / 140 / 80 / 64 [ +20 / +40 / +20 / +0 / +20 ]
New Moves: Coil, Smack Down

Description: Mega Mawile type-beat. Has a strong STAB Power Whip, valuable coverage in Earthquake, and useful priority in Sucker Punch. Coil is your diet Swords Dance and cool for making Power Whip more reliable. I gave it Smack Down cuz I wanted some counterplay to Corv+Skarm and this was the only one that kind of made sense. Dumped most of its stats into Phys Def so it can still eat hits n stuff.

I know Huge Power is the bunny ability but uh pretend the eyes look like long bunny ears now. And uh it has mochi-like spots on its body.



Mega Alolan Dugtrio
Type:

Ability: Fur Coat
Stats: 35 / 130 / 90 / 50 / 115 / 120 [+30 / +30 / +0 / +30 / +10]
New Moves: Toxic

Description: The Funny Good Ability. Uses its massive bulk to set up SDs a lot easier. Can also be a fast utility guy.

 

[Orangesodapop]

Mega Dugtrio-A
Ground/Steel
Ability: Grasping Hair

Grasping Hair

Uses smack down on entry

Stats: 35/140/100/50/80/120 (+40 atk, +40 def, +10 spd +10 spe)
New moves: Headlong Rush
Description: powerful fast cleaner that can run through common defensive mons while faltering at bulky grasses and bulkier waters. Prone to being revenged by non sucker weak mons. Cool mon. Has goku ssj3 hair

Mega Hydrapple
Grass/Dragon
Ability: Immunity
Stats: 106/120/130/150/110/24 (+40 atk, +20 def, +30 spa, +20 def, -20 spe)
New moves: Toxic, Corrosive Gas, Acid Armor, Leech Seed
Description: stat stick for you stalloids, additionally is a stallbreaker. Looks fat. And all heads are chubby ish

 

[Bobsican]

Mega Hydrapple
New Ability: Regenerator
Type: Fairy/Dragon

New stats:
HP: 106
Attack: 110 (+30)
Defense: 120 (+10)
Special Attack: 130 (+10)
Special Defense: 90 (+10)
Speed: 84 (+40)

640 BST

New moves: Synthesis, Moonblast, Leech Seed

Description: Considering that sweets are often associated with the Fairy typing, I thought that going outside the usual would be a good idea to make this a bit different from other submissions.

A Fairy/Dragon typing is excellent defensively and alongside Regenerator enables Mega Hydrapple to act as a potent pivot, allowing it to easily come into stuff like Gouging Fire, Great Tusk, Rillaboom, and Roaring Moon, all without fearing Knock Off, and its base forme can perform role compression at using its Grass typing to better check Ground-types such as Gliscor, Iron Treads, and Landorus-T.

Movepool-wise, Hydrapple can act as more than just a bulky wallbreaker with Nasty Plot, while it's still hindered offensivey by having redundant STABs offensively (there's little that Dragon hits that Fairy doesn't), the capability to phaze foes with Dragon Tail minimizes foes trying to use it as setup fodder, and Leech Seed is often a safe move to use on a forced switch to wear down foes while also supporting the longevity of its own team.

Design-wise it's just a slightly bigger Hydrapple, but the Syrpents resemble gummy worms.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Mega Hydrapple
Type: Grass / Dragon
Ability: Unfocused (all* attacks target both opponents)
Stats:

HP: 106​

Att: 80​

Def: 160 (+50)​

SpA: 150 (+30)​

SpD: 100 (+20)​

Spe: 44​

Some notes on Unfocused:

• Targeting works like Expanding Force, where you select a target like normal and then it gets overwritten with "hits both opponents".
• Status moves aren't affected. The only move in Hydrapple's movepool that this limitation affects is Yawn, which is precisely why this limitation is in effect.
• Moves that are already spread moves are also unaffected.
  • Should the ability be changed to affect status moves in the future, moves that only target the user or the user's ally are also unaffected.
    • Basically, if the basic targeting ignores Follow Me, it's unaffected.
• It's not attacking both targets individually with reduced power, it's literally turning them into spread moves. As such, Draco Meteor and Leaf Storm still only lower your Special Attack by -2 instead of -4, while Fickle Beam and Bullet Seed roll for both opponents instead of doing different rolls for each.
  • Heavy Slam, Gyro Ball, and Grass Knot do still vary their base power for each target, though.
• Sucker Punch works however it is that Sucker Punch works when you force it to be a spread move. I give up trying to figure out how a move Mega Hydrapple isn't even going to run would function.

The many syrpents that make up Hydrapple already have a hard time getting along. Now they can't even agree on which opponent to attack!

In addition to dropping fat spread Dracos, Mega Hydrapple's lack of focus lets it do some interesting utility stuff. Its first signature move Syrup Bomb now acts as a lingering Icy Wind, Infestation deals a ton of chip damage similar to G-max Centiskorch, Dragon Tail phazes out both opponents, and both Dragon Breath and Body Slam work like Rock Slide for paralysis.

 

[okispokis]

Mega Dugtrio-Alola
Ground/Steel
Ability: Queenly Majesty
35
130 (+30)
85 (+25)
70 (+20)
85 (+5)
130 (+20)

"These Pokémon are cherished in the Alola region, where they are thought to be feminine deities of the land incarnate."

Queenly Majesty serves to shield the fast but frail Alolan Dugtrio from the many a powerful Aqua Jet, Ice Shard, Mach Punch or Sucker Punch while shockingly having an actual basis in the lore. Alola Doug uses this priority immunity to more freely fire off STAB Earthquake and Iron Head, alongside Rock coverage in Stone Edge or Rock Slide, Swords Dance for a potential sweep or potential support options like Stealth Rock and sacrifical Final Gambit or Memento for fast-paced HO teams. Doug's innate frailty isn't ideal for VGC, but blocking Fake Out and fast Rock Slide is something, at least.


Mega Hydrapple
Grass/Dragon
Ability: Cleric- Switching out heals the replacement for 1/8 of their max HP and also cures their status condition. (The effect of the ability takes place before the replacement takes damage from hazards.)
106
105 (+25)
130 (+20)
145 (+25)
90 (+10)
64 (+20)
New Moves: +Wish

With Hydrapple likely inspired by the G-Max forms of its older siblings, I realized the other day that Supersweet Syrup is a reference to Flapple's G-Max Tartness (which had the same effect); as such, I thought it fitting to make Mega Hydrapple's ability a reference to Appletun's G-Max Sweetness, which cured status. Hence Cleric, an ability which supports Hydra's team while being a natural extension of the base form's hit and run gameplay. Hydra can easily keep itself healthy with either Giga Drain or Recover and keep up momentum after switching off a SpA drop from powerful Draco Meteor or Leaf Storm. Or you can make use of new move Wish to keep Hydra AND its ally healthy in exchange for needing 2 turns. Cleric makes Mega Hydra a boon for more defensive teams (in tandem with its respectable power), while offensive teams can still make use of its solid bulk (HP investment lets you avoid a 2HKO from non-invested Mega Hatterene Draining Kiss) and a potential sweeper set with Nasty Plot. Hydra backs its strong STAB up with solid coverage in Earth Power, Heavy Slam or rare Hydro Pump to get solid damage on Mega Tinkaton and pick off weakened Corviknight that try to come in on your STABs.

While switching is more limited in VGC, Cleric can still be quite handy for clearing a stray Torkoal Wisp or Amoonguss Spore. Mega Hydrapple can also keep its teammate healthy with Pollen Puff, limit the opponent's power with Breaking Swipe or even use Sucker Punch to pick off faster foes. Supersweet Syrup pre-Mega is also nice for letting Hydrapple and co throw off higher-power special moves, especially since the one-time activation is no longer as big of a deal.

 

[jazzmat]

Mega Hydrapple
Grass/Dragon
stats
HP- 106
ATK- 100(+20)
DEF- 150(+40)
SPA- 130(+10)
SPD- 110(+30)
SPE- 44
BST- 640
Sugar Rush: When hit by a fairy type move, gain +12 speed, which will then decrease by 2 stages at the end of every turn until the user switches out. Fairy Immunity.

Hydrapple and even moreso Dipplin are based on candied apples and even Appletun evolves from a Sweet Apple, and because there's multiple pokemon based on sugary things it feels appropriate to associate sugar with the fairy typing. As we all know a sugar rush is soon followed by a sugar crash thus this ability was born! With full speed investment the only pokemon that outspeeds +6 Hydrapple is first form mega Brambleghast, but with the speed dropping so drastically it only stays fast for 2 turns max. In vgc Hydrapple would appreciate a support partner that could keep it's speed up or at least have misty explosion for an emergency situation.


Mega Farigaraf
Normal/Psychic
stats
HP- 120
ATK- 110(+20)
DEF- 95(+25)
SPA- 130(+20)
SPD- 95(+25)
SPE- 70(+10)
BST- 624
Compound Eyes

New Moves: Super Fang, Focus Blast

"But Jaz," you may ask, "Farigiraf doesn't have compound eyes it just has two pairs of regular eyes?" Yeah well what kind of creative would I be if I don't push the bounds of what is biologically possible for these imaginary creatures. Mega Farigiraf grows horns down their spine much like the ones on top of its head, but now they all are covered in insectoid compound eyes, allowing it to see anything except what lay below them. Compound eyes boosts the accuracy for such useful moves as Focus Blast, Zen Headbutt, Thunder, and Thunder Wave



Mega Dugtrio Alola
Ground/Steel
stats
hp- 35
atk- 135(+35)
def- 70(+10)
spa- 50
spd- 100(+30)
spe- 135(+25)
Unseen Fist

New Moves: Bullet Punch

What goes on beneath the surface of the Dugtrio lines has been a mystery for nearly 30 years, and today that question finally gets answered: Massive Fists. This pokemon stays just below the surface waiting for the perfect time to strike from underneath, bypassing any form of protection. Relevant moves Alolan Dugtrio has that are affected by this ability are: Iron Head, Stomping Tantrum, Night Slash/Sucker Punch/Foul Play, Facade/Body Slam, and Shadow Claw. Most importantly due to Earthquake being non-contact plus being somewhat risky in VGC this encourages the user to use Stomping Tantrum in more interesting ways

 

[Joycap]

Eh, if I'm going to try any Pet Mods, might as well be this one:

Dugtrio-Mega-Alola @ Dugtrinite-A (or whatever you want to call the mega stone)
Type: Ground/Fire
Ability: Dry Skin
Stats:
ATK: 123
DEF: 85
SP.ATK: 55
SP.DEF: 85
Speed: 142
Moveset additions: Fire Lash, Flare Blitz
Description / concept: If the hair on Alolan Dugtrio's head(s) is supposed to be based on Pele's hair, then I'm all on board with the initial idea that this is more of a Fire type thing, and not a Steel type thing (not that I mind either way). As for in-game lore... throw in the idea that Mega Evolution gave it the miracle of somehow reinforcing that which would initially be fragile or brittle? (You can tell how little thought I put into this...).

Although for any artist looking inwards (one thing I most certainly am not), I can maybe imagine the hair becoming so overgrown that remnants of the hair become nests for Flying types (E.G: the Fletchling/Flechinder found around Alola's volcanoes). Depending on the distance from said eruption sites, and what remains of the hair, the material could even be used as stuffing for quilt covers or sleeping bags, namely for Hikers regularly commuting to and from the area, or even as a therapeutic agent for those in rural areas. (Idk how feasible that is... I just kinda came up with it off the top of my head)

 

[BlueRay]

Dear community,

it's voting time. Below, you can find all the subs from the current slate. You have until Thursday, 12.09.2024, GMT+2, 23:59, to vote! If I forgot to include any sub, let me know as soon as possible. I left out zxgzxg's Alolan Dugtrio due to overlap with another sub.

Mega Alolan Dugtrio

lydian

Mega Dugtrio

Ability - Sand Veil, Tangling Hair; Sand Force ➝ Incandescent Mane: User is immune to Fire-type moves, upon making contact with any Pokémon, be the user attacking that Pokémon or that Pokémon attacking the user, that Pokémon takes 1/8 maximum HP and is burned)

HP - 35 ➝ 35
Atk - 100 ➝ 129 (+29)
Def - 60 ➝ 74 (+14)
SpA - 50 ➝ 64 (+14)
SpD - 70 ➝ 84 (+14)
Spe - 110 ➝ 139 (+29)
BST - 425 ➝ 525 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Temper Flare
Competitive Corner - Incandescent Mane allows Alolan Dugtrio to strongly threaten the opposing team with burns, especially as the usual burn immunities in Fire-types and Clefable are scared out by its STABs, and Gliscor needs to have activated its Poison Orb before trying to come in but otherwise this fella is pretty effective at spreading burns! Sucker Punch can also be helpful to stop or force out a physical set up sweeper that doesn't use a contact move (at Dugtrio's expense). The main drawback here is that it still doesn't hit absurdly hard with Iron Head, and it is very frail. But hopefully the burn damage over time can make its usefulness worth it, and it can act as a nice deterrent to Rapid Spin Great Tusk, for example, especially if they're running Headlong Rush over Earthquake, which puts them in a position of getting burned no matter if they spin or ohko you as you switch in your Dugtrio.
Flavor Corner - Alolan Dugtrio is inspired by Pele's hair, a volcanic glass formation that strongly resembles hair. This term has been in use in the Hawaiian language since at least the 18th century, and references Pele, a major diety of their culture associated with volcanism. The idea here is that upon Mega Evolving, Alolan Dugtrio is able to harness the volcanism and heat that made up its hair and turn its hair on fire, damaging anything that touches it, or is touched by it. The chip damage on the ability also refers to the fact that real life Pele's hair are made of volcanic glass so they are incredibly sharp and damaging to touch.

LordThemberchaud

Dugtrio-Alola-Mega
Type: Ground/Steel
Ability: Fur Coat
HP: 35
Atk: 110 (+10)
Def: 110 (+50)
Sp. Atk: 60 (+10)
Sp. Def: 80 (+10)
Spd: 130 (+20)
New Moves: Pain Split, Thunder Wave, Taunt

Description: Alolan Dugtrio's hair grows to cover it after Mega Evolution, acting as a form of armor that is hard to penetrate. If it has 252 EVs and a +Defense nature, Dugtrio-Alola-Mega can reach 700 points of Defense just by existing! Here's a silly little calc showing how bulky it becomes:
252 Atk Protosynthesis Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Dugtrio-Alola-Mega: 174-206 (63.5 - 75.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Ground/Steel is also a good defensive typing, offering Electric and Poison immunities in addition to valuable resistances to Dragon (takes 40% minimum from Raging Bolt's Dragon Pulse), Fairy, and Steel. Dugtrio-Alola's new moves help with this role by providing more utility, since base Dugtrio-Alola is lacking in that area. Pain Split turns Dugtrio-Alola's pitiful 35 HP into an advantage by letting it recover a lot of health from bulkier foes like the aforementioned Great Tusk while also dealing damage! Thunder Wave lets it paralyze a faster threat like Cinderace or Lokix-Mega, while Taunt can stop a Pokemon like Kingambit from setting up.

Alolan Dugtrio isn't merely a physical wall now, however. It is still very bulky on the physical side without investment, and it can utilize that and it's many resistances to set up on something like Tinkaton-Mega with Swords Dance.

However, Dugtrio-Alola-Mega has some limitations. It folds to most special attackers, including Brambleghast-Mega, Arboliva-Mega, and Primarina. Certain physical attackers, such as Ogerpon-Wellspring, Great Tusk, and Pawmot-Mega can also overwhelm it, with Great Tusk in particular not caring too much about what Dugtrio-Alola-Mega throws at it.

Flavor: Alolan Dugtrio's hair grows and creates a dome around itself, acting like a nearly-impenetrable barrier.

dex

Mega Alolan Dugtrio

Typing: Ground/Fighting
Ability: Mold Breaker
Stats:
HP- 35
ATK- 130(+30)
DEF- 70(+10)
SPA- 70(+20)
SPD- 70(+0)
SPE- 150(+40)
BST- 525

New Moves: Close Combat

Competitive:
Styled after Mega Beedrill, Mega Alolan Dugtrio is a glass cannon that launches off powerful STAB attacks Close Combat and Earthquake backed up with useful coverage/utility like Stealth Rock, Sucker Punch, Swords Dance, and Stone Edge. The Speed is crazy; however, given just how frail it is (and that Ground/Fighting is a much worse defensive typing than Ground/Steel) + it is still susceptible to scarfers, I think it is withstandable.

Flavor:
Its hair grows into an array of fists and it beats down its opponents. I will give no further flavor reasoning.

PalpitoadChamp

Name: Dugtrio-Alola
Type: Ground/Steel
Ability: Entangled (When a Pokemon makes contact with this Pokemon or this Pokemon makes contact with them, lowers their SpD by 1.)

Stats
HP: 35
Att: 100 -> 140 (+40)
Def: 60 -> 90 (+30)
SpA: 50
SpD: 70
Spe: 110 -> 140 (+30)
BST: 425 -> 525 (+100)

Movepool Additions: Brutal Swing, U-Turn

Description: Dugtrio-Alola's hair overflows everywhere, with many different hair styles appearing from the hair bog. Mega Dugtrio-Alola approaches abilities the same way it's based form does, not having a particular reason to use it. Dugtrio-Alola is much to frail to get much use from Tangling Hair and the other two are weak abilities reliant on sand. Dugtrio-Alola has a pitiful 50 SpA and mediocre special options, causing it no reason to go special or mixed. The purpose of this Mega is to fire off incredibly strong physical STABs and weak the opponent's SpD so you can switch to a special Mon to take advantage of the dropped special. Mons like Gliscor or Corviknight can come in and cause trouble for Dugtrio-Alola, allowing it to U-Turn away and bring in a special Fire or Ice-type to obliterate the weakened mon. The ability comes from Tangling Hair which comes from contact and stat lowering which is something I found interesting about the mon. In VGC, you can throw around super powerful EQs or lower your opponent's SpD for your teammate using Brutal Swing.

DarkFairy

Mega Alolan Dugtrio
View attachment 664156
(art by SATOSHI NAKAI for Alolan Dugtrio UNB 122)

So Is Your Blonde, Like, Natural, Or,

Ground / Steel
Ability: Settle

Settle

When using a given special move for the first time in at least three turns, this Pokémon uses its Attack stat, and the power is increased by 100%. Has no effect if the same special move has been used in the last three turns. Previously used on Mega Bastiodon.

New moves: Make It Rain

HP: 35 / ATK: 100 / DEF: 60 → 100 (+40) / SPA: 50 → 70 (+20) / SPD: 70 → 110 (+40) / SPE: 110

Mechanics

Mega Bastiodon uses Settle incredibly strategically to launch absolutely devastating predictions and hard reads with its genuinely wild coverage. So what does Alolan Dugtrio do to differ itself with its use of Settle? Simple: it uses its speed and absurdly powerful (effectively-)no-drawback Make It Rain in order to crush anything in its way under a mountain of economic doom. At least, that's what I'd say under ideal circumstances. Firstly, Steel is a poor offensive type, and unlike Bastiodon's access to BoltBeam and Fire, all Dugtrio has outside of its STABs are Poison-type moves. Though it can try to cycle between Make It Rain, Scorching Sands, Earth Power, or potentially have Steel Beam in the mix if one is feeling particularly playful, they're incredibly predictable options, that if deviated from hit incredibly weak. So, what's a trio of lovely-haired moles to do? Protect. Using Protect lets you restore your Z-Move powered Make It Rains. Also worth considering: Alolan Dugtrio has access to Swords Dance. Since you're not dealing with the drawback of Make It Rain, you're free to use SD and flat out double the damage of Make It Rain. Just saying. That's a thing you can do.

Plus, unlike Bastiodon, whose low Speed but high bulk necessitates hard reads, Alolatrio is fragile and relatively fast and fully wants to get its opponents before they can get it. If need be, it can revenge kill— especially useful, given that Settle's counter resets on switch!

Flavor

So, fun fact: Alolan Dugtrio technically knew Make It Rain before Gholdengo did! In the Ultra Prism expansion, it got a card with an attack called Gold Rush in English that discarded energy cards from the user's hand to deal damage proportional to the cards discarded. However, in Japanese, the attack was ゴールドラッシュ, which just so happens to be the future Japanese name of Make It Rain! And when Gholdengo ex was finally released in Paradox Rift, its attack was no other than Make It Rain, an attack that discarded energy cards from the user's hand to deal damage proportional to the cards discarded. Funny how that works!

Settle mainly came as a mechanical consequence of wanting Make It Rain to be added, but given the fact that the trio can allegedly drill through bedrock and detect vibrations, giving it an ability with vaguely tectonic flavor fits!

DrPumpkinz

Our original Mega Dugtrio has an ability that passively builds Attack boosts but clears them if it's hit. Which is cool, except...


35/112/84/70/98/126

this thing's not surviving any hits in the first place. Let's give this concept another shot, shall we?


Mega Alolan Dugtrio
Type: Ground / Steel
Ability: Mole-a-Whac
Stats:

HP: 35​

Att: 100​

Def: 120 (+60)​

SpA: 50​

SpD: 110 (+40)​

Spe: 110​

With more bulk and the extra resistances of a Steel-type, this take on Mega Dugtrio can actually engage with the interesting part of Mole-a-Whac. Hopefully.

Lysion

Dugtrio-Mega-Alola
Ground/Steel
Good as Gold

HP: 35
Atk: 100 + 40 = 140
Def: 60 + 30 = 90
SpA: 50
SpD: 70 + 30 = 100
Spe: 110 + 20 = 130

New moves: None

Description: Yeah I have nothing.

A fast Swords Dancer, 130 Speed lets it be super fast and outspeed a lot of threats. Good as Gold is pretty interesting on it because you're a physical attacker (unlike Gholdengo), and so you are immune to Will-o-Wisp. Being a Defog blocker is also always good to have. And GaG gives it a niche even if Excadrill comes back, so it's super cool.

Lore wise: Hair so blonde it's made out of gold. Yeah sorry I'm out.

Orangesodapop

Mega Dugtrio-A
Ground/Steel
Ability: Grasping Hair

Grasping Hair

Uses smack down on entry.

Edit by BlueRay: Paul mentioned in his feedback for them that the ability would be reworked into just applying the effect rather than dealing both damage and effect. Please, keep that in mind.

Stats: 35/140/100/50/80/120 (+40 atk, +40 def, +10 spd +10 spe)
New moves: Headlong Rush
Description: powerful fast cleaner that can run through common defensive mons while faltering at bulky grasses and bulkier waters. Prone to being revenged by non sucker weak mons. Cool mon. Has goku ssj3 hair

okispokis

Mega Dugtrio-Alola
Ground/Steel
Ability: Queenly Majesty
35
130 (+30)
85 (+25)
70 (+20)
85 (+5)
130 (+20)

"These Pokémon are cherished in the Alola region, where they are thought to be feminine deities of the land incarnate."

Queenly Majesty serves to shield the fast but frail Alolan Dugtrio from the many a powerful Aqua Jet, Ice Shard, Mach Punch or Sucker Punch while shockingly having an actual basis in the lore. Alola Doug uses this priority immunity to more freely fire off STAB Earthquake and Iron Head, alongside Rock coverage in Stone Edge or Rock Slide, Swords Dance for a potential sweep or potential support options like Stealth Rock and sacrifical Final Gambit or Memento for fast-paced HO teams. Doug's innate frailty isn't ideal for VGC, but blocking Fake Out and fast Rock Slide is something, at least.

jazzmat

Mega Dugtrio Alola
Ground/Steel
stats
hp- 35
atk- 135(+35)
def- 70(+10)
spa- 50
spd- 100(+30)
spe- 135(+25)
Unseen Fist

New Moves: Bullet Punch

What goes on beneath the surface of the Dugtrio lines has been a mystery for nearly 30 years, and today that question finally gets answered: Massive Fists. This pokemon stays just below the surface waiting for the perfect time to strike from underneath, bypassing any form of protection. Relevant moves Alolan Dugtrio has that are affected by this ability are: Iron Head, Stomping Tantrum, Night Slash/Sucker Punch/Foul Play, Facade/Body Slam, and Shadow Claw. Most importantly due to Earthquake being non-contact plus being somewhat risky in VGC this encourages the user to use Stomping Tantrum in more interesting ways

Mega Farigiraf

lydian

Mega Farigiraf

Ability - Cud Chew, Armor Tail; Sap Sipper ➝ Palindrome: At the end of each turn, all Pokémon in the field that have used a move, except the last one to have moved, attempt to use the same moves they used earlier in the turn, in the opposite order they used it. For example:

• Rillaboom used Fake Out on Maushold; Maushold flinches; Annihilape uses Bulk Up; Farigiraf uses Psychic on the Rillaboom.
  • At the end of the turn, Annihilape uses Bulk Up, Maushold remains flinched, and Rillaboom attempts to Fake Out the Maushold, and it would fail.
• Maushold used Protect; Annihilape used Rage Fist on Rillaboom at 50 BP; Rillaboom used Wood Hammer on Annihilape; Farigiraf used Trick Room.
  • At the end of the turn, Rillaboom uses Wood Hammer on Maushold; Annihilape uses Rage Fist on Rillaboom at 150 BP; Maushold uses Protect, it doesn't fail as for the precedent set by Instruct.

HP - 120 ➝ 120
Atk - 90 ➝ 111 (+21)
Def - 70 ➝ 101 (+31)
SpA - 110 ➝ 121 (+11)
SpD - 70 ➝ 101 (+31)
Spe - 60 ➝ 66 (+6)
BST - 520 ➝ 620 (+100)

Movepool Changes - ∅
Competitive Corner - So... Yeah this is wonky, I know! But it doesn't seem incredibly broken because it is an ability that in theory can be used against you. It adds a lot of complexity to the game, especially in Doubles, but i think it could have some interesting effects. I gave it a middle-of-the-pack speed tier so that it's easily outsped by most Pokémon but so that you can still outspeed it under Trick Room with dedicated users of it and/or support it with Tailwind or other forms of speed control.

In singles the main niche is allowing Farigiraf to hit twice, or set up twice in Trick Room if it survives the incoming hit thrown at it. This gives it some very serious oomph as a Trick Room sweeper, but as soon as its Trick Room runs out and you're stuck in the Mega forme YOU'RE the one having to take twice as many hits! Also if the opponent switches out Farigiraf will only move once.

In doubles this can make a Trick Room duo very deadly, with both your Trick Room Pokémon being able to attack twice, but, again, they must eat the incoming attacks from your opponent AND an extra one of them or top, assuming you have another slow Pokémon alongside Farigiraf to make use of Trick Room. Farigiraf could also help support a faster Pokémon by having it move twice, but generally you might want some sort of speed control, not to give two extra moves to your opponent as opposed to just your one. This ability is one that strongly favors having the speed advantage on your side, and thus I think it can enpower some interesting strategies. Setup moves also benefit as opposed to just raw damage, as do stat debuffing moves like Snarl or Icy Wind. Another niche interaction is that upon Mega Evolving, Farigiraf can prevent opponents from trying to revert your Trick Room in the same turn, i.e. if Mega Farigiraf goes for Trick Room and the opponent doesn't, Trick Room is set up, at the cost of both Pokémon on the opposing side moving twice. If they attempt to Trick Room, though, the faster Trick Room user will move twice, which means Trick Room will be used thrice in the same turn, having it be set up, reverted, and set up again! Another thing to note is that this strategy requires bulkier Pokémon to be able to make the best use of it, as if they're going first they might need to survive more hits to act again at the end of the turn, this is especially anti-synergistic with Torkoal's Eruption, as well as Ursaluna Bloodmoon's Blood Moon. So this might push for more unique Trick Room exploiters!

Flavor Corner - renroC rovalF

dex

Mega Farigiraf

Typing: Normal/Dark
New Ability: Tail Link: This Pokemon's attacks become physical if the user's Attack stat is higher and special if the user's Special Attack stat is higher.
Stats:
HP- 120
ATK- 125(+35)
DEF- 90(+20)
SPA- 125(+15)
SPD- 90(+20)
SPE- 70(+10)
BST- 620

New Moves: Dark Pulse, Knock Off

Competitive:
Farigiraf is a funny Pokemon that I would like to see do funny Pokemon things. This lets you do some wacky stuff like special Body Slam or physical Psychic. It now has that big bulk, but with a quad weakness to the very common Fighting and a reliance on Wish+Protect, I don't see that bulk being too much of an issue.

Flavor: The dark tail takes over the rest of the outer shell, causing Farigiraf to be more in tune with it. I will give no further flavor reasoning.

PalpitoadChamp

Name: Farigiraf
Type: Normal/Psychic
Ability: Passive Aggressive (After this Pokemon uses a neutral priority status move, it uses a 60 bp Special move that matches its type, targeting the target of the status move, or a random opponent if it isn't single target.)

Stats
HP: 120
Att: 90 -> 110 (+20)
Def: 70 -> 90 (+20)
SpA: 110 -> 140 (+30)
SpD: 70 -> 90 (+20)
Spe: 60 -> 70 (+10)
BST: 520 -> 620 (+100)

Movepool Additions: Fake Tears

Description: Mega Farigiraf unleashes it's inner power, striking fear in the weak of heart. Farigiraf's main purpose is a horrifying RestTalk set that fires of 60 bp dual stabs when used. Sleep Talk especially is terrifying as it isn't that unreasonable to run all status moves, causing Sleep Talk to be a 120 bp moves with an added CM or something. WishProtect would normally be a possibility better alternative, but Protect doesn't get the 60 bp move since it has increased priority. I realized it took late, but this mon is fairly terrifying with a Calm Mind / Agility / Stored Power set but it only fired off Psychic moves here, takes its item slot, lacks reliable recovery, and has little coverage for Dark-types. Fake Tears is a very funny move, dealing 60 bp coverage after dropping their SpD by 2, increasing the damage significantly.

DrPumpkinz

Mega Farigiraf
Type: Normal / Dark
Ability: Strong Jaw
Stats:
HP: 120
Att: 160 (+70)
Def: 100 (+20)
SpA: 110
SpD: 80 (+10)
Spe: 60

The power of Mega Evolution has gone primarily to the tail head. Maybe this wouldn't have been too big an issue back with it was a Girafarig, but because the main head and tail head are now physically linked, this imbalance of power causes the tail head to take full control, reducing Mega Farigiraf to a base creature of pure instinct.

While regular Farigiraf does a variety of tricky things like pivoting with Future Sight, set up for a Stored Power sweep, and supporting allies in doubles, Mega Farigiraf does one thing: attack. Its Strong Jaw Crunches hit hard, especially now that it has Dark STAB (just like it and Twins did back in the Spaceworld demo). Supporting that Dark-type offense are STAB Body Slam and Double-Edge, pseudo-STAB Psychic Fangs, Earthquake, Iron Head, and Low Kick.

DarkFairy

Mega Farigiraf
View attachment 663997
(art by Kouki Saitou for Farigiraf PAL 155)

Farigiraf, A Gem

Normal / Psychic
Ability: Semordnilap

Semordnilap

The user's Dark-type moves, when used on their own, have no effect. After successfully using a Psychic-type move, the user immediately repeats every Dark-type move it has used since the last time it switched in. Each Dark-type move may only be repeated once per Psychic-type move.

New moves: Jaw Lock, Quash

HP: 120 / ATK: 90 → 110 (+20) / DEF: 70 → 135 (+65) / SPA: 110 → 125 (+15) / SPD: 70 / SPE: 60

Mechanics

So, this is a bit of a weird one, isn't it? Mega Farigiraf's whole shtick is its ability to store Dark moves for later use, and keep using them on every Psychic move. So, it's a simple case of Nasty Plot→Agility+Nasty Plot→Sweep, but here's the kicker: a set like that really only leaves you room for Psychic STAB + a coverage option, and choosing Dazzling Gleam leaves one open to easily being beaten by Steel-types with any modicum of special bulk, and Shadow Ball leaves you unable to hit Dark-types. So, what's the solution here? Get weird! You've got lots of interesting combo tools— if you open with Sucker Punch against a faster opponent, you'll be able to deal bonus damage to any future slower target. But what if they send in a faster mon right after? Well, then you can just Trick Room+Sucker Punch to guarantee going before them on future turns with combined Psychic and Dark attacks, especially if you're using some of Farigiraf's ability to go mixed. As for the new additions to the movepool, Jaw Lock can turn Mega Farigiraf into a high risk-high reward trapper, repeating it after every bit of Psychic STAB and being able to be stored for later. Quash, meanwhile, lets Farigiraf focus on bullying one specific target by layering Quash with Trick Room and necessary Psychic-type attacks.

Some things to note: Farigiraf won't have STAB on any Dark-type moves, and they'll all be going off its weaker attacking stat. Additionally, what moves get repeated aren't infinite, so one can't stack up infinite Crunches to call forth an army of teeth whenever using Psychic Fang. Finally, while they'll repeat after every Psychic move, Farigiraf's Dark-type moves won't have any effect on their first use, but will be revealed to the opponent to play around (especially since, going off of how Taunt works on Dancer, Nasty Plot's boosts can be outright blocked)!

Flavor

A semordnilap is a word-or-phrase which, when spelled backwards, creates an entirely different but still existent word-or-phrase (hence, a semordnilap of Mega Farigiraf would be Farigiraf, a gem). Due to no longer having a head on each side, Farigiraf is much more in-line with the idea of a semordnilap as opposed to a palindrome. The mega would, ideally, include something near the tail, as non-head-shaped as possible, that completely changes what the whole thing looks like from the opposite side. Maybe like a false head that looks like a bird from one end, but just a fluffy tail from the other.

Lysion

Farigiraf-Mega
Normal/Psychic
Double Spirit: Before using a special move, changes into Diurne form. Before using a physical move, changes into Nocturne form. Nocturne form is the exact same as Diurne form, but Atk and SpA stat are swapped (invests included), and Nocturne form is Normal/Dark. However stat boosts remain in the stat (so a Calm Mind won't give you +1 Atk).

HP: 120
Atk: 90 + 10 = 100
Def: 70 + 30 = 100
SpA: 110 + 30 = 140
SpD: 70 + 30 = 100
Spe: 60

New moves: Superpower, Jump Kick

Description: Time for another A Golden Experience sub in M4A!

Normal/Psychic/Dark mixed mon? A friend of me created an evolution to Girafarig called Girafatak, and that was the concept: being able to switch from Psychic type to Dark type, after a little conv we had about Normal type, and how Girafarig fits the type pretty well. Do note that Girafatak was created before Farigiraf. So yup, you're using a mixed attacker the best way possible, it has Psychic/Dark/Fighting coverage (perfect coverage btw!). It can use its wide physical coverage (Crunch, the newly added Superpower, High Horsepower, Double-Edge/Body Slam...), as well as Psychic, Psychic Noise...

Lore wise: The giraffe and the tail both enter in a state of symbiosis, the giraffe uses its psychic powers in order and the tail bites hard. It's also a callback to Beta Girafarig.

jazzmat

Mega Farigaraf
Normal/Psychic
stats
HP- 120
ATK- 110(+20)
DEF- 95(+25)
SPA- 130(+20)
SPD- 95(+25)
SPE- 70(+10)
BST- 624
Compound Eyes

New Moves: Super Fang, Focus Blast

"But Jaz," you may ask, "Farigiraf doesn't have compound eyes it just has two pairs of regular eyes?" Yeah well what kind of creative would I be if I don't push the bounds of what is biologically possible for these imaginary creatures. Mega Farigiraf grows horns down their spine much like the ones on top of its head, but now they all are covered in insectoid compound eyes, allowing it to see anything except what lay below them. Compound eyes boosts the accuracy for such useful moves as Focus Blast, Zen Headbutt, Thunder, and Thunder Wave

Mega Hydrapple

LordThemberchaud

Hydrapple-Mega
Type: Grass/Dragon
Ability: Dragon's Maw
HP: 106
Atk: 120 (+40)
Def: 130 (+20)
Sp. Atk: 140 (+20)
Sp. Def: 100 (+20)
Spd: 44
New Moves: N/A

Description: 252+ SpA Dragon's Maw Hydrapple-Mega Draco Meteor vs. 212 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit: 211-249 (53.5 - 63.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Anyway, Hydrapple's Draco Meteors and Fickle Beams now hit like hydrogen bombs. Feel free to run Nasty Plot, which can be useful when this guy forces a switch. In addition, Recover can allow it to last longer and click it's Dragon move more. Fairy and Steel types can struggle to come in safely, as it has access to Grass STAB which can threaten Fairies like Primarina and Clefable, while Steel types can be dispatched with Earth Power or EQ. However, Steel or Fairy types that resist Grass and Ground like Corviknight and Tinkaton-Mega can come in on Hydrapple fairly easily.

Speaking of physical options, Hydrapple-Mega can also run a physical set, with Outrage being only slightly weaker than Draco Meteor, while also getting options like Power Whip and even Sucker Punch. Curse can be used to set up while also boosting Hydrapple's already high Defense. The speed drop can also help if you are crazy and elect to run Gyro Ball.

In VGC, Hydrapple can be used on Trick Room teams, taking advantage of it's extremely high damage regardless of if it's Physical or Special. In addition, Breaking Swipe offers a spread move that will deal a lot of damage while also weakening physical attackers. However, a bad matchup into Tinkaton-Mega holds it back slightly.

Flavor: Hydrapple, a dragon, has a a whopping 5 mouths, also called maws!

War Incarnate

Mega Hydrapple
New Ability: Sickening Sweetness (At the end of each turn, lower the opponents' speed by 1 stage.)
Type: Grass/Dragon

New stats:
HP: 106
Attack: 80
Defense: 145 (+35)
Special Attack: 140 (+20)
Special Defense: 110 (+30)
Speed: 59 (+15)
(640 BST)

New moves: no
Description:
The energy of mega evolution was too much for Hydrapple to handle, granting its serpents increased strength and aggression, but causing the syrup apple the serpents inhabit to start overflowing. Now, not only does the syrup serve as an extremely durable protective barrier (if still extremely sticky), but it also emits a stench of overwhelming sweetness that slowly chokes out even the strongest warriors. Notably, the syrup's stench doesn't set in immediately. At first, you may not even notice the smell, but over time, it will set in, and when it sets in, you can expect nothing but trouble.

Syrup Bomb as a move is quite interesting on paper, being a move that lowers the opponent's speed over time. It obviously plays off of Dipplin and Hydrapple's very syrup-based flavor, but sadly in practice the move is basically never seen in a serious environment. Outside of its low power and extreme inaccuracy (sure, Supersweet Syrup exists, but considering it's only once per battle it's not very good), it also takes up a moveslot and any speed drops accumulated can be easily removed by switching out.

Sickening Sweetness is a way to exemplify Syrup Bomb's positives (lowering speed over time) with none of its downsides. It's an incredibly interesting way to subvert Hydrapple's weakness of extremely low speed, as it's a gradual effect instead of an immediate one-and-done. This ensures that even the fastest foes can eventually be outsped and overcome by Hydrapple, and incentivizes it to stay in longer and use its much improved defenses, somewhat useful (if a bit flawed) defensive typing, and access to Recover tank hits and rack up those speed drops. And unlike Syrup Bomb, the speed drops can't be easily removed via switching, since they will come back as long as Hydrapple is on the field. All of this ultimately seeks to augment Hydrapple's playstyle of tanking hits, healing off the damage, and eventually overwhelming the opponent with your special attacks. There's a lot you can do with this mon, from your prototypical NP user to a standard tank, to even abusing the famed SubSeed combo with the ability. Substitute can shore up damage for Leech Seed to damage the opponent and heal back the lost HP from having to set up a Sub, and the speed drop over time cripples the opponent and ensures that they will be too slow to be able to break past Hydrapple's Substitute (at which point you can finish them off with a powerful attack or let the Leech Seed chip damage finish them). Sure, even with the ability in mind, you still need to watch out for mons that pack super-effective moves, but the speed drops can ensure that even in the situations where you get forced out, those mons can also be forced out and by your allies too, as a single speed drop can be extremely undesirable in the long term.

And all of this is just in a Singles format, mind you! In Doubles, Sickening Sweetness can serve as an extremely potent form of speed control, essentially being the equivalent of using an Icy Wind every turn. Sure, Grass/Dragon isn't the best typing to have (what with all the Flutter Manes and Mega Tinkatons running around with no Tera to save you), and it lacks good spread moves, but even then it still has its perks. Notably, its typing provides an Earthquake resist (and notably no Heat Wave weakness for a Grass-type), and the other miscellaneous resists to Water and Electric can occasionally come in handy. To this extent, it can provide some form of support for your team in the Breaking Swipe, which while weak, can help cripple physical attackers, letting Hydrapple stay on the field longer. In addition, while it lacks proper spread moves, it can still dish out potent single-target damage, and its defenses are good enough to mitigate its defensive shortcomings, letting it function as a powerful support option and a flawed yet potentially effective attacker.

dex

Mega Hydrapple

Typing: Grass/Dragon
New Ability: Filter
Stats:
HP- 106
ATK- 100(+20)
DEF- 170(+60)
SPA- 140(+20)
SPD- 80(+0)
SPE- 44(+0)
BST- 640

New Moves: n/a

Competitive:
The way Nasty Plot Hydrapple plays reminds me a lot of ORAS Calm Mind Slowbro, so why not go all the way? With a crazy Defense stat and a tad more SpA, Mega Hydrapple is ready to tank all the hits and hit back harder. Filter makes it take simply negative damage from U-turn and survive Weavile's Triple Axel. This mon can take less than half from a 5-hit Garchomp Scale Shot! The balancing factor here is that it is still a little weak on the SpD side and its low Speed makes recovery tough once you have Mega Evoed it.

Flavor: The worm is in the apple. The apple filters the attacks. I will give no further flavor reasoning.

PalpitoadChamp

Name: Hydrapple
Type: Grass/Dragon
Ability: No Guard

Stats
HP: 106
Att: 80 -> 120 (+40)
Def: 110 -> 130 (+20)
SpA: 120 -> 140 (+20)
SpD: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Spe: 44 -> 54 (+10)
BST: 540 -> 640 (+100)

Movepool Additions: Dragon Rush, Swords Dance

Description: Hydrapple has so many heads, that it just can't miss. It has some troubles dodging, due to its size. Hydrapple has dual Draco Meteor and Leaf Storm which cause devastating blows. It can also run physical sets for perfect accuracy Dragon Rush and Power Whip with SD boosting. You could also run a odd mixed set with strong physical moves and SpA lowering moves, ignoring the drop.

abismal

Mega Hydrapple

New Ability: Ample Chant ("On entry, sets a field condition lasting for 5 turns that is separate from other field effects, increasing the critical hit ratio of this side of the fields Dragon-type Pokemon by 1.")
Type:

New stats:
HP: 106
Atk: 80
Def: 130 (+20)
SpA: 130 (+10)
SpD: 100 (+20)
Spe: 94 (+50)
(BST: 640)

New moves: Focus Energy, Light Screen
Description:
i dont have a lot of time to develop much but i wanted to make a hydrapple since there arent many yet. also hey look first submission in a trillion eons
this hydrapple's basis is dragon cheer, the move needed to be learned to even get the mon in the first place, yet it probably rarely uses it
this is because hydrapple wants to be faster than its ally to get the most out of the effects, but the effect also does not persist upon switch anymore like it used to

now a small crit rate boost can be applied to the whole party benefitting both in singles and doubles. its amplified speed makes it stronger as a potential sweeper and it can quickly heighten the damage of other very strong dragon types quickly, like Regidrago (which i am assuming will be introduced with this slate since its dlc2, syrup bomb helps as a form of speed control albeit not perfect.)

This makes it to where Dragon Cheer used on a Dragon-type pokemon gives them near or just straight up guaranteed critical hits
Not to mention supersweet syrup prior to mega evolving, allowing a move like Draco Meteor to get a lethal guaranteed hit effect on the first turn. Does that phrase sound familiar? That's right. Domain Expansion: Draconic Devastation!

in doubles theres still just a little flexibility leftover for how you can approach a team with this though. Your Dragon-type enabler doesn't necessarily have to be dragon-type themselves, just the abuser. A dragon holding a scope lens for example immediately benefits from this, so you could use a non-dragon type pokemon to support them if Hydrapple performs some other role on the team

In singles, Hydrapple can at least benefit itself from its own Leaf Storms or Draco Meteors, having INCREDIBLY strong offensive potential through the newly added Focus Energy, which feels just as potent as its Nasty Plot. Now imagine THAT with Fickle Beam...

Added Light Screen to pair with its Reflect, just adding an extra splash of utility to help it garner more of a supportive role.

Flavor:
ample, because hydrapple boasts many heads. A unified cheer or chant coming off from this pokemon would be a lot louder and more potent, its like a mini dragon choir. It's also slightly pun-ish because ample sounds a bit like apple if you squint your ears

zxgzxg

Mega Hydrapple
Type:

Ability: Huge Power
Stats: 106 / 100 / 150 / 140 / 80 / 64 [ +20 / +40 / +20 / +0 / +20 ]
New Moves: Coil, Smack Down

Description: Mega Mawile type-beat. Has a strong STAB Power Whip, valuable coverage in Earthquake, and useful priority in Sucker Punch. Coil is your diet Swords Dance and cool for making Power Whip more reliable. I gave it Smack Down cuz I wanted some counterplay to Corv+Skarm and this was the only one that kind of made sense. Dumped most of its stats into Phys Def so it can still eat hits n stuff.

I know Huge Power is the bunny ability but uh pretend the eyes look like long bunny ears now. And uh it has mochi-like spots on its body.

Orangesodapop

Mega Hydrapple
Grass/Dragon
Ability: Immunity
Stats: 106/120/130/150/110/24 (+40 atk, +20 def, +30 spa, +20 def, -20 spe)
New moves: Toxic, Corrosive Gas, Acid Armor, Leech Seed
Description: stat stick for you stalloids, additionally is a stallbreaker. Looks fat. And all heads are chubby ish

Bobsican

Mega Hydrapple
New Ability: Regenerator
Type: Fairy/Dragon

New stats:
HP: 106
Attack: 110 (+30)
Defense: 120 (+10)
Special Attack: 130 (+10)
Special Defense: 90 (+10)
Speed: 84 (+40)

640 BST

New moves: Synthesis, Moonblast, Leech Seed

Description: Considering that sweets are often associated with the Fairy typing, I thought that going outside the usual would be a good idea to make this a bit different from other submissions.

A Fairy/Dragon typing is excellent defensively and alongside Regenerator enables Mega Hydrapple to act as a potent pivot, allowing it to easily come into stuff like Gouging Fire, Great Tusk, Rillaboom, and Roaring Moon, all without fearing Knock Off, and its base forme can perform role compression at using its Grass typing to better check Ground-types such as Gliscor, Iron Treads, and Landorus-T.

Movepool-wise, Hydrapple can act as more than just a bulky wallbreaker with Nasty Plot, while it's still hindered offensivey by having redundant STABs offensively (there's little that Dragon hits that Fairy doesn't), the capability to phaze foes with Dragon Tail minimizes foes trying to use it as setup fodder, and Leech Seed is often a safe move to use on a forced switch to wear down foes while also supporting the longevity of its own team.

Design-wise it's just a slightly bigger Hydrapple, but the Syrpents resemble gummy worms.

DrPumpkinz

Mega Hydrapple
Type: Grass / Dragon
Ability: Unfocused (all* attacks target both opponents)
Stats:

HP: 106​

Att: 80​

Def: 160 (+50)​

SpA: 150 (+30)​

SpD: 100 (+20)​

Spe: 44​

Some notes on Unfocused:

• Targeting works like Expanding Force, where you select a target like normal and then it gets overwritten with "hits both opponents".
• Status moves aren't affected. The only move in Hydrapple's movepool that this limitation affects is Yawn, which is precisely why this limitation is in effect.
• Moves that are already spread moves are also unaffected.
  • Should the ability be changed to affect status moves in the future, moves that only target the user or the user's ally are also unaffected.
    • Basically, if the basic targeting ignores Follow Me, it's unaffected.
• It's not attacking both targets individually with reduced power, it's literally turning them into spread moves. As such, Draco Meteor and Leaf Storm still only lower your Special Attack by -2 instead of -4, while Fickle Beam and Bullet Seed roll for both opponents instead of doing different rolls for each.
  • Heavy Slam, Gyro Ball, and Grass Knot do still vary their base power for each target, though.
• Sucker Punch works however it is that Sucker Punch works when you force it to be a spread move. I give up trying to figure out how a move Mega Hydrapple isn't even going to run would function.

The many syrpents that make up Hydrapple already have a hard time getting along. Now they can't even agree on which opponent to attack!

In addition to dropping fat spread Dracos, Mega Hydrapple's lack of focus lets it do some interesting utility stuff. Its first signature move Syrup Bomb now acts as a lingering Icy Wind, Infestation deals a ton of chip damage similar to G-max Centiskorch, Dragon Tail phazes out both opponents, and both Dragon Breath and Body Slam work like Rock Slide for paralysis.

okispokis

Mega Hydrapple
Grass/Dragon
Ability: Cleric- Switching out heals the replacement for 1/8 of their max HP and also cures their status condition. (The effect of the ability takes place before the replacement takes damage from hazards.)
106
105 (+25)
130 (+20)
145 (+25)
90 (+10)
64 (+20)
New Moves: +Wish

With Hydrapple likely inspired by the G-Max forms of its older siblings, I realized the other day that Supersweet Syrup is a reference to Flapple's G-Max Tartness (which had the same effect); as such, I thought it fitting to make Mega Hydrapple's ability a reference to Appletun's G-Max Sweetness, which cured status. Hence Cleric, an ability which supports Hydra's team while being a natural extension of the base form's hit and run gameplay. Hydra can easily keep itself healthy with either Giga Drain or Recover and keep up momentum after switching off a SpA drop from powerful Draco Meteor or Leaf Storm. Or you can make use of new move Wish to keep Hydra AND its ally healthy in exchange for needing 2 turns. Cleric makes Mega Hydra a boon for more defensive teams (in tandem with its respectable power), while offensive teams can still make use of its solid bulk (HP investment lets you avoid a 2HKO from non-invested Mega Hatterene Draining Kiss) and a potential sweeper set with Nasty Plot. Hydra backs its strong STAB up with solid coverage in Earth Power, Heavy Slam or rare Hydro Pump to get solid damage on Mega Tinkaton and pick off weakened Corviknight that try to come in on your STABs.

While switching is more limited in VGC, Cleric can still be quite handy for clearing a stray Torkoal Wisp or Amoonguss Spore. Mega Hydrapple can also keep its teammate healthy with Pollen Puff, limit the opponent's power with Breaking Swipe or even use Sucker Punch to pick off faster foes. Supersweet Syrup pre-Mega is also nice for letting Hydrapple and co throw off higher-power special moves, especially since the one-time activation is no longer as big of a deal.

jazzmat

Mega Hydrapple
Grass/Dragon
stats
HP- 106
ATK- 100(+20)
DEF- 150(+40)
SPA- 130(+10)
SPD- 110(+30)
SPE- 44
BST- 640
Sugar Rush: When hit by a fairy type move, gain +12 speed, which will then decrease by 2 stages at the end of every turn until the user switches out. Fairy Immunity.

Hydrapple and even moreso Dipplin are based on candied apples and even Appletun evolves from a Sweet Apple, and because there's multiple pokemon based on sugary things it feels appropriate to associate sugar with the fairy typing. As we all know a sugar rush is soon followed by a sugar crash thus this ability was born! With full speed investment the only pokemon that outspeeds +6 Hydrapple is first form mega Brambleghast, but with the speed dropping so drastically it only stays fast for 2 turns max. In vgc Hydrapple would appreciate a support partner that could keep it's speed up or at least have misty explosion for an emergency situation.

 

[BlueRay]

I noticed I haven't voted in the past few weeks so far. Gonna change it for this slate. x)

Votes

01) LordThemberchaud
02) DarkFairy
03) Lysion
04) okispokis
05) jazzmat

06) lydian
07) dex
08) PalpitoadChamp
09) DrPumpkinz
10) Orangesodapop


01) Lysion
02) DrPumpkinz
03) dex

04) PalpitoadChamp
05) jazzmat
06) lydian
07) DarkFairy


01) jazzmat
02) abismal
03) okispokis
04) Bobsican
05) zxgzxg

06) War Incarnate
07) LordThemberchaud
08) Orangesodapop
09) dex
10) PalpitoadChamp
11) DrPumpkinz

 

[War Incarnate]

What do 1, 5, 7, apple, and snake have in common? Well...
1. War Incarnate
2. abismal
3. okispokis
4. Bobsician
5. PalpitoadChamp
6. Orangesodapop
7. dex
8. DrPumpkinz


Sometimes it's tough having two great minds in one body.
1. PalpitoadChamp
2. DarkFairy
3. lydian
4. Lysion
5. jazzmat
6. dex
7. DrPumpkinz


Now featuring some very stylish... and very shiny hairstyles!
1. lydian
2. Orangesodapop
3. jazzmat
4. Lordthemberchaud
5. DrPumpkinz
6. DarkFairy
7. Lysion