What If? - Alternate Timelines (AT #8 - Steel/Fighting Venomicon-Epilogue: Ability Voting)

Psychic/Fairy

...now hear me out. You have your Throat Spray that you wanna use up to activate Unburden, right? That demands that you have a sound move at least somewhere in your movepool so that you can actually trigger said Throat Spray. What better attack to lead off your Unburden sweep with STAB Psychic Noise? This not only triggers your Throat Spray, but also has its own effect of denying healing from whatever wall would want to switch in, making it that much easier to break so that the sweep becomes that much easier.

Psychics have another attack that it would be beneficial to have STAB on: Stored Power. Polteageist of all Pokemon showcases the synergy between Stored Power and Shell Smash in UU, and since the latter lowers the user's defenses as well as sharply raising its offensive stats, some Shell Smashers also come equipped with a White Herb to offset the defense drops. And of course, White Herb triggers Unburden too :]

Of course, Stored Power and Psychic Noise both get walled by Dark-types, so we would need to smash them in the face with another STAB. Enter Fairy. Fighting would work too, but is ultimately more awkward. Sure, STAB Vacuum Wave would be nice in case the opponent tries to use priority of their own, but Aura Sphere only has 80 Base Power, and Focus Blast earns the moniker of Focus Miss for a reason. Not to mention that all the other Fighting attacks are physical... or that demanding mixed EVs like that would isn't optimal. But Fairy is more in line with what Psychic wants to attack with, and also comes with Alluring Voice as a backup trigger for Throat Spray and Moonblast for big damages. Finally, Fairy brings to the table an immunity to Dragon attacks in general, and that includes Dragon Tail which would otherwise phaze you out.

...

On the surface, this typing looks like it would be walled by bulky Steels such as Equilibra, Gholdengo and Kingambit... and if I'm honest, it's probably a good idea to keep it that way, for balance reasons more than anything else. Stored Power scales very hard very quickly, jumping from a lousy 20 Base Power to an impressive 140 from just a single Shell Smash. Back that up with STAB and a high Special Attack stat and this is the type of damage you can inflict:

+2 252 SpA Tera Psychic Polteageist Stored Power (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 252-297 (66.6 - 78.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Survivable, yes, but not something you'd wanna have to switch into or keep trying to heal in front of :/

So yeah, Psychic/Fairy pitch.
 
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Fire/Steel

I think Torch Song is easily the best move to go with Unburden + Throat Spray, effectively giving the CAP a one-time Shell Smash. Steel gives the CAP a Rock neutrality, not allowing HDB to compete with the desired item, and resistances to stuff like Dragon (and a bigger Fairy resistance never hurt!). Like Chuggalong, it needs to overcome another type (Water, in this case, Chugg’s was Steel) with coverage!
 
Okay it is time to vote on Unburden Chuggalong's potentially new typing as I will also slate AT Chugg's typing alongside the new suggestions! Without further ado...

Fire/Flying
Electric/Rock
Ghost/Flying
Normal/Fire
Psychic/Fairy
Fire/Steel
Poison/Dragon


Remember it is a single bold vote and voting will end in 24 hours!
 
Here’s my flavor submission for AT Saharaja!
Untitled_Artwork.png


Fulgaboon
The Stone Strike Pokemon

Rock / Electric
Ability: Speed Boost

Inspired by Fulgurite (fossilized lightning strikes), fossilized bones, as well as vipers, to show off the high attack stat of our ATCAP.

Name is Fulgur + Gaboon Viper
 
Interrupting proceedings to provide the rest of flavour.
Here’s my flavor submission for AT Saharaja!
View attachment 674746

Fulgaboon
The Stone Strike Pokemon

Rock / Electric

Inspired by Fulgurite (fossilized lightning strikes), fossilized bones, as well as vipers, to show off the high attack stat of our ATCAP.

Name is Fulgur + Gaboon Viper
Height + Weight: 1.8m + 11.3kg {Based on the largest gaboon viper}
Ability: Solid Rock / Poison Point | Speed Boost (HA)
Reasoning:
- Solid Rock is the best one I can find for it being Fossilised}
- Poison Point is because Gaboon Vipers have the highest poison yield of all snakes.
- Speed Boost, with the exception of the Yanma line and Mega Blaziken, is typically set as the Hidden Ability.
CAP: The method of Fulgaboon striking unsuspecting prey highly resembles that of an inverted lightning strike. Its fangs are actually electric currents that can inflict lethal paralysis.
Bold are required, italics are repeating. Once again assuming this is a single stage until otherwise stated.
1 Sand Attack
1 Wrap
5 Smack Down
10 Taunt
15 Charge Beam
20 Brutal Swing
25 Glare
30 Electric Terrain
35 Rock Slide
40 Zing Zap
45 Coil
50 Diamond Storm
Egg Group: Field, Mineral
Ancient Power
Mortal Spin
Pain Split
Power Whip
TM001: Take Down
TM006: Scary Face
TM007: Protect
TM009: Thunder Fang
TM013: Acid Spray
TM018: Thief
TM020: Trailblaze
TM023: Charge Beam
TM025: Facade
TM026: Poison Tail
TM027: Aerial Ace
TM030: Snarl
TM036: Rock Tomb
TM044: Dragon Tail
TM045: Venoshock
TM047: Endure
TM051: Sandstorm
TM053: Smart Strike
TM055: Dig
TM066: Body Slam
TM070: Sleep Talk
TM071: Seed Bomb
TM076: Rock Blast
TM080: Metronome
TM083: Poison Jab
TM085: Rest
TM086: Rock Slide
TM087: Taunt
TM088: Swords Dance
TM089: Body Press
TM093: Flash Cannon
TM094: Dark Pulse
TM095: Leech Life
TM099: Iron Head
TM100: Dragon Dance
TM101: Power Gem
TM102: Gunk Shot
TM103: Substitute
TM104: Iron Defense
TM106: Drill Run
TM108: Crunch
TM110: Liquidation
TM115: Dragon Pulse
TM116: Stealth Rock
TM121: Heavy Slam
TM130: Helping Hand
TM134: Reversal
TM136: Electric Terrain
TM147: Wild Charge
TM148: Sludge Bomb
TM150: Stone Edge
TM152: Giga Impact
TM156: Outrage
TM163: Hyper Beam
TM166: Thunder
TM171: Tera Blast
TM172: Roar
TM173: Charge
TM175: Toxic
TM179: Smack Down
TM180: Gyro Ball
TM183: Super Fang
TM194: Grassy Glide
TM196: Flip Turn

TM199: Lash Out
TM200: Scale Shot
TM202: Pain Split
TM203: Psych Up
TM205: Endeavor
TM210: Supercell Slam
TM211: Electroweb
TM214: Sludge Wave
TM215: Scorching Sands
TM220: Meteor Beam
TM222: Breaking Swipe
TM223: Metal Sound
TM224: Curse
TM225: Hard Press
TM226: Dragon Cheer
 
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So for once it wasn't a close battle and the winner is...Fire/Steel! Now we shall move onto Defining Moves! Fairly straightforward step of the process, suggest moves you believe will help AT Chugg do what it needs to do best as an Unburden Fire/Steel type!

Also, as the only one to submit flavor art this time around, congrats to...
Here’s my flavor submission for AT Saharaja!
View attachment 674746

Fulgaboon
The Stone Strike Pokemon

Rock / Electric
Ability: Speed Boost

Inspired by Fulgurite (fossilized lightning strikes), fossilized bones, as well as vipers, to show off the high attack stat of our ATCAP.

Name is Fulgur + Gaboon Viper
Scepticskep with this awesome AT of Saharaja (named Fulgaboon) and Ayecrusher King for the full movepool!

I'll give this part of the process a solid 48-72 hours!
 
Dex already mentioned it, but Torch Song is definitely this mon's best option for procing Throat Spray, as it plays a similar role to Clangorous Soul in boosting SPA twice in one turn, and with Unburden boosting speed twice upon item loss. Torch Song's SPA boosting effect additionally assists in snowballing our sweeper into motion.

For Steel Stab, I think Flash Cannon should be good enough for this mon: Steel stab isn't totally necessary considering the only mon A tier or above in CAP weak to Steel is Garganacl. I could maybe see Tachyon Cutter in order to take out Focus Sash revenge killers and continue the sweep, but I fear that would be a bit ridiculous when we already have Torch Song and Throat Spray boosting us, and Sash can be kept to limit AT Chugg's sweeping power.

Fire/Steel is walled by Water types, and as a sweeper we'd want coverage for typings that wall our STAB combination. I believe some special Grass coverage is our best bet, as it additionally hits Ground types which are 4x effective against us. Giga Drain, Energy Ball are the most obvious options for coverage, while Solar Beam allows synergy with sun teams and Apple Acid can help against Unaware walls like Arghonaut.
 
Okay so another short and sweet defining moves stage!

Required: Fire STAB (Torch Song/Fire Blast/Flamethrower), Steel STAB (Flash Cannon)

Optional: Grass Coverage (Energy Ball, Giga Drain), Electric Coverage (Thunderbolt/Thunder)

Down below are the stat limits for AT Chuggalong with a little spin on all the penalties.
Stat Limits

PS – 95
SS – 148
PT – 110
ST – 110
Sum of ST + PT – 180
BSR – 550

Penalties (Cumulative)

(Base Speed >= 88): - 10 BSR & - 5 SS
(Electric Coverage): - 10 SS
(Grass Coverage): - 20 SS
(Electric Coverage + Grass Coverage) - 20 BSR
After doing a bit of research, I can see how fast this AT could get out of hand without these harsher restrictions on overall BSR and SS so I unilaterally made them a tad more demanding for you to wanna pick a coverage type (or both sets of coverage) or to be faster than base 87 Speed, which, uninvested with a neutral nature, underspeeds Dragapult by 1 point, although I doubt we are not investing EVs into Speed lol.

I'll give stat submissions a solid 72-96 hours before we take it to a vote!
 
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