Pet Mod UmbreMons - Post Slate 3 (Playtesting)

[cat111ca]

Moves

Name: Misty step
Power: 0
Accuracy: --%
PP: 12
Category: status
Type: fairy
Effect: summons misty terrain and switches the user out afterwards
Priority: 0
Flags: literally none
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Hatterene Clefable Aromatisse Audino Ninetales-Alola
Justification: chilly reception clone that summons misty terrain. Just a fun idea I had. Misty terrain is weaker than other field effects so it feels fine to give this to more Pokemon. Also stops psyspam

Abilities

Name: Steely Spirit
Effect: While this Pokemon is active, a Steel move used by any Pokemon has 1.5x power. halves the power of all fairy moves used.
Permanent: No
Mold Breaker: No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Mega falinks , Corviknight .
Justification: F mega floette F mega floette F mega floette F mega floette F mega floette.
More seriously this is ment to combat fairy spam

---

Items

Name: King's rock
Effect: Holders first move the holder uses flinches the target. one time use. doesn't work if the move targets multiple pokemon.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30, Causes the target to flinch
Justification: makes any non spread move a lower priority fake out. neat item that lets any fast pokemon disable a threat for a turn

---

Item Name: Shed Shell
Effect: Enables the holder to switch out of battle without fail. When the user switches out, their non-volatile status conditions are removed. (Ala Natural Cure)
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Yes
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 20 BP
Justification: A fairly small change that gives the item two niche tech counterplay situations instead of just one. It can still be used on a team hedging for a Mega Gengar MU but it can now also somewhat help combat Sleep spam or be actively chosen for synergy with Rest akin to the Natural Cure synergy.
Thanks to Genuine_Angus_B33F for letting me take this idea to our petmod

Adjustments

RESUB
​

Name: Aromatisse
Type: Fairy / Poison
Abilities: Healer / --- / Aroma Veil
New Moves: Acid Spray, Beat Up, Clear Smog, Gunk Shot, Knock Off, Misty Step (if it wins, please either vote both or neither), Quash, Rage Powder, Sludge bomb, Taunt, Toxic
Removed Moves: None
Justification: I gave Aromatisse this so there would be a specially bulky poison type in the meta that can support its ally and deal some damage

---

​

Name: Pidgeot
Type: Normal / Flying
Abilities: Keen eyes / Frisk / Thick fat
New Moves: Blizzard, Focus Blast, Hyper Voice, Thunder
Removed Moves: None
Justification: I gave Pidgeot this to let it enter freely without having to worry about char y heatwave or Froslass-Mega blizzard and then mega evolve with new move to take advantage of with No Guard

---

​

Name: Mega Chesnaught
Type: Grass / Steel
Abilities: Grassy surge
New Moves: None
Removed Moves: None
Justification: grassy surge mega to go with the theme of terrain megas and to shut down psyspam

---

​

Name: Umbreon : Umbreon:
Type: Dark / Poison
Abilities: Synchronize / --- / Thick fat
New Moves: Acid Spray, Clear Smog, Gunk Shot, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave.
Removed Moves: None
Justification: we want umbreon to not suck because it's the mascot, Right? I personally thought about how to make it a wall. And walling frosslass, char y and floette is the way to do it!

 

[analysis geek]

Moves

Name: Dragon Cheer (edited)
Power: same as before.
Accuracy: sames as before.
PP: sames as before
Category: Status
Type: Dragon
New Effect: Same Effect+User is effected now.
Priority: Same as before
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Same Flags
Potential Pokémon With This Move: All the pokemon that learn it already
Justification: Small buff to a clearly doubles oriented move. Could make for a good move on Dragon spam teams.

Item

Name: Rocky Helmet
Effect: If holder is hit by a contact move, the attacker loses 1/6 of its max HP.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: yes
Fling Power & Effect: 60
Justification: Gives the meta another way to punish fake out users and physical attackers without completely neutralizing fake outs flinching effect.

Name: Safety goggles
Effect: Holder is immune to powder moves and damage from Sandstorm or Hail.
Can be Knock Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: yes
Fling Power & Effect: 80
Justification: Sleep may not be prominent right now at least from what I've seen but it'll be nice to have some counterplay outside of immunities and eterrain.

 

[Swagodile]

Moves

Name: Fury Cutter
Power: 20
Accuracy: 90
PP: 10
Category: Physical
Type: Bug
Effect: The user attacks 3 times in a row—first with a power of 20, then with a power of 40, then with a power of 60. The attack ends if the user misses.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Fury Cutter, but viable.

Name: Aqua Tail
Power: 75
Accuracy: 90
PP: 10
Category: Physical
Type: Water
Effect: Hits both targets. Has a 20% chance to drop each target's Speed by one stage.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current distribution.
Justification: Now there's actually a reason to use this over Waterfall, Liquidation, or Wave Crash.

Name: Leaf Tornado
Power: 55
Accuracy: 95
PP: 15
Category: Special
Type: Grass
Effect: Hits both targets and lowers their speed by one stage.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Speed control for Grass types.

Name: Wild Charge
Power: 90
Accuracy: 100
PP: 15
Category: Physical
Type: Electric
Effect: User takes damage equal to 1/8th of the damage dealt. If used in Electric Terrain, user does not take recoil damage.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current distribution.
Justification: Fixed this crap move by reducing the recoil and make it no do recoil in Electric Terrain

Items

Name: Muscle Band | Wise Glasses
Effect: Boosts the power of the holder's physical moves by 10%, and foes cannot drop its Attack. | Boosts the power of the holder's special moves by 10%, and foes cannot drop its Special Attack.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30
Justification: An anti-Intimidate tool for physical attackers. Wise Glasses's effect is less useful, but it's for parity.

Name: Utility Umbrella
Effect: The holder is unaffected by all weather effects, including ignoring the Sp. Def/Defense boosts Rock and Ice types get in Sand and Snow.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30
Justification: Anti-weather item.

Name: Binding Band
Effect: Damage from trapping moves is increased to 1/4th, but they only last three turns.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30
Justification: The three-turn limit ensures that chip damage alone isn't enough to knock out a Pokemon.

Name: Weather Vane
Effect: When weather is active, the Pokemon's moves of the corresponding type (Fire for sun, Water for rain, Rock for sand, Ice for snow) deal 1.2x damage and ignore accuracy checks. Does not apply to OHKO moves.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30
Justification: Promotes keeping your weather of choice active so you don't miss your Fire Blasts, Hydro Pumps, Rock Slides, etc.

Abilities

Name: Mystic Power
Effect: All of this Pokemon's moves have STAB.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: (replaces Magician) (replaces Frisk)
Justification: Protean, but your type doesn't change

Name: Long Reach
Effect: Physical attacks are boosted by 20% and don't make contact.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: Long Reach that actually does something. Flavor-wise, Decidueye shoots arrows, Tinkaton uses its hammer, and Passimian throws its ball.

Name: Battle Armor | Shell Armor
Effect: Attacks landed on the Pokémon will never be critical hits, and it takes 20% less damage from attacks.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Current distribution + (Battle Armor) | (Shell Armor)
Justification: Ignoring crits is nice, but it's not enough to justify your ability slot.

Name: Bull Rush
Effect: On the first turn after this Pokemon enters the field: +20% Attack and +50% Speed.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: (replaces Anger Point)
Justification: This ability comes from Radical Red, and I think it suits Tauros really well.

Adjustments

Name: Simisage | Simisear | Simipour
Type: Grass | Fire | Water
Abilities: Gluttony/Grassy Surge | Gluttony/Fire Mane | Gluttony/Hospitality
New Moves: Power Whip, Spiky Shield, U-turn | Pyro Ball, Parting Shot | Wave Crash, Water Spout, Life Dew
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: Yes, Grassy Surge competes with Rillaboom, but Rillaboom's not in the game yet, and Simisage can also be a Special attacker. Simisage is a non-Mega Fire mane user. Simipour is a more offensive Hospitality user that can pivot with Flip Turn. The idea is that instead of tea, it shares its water.


Name: Luxray
Type: Electric
Abilities: Galvanize/Intimidate/Guts
New Moves: Fake Out, Parting Shot
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: It's a cat, like many of the Pokemon that learn Fake Out. The idea here is to be Electric Incineroar.


Name: Mega Steelix
Type: Steel/Ground
Abilities: Earth Eater
New Moves: Coil
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: Sand Force does this thing no favors. With Earth Eater however, it becomes an excellent Ground immunity that can heal from an allie's Earthquake. Coil is an alternate to Curse that patches up Iron Tail, Rock Slide, and Stone Edge's shaky accurate.


Name: Clefable -> Mega Clefable
Type: Fairy -> Fairy/Flying
Abilities: Friend Guard/Magic Guard/Unaware -> Magic Bounce
New Moves: Hurricane
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: It desperately needs a stronger Flying-type move than Air Slash. Friend Guard is because its pre-evos have it, so why not?

 

[Lysion]

(not submitting Vileplume cus I decided Trevenant would be a more interesting choice for Grassy Surge but then Lysio had the same idea ^^ also counting on you to return with Return ^^)

It's time!

Moves

Name: Return
Power: 102
Accuracy: 100%
PP: 20
Category: Physical
Type: Normal
Effect: No additional effect.
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Same as canon
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Every single one (bar )
Justification: Normal-type Pokémon got hit very hard with Return and Frustration disappearing. Well Return makes a... return! Physical Normal-type Pokémon appreciate having a good and reliable STAB (Lopunny-Mega, Kangaskhan and its mega, Snorlax...), and -ate megas appreciate it the most. Feraligatr-Mega, Pinsir-Mega, and Glalie-Mega finally have a good STAB option other than mere Body Slam (at least Feraligatr has Double-Edge, which isn't the case for the other 2...)

Items

Name: Loaded Dice
Effect: Holder's moves that hit 2-5 times hit 4-5 times; Population Bomb hits 4-10 times. (Same as canon)
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Same as canon
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Same as canon
Fling Power & Effect: Same as canon
Justification: Loaded Dice is an item I really appreciate. Dragon-type Pokémon like Dragonite or Garchomp appreciate having Loaded Dice for Scale Shot sets, and it's also a huge buff to Rapid Fire that came out slate 1.

Abilities

Name: Aerodynamism
Effect: This Pokemon's Wind moves do not miss. Wind move immunity.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: This ability comes from Glacemons, but I was curious to test it in a metagame that is Doubles based. It should be strong, as it grants a Wind move immunity (so Blizzard, Hurricane, Heat Wave etc), while also allowing for wind move spam. It gives a much needed buff to Pidgeot-Mega, and I'm unsure about who else could get it.

Adjustments

Adjustments

Name: Scrafty | Scrafty-Mega
Type: Dark/Fighting
Abilities: Shed Skin/Moxie/Intimidate | Intimidate
New Moves: Parting Shot, Gunk Shot
Removed Moves:
Justification: If I'm being honest, I was at first very, very disappointed with Scrafty-Mega. I later realized double Intimidate was kinda good, all things considered. I'm a huge fan of Scrafty and its mega, and I think it doesn't need much to really shine. It gets Parting Shot back from ZA (it should have kept it), and Gunk Shot so it can have an easier time dealing with Fairies.

Name: Trevenant
Type: Ghost/Grass
Abilities: Natural Cure/Grassy Surge/Harvest
New Moves:
Removed Moves:
Justification: After a bit of brainstorming on Discord, we reached the conclusion that Trevenant was certainly the best Pokémon for Grassy Surge. Terrain war is upon us with Musharna (and Malamar-Mega to a certain degree) making PsySpam undisputed, with the only other Terrain setter being Raichu-Mega-X. Now, Trevenant allows to make it fairer.

So, why Trevenant, exactly? For multiple reasons. It has a great movepool (with Grassy Glide, Poltergeist, Trick Room, Will-O-Wisp, Ally Switch, Wood Hammer), and a Ghost type that is very useful, allowing it to be immune to Fake Out, but also hitting Psychic types (Musharna) for super effective damage with Poltergeist. Do note that, while it wins against Musharna, it loses against Malamar-Mega, making this an interesting dynamic. Rillaboom is not a concern yet, but Trevenant does have tools to set it apart from Rillaboom, which is a nice bonus.

Also as a note: Decidueye is now viable or at least niche with Masquerade, and Sinistcha is a top tier support, if we buff Gourgeist as well then every single Grass/Ghost of the tier will be viable lmao

Name: Gholdengo
Type: Steel/Ghost
Abilities: Good as Gold/Surge Surfer
New Moves:
Removed Moves:
Justification: For science. Terrain war? Alright let's add some more. Gholdengo has good lore for Surge Surfer, and competitively it's rather interesting as well. NP into Make it Rain and all, making it a huge threat in the back, as well as resisting Psychic and Grass, possibly making the Terrain war better for Electric side.

 

[pink/chez]

Name: Aqua Feed(might change later)
Power: -
Accuracy: status
PP: 5
Category: Status
Type: Grass
Effect: Raises the user's higher offensive stat by 2 stages. Heals 1/8th of the user's maximum HP. unless in rain in of which grass types heal 1/12th rather than 1/8th
Priority: -2
Flags: unchanged
Potential Pokemon With This Move: /, , , , , , , , , , /, /
Justification:

• The user absorbs nearby ambient moisture, sharply raising its highest offensive stat. It restores a small amount of HP.

 

[DenebStargazer]

aw hell why not

Adjustments

Name: Stunfisk
Type: Ground/Electric
Abilities: Static / Electric Surge / Sand Veil
New Moves: Flip Turn, Rising Voltage, Snatch
Removed Moves: ...does Stunfisk even HAVE moves worth removing?
Justification: Adding more terrain control options to the meta to counteract the newfound Psychic Surge Musharna, Stunfisk is weirdly decently bulky - its main issues stem from not really doing anything with it. As such I've thrown a couple moves its way to hopefully make it not a complete Electric Terrain bot (including Rising Voltage, which it inexplicably doesn't get in base, and is probably fine on a mon with Stunfisk's... whelming offensive profile). Additionally, being a Ground-type setter means that it can pair well with ally Discharge users to give them access to a strong spread attack without the downsides.

 

[Hematite]

Move Submissions​

Prevailing Wind (Flying / Special)
65 BP / 100% acc / 16 PP / +3 priority

Makes the target flinch. This move fails if the target isn't about to use a wind move.​

(also counts as wind-based itself)​

Potential distribution:



(this is mostly just a hodgepodge of Flying-types, Tailwind users and birds that I wasn't actively afraid to buff; there's plenty of leeway at council discretion)

Justification:

Spoiler

Functionally, this is a clone of Upper Hand, but instead of targeting physical or special priority moves, it targets any wind moves.
Although that sounds like a small pool of options, it's surprisingly significant against almost every archetype right now!

The biggest highlights are that you can use this to punish Heat Wave, Blizzard, Hurricane, Icy Wind or Tailwind -
in particular, that means it functions like a Wide Guard sidegrade against Mega Charizard Y and Froslass,
and it also blocks Pelipper's Flying STAB and keeps your team safe from two prominent forms of Speed control.

Incidentally, this is hardly as important as blocking Tailwind, but it's also super effective on Whimsicott!
Prankster Tailwind is a bit notoriously low on counterplay, so I think adding a move like this will have positive long-term effects as well (Tornadus will hate it P:).

I also think this would be cool in tandem with Lysion's Aerodynamism!
If Prevailing Wind happens to catch on, some of the less powerful Tailwind setters like Mega Pidgeot and Noivern would be able to stand out by being immune to it, making them more reliable at getting "unblockable" Tailwind off.

Laser Cut (Steel / Special)
75 BP / 100% acc / 12 PP

Becomes a physical move if that will deal more damage. (works like Shell Side Arm, not Photon Geyser)​

If the opposing team is protected by Reflect, Light Screen or Aurora Veil, this move is always a critical hit.​

(slicing move)​

Potential distribution:
(main standouts)
(I would somewhat prefer NOT to put this on Archaludon, but otherwise, I'm in favor of adding this to pretty much any Steel-type or Sharpness user!)

Justification:

Spoiler

Okay, so the idea here started from wanting a move that was dedicated to punishing screens - specifically a Steel-type move because it's super effective on both Grimmsnarl and Mega Froslass. (It's also a nice excuse to run an attacker with a positive matchup into Mega Floette!)
In particular, I like the dynamic that Grimmsnarl can use a targeted Parting Shot to weaken Laser Cut if it hasn't set screens yet, but the move crits (and bypasses Parting Shot drops) if Grimmsnarl set screens first. That means Grimmsnarl can choose to weaken just the Laser Cut user with Parting Shot or set screens to weaken its ally, but it's impossible to do both.

In a neutral situation, the 75 BP of Laser Cut is (intentionally) slightly less than the 80 BP of Iron Head and Flash Cannon, and not every Steel-type is built to take advantage of the Shell Side Arm effect;
there are plenty of Pokémon that will pretty much always end up doing damage in one category or the other because their offenses are too specialized.
Since those are the go-to Steel STABs for most Pokémon, I didn't feel right making it 100% power-creep them!
This way, slotting in Laser Cut as a main STAB is just a choice you can make to punish screens and avoid contact-punishing effects, but it's not the only viable Steel STAB or anything.

That said, it is a particularly cool buff to the handful of Steel-types with relatively even offenses, like Lucario and Mega Lucario, Aegislash and Hisuian Goodra (plus maybe Hisuian Samurott, since Sharpness gives it pseudo-STAB on Laser Cut?).
For these users, it can easily end up outperforming a set that had committed to either Iron Head or Flash Cannon by adapting to target the lower defense,
and more importantly, it adds flexibility to get around Intimidate debuffs, opposing Calm Mind buffs, and even the -2 Sp. Atk from Hisuian Goodra's Draco Meteor - even more so with the conditional crit mechanic!
(Incidentally, the crit effect can also work with Gholdengo's Make It Rain if we want it to have this.)
I think this is a really fitting extension of the move's base premise of teching around defensive support, and I always like to make mechanics that add value to mixed offenses! Laser Cut should be viable on offensive Steel-types in general, but I really like that the handful of mixed offensive Steel-types can make better use of it than the rest of the type.

In tandem with its inherent "support-piercing" effects, it's also worth bringing up that some of Laser Cut's potential users can combine it with even more specific layers of tech for different kinds of defensive support:
Mega Skarmory has Stalwart to get around redirection; Aegislash is naturally immune to Fake Out; thanks to Stalwart and Inner Focus, base Lucario can pick between either of those (with the added bonus that Intimidate doesn't stop Inner Focus Lucario from going after a weaker Defense stat); and Competitive Empoleon can severely punish both Intimidate and Parting Shot.
All around, while it's a pretty straightforward move to use, I'm really interested in the variety of implications it has on different users, and just the idea that even a move with fairly unimpressive power in a vacuum could become so threatening to teams that rely on defensive support.

(Flavorfully:
I came up with the effect of the move first, but it seemed like it should have light-based flavor in order to interact with screens, and "Laser Cut" seemed super easy to justify as both a physical move and a special move.
Plus, Steel-type special moves tend to be related to light, like Mirror Shot and Flash Cannon, and a laser sounds appropriately high-tech for a Steel move!)

Storm Throw (Fighting / Physical)
65 BP / 100% acc / 8 PP

Always a critical hit.​

In rain, this move's power is increased by 50%.​

(makes contact)​

Potential distribution:
(current users)
(additional possible users)
(at council discretion) ?
(but mostly just, like, a lot of Fighting-types-- not Sneasler though)

Justification:

Spoiler

Actually, this was almost going to be a new move (I started out wanting to make a Fighting- or Ground-type move that became a critical hit if it was raining),
but then I realized Storm Throw already existed and even had "Storm" in the name, so I thought that was kinda funny and ran with it. P:

So uh! First of all, Storm Throw is a naturally solid move to begin with, and I was really on board with it when Z-A made it a TM!



The case for distributing Storm Throw:

I think wider Storm Throw distribution really suits the identity of Fighting as a type in general;
physical Fighting-types are very disproportionately specialized against Intimidate, like Defiant, Scrappy and Inner Focus all being strongly Fighting-biased in distribution and Body Press being a Fighting move that's used primarily to circumvent Intimidate.

This trend seems like it was designed to bounce off of Incineroar, since it's the most relevant Intimidator and happens to be weak to Fighting:

- On one hand, every Fighting-type Defiant user except Primeape is from Gen VII or later, and it was Gen VIII that introduced Body Press and buffed Scrappy and Inner Focus to grant Intimidate immunity, so the "anti-Intimidate = Fighting-type" trend didn't really start until Incineroar debuted.​

- On the other hand, since Incineroar's introduction, most Fighting-types have either had an Ability that blocks Intimidate or had a snowballing effect like Moxie or Beast Boost to offset it directly; aside from the Abilities listed above, we also keep getting stuff like Crabominable (Hyper Cutter), Urshifu (Wicked Blow and Surging Strikes), Sneasler (Unburden for White Herb), Okidogi (Guard Dog) and Mega Staraptor (Contrary).​

I think this is a cool bit of consistency, and I love when different types get to have identities like this that go beyond type matchups but also engage meaningfully with them,
so I'm a strong advocate of Storm Throw distribution in general; I just think it's cool to double down on this and extend it to the pre-Gen VII Fighting-types (since they were designed before Incineroar came out).

On a separate note, I actually like Close Combat in VGC a lot more than I like it in singles - I think its drawback tends to be a lot more engaging in a doubles environment - but I do still think it could use a bit of competition;
I love seeing Pokémon like Koraidon, where running Close Combat is a valid option but not also the safest and only practical option, you know?
It means more to see Pokémon running with Close Combat's raw power (and making other trades like Life Orb rather than Clear Amulet) when it's a choice they're making for a reason than when the next-best Fighting move was never a realistic option.
Storm Throw and Close Combat complement each other naturally in that Close Combat's drawback (lowering defenses) is at its worst on defensive builds that want to stay on the field for a long time - which are also the Pokémon that are most likely to face Intimidate cycling and appreciate the consistency of Storm Throw.

Overall, distributing Storm Throw to more Fighting-types feels really elegant to me;
on one hand, you get to run with the anti-Intimidate theme as a baseline for the type ("Fighting-types in general are characterized by a reliable physical STAB that ignores Intimidate"),
while on the other, Fighting is probably the type with the most viable alternatives - the most Pokémon that can choose to trade it for something like Close Combat or Drain Punch because they have other ways around Intimidate - so it's noticeably less likely to stifle STAB variety than a move like it would for any other type.



The actual change:

... Okay, but this isn't just a distribution sub - I am also adding a new effect to the move - so I should talk about that a little as well jdhfg
It's a pretty straightforward change, but there are two sides to it!

The first thing is that I really like any excuse to add type variety and "off-type" abusers to field effect archetypes,
so I just think it's cool to take a move like Storm Throw, set it up primarily to be one of the go-to STABs for Fighting-types even in a neutral context, and then allow the extra layer that - because Storm Throw interacts with rain - Fighting-types in general now interact with rain, too, and now there's a whole type being considered for rain teams or a new form of support accepted by just about any Fighting-type!

The other thing is uh
I led with this:

"I started out wanting to make a Fighting- or Ground-type move that became a critical hit if it was raining"​

... yeah so the real reason for this entire sub is that I think Archaludon needs to be bullied a little <3 sorry--

Quick highlights of the potential distribution:

- Barbaracle can have Sniper pre-Mega, but it loses Sniper when it Mega Evolves and becomes Fighting-type, so it won't combine them for a ridiculous STAB​

- Putting this on Blaziken is cool because it means rain weakens its Fire STAB but boosts its Fighting STAB (it has this in common with Emboar)​

- Putting it on Toxicroak is cool because it also has Dry Skin​

- There are a couple of Water-type users without Fighting STAB because, if you're using them in rain, the 50% boost makes it equivalent to a Fighting-type using it outside of rain​

Sky Drop (Flying / Physical)
60 BP / 100% acc / 12 PP

The user takes the target into the sky, then drops it during the next turn. The target cannot attack while in the sky.​

(makes contact)​

Potential distribution:
(current users)
(additional possible users)

Justification:

Spoiler

Okay, first thing: this is a vanilla move and I'm making no changes to it at all (just un-Dexiting it),
but it's also a hecking weird move with some obscure interactions, so uhh... yeah let me sum up what it actually does:

- Sky Drop has the user grab one of its opponents and carry it into the sky, which puts both the user and the target into a semi-invulnerable state (like using Fly).​

- On the user's next turn, it drops the target, which does damage and frees it from Sky Drop.​

- The main benefit of this move is that it interrupts the chosen target's action for the turn. In practice, it serves a similar purpose to Fake Out.​

​

- Sky Drop doesn't have priority, but it generally costs the target exactly one turn either way:​

- if you're faster, you can expect to go before it on the turn you use Sky Drop (making it miss the first turn), but you'll probably also go first on the turn you free it from Sky Drop (letting it use a move on the second turn);​

- if you're slower, you can expect to go after it on the turn you free it from Sky Drop (letting it use a move on the first turn), but you'll probably also go after it on the turn you free it from Sky Drop (making it miss the second turn).​

- Note that this entirely comes down to when in the turn Sky Drop is used, since it has neutral priority; if the turn order changes between the two turns (like if one of the other Pokémon uses Trick Room or Tailwind, or if the target uses a move of increased or decreased priority), the target could occasionally end up not missing its action on either turn... or it could end up missing both!​

The key advantages of Sky Drop over Fake Out are that it specifically doesn't have priority (meaning it can successfully disrupt Trick Room setters that block Fake Out, like Musharna, Farigiraf and eventually Indeedee) and that instead of only being able to use it on your first turn, you can use it any time you can afford to commit two turns to it.

Meanwhile, the drawback is that both the user and the target are also semi-invulnerable for its duration.
As a result, your other Pokémon also (usually) can't attack the target that lost its turn to Sky Drop; unlike Fake Out, you're effectively protecting the same target you disrupt.
Since you can't really use Sky Drop to get a free hit on the target, it's generally used to create an opening to attack the other Pokémon unimpeded, or as a defensive tool that buys time to reposition.

There are some other cool techs to take advantage of Sky Drop's unique mechanics!
Because of the way it depends on turn order,
if you expect your opponent's support Pokémon to use a Speed control move, you might actually prefer to use Sky Drop on their other Pokémon - if you pull it off, that could mean the Sky Drop user outspeeds it on the first turn but underspeeds it on the second turn, making the target miss its action on both turns.
It can also indirectly prevent the target from using a priority move, since if they outspeed your Sky Drop user on the second turn, their move just gets skipped anyway - like, if there's a Sucker Punch user you're afraid of, you could use Sky Drop on it and have your partner Protect on the first turn, then safely attack it on the second turn knowing it can't use Sucker Punch.

It can be a pretty tricky move to make the most of, but it's really fun to use! (it's also one of the coolest things Aerodactyl can do)
I think Sky Drop would be especially nice as a disruptive tool in this metagame - recent Gens have been a lot more hostile to Fake Out than any of the games where Sky Drop existed, so its niche has arguably gotten stronger over time.

There are a few more obscure mechanics of Sky Drop that are definitely worth explaining, so here they are:

- There are some moves that can still attack the user or target of Sky Drop! The moves that specifically interact with Sky Drop (and exist in Champions) are Hurricane, Smack Down and Thunder - or you can also use anything that would let you bypass a semi-invulnerable turn, like any move if the user has No Guard. This is generally not the primary use case for Sky Drop, but it can be a cool interaction to build around!​

​

- If the target is Flying-type, you can still use Sky Drop to disrupt it, but it will not take any damage from the second turn of the move.​

​

- However, if the target weighs at least 200kg, it is completely immune to Sky Drop! This doesn't come up a lot, but there are a handful of relevant Pokémon that it doesn't work on - like Scolipede, Tyranitar, Dragonite, Metagross and Snorlax - so definitely keep it in mind.​

- (Noting since I brought up using Sky Drop to prevent Trick Room: Farigiraf is only 160kg, so you can use Sky Drop on it just fine!)​

​

- You can also prevent the use of Sky Drop (and even force it to end early) by using Gravity.​

​

- A held Power Herb does not activate on Sky Drop (which is a good thing, because the "charging turn" is the main value of the move; you never want to skip it).​

 

[Gekokeso]

Abilities

Name: Screen Cleaner
Effect: On Switch-in, remove all screen effects from both sides of the field. If a screen gets removed, gain +1 Special Attack.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Current Distribution +
Justification: Grimsnarl is my favourite mon in this regulation, but even I have to admit it can be pretty annoying. Screen Cleaner being on more stuff than mime helps counter act the screens, and now also gives the users a boost to deal extra damage. You can even break your own screens to get a free special attack boost (To clarify, you only get 1 special attack boost from multiple screens being removed).

Items

Name: Clear Amulet
Effect: Prevents user's stats from being lowered by the opponent.
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Same as canon
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Same as canon
Fling Power & Effect: Same as canon
Justification: Underrated item that can help in certain scenarios. Was gonna sub, but then someone else subbed then removed it and I felt like a shizo.

Moves

Move: Wonder Room / Trick Room / Magic Room
Type:

Category: Status
BP: -
Acc: -
PP: 10 (16)
Z-Move Effect: Unchanged
Effect: Sets up Wonder Room / Trick Room / Magic Room for 5 turns. Only one type of room may be active at once, setting another room overrides the previous one.
Wonder Room: Removes type matchups including resistances, immunities and weaknesses.
Magic Room: Same effect as before.
Trick Room: Same as before.
Priority: -7 for Trick Room, -6 for Wonder Room, 0 for Magic Room.
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current distribution / Current distribution / Current distribution - Prankster Pokémon
Description: RESUB. Wanted to buff the other room types so that they had an actual effect that could compete with trick room. The most important thing to know is that the new rooms now override each other, so if you want to break opposing rooms you can use your own. Wonder Room is a potentially devastating option for spread move users to dominate and not worry about defensive checks, and can also be used to override a trick room. Trick is slower than Wonder so that the trick room user always wins if wonder room is attempted to be used to override it. Magic Room doesn't do anything fancy, but it being 0 priority means that a pokémon can use the move to break a trick room or wonder room during the turn, but its removed from Prankster Pokémon to prevent room breaks at the start of the turn.

Move: Quick Throw / Boomerang Throw
Type:

Category: Physical
BP: 65
Acc: 100
PP: 10 (16)
Z-Move Effect: 120 bp
Effect: Launches the partner pokémon, dealing 50% of the damage dealt as recoil to the partner pokémon / switching the partner pokémon. Fails if there's no partner pokémon.
Priority: +1 / -6
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Anything that has the other throwing moves.
Description: Goofy move idea. Quick Throw provides a very strong priority option.... at the cost of highly hurting your teammates. Boomerang throw is basically Circle Throw that you don't have to use on your own teammate which makes it very niche.

Move: Toxic Thread
Type:

Category: Status
BP: -
Acc: 100
PP: 10 (16)
Z-Move Effect: Raise the user's speed stat by 1
Effect: Lowers the foe(s)' speed stat by 1 stage and poisons them.
Priority: 0
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current Distribution +
Description: Why is this single target, why did you buff the speed drop by 2 but not make it double target which would have actually made the move good. Ariados loses the monopoly over the move in exchange for it having a significantly more useful effect now.

Adjustments

Name: Dedenne | Emolga | Morpeko
Type:

|

|

Abilities: Cheek Pouch / Armor Tail / Plus | Static / Cloud Nine / Motor Drive | Hunger Switch / Speed Boost
New Moves: +After You, Follow Me, Fake Out, Moonblast, Taunt | +Ally Switch, Coaching, Hurricane, Tailwind | +Ally Switch, After You, Bulk Up, Coaching, Nuzzle, Swords Dance
Removed Moves: None
Justification: We got pretty much very little electric types in the meta besides the megas and Rotom forms, so I thought buffing the Pikaclones in some manner would be pretty useful. Dedenne gets Dazzling in order to stop priority and has a decent typing to support its teammates. Emolga gets tailwind and the ability to outspeed weather speedsters to win Tailwind wars. Morpeko gets speed boost and setup options to support its teammates and even provide setup with Baton Pass.

 

[G-Luke]

Name: Umbreon
Type:

Abilities: Inner Focus | HA: Dark Aura
New Moves: Fake Out, Knock Off, Parting Shot, Follow Me
Justification:
Umbreon will be switching in, clicking Parting Shot, Snarl and Follow Me to stop threats from being annoying. Umbreon is the face of this mod, he has to be goated.

 

[ausma]

Abilities

(RESUB)
Name: Magic Warp
Effect: For as long as the user is active, Magic Room will be active.
Permanent: N/A
Mold Breaker: N/A
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification:
Magic Room is a very unique effect with a lot of potentially unique and powerful synergies, but is critically held back by extremely inconsistent activation conditions. You usually want it to expire at a very specific time, but you have to wait 5 turns and perfectly position within it or spend a turn both activating and deactivating it, folding tempo.

A primal-style activation condition addresses pretty much every issue around Magic Room that limits its viability. You can choose very deliberately when to end it without ceding momentum, while also keeping your opponents on their toes about when their item could or couldn't be active. It's a way to punish teams that are extremely reliant on them and also another mode to build your team around. This could also possibly encourage the usage of double Mega Pokemon that are both active on the field, or with Delphox/Starmie, create some interesting chemistries with their Mega forms due to Magic Room turning off Focus Sash and Choice Scarf.

Meowstic I suggested Opportunist for, but I think an ability like this would make a lot of sense for them due to their "warping" thematics shown in PLZA, while also pairing extremely well with their statline and utility profile. Access to Fake Out and each Meowstic's Pre-Mega ability could have really fun interactions with a Mega Evolution that activates Magic Room. Prankster utility coming out vs. Fake Out vs. a raw deactivation of items is a particularly unique situation to exert pressure with.

Mr. Rime I wanted to throw a bone for truthfully, but I think removing items could be a fun reference to how Mr. Rime's inspiration in Charlie Chaplin was one of the original movie stars, and... well, items didn't exist before. Mr. Rime also brings Fake Out and Trick Room to the table simultaneously which is a pretty cool move combo to encourage.

Moves

Move: Fisticuffs
Type: Fighting
Category: Physical
BP: -
Acc: 100
PP: 5 (8)
Effect: Move’s BP scales based how different the user’s Speed is compared to the target. If the user is the last to move in the turn and the move successfully lands, their Speed stat increases by two stages.
Flags: Contact, Punching
Priority: 0
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Description:
This move has multiple working parts to it that might be very unintuitive on paper, but I promise there’s a thought process here!!!

A team style I think is sort of hard to make work in VGC but has insane intrigue to me are teams that try to make both Tailwind and Trick Room work on the same composition. This seems like a bad idea overall because you’re trying to make two different calibers of Speed work, but I think having that innate offensive flexibility in a format like this where both playstyles are so strong and have unique forms of counterplay is a really intriguing angle to take for a team. Fisticuffs is designed to encourage this exact dynamic.

I think the BP functionality is already conducive toward this, as with Trick Room you functionally have a full-force Fighting-type Gyro Ball that can get Iron Fist boosted, and if you’re the fastest thing on the field the same principle applies. I think it working like both Gyro Ball and Electro Ball makes it a lot easier to use it on both compositions, since Tailwind directly boosts your Speed stat and thus the damage calculation.

But, it comes full circle to make both playstyles usable on the same team if you pack in the condition where you can get a giant burst of speed if you’re the last to move in the turn. This is a condition that you can’t hit by setting Trick Room, making it operate only when you want it to (aka on a Tailwind mode). By itself this can be a very compelling way to combat opposing Tailwind, but what I find most fun about this is that if you want to use a Tailwind mode, that this boost can make any Trick Room abuser a Tailwind abuser, especially since IVs don’t exist to create further distance in stats. In practice, you’re not really using this move to scale your Speed for the express purpose of becoming the fastest thing on the field, but rather to take advantage of other kinds of resources on your team.

Beyond this, I think the strange activation condition of the Speed boost has the ability to encourage some very fun set options. Something I thought of was Fling Iron Ball or Trick Lagging Tail on Grimmsnarl to consistently get Speed boosts, and then reap the rewards of your labor by getting rid of the item. Furthermore, if you have a weird Speed tier that makes it easy to boost up to +4, Fisticuffs could be a really funny tool that scales its damage super hard. I also think it could be a weird tool for combating partial Trick Room teams. Though, overall my goal here was to just really open people’s minds as to what could work on Trick Room and Tailwind. The Pokemon I suggested here are suggested for that exact reason as Pokemon with potential to make use of this move in one direction or another.

 

[koista12]

Move: Astonish
Type:

Category: Special
BP: 20
Acc: 100
PP: 10 (12)
Effect: Lifts the target's Protect status before hitting
Flags: Contact, Priority
Priority: +2
Potential Pokémon With This Move: (probably NOT ,, , or )
Description:
Feint is an interesting move, but has somewhat poor distribution and a mediocre typing. Astonish's Ghost typing flips the script compared to Feint, making Ghost types vulnerable to it while Normal types have nothing to fear. As I was advised on Discord, Astonish is 10 BP lower than Feint to compensate for its better offensive typing, and I've tried to be flavorful with the distribution while not giving the move to the top-tier Ghost types of Champions. Still, the distribution is just a large working list and I trust the council will have a better grasp on what should and shouldn't get this move.

 

[BlueRay]

Adjustment

Name: Gengar

Ability: Cursed Body // Misty Surge
Type: Ghost / Poison

Stats:
HP: 60
Attack: 65
Defense: 60
Special Attack: 130
Special Defense: 75
Speed: 110
BST: 500

Physical Moves	Special Moves	Status Moves
	Misty Explosion	Flatter

Description:
Competitive
- anti Sneasler answer that naturally resists its STAB moves; it can comfortably switch-in without having to worry about Dire Claw's nasty RNG element.
- anti sleep answer. Ghost/Poison naturally resists Venusaur, a common evil Sleep Powder user. And generally speaking, Gengar's type combination is good into other abusers, usually Grass Pokémon. Should Hypnosis ever become meta, you are also usually good into most of its abusers, normally Ghost and Psychic Pokémon.
- Gengar resists Fairy, so, it can tank an ally's Misty Explosion. The Pokémon itself gains Misty Explosion not only because of flavour but also because of two facts: For one, Gengar is known as a suicide attacker, clicking Explosion left and right in old generations of Singles. In VGC, back in gen 7, Gengar liked running Trick Room + Destiny Bond. So, Misty Explosion would be another, alternate way of making this kind of strategy possible. For two, Gengar can naturally pressure Fairy weak Dark Pokémon if necessary.
- a potential Fairy ally clicking Misty Explosion naturally pressures Dark Pokémon for Gengar; in return, Gengar threatens certain Steel Pokémon weak to Ghost, such as Gholdengo, Aegislash or (Mega) Metagross. This Ghost vs Steel interaction can be seen as an intentful choice by the developers back in gen 6. Usually, most Fairy Pokémon don't have Fire, Fighting or Ground coverage moves. Therefore, they are so much more reliant on an ally to handle Steel Pokémon or they resort to Ghost/Dark coverage moves. Furthermore, at that time, Aegislash, Bronzong, and Metagross were common enough. So, from the potential perspective of the developers, it wouldn't be such a bummer to rely on Ghost/Dark coverage moves. And besides, this type interaction recontextualizes and reemphasizes the connection between Xerneas and Yveltal, often read by fans as opposite forces when it could also rather be seen as complementary forces. Fairy + Dark do support and cover each well enough due to how offensively excellent they are, and the defensive application can also be neat (mostly for Dark Pokémon). If Discord works on my laptop, I might quote Hematite's essay on Xerneas and Yveltal as complementary forces if he permits it, ofc.
- for what is worth, Gengar has an interesting interaction with Psychic Surge Musharna where it's both weak to and effective against it.
- edit: I added Flatter for the unique interaction with Misty Surge.

 

[Mintly]

guy above me kinda exploded ngl

anyways heres my resubs



Name: Ampharos-Mega
Type:

Abilities: Dragonize
New Moves: Hyper Voice, Weather Ball, Electro Shot
Justification: Mega Amphy is a decent mon with a unique type that unfortunately has an ass ability and an even more ass movepool. she gets zilch in terms dragon moves and her strongest one is Dragon Pulse. lets fix that by making her a good spammer in trick room or rain.

Name: Voltage Swipe
Power: 80
Accuracy: 100
PP: 16
Category: Physical
Type:

Effect: 10% to paralyze the foe. Hits all opponents.
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Contact
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Everyone loves a Reliable Physical Electric Move, lets make this one more interesting by having it be a spread move! Use it as a main form of damage, or try to get those para hax!

 

[PQRDG]

Hello everyone! Time for council's vetoes. As the newest member of council, it is my great privilege to criticize your submissions on behalf of my peers.

Any vetoes mentioned here have 24 hours to be changed. Voting will take place in ~24 hours, so any last submissions and changes must be in before that time. There will be no other vetoes besides the ones here.

Moves

Name: Sleep Powder
Power: 0
Accuracy: 100%
PP: 16
Category: status
Type: grass
Effect: Put's the target to sleep
Priority: -2
Flags: Metronome, Mirror, Powder, Protect, Reflectable, Snatch
Potential Pokémon With This Move: current distribution + Meganium .
Justification: removes the rng effect of sleep powder without giving some pokemon reliable fast sleep inducing moves.

---

Name: Hypnosis
Power: 0
Accuracy: 100%
PP: 1
Category: status
Type: psychic
Effect: Put's the target to sleep
Priority: 0
Flags: Metronome, Mirror, Protect, Reflectable, Snatch
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: removes the rng effect of Hypnosis without letting whole teams be put to sleep

These changes to Sleep moves have been vetoed by council because, despite your changes to either PP or priority, 100% accurate sleep is still deemed an unwanted change for the meta.

Due to the bulk of this Pokemon compared to other Follow Me users, as well as the insane power of Dark Aura-boosted Foul Play, council has decided that this is a no-go. This doesn't even mention how much stronger this would make allied Kingambit.

Move Name: Aqua Feed

A healing move that raises an attacking stat by two stages. This has been vetoed, council does not think this move would be a healthy inclusion. It also "introduces too many conditions for minimal change" (-Rass, 2026) from your wording of how the healing effect works. Either way, a Swords Dance/Nasty Plot that also heals is just too good.

Name: Armor Tail | Dazzling | Queenly Majesty

After some deliberation, council has decided that an Armor Tail redistribution would not be a healthy change for the meta. You are free to make an Adjustment submission where you give a Pokemon one of these abilities, but as an Ability submission this would not be a positive inclusion for the tier.

Snip

We have a list here of submissions that we have decided need to be addressed.

-Swift - damage output and priority is way too good. Especially on your example of Sylveon, which already runs Quick Attack quite well. At minimum nerf the power and/or priority, and most likely remove from the Eevee line. Please also make it clear if this would or would not be a spread move, as base Swift does actually hit both opponents.
-Cross Chop - unholy damage. Breaking Protect and dealing more damage if it does makes it way too strong, there is a reason moves like Feint are as weak as they are. Please reconsider the effect of the move.
-Swirly Glasses - these have to go. being able to drop a Physical Draco Meteor (etc) at just the cost of your item slot is too strong of an option
-Gambler's Chip - Serene Grace in your item slot is also considered by council to be too potent of an option. Even on the newly nerfed Rock Slide the flinch chance that would come from this makes the item uncompetitive, not to mention other moves with secondary effects such as Dire Claw.
-Power Keg - the chip that this item provides with no drawback and too easy of a condition to trigger is going to get a no from council
-Cursed Coffin/Cursed Slab - Council has considered this ability effect to be uncompetitive and too strong
- Unaware Clefable getting access to Quiver Dance was considered much too strong of an option, not even considering giving the Mega access to that as well. Please remove Quiver Dance

Luckily thanks to lots of discussion in the Discord (don't forget to check that out if you haven't already) and the Showdown room, these are all of the vetoes for this slate. See you this weekend for the voting!

 

[G-Luke]

Muntiny omg this is insane
#THEYWantUmbreonToSuckAssInHerOwnMod

 

[Rasdanation]

Muntiny omg this is insane
#THEYWantUmbreonToSuckAssInHerOwnMod

 

[cat111ca]

Muntiny omg this is insane
#THEYWantUmbreonToSuckAssInHerOwnMod

We want it to not be broken

 

[Gekokeso]

Muntiny omg this is insane
#THEYWantUmbreonToSuckAssInHerOwnMod

1. Bold of you to assume Umbreon's pronouns without asking them, it told me it identifies as it/them.
2. Get better at subbing instead of making Umbreon a Follow Me billion bulk merchant.
#Outwoked #SkillIssue #CorruptCouncilOnTop

 

[cat111ca]

1. Bold of you to assume Umbreon's pronouns without asking them, it told me it identifies as it/them.
2. Get better at subbing instead of making Umbreon a Follow Me billion bulk merchant.
#Outwoked #SkillIssue #CorruptCouncilOnTop

listen I understand their sub sucks but please be a little nicer. you're really aggressive in half of your posts

 

[G-Luke]

listen I understand their sub sucks but please be a little nicer. you're really aggressive in half of your posts

Lowkey this isn't even 5% of mean, Geko usually has to tell ME to chill out

But I get it

 

[Beaf Cultist]

I am also in this episode

 

[Rasdanation]

Hello BumbleOfAces kind of you to show up!

 

[Rasdanation]

Voting is now open!

The following items have been vetoed and thus cannot be voted for:

Vetoes

Safety Goggles [analysis geek] (duplicate sub to Lydian, who posted it first)
Rocky Helmet [analysis geek] (duplicate sub to PQRDG, who I believe(?) posted it first)
Binding Band (Way too free to justify 75% chip over the duration of 3 turns)
Mystic Power (New Sub, however this ability is really powerful and council believes that while it could be fine with extremely careful distribution, we'd rather veto and suggest a lower power boost to non-STABs if resubbed)
Clefable [Swagodile] (Even after the nerf, council raised some additional concerns to Friend Guard Clefable, which not only sounds incredibly flexible, but draws away even more viability from its mega as well)
Aqua Feed
Umbreon [G-Luke]

edit: I missed the fact we have a duplicate sub, please check again

Voting Format
In each category, you may vote for 6 submissions, with 2 self-votes in each category (so you can vote for 24 submissions with 8 total self-votes). Please specify which votes are self-votes. You don't have to list who made the submission unless someone else subbed something with the same name/species. The order you put it in does not matter, every vote is worth 1 point.

Example

Moves
Dragon Hammer (SV), First Impression (SV), Snipe Shot, Hyper Drill, Protect, Fire Lash/Apple Acid/Grav Apple

Items
Sitrus Berry (SV), Focus Band (SV), Scope Lens, Quick Claw, King's Rock, Shell Bell

Abilities
Sand Veil/Snow Cloak (SV), Symbiosis (SV), Healer, Pressure, Unseen Fist/Piercing Drill, Galvanize

Adjustments
Gallade (SV), Mimikyu (SV), Audino, Aromatisse, Scovillain, Umbreon

For the sake of making vote counting easier, PLEASE use the same exact format listed in the spoiler box above

Voting will end in 24 hours.

Sub Comp Coming Soon

 

[Rasdanation]

Sub Comp

Moves

Move: Upper Hand
Effect: Upper Hand has a priority of +5. If the target has selected a physical or special move with increased priority and has not yet had a chance to execute its move, Upper Hand will strike first and cause the target to flinch; otherwise, Upper Hand will fail.
New Users:
Description: Since Upper Hand explicitly checks if the moves are physical / special before causing a flinch, it can safely outprioritize Protect clones and thus you can have a slower Upper Hand user stop a Fake Out from a faster user. I think this change is necessary to help slower Pokémon be encouraged to use the move outside of extremely situational stuff (and before you ask about futureproofing, Iron Hands never learned this move so we're fine!)

As for the new Pokémon getting it, I think Machamp is extremely obvious and i'm baffled to find out today it doesn't have access to this move. Scizor I think makes an interesting choice here, being a Mega that is really hurt by Mega Charizard Y's omnipresence and would appreciate a buff, being able to stop Incin faking it (or an ally) out with very considerable 60 BP super effective damage (despite being at -1). It doesn't really have hands in the most literal sense but Hisuian Samurott learns it so I think it's reasonable enough for it to as well. Emboar sucks and needs all the help it can get. Pangoro sucks and needs all the help it can get. Giving it to Barbaracle makes a ton of sense and I liked ausma's submission for it last slate, so i'm honoring it here (plus it makes a ton of sense anyway)

Move: Mat Block
Effect: Mat Block protects all Pokémon on the user's side of the field from any physical or special moves for that turn.
Users:
Description: Sure, remove False Surrender no one has ever used that move ever (even though I still wanna sub it by principle) but removing Mat Block is like... So fucked up! This move is actually extremely interesting and with Mega Greninja's newfound speed I think people will be able to find a way to put it to good use. I don't really have much to say, it's just a really cool move and it's a shame it's not here

Name: Crafty Shield
Power: --
Accuracy: --
PP: 12
Category:

Type:

Effect: Protects allies from Status moves this turn. Can be used consecutively without failing.
Priority: +3
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): N/A
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Anything that used to learn it () +
Justification: Bring this move back, crazy cool and good effect, being Good as Gold for both of your mons as an attack, held back by extremely limited distribution. The best user is likely the original user in Klefki, but Drampa is also funny, since it forces your opponent to hit it, which can then activate Berserk

Name: Nature Power
Power: --
Accuracy: --
PP: 12
Category:

Type:

Effect: Becomes a different damaging move depending on the active terrain and the user's stats
None = Tri Attack if the user's SpA => Atk, Body Slam if not
Grassy = Energy Ball if the user's SpA => Atk, Leaf Blade if not
Electric = Thunderbolt if the user's SpA => Atk, Zing Zap if not
Misty = Moonblast if the user's SpA => Atk, Play Rough if not
Psychic = Psychic if the user's SpA => Atk, Psychic Fangs if not
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): N/A
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Most things that used to learn it () +
Justification: This move basically got replaced by Terrain Pulse, but I need my Prankster Whimsicott in Misty Terrain and Camerupt in Electric Terrain shenanigans back. Also extended the shenanigans to physical attackers but I'd say the special attackers use it better.

Name: Split Crusher
Power: 30
Accuracy: 100
PP: 12
Category:

Type:

Effect: Hits twice. Lowers the foe's Defense by 1 stage. Doubles: Tries to hit each foe once (works exactly like Dragon Darts' smart targeting).
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Protect, Mirror, Contact
Potential Pokémon With This Move: (probably only like 10-15 of these)
Justification: I miss Leer, so I have added Leer in the form of El Hijo del Crush Claw JolteMons. A little chip damage and a defense drop is great support for physical attackers, with the bonus of hitting each opponent like Dragon Darts does, meaning that you can hard punish Protects or Follow Mes, turning it into an attacking Screech (or literally JolteMons Crush Claw).

Name: X-Scissor
Power: 80
Accuracy: 100
PP: 12
Category:

Type:

Effect: Ends the effects of Rooms if it hits.
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Protect, Mirror, Contact, Slicing
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current distribution (maybe remove from but probably not) +
Justification: Very silly idea, but I was reminded of that infamous moment in the anime when Ash's Hawlucha broke Trick Room with X-Scissor and now we're in a Pet Mod where that interaction is actually relevant. This is mostly just a niche tech for teams that really hate to see Trick Room on preview, allowing some Bug-types, especially slow Bug-types like Araquanid or Ariados, to be really good into those matchups. This is also technically an Ice Spinner clone, being an 80 BP Physical move that removes a class of field effects.

Name: Stormy Descent
Power: 80
Accuracy: 100%
PP: 16
Category: View attachment 843850
Type: View attachment 843849
Effect: Gains a secondary effect according to Weather. Hits both opponents.
30% chance to lower target's Speed by 1 stage under Snow
30% chance to inflict Burn under Sun
30% chance to set up Mud Sport for 3 turns under Rain
30% chance to inflict Sand Tomb under Sand
30 BP higher under Strong Winds
Priority: 0
Flags: Protect, Metronome, Wind
Potential Pokémon With This Move: ()
Pokémon That Should NOT Get This Move: ()
Justification: Reliable Flying STAB for some Pokémon that lack it and also an interesting way of engaging with the Weather Wars, letting Flying mons work as a Support option on any weather

Name: Boulder Bash
Power: 120
Accuracy: 100
PP: 16
Category: Physical
Type: Rock
Effect: Has 33% recoil.
Priority: 0
Flags: Contact, Metronome, Protect
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Rock-type Contact move that isn't Head Smash. Being a Rock-type version of the Flare Blitz moves gives the Rock Tough Claws mons a good reliable STAB option, and gives existing Head Smash mons a more reliable attack when you don't like that 80% accuracy.

Name: Poison Gas
Power: -
Accuracy: 90
PP: 16
Category: Status
Type: Poison
Effect: Poisons the target. Hit foe(s).
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Useful status-spreading move that is not currently in the game. While the only native users currently in the format are Salazzle and Garbodor (who still got the move dexited from the for some reason) expanding it to other Poison types could provide some underrated picks some good utility.

Name: Twineedle | Dragon Darts
Power: 50
Accuracy: 100
PP: 12
Category: Physical
Type: Bug | Dragon
Effect: Hits twice. (Doubles) Tries to hit each foe once. If exactly one Pokemon is Massive, both hits target that Pokemon.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged for Dragon Darts, +Slice for Twineedle?
Potential Pokémon With This Move: | No change?
Justification: Bringing back Twineedle (formerly the terrible signature move of Beedrill) and buffing it to be a Bug-type Dragon Darts. This now becomes an incredibly reliable Bug STAB in Singles, and is a decent move that hits both targets in this Doubles format. Might not be enough to make Mega Beedrill viable in a VGC format but should be a nice buff to the other bugs who want the new option. The final wording is just to clarify an interaction with the new ability Massive which should be interesting.

Name: Thunderclap [resub]
Power: 70
Accuracy: 100
PP: 8
Category: Special
Type: Electric
Effect: Usually goes first. Fails if the target is not attacking.
Priority: 1
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Electric Priority for slower under-rated Electric types that need a bit of a boon to be excellent. Pair that with Electric terrain and you can do some excellent damage.

Name: Knuckle Duster
Power: 65
Accuracy: 100%
PP: 16
Category:

Type:

Effect: 10% chance to lower target's SpA by 1. Hits twice in Sandstorm
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Protect, Mirror, Metronome, Wind
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Resubbing from last slate as it fell short just a vote or two from making the cutoff. Between my abil sub and this you might be able to tell there’s an agenda of making sand a bit more versatile lol

Name: Static Slash / Shattering Shot
Power: 75
Accuracy: 100%
PP: 12
Category:

/

Type:

/

Effect: On hit, triggers a future move that will hit next turn for 25 bp on target’s adjacent allies.
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Protect, Mirror, Metronome, Slicing, Contact / Protect, Mirror, Metronome, Bullet
Potential Pokémon With This Move: tbd
Justification: Some alternative attacking options for type/category combos that are generally under-repped. Essentially poses as spread moves with non-standard damage spreads.

Name: Misty step
Power: 0
Accuracy: --%
PP: 12
Category: status
Type: fairy
Effect: summons misty terrain and switches the user out afterwards
Priority: 0
Flags: literally none
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Hatterene Clefable Aromatisse Audino Ninetales-Alola
Justification: chilly reception clone that summons misty terrain. Just a fun idea I had. Misty terrain is weaker than other field effects so it feels fine to give this to more Pokemon. Also stops psyspam

Name: Dragon Cheer (edited)
Power: same as before.
Accuracy: sames as before.
PP: sames as before
Category: Status
Type: Dragon
New Effect: Same Effect+User is effected now.
Priority: Same as before
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Same Flags
Potential Pokémon With This Move: All the pokemon that learn it already
Justification: Small buff to a clearly doubles oriented move. Could make for a good move on Dragon spam teams.

Name: Fury Cutter
Power: 20
Accuracy: 90
PP: 10
Category: Physical
Type: Bug
Effect: The user attacks 3 times in a row—first with a power of 20, then with a power of 40, then with a power of 60. The attack ends if the user misses.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Fury Cutter, but viable.

Name: Aqua Tail
Power: 75
Accuracy: 90
PP: 10
Category: Physical
Type: Water
Effect: Hits both targets. Has a 20% chance to drop each target's Speed by one stage.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current distribution.
Justification: Now there's actually a reason to use this over Waterfall, Liquidation, or Wave Crash.

Name: Leaf Tornado
Power: 55
Accuracy: 95
PP: 15
Category: Special
Type: Grass
Effect: Hits both targets and lowers their speed by one stage.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Speed control for Grass types.

Name: Wild Charge
Power: 90
Accuracy: 100
PP: 15
Category: Physical
Type: Electric
Effect: User takes damage equal to 1/8th of the damage dealt. If used in Electric Terrain, user does not take recoil damage.
Priority: 0
Flags: Unchanged
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current distribution.
Justification: Fixed this crap move by reducing the recoil and make it no do recoil in Electric Terrain

Name: Return
Power: 102
Accuracy: 100%
PP: 20
Category: Physical
Type: Normal
Effect: No additional effect.
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Same as canon
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Every single one (bar )
Justification: Normal-type Pokémon got hit very hard with Return and Frustration disappearing. Well Return makes a... return! Physical Normal-type Pokémon appreciate having a good and reliable STAB (Lopunny-Mega, Kangaskhan and its mega, Snorlax...), and -ate megas appreciate it the most. Feraligatr-Mega, Pinsir-Mega, and Glalie-Mega finally have a good STAB option other than mere Body Slam (at least Feraligatr has Double-Edge, which isn't the case for the other 2...)

Prevailing Wind (Flying / Special)
65 BP / 100% acc / 16 PP / +3 priority

Makes the target flinch. This move fails if the target isn't about to use a wind move.​

(also counts as wind-based itself)​

Potential distribution:



(this is mostly just a hodgepodge of Flying-types, Tailwind users and birds that I wasn't actively afraid to buff; there's plenty of leeway at council discretion)

Justification:

Spoiler

Functionally, this is a clone of Upper Hand, but instead of targeting physical or special priority moves, it targets any wind moves.
Although that sounds like a small pool of options, it's surprisingly significant against almost every archetype right now!

The biggest highlights are that you can use this to punish Heat Wave, Blizzard, Hurricane, Icy Wind or Tailwind -
in particular, that means it functions like a Wide Guard sidegrade against Mega Charizard Y and Froslass,
and it also blocks Pelipper's Flying STAB and keeps your team safe from two prominent forms of Speed control.

Incidentally, this is hardly as important as blocking Tailwind, but it's also super effective on Whimsicott!
Prankster Tailwind is a bit notoriously low on counterplay, so I think adding a move like this will have positive long-term effects as well (Tornadus will hate it P:).

I also think this would be cool in tandem with Lysion's Aerodynamism!
If Prevailing Wind happens to catch on, some of the less powerful Tailwind setters like Mega Pidgeot and Noivern would be able to stand out by being immune to it, making them more reliable at getting "unblockable" Tailwind off.

Laser Cut (Steel / Special)
75 BP / 100% acc / 12 PP

Becomes a physical move if that will deal more damage. (works like Shell Side Arm, not Photon Geyser)​

If the opposing team is protected by Reflect, Light Screen or Aurora Veil, this move is always a critical hit.​

(slicing move)​

Potential distribution:
(main standouts)
(I would somewhat prefer NOT to put this on Archaludon, but otherwise, I'm in favor of adding this to pretty much any Steel-type or Sharpness user!)

Justification:

Spoiler

Okay, so the idea here started from wanting a move that was dedicated to punishing screens - specifically a Steel-type move because it's super effective on both Grimmsnarl and Mega Froslass. (It's also a nice excuse to run an attacker with a positive matchup into Mega Floette!)
In particular, I like the dynamic that Grimmsnarl can use a targeted Parting Shot to weaken Laser Cut if it hasn't set screens yet, but the move crits (and bypasses Parting Shot drops) if Grimmsnarl set screens first. That means Grimmsnarl can choose to weaken just the Laser Cut user with Parting Shot or set screens to weaken its ally, but it's impossible to do both.

In a neutral situation, the 75 BP of Laser Cut is (intentionally) slightly less than the 80 BP of Iron Head and Flash Cannon, and not every Steel-type is built to take advantage of the Shell Side Arm effect;
there are plenty of Pokémon that will pretty much always end up doing damage in one category or the other because their offenses are too specialized.
Since those are the go-to Steel STABs for most Pokémon, I didn't feel right making it 100% power-creep them!
This way, slotting in Laser Cut as a main STAB is just a choice you can make to punish screens and avoid contact-punishing effects, but it's not the only viable Steel STAB or anything.

That said, it is a particularly cool buff to the handful of Steel-types with relatively even offenses, like Lucario and Mega Lucario, Aegislash and Hisuian Goodra (plus maybe Hisuian Samurott, since Sharpness gives it pseudo-STAB on Laser Cut?).
For these users, it can easily end up outperforming a set that had committed to either Iron Head or Flash Cannon by adapting to target the lower defense,
and more importantly, it adds flexibility to get around Intimidate debuffs, opposing Calm Mind buffs, and even the -2 Sp. Atk from Hisuian Goodra's Draco Meteor - even more so with the conditional crit mechanic!
(Incidentally, the crit effect can also work with Gholdengo's Make It Rain if we want it to have this.)
I think this is a really fitting extension of the move's base premise of teching around defensive support, and I always like to make mechanics that add value to mixed offenses! Laser Cut should be viable on offensive Steel-types in general, but I really like that the handful of mixed offensive Steel-types can make better use of it than the rest of the type.

In tandem with its inherent "support-piercing" effects, it's also worth bringing up that some of Laser Cut's potential users can combine it with even more specific layers of tech for different kinds of defensive support:
Mega Skarmory has Stalwart to get around redirection; Aegislash is naturally immune to Fake Out; thanks to Stalwart and Inner Focus, base Lucario can pick between either of those (with the added bonus that Intimidate doesn't stop Inner Focus Lucario from going after a weaker Defense stat); and Competitive Empoleon can severely punish both Intimidate and Parting Shot.
All around, while it's a pretty straightforward move to use, I'm really interested in the variety of implications it has on different users, and just the idea that even a move with fairly unimpressive power in a vacuum could become so threatening to teams that rely on defensive support.

(Flavorfully:
I came up with the effect of the move first, but it seemed like it should have light-based flavor in order to interact with screens, and "Laser Cut" seemed super easy to justify as both a physical move and a special move.
Plus, Steel-type special moves tend to be related to light, like Mirror Shot and Flash Cannon, and a laser sounds appropriately high-tech for a Steel move!)

Storm Throw (Fighting / Physical)
65 BP / 100% acc / 8 PP

Always a critical hit.​

In rain, this move's power is increased by 50%.​

(makes contact)​

Potential distribution:
(current users)
(additional possible users)
(at council discretion) ?
(but mostly just, like, a lot of Fighting-types-- not Sneasler though)

Justification:

Spoiler

Actually, this was almost going to be a new move (I started out wanting to make a Fighting- or Ground-type move that became a critical hit if it was raining),
but then I realized Storm Throw already existed and even had "Storm" in the name, so I thought that was kinda funny and ran with it. P:

So uh! First of all, Storm Throw is a naturally solid move to begin with, and I was really on board with it when Z-A made it a TM!



The case for distributing Storm Throw:

I think wider Storm Throw distribution really suits the identity of Fighting as a type in general;
physical Fighting-types are very disproportionately specialized against Intimidate, like Defiant, Scrappy and Inner Focus all being strongly Fighting-biased in distribution and Body Press being a Fighting move that's used primarily to circumvent Intimidate.

This trend seems like it was designed to bounce off of Incineroar, since it's the most relevant Intimidator and happens to be weak to Fighting:

- On one hand, every Fighting-type Defiant user except Primeape is from Gen VII or later, and it was Gen VIII that introduced Body Press and buffed Scrappy and Inner Focus to grant Intimidate immunity, so the "anti-Intimidate = Fighting-type" trend didn't really start until Incineroar debuted.​

- On the other hand, since Incineroar's introduction, most Fighting-types have either had an Ability that blocks Intimidate or had a snowballing effect like Moxie or Beast Boost to offset it directly; aside from the Abilities listed above, we also keep getting stuff like Crabominable (Hyper Cutter), Urshifu (Wicked Blow and Surging Strikes), Sneasler (Unburden for White Herb), Okidogi (Guard Dog) and Mega Staraptor (Contrary).​

I think this is a cool bit of consistency, and I love when different types get to have identities like this that go beyond type matchups but also engage meaningfully with them,
so I'm a strong advocate of Storm Throw distribution in general; I just think it's cool to double down on this and extend it to the pre-Gen VII Fighting-types (since they were designed before Incineroar came out).

On a separate note, I actually like Close Combat in VGC a lot more than I like it in singles - I think its drawback tends to be a lot more engaging in a doubles environment - but I do still think it could use a bit of competition;
I love seeing Pokémon like Koraidon, where running Close Combat is a valid option but not also the safest and only practical option, you know?
It means more to see Pokémon running with Close Combat's raw power (and making other trades like Life Orb rather than Clear Amulet) when it's a choice they're making for a reason than when the next-best Fighting move was never a realistic option.
Storm Throw and Close Combat complement each other naturally in that Close Combat's drawback (lowering defenses) is at its worst on defensive builds that want to stay on the field for a long time - which are also the Pokémon that are most likely to face Intimidate cycling and appreciate the consistency of Storm Throw.

Overall, distributing Storm Throw to more Fighting-types feels really elegant to me;
on one hand, you get to run with the anti-Intimidate theme as a baseline for the type ("Fighting-types in general are characterized by a reliable physical STAB that ignores Intimidate"),
while on the other, Fighting is probably the type with the most viable alternatives - the most Pokémon that can choose to trade it for something like Close Combat or Drain Punch because they have other ways around Intimidate - so it's noticeably less likely to stifle STAB variety than a move like it would for any other type.



The actual change:

... Okay, but this isn't just a distribution sub - I am also adding a new effect to the move - so I should talk about that a little as well jdhfg
It's a pretty straightforward change, but there are two sides to it!

The first thing is that I really like any excuse to add type variety and "off-type" abusers to field effect archetypes,
so I just think it's cool to take a move like Storm Throw, set it up primarily to be one of the go-to STABs for Fighting-types even in a neutral context, and then allow the extra layer that - because Storm Throw interacts with rain - Fighting-types in general now interact with rain, too, and now there's a whole type being considered for rain teams or a new form of support accepted by just about any Fighting-type!

The other thing is uh
I led with this:

"I started out wanting to make a Fighting- or Ground-type move that became a critical hit if it was raining"​

... yeah so the real reason for this entire sub is that I think Archaludon needs to be bullied a little <3 sorry--

Quick highlights of the potential distribution:

- Barbaracle can have Sniper pre-Mega, but it loses Sniper when it Mega Evolves and becomes Fighting-type, so it won't combine them for a ridiculous STAB​

- Putting this on Blaziken is cool because it means rain weakens its Fire STAB but boosts its Fighting STAB (it has this in common with Emboar)​

- Putting it on Toxicroak is cool because it also has Dry Skin​

- There are a couple of Water-type users without Fighting STAB because, if you're using them in rain, the 50% boost makes it equivalent to a Fighting-type using it outside of rain​

Sky Drop (Flying / Physical)
60 BP / 100% acc / 12 PP

The user takes the target into the sky, then drops it during the next turn. The target cannot attack while in the sky.​

(makes contact)​

Potential distribution:
(current users)
(additional possible users)

Justification:

Spoiler

Okay, first thing: this is a vanilla move and I'm making no changes to it at all (just un-Dexiting it),
but it's also a hecking weird move with some obscure interactions, so uhh... yeah let me sum up what it actually does:

- Sky Drop has the user grab one of its opponents and carry it into the sky, which puts both the user and the target into a semi-invulnerable state (like using Fly).​

- On the user's next turn, it drops the target, which does damage and frees it from Sky Drop.​

- The main benefit of this move is that it interrupts the chosen target's action for the turn. In practice, it serves a similar purpose to Fake Out.​

​

- Sky Drop doesn't have priority, but it generally costs the target exactly one turn either way:​

- if you're faster, you can expect to go before it on the turn you use Sky Drop (making it miss the first turn), but you'll probably also go first on the turn you free it from Sky Drop (letting it use a move on the second turn);​

- if you're slower, you can expect to go after it on the turn you free it from Sky Drop (letting it use a move on the first turn), but you'll probably also go after it on the turn you free it from Sky Drop (making it miss the second turn).​

- Note that this entirely comes down to when in the turn Sky Drop is used, since it has neutral priority; if the turn order changes between the two turns (like if one of the other Pokémon uses Trick Room or Tailwind, or if the target uses a move of increased or decreased priority), the target could occasionally end up not missing its action on either turn... or it could end up missing both!​

The key advantages of Sky Drop over Fake Out are that it specifically doesn't have priority (meaning it can successfully disrupt Trick Room setters that block Fake Out, like Musharna, Farigiraf and eventually Indeedee) and that instead of only being able to use it on your first turn, you can use it any time you can afford to commit two turns to it.

Meanwhile, the drawback is that both the user and the target are also semi-invulnerable for its duration.
As a result, your other Pokémon also (usually) can't attack the target that lost its turn to Sky Drop; unlike Fake Out, you're effectively protecting the same target you disrupt.
Since you can't really use Sky Drop to get a free hit on the target, it's generally used to create an opening to attack the other Pokémon unimpeded, or as a defensive tool that buys time to reposition.

There are some other cool techs to take advantage of Sky Drop's unique mechanics!
Because of the way it depends on turn order,
if you expect your opponent's support Pokémon to use a Speed control move, you might actually prefer to use Sky Drop on their other Pokémon - if you pull it off, that could mean the Sky Drop user outspeeds it on the first turn but underspeeds it on the second turn, making the target miss its action on both turns.
It can also indirectly prevent the target from using a priority move, since if they outspeed your Sky Drop user on the second turn, their move just gets skipped anyway - like, if there's a Sucker Punch user you're afraid of, you could use Sky Drop on it and have your partner Protect on the first turn, then safely attack it on the second turn knowing it can't use Sucker Punch.

It can be a pretty tricky move to make the most of, but it's really fun to use! (it's also one of the coolest things Aerodactyl can do)
I think Sky Drop would be especially nice as a disruptive tool in this metagame - recent Gens have been a lot more hostile to Fake Out than any of the games where Sky Drop existed, so its niche has arguably gotten stronger over time.

There are a few more obscure mechanics of Sky Drop that are definitely worth explaining, so here they are:

- There are some moves that can still attack the user or target of Sky Drop! The moves that specifically interact with Sky Drop (and exist in Champions) are Hurricane, Smack Down and Thunder - or you can also use anything that would let you bypass a semi-invulnerable turn, like any move if the user has No Guard. This is generally not the primary use case for Sky Drop, but it can be a cool interaction to build around!​

​

- If the target is Flying-type, you can still use Sky Drop to disrupt it, but it will not take any damage from the second turn of the move.​

​

- However, if the target weighs at least 200kg, it is completely immune to Sky Drop! This doesn't come up a lot, but there are a handful of relevant Pokémon that it doesn't work on - like Scolipede, Tyranitar, Dragonite, Metagross and Snorlax - so definitely keep it in mind.​

- (Noting since I brought up using Sky Drop to prevent Trick Room: Farigiraf is only 160kg, so you can use Sky Drop on it just fine!)​

​

- You can also prevent the use of Sky Drop (and even force it to end early) by using Gravity.​

​

- A held Power Herb does not activate on Sky Drop (which is a good thing, because the "charging turn" is the main value of the move; you never want to skip it).​

Move: Wonder Room / Trick Room / Magic Room
Type: View attachment 844390
Category: Status
BP: -
Acc: -
PP: 10 (16)
Z-Move Effect: Unchanged
Effect: Sets up Wonder Room / Trick Room / Magic Room for 5 turns. Only one type of room may be active at once, setting another room overrides the previous one.
Wonder Room: Removes type matchups including resistances, immunities and weaknesses.
Magic Room: Same effect as before.
Trick Room: Same as before.
Priority: -7 for Trick Room, -6 for Wonder Room, 0 for Magic Room.
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current distribution / Current distribution / Current distribution - Prankster Pokémon
Description: RESUB. Wanted to buff the other room types so that they had an actual effect that could compete with trick room. The most important thing to know is that the new rooms now override each other, so if you want to break opposing rooms you can use your own. Wonder Room is a potentially devastating option for spread move users to dominate and not worry about defensive checks, and can also be used to override a trick room. Trick is slower than Wonder so that the trick room user always wins if wonder room is attempted to be used to override it. Magic Room doesn't do anything fancy, but it being 0 priority means that a pokémon can use the move to break a trick room or wonder room during the turn, but its removed from Prankster Pokémon to prevent room breaks at the start of the turn.

Move: Quick Throw / Boomerang Throw
Type: View attachment 844543
Category: Physical
BP: 65
Acc: 100
PP: 10 (16)
Z-Move Effect: 120 bp
Effect: Launches the partner pokémon, dealing 50% of the damage dealt as recoil to the partner pokémon / switching the partner pokémon. Fails if there's no partner pokémon.
Priority: +1 / -6
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Anything that has the other throwing moves.
Description: Goofy move idea. Quick Throw provides a very strong priority option.... at the cost of highly hurting your teammates. Boomerang throw is basically Circle Throw that you don't have to use on your own teammate which makes it very niche.

Move: Toxic Thread
Type: View attachment 844597
Category: Status
BP: -
Acc: 100
PP: 10 (16)
Z-Move Effect: Raise the user's speed stat by 1
Effect: Lowers the foe(s)' speed stat by 1 stage and poisons them.
Priority: 0
Potential Pokémon With This Move: Current Distribution +
Description: Why is this single target, why did you buff the speed drop by 2 but not make it double target which would have actually made the move good. Ariados loses the monopoly over the move in exchange for it having a significantly more useful effect now.

Move: Fisticuffs
Type: Fighting
Category: Physical
BP: -
Acc: 100
PP: 5 (8)
Effect: Move’s BP scales based how different the user’s Speed is compared to the target. If the user is the last to move in the turn and the move successfully lands, their Speed stat increases by two stages.
Flags: Contact, Punching
Priority: 0
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Description:
This move has multiple working parts to it that might be very unintuitive on paper, but I promise there’s a thought process here!!!

A team style I think is sort of hard to make work in VGC but has insane intrigue to me are teams that try to make both Tailwind and Trick Room work on the same composition. This seems like a bad idea overall because you’re trying to make two different calibers of Speed work, but I think having that innate offensive flexibility in a format like this where both playstyles are so strong and have unique forms of counterplay is a really intriguing angle to take for a team. Fisticuffs is designed to encourage this exact dynamic.

I think the BP functionality is already conducive toward this, as with Trick Room you functionally have a full-force Fighting-type Gyro Ball that can get Iron Fist boosted, and if you’re the fastest thing on the field the same principle applies. I think it working like both Gyro Ball and Electro Ball makes it a lot easier to use it on both compositions, since Tailwind directly boosts your Speed stat and thus the damage calculation.

But, it comes full circle to make both playstyles usable on the same team if you pack in the condition where you can get a giant burst of speed if you’re the last to move in the turn. This is a condition that you can’t hit by setting Trick Room, making it operate only when you want it to (aka on a Tailwind mode). By itself this can be a very compelling way to combat opposing Tailwind, but what I find most fun about this is that if you want to use a Tailwind mode, that this boost can make any Trick Room abuser a Tailwind abuser, especially since IVs don’t exist to create further distance in stats. In practice, you’re not really using this move to scale your Speed for the express purpose of becoming the fastest thing on the field, but rather to take advantage of other kinds of resources on your team.

Beyond this, I think the strange activation condition of the Speed boost has the ability to encourage some very fun set options. Something I thought of was Fling Iron Ball or Trick Lagging Tail on Grimmsnarl to consistently get Speed boosts, and then reap the rewards of your labor by getting rid of the item. Furthermore, if you have a weird Speed tier that makes it easy to boost up to +4, Fisticuffs could be a really funny tool that scales its damage super hard. I also think it could be a weird tool for combating partial Trick Room teams. Though, overall my goal here was to just really open people’s minds as to what could work on Trick Room and Tailwind. The Pokemon I suggested here are suggested for that exact reason as Pokemon with potential to make use of this move in one direction or another.

Move: Astonish
Type:

Category: Special
BP: 20
Acc: 100
PP: 10 (12)
Effect: Lifts the target's Protect status before hitting
Flags: Contact, Priority
Priority: +2
Potential Pokémon With This Move: (probably NOT ,, , or )
Description:
Feint is an interesting move, but has somewhat poor distribution and a mediocre typing. Astonish's Ghost typing flips the script compared to Feint, making Ghost types vulnerable to it while Normal types have nothing to fear. As I was advised on Discord, Astonish is 10 BP lower than Feint to compensate for its better offensive typing, and I've tried to be flavorful with the distribution while not giving the move to the top-tier Ghost types of Champions. Still, the distribution is just a large working list and I trust the council will have a better grasp on what should and shouldn't get this move.

Name: Voltage Swipe
Power: 80
Accuracy: 100
PP: 16
Category: Physical
Type:

Effect: 10% to paralyze the foe. Hits all opponents.
Priority: 0
Flags (ex: Contact, Sound): Contact
Potential Pokémon With This Move:
Justification: Everyone loves a Reliable Physical Electric Move, lets make this one more interesting by having it be a spread move! Use it as a main form of damage, or try to get those para hax!

Abilities

Ability: Reverberate
Users: (instead of Levitate)
Effect: Users' sound-based moves hit twice, if it's a damaging move, the second hit has 50% power.
Description: I had this idea since before we got abilities and I think it'd be a really cool fit on Mega Chimecho. OHKOing Sneasler and Glimmora through Sash is extremely useful, as is having a generally powerful Psychic Noise against something like Mega Floette. Boomburst obviously does a lot of damage as well if you can pair it with an immunity. The coolest niche though, I think, is that Metal Sound turns any ally's moves into basically a one-shot button. I think this Pokémon would be really interesting as a Trick Room setter with the offense and defense to justify its role. While losing Levitate is a bit unfortunate, it's clear that this Pokémon with just Levitate had not been able to carve itself a niche in the current meta, so I think something like this would be a really interesting way to make it stand out!

Ability: Protean / Libero
Effect: Changes the Pokémon's type to the type of the move it's about to use. This no longer works only once per time the Pokémon enters battle.
Description: Since this is a completely doubles-focused metagame, I don't think we have to worry about this. Cinderace isn't in the game and won't be making too much of an impact once it becomes legal I'm sure, and Meowscarada and Greninja have been STRUGGLING. Maybe I'm too woke or something but I do not think this is game-breaking at all for either Pokémon... While I appreciate Mega Greninja having that whole dynamic of being able to Mega to use Protean twice, it just feels like a downgrade from 3DS Greninja which was never a particularly amazing Pokémon either way...

Name: Unbothered
Effect: This Pokemon ignores its own stat stages when taking or doing damage.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:()
Justification: Spiritual successor to JolteMons Optimistic, which prevented a mon from lowering its own stats, we have this that kinda has the same idea but also ignores stats dropped by the opponent in return for not allowing the user to set up. Obvious synergy with Draco Meteor or Superpower and the like is obvious, but it's also generally good for physical attackers to bypass Intimidate, or anything to bypass Parting Shot.

Name: Grim Energy (RESUB)
Effect: This Pokémon's Special Attack is raised 1 stage if hit by a Fairy move; Fairy immunity.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:()
Justification: A bit basic, and actually a VaporeMons resub of the original version of Fairy Ringer, but this just serves to add more ways to fit answers to strong Fairies, namely Mega Floette and Sylveon, on to your teams without being too overbearing. We did just get stuff like Gholdengo and Mega Metagross to help with them, but they still all struggle with the fact that Floette and Sylveon can be paired with Charizard or Delphox and put you in a rough spot again, so this helps diversify things. This is also only a Sap Sipper clone instead of something like Storm Drain, so the rest of your team still has to deal with Fairies existing. The flavor I'm going for with it is "stuff that looks like they could be the villain in a fairy tale."

Name: Rivalry
Effect: This Pokémon's moves deal 1.2x damage for each active opponent that shares a type with it. (Ex: If you have a Rivalry Pyroar and your opponent's Active Pokemon are Charizard and Farigiraf, Rivalry boosts your moves by 1.44x, but if the Farigiraf switches out for Basculegion, the boost goes down to 1.2x)
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Current Distribution + (tried to give it to one of every type...)
Justification: Spiritual successor to JolteMons Rivalry, now being able to punish your opponent for using certain common Pokemon or stacking types of Pokemon. Probably the best user I have listed is Typhlosion-H as a tech against teams using Zard, Basculegion, and any of the other very good Ghost or Fire-types, making those Eruptions HURT.

Name: Battle Bond
Effect: After KOing a Pokemon: raises Attack, Sp. Atk, Speed by 1 stage. Once per battle.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:(No longer event/form exclusive)
Justification: i'm not even sure that i, as a council member, would even allow this but screw it, this is the buff mega greninja needs. might also break mega delphox but you do need to get a kill with it in base first. You could argue that I should give this to every starter, so the Gen 6 ones aren't the only ones that get a special third ability, but it might break, like, Primarina or Typhlosion

Name: Sandclock
Effect: Under Sandstorm, user skips Charge and Recharge turns. Immunity to Sandstorm damage. (note: this also causes solar Beam to not have its damage reduced in Sand)
Permanent: No
Mold Breaker: No?
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: ()
Justification: Sand is currently a somewhat inflexible weather with not that many good abusers. This lets a few Pokémon ramp up their damage quite fast with Meteor Beam while also having a few non-Rock/Ground abusers to help Sand's matchup into other weathers. Starmie is fast and has lots of coverage, Armarouge gets to fire off Solar Beams for coverage against Waters and has cool utility in Wide Guard, Aurorus is not good but has STAB Meteor Beam and Rhyperior can spam Rock Wrecker

Name: Rattled
Effect: This Pokemon's Speed is raised 1 stage if hit by a Bug-, Dark-, or Ghost-type attack, or when a stat is lowered by a foe.
Permanent : No
Mold Breaker: No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: Conveniently I selected a handful of Pokemon that mostly can Mega Evolve. While "Defiant but for Speed" might be a bit too strong, taking the effect of Rattled (including raising Speed from Intimidate) and applying it to any other form of stat drop gives these slower Pokemon some interesting tools pre-Mega so they can benefit from that increase Speed upon Mega Evolving. The rest mostly get it for flavour, though a handful could still use it effectively if given the right opportunities.
Edit: This becomes interesting for moves like Parting Shot, where the move typing and resulting stat drops result in giving a +3 Speed to a Pokemon hit by the move.

Name: Own Tempo
Effect: This Pokemon is immune to confusion, and its Speed cannot be lowered. Immune to Intimidate.
Permanent : No
Mold Breaker: Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: For an ability with "Tempo" in its name, it is strange that it does not have anything to do with Speed. This ability will now make it that Speed reduction will not happen for this Pokemon, either from opponents' moves or its own. Useful for Pokemon that like to run a strong move that normally reduces Speed, such as Ice Hammer or Hammer Arm, but also just for Pokemon that doesn't want to get their Speed reduced from moves such as Bulldoze or Ice Wind.

Name: Infiltrator
Effect: Current Effects + This Pokemon's spread moves ignore the effects of Massive
Permanent : No
Mold Breaker: No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: Just a buff to an average ability, also fitting the flavor of its moves infiltrating past massive Pokemon.

Name: Frisk
Effect: This Pokemon identifies the held items of opposing Pokemon on switch-in and uses Thief on a random opponent. (Ideally with smart targeting to not try to Thief a Mega Stone, unless it can be coded to allow you to choose the target of the move after Frisking them)
Permanent : No
Mold Breaker: No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: Buff to a mediocre ability by letting you steal an item! Obviously can't steal Mega Stones but the free Thief on switch-in should disrupt your opponent's plans.

Name: Snow Cloak / Sand Veil
Effect: While [Snow / Sand] is active, grants the defensive benefits of the weather to self and allies, if they aren’t already receiving them. [Sand Veil also grants immunity to sand chip to self and allies]
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Prior users + /
Justification: These abilities always get reworked, and for good reason. I wanted to use the abilities to help expand the overall usefulness of their respective weathers, being ways to provide their defensive benefits to off-type allies, or additionally in the case of Sand Veil, granting immunity to allies who normally would be damaged by the weather.

Name: Steely Spirit
Effect: While this Pokemon is active, a Steel move used by any Pokemon has 1.5x power. halves the power of all fairy moves used.
Permanent: No
Mold Breaker: No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Mega falinks , Corviknight .
Justification: F mega floette F mega floette F mega floette F mega floette F mega floette.
More seriously this is ment to combat fairy spam

Name: Long Reach
Effect: Physical attacks are boosted by 20% and don't make contact.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: Long Reach that actually does something. Flavor-wise, Decidueye shoots arrows, Tinkaton uses its hammer, and Passimian throws its ball.

Name: Battle Armor | Shell Armor
Effect: Attacks landed on the Pokémon will never be critical hits, and it takes 20% less damage from attacks.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Current distribution + (Battle Armor) | (Shell Armor)
Justification: Ignoring crits is nice, but it's not enough to justify your ability slot.

Name: Bull Rush
Effect: On the first turn after this Pokemon enters the field: +20% Attack and +50% Speed.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): No
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: (replaces Anger Point)
Justification: This ability comes from Radical Red, and I think it suits Tauros really well.

Name: Aerodynamism
Effect: This Pokemon's Wind moves do not miss. Wind move immunity.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification: This ability comes from Glacemons, but I was curious to test it in a metagame that is Doubles based. It should be strong, as it grants a Wind move immunity (so Blizzard, Hurricane, Heat Wave etc), while also allowing for wind move spam. It gives a much needed buff to Pidgeot-Mega, and I'm unsure about who else could get it.

Name: Screen Cleaner
Effect: On Switch-in, remove all screen effects from both sides of the field. If a screen gets removed, gain +1 Special Attack.
Permanent (Yes or No): No
Mold Breaker (Yes or No): Yes
Potential Pokémon With This Ability: Current Distribution +
Justification: Grimsnarl is my favourite mon in this regulation, but even I have to admit it can be pretty annoying. Screen Cleaner being on more stuff than mime helps counter act the screens, and now also gives the users a boost to deal extra damage. You can even break your own screens to get a free special attack boost (To clarify, you only get 1 special attack boost from multiple screens being removed).

Name: Magic Warp
Effect: For as long as the user is active, Magic Room will be active.
Permanent: N/A
Mold Breaker: N/A
Potential Pokémon With This Ability:
Justification:
Magic Room is a very unique effect with a lot of potentially unique and powerful synergies, but is critically held back by extremely inconsistent activation conditions. You usually want it to expire at a very specific time, but you have to wait 5 turns and perfectly position within it or spend a turn both activating and deactivating it, folding tempo.

A primal-style activation condition addresses pretty much every issue around Magic Room that limits its viability. You can choose very deliberately when to end it without ceding momentum, while also keeping your opponents on their toes about when their item could or couldn't be active. It's a way to punish teams that are extremely reliant on them and also another mode to build your team around. This could also possibly encourage the usage of double Mega Pokemon that are both active on the field, or with Delphox/Starmie, create some interesting chemistries with their Mega forms due to Magic Room turning off Focus Sash and Choice Scarf.

Meowstic I suggested Opportunist for, but I think an ability like this would make a lot of sense for them due to their "warping" thematics shown in PLZA, while also pairing extremely well with their statline and utility profile. Access to Fake Out and each Meowstic's Pre-Mega ability could have really fun interactions with a Mega Evolution that activates Magic Room. Prankster utility coming out vs. Fake Out vs. a raw deactivation of items is a particularly unique situation to exert pressure with.

Mr. Rime I wanted to throw a bone for truthfully, but I think removing items could be a fun reference to how Mr. Rime's inspiration in Charlie Chaplin was one of the original movie stars, and... well, items didn't exist before. Mr. Rime also brings Fake Out and Trick Room to the table simultaneously which is a pretty cool move combo to encourage.

 

[Rasdanation]

Part 2

Items

Item: Safety Goggles
Effect: The holder is immune to powder moves and taking damage from weather
Description: While less situational without as many amazing sleep users on the meta, having Lum Berry as your sole counterplay option against the likes of Venusaur and Vivillon just feels horrible, not every team can afford Mega Raichu X either, and it feels like good future-proofing. This item also opens the door to ignoring powerful redirectors in Sinistcha and Mega Scovillain. I think it's very important to have as well

Item: Pucuasu Berry / Mucutan Berry
Effect: If the holder would be hit by a move that calculates damage using the user's Attack from a Pokémon with increased Attack stages or a move that calculates damage using the user's Special Attack from a Pokémon with increased Special Attack stages, those stage changes are ignored for the purposes of that move and the berry is consumed / If the holder would hit a target with increased Defense stages with a move that calculates damage using the target's Defense or hit a target with increased Special Defense stages with a move that calculates damage using the target's Special Defense, those stage changes are ignored for the purposes of that move and the berry is consumed
Description: This seems a bit situational but I think it would be an interesting choice given the metagame is full of Archaludons with insane defense boosts as well as set up sweepers like Floette, Delphox, and Kingambit. I think giving players an out to break through Pokémon like Archaludon as well as another tool to discourage setup from the powerhouse setup Pokémon previously mentioned would be a cool idea and open some more avenues in teambuilding!

The berries are named after Amazonian fruits cupuaçu and tucumã

Name: Mirror Herb (RESUB)
Effect: When an opposing Pokemon raises a stat stage, the holder copies it. Single use.
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Yes
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 10 BP
Justification: I can finally use Intimidate Incineroar and Arcanine in peace with all these Kingambits and Annilhilape and Mega Staraptors and ESPECIALLY Mega Falinks around.

Name: Picnic Basket
Effect: All Active Pokémon heal 1/12 of their max HP at the end of each turn.
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Yes
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 40 BP
Justification: ran out of ideas, tcg item cards save me. Basically acts like a more powerful version of Grassy Terrain's healing effect, with the obvious downside of also healing your opponent's Pokemon. Probably best used next to bulky set up stuff that'll just OHKO everything when they're done setting up, or stuff that just OHKOs everything by default anyway.

Name: Counter Gain
Effect: Holder's attacks do 1.2x damage if its team has more fainted Pokémon than the opponent's.
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Yes
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30 BP
Justification: ran out of ideas, tcg tool cards save me. Alternate boosting item option to the type boosters and Life Orb, applying to all moves and not doing recoil damage to yourself but you have to be losing for it to activate.


Name: Focus Band
Effect: If the holder is switching in, it will survive an attack that would KO it with 1 HP. Single use.
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Yes
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 20 BP
Justification: We probably already have enough items where this isn't a problem anymore, even without considering anything that we've added so far, but Focus Band is definitely one of the most toxic items in the game, especially when Focus Sash is so powerful in VGC in particular, so having a 10% chance to have that infinitely is pretty dumb. Instead, this becomes "free switch-in: the item", letting you bring in something frail or at low HP and allow it to take 1 hit guaranteed, which can potentially get you out of pins or punish your opponent for not doubling a slot.

View attachment 843851
Name: Voice Amplifier
Effect: User's sound-based moves hit both opponents and causes hit targets to wake up. This also causes them to have Spread Move reduction, and be blocked by Wide Guard/Massive.
Can Be Knocked Off: Yes
Ignored by Klutz: Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 60 BP. Target wakes up
Justification: Niche item that could allow for more utility and more offensive potential with moves like Psychic Noise, Parting Shot and Alluring Voice. Also makes for an interesting option on Skeledirge specifically. Added failsafe so that we don't end up with Dark Void Wigglytuff.

Name: Rocky Helmet
Effect: When hit by a contact move, attacker loses 1/6 of their max HP.
Justification: Another choice of item to allow physically defensive Pokemon to have tools to handle physical attackers.

Name: Eject Pack
Effect: If the holder's stat changes are lowered, it switches out to a chosen ally. Single use.
Justification: Taking a useful pivoting item and removing it being single use. Useful to pivot around Intimidate, or just to take advantage of a free switch out of something like Draco Meteor. Still potentially has counterplay against it which should make it not too insane as an item.

Name: Speeding Ticket [Resub]
Effect: If this Pokemon is targeted by a priority move, the move fails and the attacker is forced to switch out. Single-use.
Can Be Knocked Off: Yes
Ignored by Klutz: Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 20 BP
Justification: Another form of priority control and a very funny item to pull out and say "not so fast" on certain attackers.

Name: King's rock
Effect: Holders first move the holder uses flinches the target. one time use. doesn't work if the move targets multiple pokemon.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30, Causes the target to flinch
Justification: makes any non spread move a lower priority fake out. neat item that lets any fast pokemon disable a threat for a turn

---

Item Name: Shed Shell
Effect: Enables the holder to switch out of battle without fail. When the user switches out, their non-volatile status conditions are removed. (Ala Natural Cure)
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Yes
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 20 BP
Justification: A fairly small change that gives the item two niche tech counterplay situations instead of just one. It can still be used on a team hedging for a Mega Gengar MU but it can now also somewhat help combat Sleep spam or be actively chosen for synergy with Rest akin to the Natural Cure synergy.
Thanks to Genuine_Angus_B33F for letting me take this idea to our petmod

Name: Muscle Band | Wise Glasses
Effect: Boosts the power of the holder's physical moves by 10%, and foes cannot drop its Attack. | Boosts the power of the holder's special moves by 10%, and foes cannot drop its Special Attack.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30
Justification: An anti-Intimidate tool for physical attackers. Wise Glasses's effect is less useful, but it's for parity.

Name: Utility Umbrella
Effect: The holder is unaffected by all weather effects, including ignoring the Sp. Def/Defense boosts Rock and Ice types get in Sand and Snow.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30
Justification: Anti-weather item.

Name: Weather Vane
Effect: When weather is active, the Pokemon's moves of the corresponding type (Fire for sun, Water for rain, Rock for sand, Ice for snow) deal 1.2x damage and ignore accuracy checks. Does not apply to OHKO moves.
Can Be Knocked Off: yes
Ignored by Klutz: Yes
Fling Power & Effect: 30
Justification: Promotes keeping your weather of choice active so you don't miss your Fire Blasts, Hydro Pumps, Rock Slides, etc.

Name: Loaded Dice
Effect: Holder's moves that hit 2-5 times hit 4-5 times; Population Bomb hits 4-10 times. (Same as canon)
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Same as canon
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Same as canon
Fling Power & Effect: Same as canon
Justification: Loaded Dice is an item I really appreciate. Dragon-type Pokémon like Dragonite or Garchomp appreciate having Loaded Dice for Scale Shot sets, and it's also a huge buff to Rapid Fire that came out slate 1.

Name: Clear Amulet
Effect: Prevents user's stats from being lowered by the opponent.
Can Be Knocked Off (Yes or No): Same as canon
Ignored by Klutz (Yes or No): Same as canon
Fling Power & Effect: Same as canon
Justification: Underrated item that can help in certain scenarios. Was gonna sub, but then someone else subbed then removed it and I felt like a shizo.

Adjustments

Pokémon: Basculegion-M
Abilities: Swift Swim / Reckless / Mold Breaker
Description: I considered nerfing Last Respects but this felt slightly more interesting. I don't think it should come as a surprise that the power of Basculegion-M is so absurdly insane on a format with this power level, it has a ridiculous stronghold on the format, and I think, is the main driving force behind that ridiculous 70% Kingambit usage we've seen in NAIC, so I think it's very clear that its Last Respect needs to be nerfed in some way, so this was my solution. replacing Adaptability with Reckless encourages users of Basculegion-M to use it in rain for the speed control or face the drawback of losing 10% power on its Wave Crashes and 25% power on its Last Respects. But you don't have to settle for that because Basculegion-F keeps Adaptability Last Respects, losing 12.2% power on all moves assuming 32+ Atk investment, which should be enough to done down its obscene meta dominance. Here are some calcs for comparison:

• 32+ Atk Adaptability Basculegion-M Last Respects (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typeless Mew: 114-136 (65.1 - 77.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 32+ Atk Adaptability Basculegion-F Last Respects (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typeless Mew: 100-118 (57.1 - 67.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 32+ Atk Basculegion-M Last Respects (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typeless Mew: 85-102 (48.5 - 58.2%) -- 96.88% chance to 2HKO
• 32+ Atk Adaptability Basculegion-M Wave Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typeless Mew: 136-162 (77.7 - 92.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 32+ Atk Adaptability Basculegion-F Wave Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typeless Mew: 120-142 (68.5 - 81.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 32+ Atk Reckless Basculegion-M Wave Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Abomasnow: 123-145 (70.2 - 82.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Pokémon: Aromatisse
Abilities: Healer / Misty Surge / Aroma Veil
Description: With also great flavor I think Aromatisse is the perfect choice for Misty Surge. It too is a Trick Room setter, but one with a much more useful typing, and maybe Misty Surge is just what it needed to provide the support needed for Trick Room against options like Sleep on lead and providing an extremely useful typing. Heal Pulse and Fake Tears is always useful on a Pokémon like this to support common Trick Room choices like Mega Blastoise and Torkoal (you can even move before Torkoal in Trick Room by having a -Spe nature on Aromatisse and not Torkoal and investing 5 points in Spe on Torkoal). This shouldn't be meta-breaking and other options providing Fake Out immunity are probably preferred, but if someone had to take on the niche of Misty Surge in this meta, I think Aromatisse is a great choice!

Name: Gliscor
Type:

Abilities: Hyper Cutter / Aerilate / Poison Heal
New Moves: Guillotine, Roost, Super Fang, Body Slam, Tail Slap, Hyper Voice, Superpower, Rock Blast
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: Mini-Landorus now has some of the offensive presence to match Landorus in this Landorus-less metagame, now being able to smack things with Aerilate-boosted Double-Edges while still having plenty of bulk to set up Tailwinds. It also already gets Feint, which can now cross up Ghost-types, and I also gave it a bunch of other moves that I'm surprised it doesn't already have, most notably a now unblockable Guillotine since that's legal in VGC and Roost if you want to be a menace with Poison Heal still. WE, yes, WE, will be hitting Hyper Voices off of 45 SpA like we're Mega Salamence.


Name: Slurpuff
Type:

Abilities: Sweet Veil / Thick Fat / Unburden
New Moves: Belly Drum, Stomping Tantrum, Overheat, Encore, Disable, Howl, Final Gambit, Heal Pulse, Stuff Cheeks, Electro Ball
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: Health Pack got added and Sneasler is already somewhat a demon with it, so we're letting the other Unburden mon in on the fun. Slurpuff already gets a lot of strong utility to abuse with its infinite speed like String Shot, Yawn, After You, and Fake Tears, and now you add in stuff Encore, Disable, Howl, Heal Pulse, and Final Gambit and this thing can really be nasty, like a different shade of. Stuff Cheeks, Overheat (with White Herb), and the return of Belly Drum make for alternate Unburden activation options. Oh, and Electro Ball is an anime reference that also can be a stronger Thunderbolt with Unburden activated, depending on the target.


Name: Palafin
Type:

(both forms)
Abilities: Zero to Hero
New Moves: Double-Edge, Baton Pass, Quick Attack, Coaching, Superpower, Baton Pass, Thrash, Muddy Water
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: Palafin finally gets its first meta without Urshifu since SV Reg C (Reg H DOES NOT EXIST!!) just for it to get mogged by Basculegion immediately. Having a secondary STAB would help it stand out a lot, opting for Normal weirdly enough, since it helps a lot defensively against opposing Basculegion as well as Froslass while making its newly learned Double-Edge a very safe delete button to click if your opponent tries to get rid of Rain on you. The Fighting weakness obviously sucks but if you need to beat Fighting-types with your strong Water-type, you'd already be using Basc. Also, it gets a STAB Boomburst that you're probably not using (though I gave it Muddy Water as a spread Water option if you do want to). And yeah, it's kinda weird for a superhero Pokemon to be a Normal-type, but you can just imagine it's like a Spider-Man "anyone can put on the mask" kind of thing.


Name: Heliolisk
Type:

Abilities: Dry Skin / Sand Veil / Mega Sol
New Moves: Heat Wave, Nuzzle, Entrainment
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: This is stupid and crazy but I don't feel too bad about it considering the fact it has "Helio" in the name and Heliolisk is a mon that has SO many sick tools but really needs an X-Factor that isn't just the fact that it hard walls Basculegion to make up for its stats. Heat Wave is a weaker spread alternative to Weather Ball and Entrainment makes for a funny gimmick next to Charizard or something, on top of all the other techs and gimmicks that Heliolish already has. Also, it already gets Glare, but Nuzzle is there for Assault Vest stuff, a la Assault Vest Raichu. It took an extreme amount of restraint to not give this Fake Out, which is a move I 100% think it should learn normally.

Name: Absol-Mega
Type: View attachment 844188
Abilities: Sheer Force
New Moves: Hurricane
Justification: Absol is already a not very popular Mega and its Z form is likely to ovrshadow it as it stands. Sheer Force makes for an interesting choice as that lets Mega Absol boost a lot of random coverage to target specific Pokémon, which also allows it to make use of its 115 Special Attack. It functions similarly to Nidoking, where it works in spite of its middling offenses (for a Mega) due to how valuable Sheer Force Coverage is. aside from things like Thunderbolt, Ice Beam and Flamethrower, it also boosts Throat Chop as STAB and physcial coverage like Rock Slide and Play Rough


Name: Umbreon
Type: View attachment 844189
Abilities: Synchronize / Inner Focus
New Moves: Howl, Trick Room, Lunar Blessing
Justification: Umbreon is a decent mon on its own, thanks to its high bulk and disruptive movepool, but lacks in ways of directly supporting allies. These few moves allow it to be better at that role, while also improving at endgame scenarios where it is trying to take down opponents through Toxic. Lunar Blessing also plays nicely with Synchronize, letting it reflect a status condition and then cure itself. Lastly, it becomes one of the bulkier Trick Room setters while being immune to flinching from Fake Out or disruption by Prankster

Name: Mega Drampa
Type: Normal/Dragon
Abilities: Drizzle
New Moves: Weather Ball
Justification: From Legends ZA where the Mega was introduced: "Drampa's cells have been invigorated, allowing it to regain its youth. It manipulates the atmosphere to summon storms." This dex entry plus its access to Hydro Pump, Thunder, and Hurricane, makes it a solid weather user and abuser.


Name: Mega Clefable
Type: Fairy/Flying
Abilities: Friend Guard
New Moves: Defog, Hurricane, Tailwind
Justification: Building off of HtC's idea for Mega Clefable last slate, but giving it some Flying moves to work with as well. Tailwind and Defog make it an excellent utility Pokemon, and Hurricane is a more reliable source of Flying damage than Air Slash.


Name: (Mega) Falinks
Type: Fighting/Bug
Abilities: Battle Armor/Defiant -> Moxie
New Moves: Earthquake, Fell Stinger, Leech Life, Stomping Tantrum, Stone Edge
Justification: Thanks to being a group of guys with what look somewhat like bug eyes, making a Bug/Fighting Buzzwole knock-off. This gives it STAB on First Impression, as well as access to a couple new tools in its kit. Moxie allows it to potentially become a bit of a set-up sweeper, taking advantage of this new typing to cause more problems for opponents.


Name: Mega Glimmora
Type: Rock/Poison
Abilities: Merciless
New Moves: Diamond Storm, Hex, Recover
Justification: While Adaptability is a solid ability, Glimmora could use something a lot more interesting. Merciless pairs so well with Toxic Debris and Mortal Spin, making it hit potentially harder than before. Diamond Storm is a fun option to take advantage of the Mega’s increased Attack to do spread damage and maintain longevity, Hex is another way to synergize with the Poisoning, and Recover is just useful to have to stay in for longer.

RESUB
​

Name: Aromatisse
Type: Fairy / Poison
Abilities: Healer / --- / Aroma Veil
New Moves: Acid Spray, Beat Up, Clear Smog, Gunk Shot, Knock Off, Misty Step (if it wins, please either vote both or neither), Quash, Rage Powder, Sludge bomb, Taunt, Toxic
Removed Moves: None
Justification: I gave Aromatisse this so there would be a specially bulky poison type in the meta that can support its ally and deal some damage

---

​

Name: Pidgeot
Type: Normal / Flying
Abilities: Keen eyes / Frisk / Thick fat
New Moves: Blizzard, Focus Blast, Hyper Voice, Thunder
Removed Moves: None
Justification: I gave Pidgeot this to let it enter freely without having to worry about char y heatwave or Froslass-Mega blizzard and then mega evolve with new move to take advantage of with No Guard

---

​

Name: Mega Chesnaught
Type: Grass / Steel
Abilities: Grassy surge
New Moves: None
Removed Moves: None
Justification: grassy surge mega to go with the theme of terrain megas and to shut down psyspam

---

​

Name: Umbreon : Umbreon:
Type: Dark / Poison
Abilities: Synchronize / --- / Thick fat
New Moves: Acid Spray, Clear Smog, Gunk Shot, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave.
Removed Moves: None
Justification: we want umbreon to not suck because it's the mascot, Right? I personally thought about how to make it a wall. And walling frosslass, char y and floette is the way to do it!

Name: Simisage | Simisear | Simipour
Type: Grass | Fire | Water
Abilities: Gluttony/Grassy Surge | Gluttony/Fire Mane | Gluttony/Hospitality
New Moves: Power Whip, Spiky Shield, U-turn | Pyro Ball, Parting Shot | Wave Crash, Water Spout, Life Dew
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: Yes, Grassy Surge competes with Rillaboom, but Rillaboom's not in the game yet, and Simisage can also be a Special attacker. Simisage is a non-Mega Fire mane user. Simipour is a more offensive Hospitality user that can pivot with Flip Turn. The idea is that instead of tea, it shares its water.


Name: Luxray
Type: Electric
Abilities: Galvanize/Intimidate/Guts
New Moves: Fake Out, Parting Shot
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: It's a cat, like many of the Pokemon that learn Fake Out. The idea here is to be Electric Incineroar.


Name: Mega Steelix
Type: Steel/Ground
Abilities: Earth Eater
New Moves: Coil
Removed Moves: N/A
Justification: Sand Force does this thing no favors. With Earth Eater however, it becomes an excellent Ground immunity that can heal from an allie's Earthquake. Coil is an alternate to Curse that patches up Iron Tail, Rock Slide, and Stone Edge's shaky accurate.

Name: Scrafty | Scrafty-Mega
Type: Dark/Fighting
Abilities: Shed Skin/Moxie/Intimidate | Intimidate
New Moves: Parting Shot, Gunk Shot
Removed Moves:
Justification: If I'm being honest, I was at first very, very disappointed with Scrafty-Mega. I later realized double Intimidate was kinda good, all things considered. I'm a huge fan of Scrafty and its mega, and I think it doesn't need much to really shine. It gets Parting Shot back from ZA (it should have kept it), and Gunk Shot so it can have an easier time dealing with Fairies.

Name: Trevenant
Type: Ghost/Grass
Abilities: Natural Cure/Grassy Surge/Harvest
New Moves:
Removed Moves:
Justification: After a bit of brainstorming on Discord, we reached the conclusion that Trevenant was certainly the best Pokémon for Grassy Surge. Terrain war is upon us with Musharna (and Malamar-Mega to a certain degree) making PsySpam undisputed, with the only other Terrain setter being Raichu-Mega-X. Now, Trevenant allows to make it fairer.

So, why Trevenant, exactly? For multiple reasons. It has a great movepool (with Grassy Glide, Poltergeist, Trick Room, Will-O-Wisp, Ally Switch, Wood Hammer), and a Ghost type that is very useful, allowing it to be immune to Fake Out, but also hitting Psychic types (Musharna) for super effective damage with Poltergeist. Do note that, while it wins against Musharna, it loses against Malamar-Mega, making this an interesting dynamic. Rillaboom is not a concern yet, but Trevenant does have tools to set it apart from Rillaboom, which is a nice bonus.

Also as a note: Decidueye is now viable or at least niche with Masquerade, and Sinistcha is a top tier support, if we buff Gourgeist as well then every single Grass/Ghost of the tier will be viable lmao

Name: Gholdengo
Type: Steel/Ghost
Abilities: Good as Gold/Surge Surfer
New Moves:
Removed Moves:
Justification: For science. Terrain war? Alright let's add some more. Gholdengo has good lore for Surge Surfer, and competitively it's rather interesting as well. NP into Make it Rain and all, making it a huge threat in the back, as well as resisting Psychic and Grass, possibly making the Terrain war better for Electric side.

Name: Stunfisk
Type: Ground/Electric
Abilities: Static / Electric Surge / Sand Veil
New Moves: Flip Turn, Rising Voltage, Snatch
Removed Moves: ...does Stunfisk even HAVE moves worth removing?
Justification: Adding more terrain control options to the meta to counteract the newfound Psychic Surge Musharna, Stunfisk is weirdly decently bulky - its main issues stem from not really doing anything with it. As such I've thrown a couple moves its way to hopefully make it not a complete Electric Terrain bot (including Rising Voltage, which it inexplicably doesn't get in base, and is probably fine on a mon with Stunfisk's... whelming offensive profile). Additionally, being a Ground-type setter means that it can pair well with ally Discharge users to give them access to a strong spread attack without the downsides.

Name: Dedenne | Emolga | Morpeko
Type: View attachment 844731View attachment 844734|View attachment 844731View attachment 844735|View attachment 844731View attachment 844736
Abilities: Cheek Pouch / Armor Tail / Plus | Static / Cloud Nine / Motor Drive | Hunger Switch / Speed Boost
New Moves: +After You, Follow Me, Fake Out, Moonblast, Taunt | +Ally Switch, Coaching, Hurricane, Tailwind | +Ally Switch, After You, Bulk Up, Coaching, Nuzzle, Swords Dance
Removed Moves: None
Justification: We got pretty much very little electric types in the meta besides the megas and Rotom forms, so I thought buffing the Pikaclones in some manner would be pretty useful. Dedenne gets Dazzling in order to stop priority and has a decent typing to support its teammates. Emolga gets tailwind and the ability to outspeed weather speedsters to win Tailwind wars. Morpeko gets speed boost and setup options to support its teammates and even provide setup with Baton Pass.

Name: Gengar

Ability: Cursed Body // Misty Surge
Type: Ghost / Poison

Stats:
HP: 60
Attack: 65
Defense: 60
Special Attack: 130
Special Defense: 75
Speed: 110
BST: 500

Physical Moves	Special Moves	Status Moves
	Misty Explosion	Flatter

Description:
Competitive
- anti Sneasler answer that naturally resists its STAB moves; it can comfortably switch-in without having to worry about Dire Claw's nasty RNG element.
- anti sleep answer. Ghost/Poison naturally resists Venusaur, a common evil Sleep Powder user. And generally speaking, Gengar's type combination is good into other abusers, usually Grass Pokémon. Should Hypnosis ever become meta, you are also usually good into most of its abusers, normally Ghost and Psychic Pokémon.
- Gengar resists Fairy, so, it can tank an ally's Misty Explosion. The Pokémon itself gains Misty Explosion not only because of flavour but also because of two facts: For one, Gengar is known as a suicide attacker, clicking Explosion left and right in old generations of Singles. In VGC, back in gen 7, Gengar liked running Trick Room + Destiny Bond. So, Misty Explosion would be another, alternate way of making this kind of strategy possible. For two, Gengar can naturally pressure Fairy weak Dark Pokémon if necessary.
- a potential Fairy ally clicking Misty Explosion naturally pressures Dark Pokémon for Gengar; in return, Gengar threatens certain Steel Pokémon weak to Ghost, such as Gholdengo, Aegislash or (Mega) Metagross. This Ghost vs Steel interaction can be seen as an intentful choice by the developers back in gen 6. Usually, most Fairy Pokémon don't have Fire, Fighting or Ground coverage moves. Therefore, they are so much more reliant on an ally to handle Steel Pokémon or they resort to Ghost/Dark coverage moves. Furthermore, at that time, Aegislash, Bronzong, and Metagross were common enough. So, from the potential perspective of the developers, it wouldn't be such a bummer to rely on Ghost/Dark coverage moves. And besides, this type interaction recontextualizes and reemphasizes the connection between Xerneas and Yveltal, often read by fans as opposite forces when it could also rather be seen as complementary forces. Fairy + Dark do support and cover each well enough due to how offensively excellent they are, and the defensive application can also be neat (mostly for Dark Pokémon). If Discord works on my laptop, I might quote Hematite's essay on Xerneas and Yveltal as complementary forces if he permits it, ofc.
- for what is worth, Gengar has an interesting interaction with Psychic Surge Musharna where it's both weak to and effective against it.
- edit: I added Flatter for the unique interaction with Misty Surge.

Name: Ampharos-Mega
Type:

Abilities: Dragonize
New Moves: Hyper Voice, Weather Ball, Electro Shot
Justification: Mega Amphy is a decent mon with a unique type that unfortunately has an ass ability and an even more ass movepool. she gets zilch in terms dragon moves and her strongest one is Dragon Pulse. lets fix that by making her a good spammer in trick room or rain.