aite let's go
Scorcharnia: For those of you dissapointed that I didn't do size differences for Dickinsonia, I gave this mon Harden, so you could probably make some kind of joke there.
Lixtoxina: Yesssss another spinner. Has a neat profile with Levitate, letting it cuck Chomp and EQ Armaldo. Very simple mon, but a good one.
Spinnollia: Ok so, I'm gonna be honest here. Four whole ass customs is dumb, and I think this mon needs some check ups. Firstly, Rotation on base makes this thing HELLA fat. For reference, Mega Starmie in M4A (the mon Rotation is pulled from), has 60/105/105 bulk, which really isn't that great. 106/95/92 bulk is noticeably fatter and this can hold Lefties, which really makes up for only having 8 PP recovery. It's just really goddamn hard to break. I didn't even notice Stick Kick until Alba mentioned this thing having four customs on Discord just give this Power Whip or Wood Hammer PLS don't give this Grass HJK.
Mega kinda wack too. 110 Atk doesn't look that impressive on a Mega, but then you remember this thing's godly movepool and solid Speed tier. HJK, Grass HJK, Triple Axel, Knock Off,
and Thunderous Kick??? Who needs Electric STAB when you have ridiculous coverage options. Not to mention Thunder Thighs. I really don't gel with the Blunder Policy effect on kicking attacks, which are already hella strong even
without the 1.2x damage boost. This thing also has Spikes, rocks, removal, and then both Spikes
and removal in one move, in case this needed even more shit to run. 10 Speed on base is also just kinda gross to look at. That is a very biased thing but I wanted to point it out anyway.
I apologize if I'm coming across as a dick here, but I have problems with this sub, even compared to other stuff that's entered the mod. I prolly shoulda said smth on Discord but oh well. If there's anything to take away here, I at least have a good idea of what the Mega looks like.
Buffs
Blossobite: It honestly dawned on me pretty quickly after it won that this got outsped by every Water in the meta lmao. 81 Speed definitely helps out a lot, while VSwitch ofc helps it grab momentum. I was originally gonna suggest giving this 91 or 86 Speed to outpace Kabutops, but Kabutops won't likely run max Speed with its stat reshuffle now. Kind of a shame that we got two Grass-neutral Waters this slate, but maybe things will eventually pick up for this.
Cradily-Ancient: More bulk and utility makes this so much better. I do prefer Water Absorb over Regen just because Grass/Ground is ass defensively, so an immunity that provides HP is big value. Regen still a nice option tho. Solid mon now.
Dodrumb: Not much to say here, Simple CM sets sure are better. I actually think the play here was to do +10 HP instead of +10 SpD for additional physical bulk, but I think this works too. I'm not entirely sure how well this will fare in the long run, but we'll see.
Gastrodon-Entity: Why did this originally have 95 Atk wtf. Really interesting CM user. I think Mystical Fire or even Focus Blast would've been hella cool against Bastio but this at least has an actual niche now.
Gastrodon-Entity-East: This also has an actual niche now, a defensive pivot that sets Future Sights. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, the abilities on both of the Gastros really aren't that great. Gooey is just difficult to use on something that wants to play defensively. And then uh, there's Neuroforce. While Damp is at least obviously useless on West, Neuroforce is such an odd ability to give here. It's just not good on something that isn't a dedicated wallbreaker. I don't think an ability change should be in order, but I am sad that Gastro has no real good abilities to run.
Kabutops-Ancient: I'm not too big on the Speed drop, but the increased bulk helps out big time. This can finally see use as a stallbreaker, while spinner or rock sets are definitely possible as well. Pretty solid.
Tangrowth-Ancient: It's
better, but Grass/Fire remains a horrid typing for something this slow. I still think this mon struggles solely due to its typing, it’s gotta get some crazy stuff to earn a teamslot imo.
Yanmega-Ancient: Ok, this is the only buff I find legitimately strange. This mon's typing and Speed already do a good job at balancing Chaser, Cross Chop and Thunder Fang are just really weird to hand out. I'd like to see some actual coverage options here. I'd prefer Discharge
or Thunderbolt (whichever is deemed more healthy) over Thunder Fang (could throw in Wild Charge too I guess) while Cross Chop can be tossed in favor of Focus Blast for more power. If physical Fighting coverage is desired, the lowest impact one is probably Hammer Arm, which also has an interesting interaction with Chaser (what is flavor). There's other options I like as well, but I'll leave it at that since these buffs are meant to be conservative.
Nerfs:
Bastiodon-Overgrown: I'm gonna go on a slight tangent here, but my sense of mon design has genuinely changed a lot since two and a half months ago. What I thought would be a cool counter to all the Waters at the time ended up being an unhealthy presence, and poor reading comprehension prevented me from realizing that this mon's movepool is literally copypasted lmao. But ye, having only Grassy Surge makes this mon so much more bearable in a mod that has a terrain that punishes Fire attacks. I'm not sure why SpA was buffed at all, could've just thrown +5 points into Atk and Spe, but reduced special bulk also makes this a lot easier to deal with. I'm overall glad to see this change.
Robusteel: I never liked how generically good this mon was from the beginning, so a bulk cut and removal of Knock Off is appreciated. I still think Doom Desire is wack asf but the mon is fine now.
p.s. yall gotta sub more answers to Ice next slate PLS