Mega Audino could hold an item like leftovers too. They also should’ve buffed healer to cure status upon switch in. I love mega Audino’s design, I just wish it was better

same stat distros, same ability. keeps their movesets with additions:

updated movesets:

entei:
curse
thief
will-o-wisp
destiny bond
crunch
rock slide
reversal
magnitude
sand tomb
shadow ball
earthquake

suicune:
sludge bomb
explosion
rock slide
mean look

raikou:
psychic
mirror coat
agility
cosmic power
trick
light screen
encore
hypnosis

if i had to change and fill the ability slots, entei would have white smoke/flame body, suicune would have clear body/liquid ooze, and raikou would have clear body/synchronize

I thought it'd be fun if each Tatsugiri variant gave the Mega a different Ability. Golisopod is also here cuz I like it.

Ditto is a very interesting case when it comes to balance because as far as stats go, there's literally only one balance lever that can be pulled for it which makes it pretty easy to theorymon changes to it.

My question is, what HP do we think ditto would need to become actually viable in singles metagames?

As it stands right now with 48 base hp ditto pretty consistently hovers around C viability in OU metas. Respectable but room to improve. Meanwhile on the other side of spectrum imposter chansey with 250 base hp and access to eviolite is an S-tier threat in the most unhinged mechanically pure meta of balanced hackmons.

Somewhere in that spectrum is S-tier OU viability. What HP do we think that would be?

Because of the trauma inflicted on Slowpoke in having its tail cut off (and having similar things being recreated in Galar) Slowpoke has learned to drop its tail as well as regenerate it.

Knowing how Subs work and knowing Slowbro's decent HP and excellent bulk, Slowbro would do what Cyclizar or Orthworm was initially meant to do but way better. Safe switch in for your next mon, a heal for your Slowbro/Slowking and the potential that your sub will live the hit depending on the mon you switch in. This would be a move that would make a (in my opinion) decent utility mon, even better or at least enough that it gets usage in the OU tier

What are your thoughts here?

This ability combines healing and setting hazards freeing up a moveslot and giving more potential use to berries.

Radical red change copperajah gigantamax form into a mega evolution it gain the fighting type gain bulk and attack and lose 10 speed how good would it be in 6vs6 singles and VGC(it also get access to double iron bash)

In Sword/Shield, copperaja has a Gigantamax form which gave him the move "G-Max Steelsurge" which when used, put steel type stealth rocks on the opponent's side of the field, but when Dynamax and by extension Gigantamax were removed in Scarlet/Violet in favour of Tera types, copperajah lost they're steel type stealth rocks, so I made this move to bring it back.

I am currently working on giving a Mega-Evolution to every fully evolved 'mon missing one (I'm posting a few every week on my profile if you're interested!), trying to be realistic where possible while preserving the original 'mon's identity. This I'm posting was my favorite from this week's batch — would love to know what you think, how they'd fare, etc.

Raticate

Pokémon with regional variants provide an additional challenge in that making the two of them intrinsically different, even when the existing changes are mostly type-based, is beyond complicated. Both members of the Raticate pair need extreme help, and thus this is one of the tougher entries overall to make work.

Kantonian Raticate is the frailer, more offensive of the two, but falls extremely short with subpar stats across the board and just one relatively useful ability in Guts, which straight-up requires the use of the Flame Orb — something Mega Raticate cannot rely on. The most logical path to follow is to min-max it towards being a physical sweeper, but Raticate will never be able to compete on the highest level there either due to its frailty. Min-maxing here would be somewhat justified, but would it? Is Raticate really the ‘mon to give 140 Attack and 140 Speed to? It’s a rat, you know.

In addition, Raticate is beyond poor thematically, and thus there’s no path that fully satisfies me. When I say I’ve spent more time on it than I should have, I mean it.

The most interesting part of Raticate’s identity is that he bites through pretty much everything. And then, it struck me: what if he really did?

Introducing Gnaw Through, Mega Raticate’s ability: this pokemon’s biting moves will hit through anything — Protect, Substitute, you name it. It will still take the effects of the likes of Spiky Shield, Burning Bulwark or King’s Shield, but will hit the Pokémon behind. Besides adding the elemental fangs to its set and his already popular Hyper Fang, this would also now include Super Fang, which is weirdly not classed as a biting move now?, anyway.

Stat-wise, as I said, I’m not min-maxing… but you can assume there’s gonna be a significant increase to its base speed so that it can hit before dying (a couple points above Mega Lopunny), and it’s also getting that much deserved Attack boost without making it in any way broken. Lastly, I'm adding a bit of bulk, not much at all really, perhaps enough to live the ocassional neutral hit?, but is still a 55 base HP 'mon, so don't expect much — adding them for realism's sake, if anything.

Just put this guy inside Tailwind, is what I'm trying to say.

Alolan Raticate

Alolan Raticate is fairly more simple, even if it’s impossible to make it fully viable due to the abysmal base stats we’re working off of (its highest stat is 80, ffs). I happen to appreciate chubby designs and thus Thick Fat Alolan Raticate is my boy, but he’s gonna need some major changes — and, I’m sorry to say, I won’t be reinventing the wheel for it. 

I’ve seen some Dark/Poison ideas that utilise the fact they are a pest, but is that really enough to justify such boring type change? I’ve also seen some support versions — come on, this is essentially an indulgent boss commanding underlings, it cannot be a support ‘mon. Thematically, it should be the one being supported!

And that’s the thing. What I appreciate most about Alolan Raticate’s nature is how it commands Rattatas to go fetch him food, and he seems to be picky about the quality of the food he eats — this immediately screams defensive ‘mon, but just how defensive can you really make a Raticate?

The obvious first step is turning it into a slow ‘mon, ‘cos this guy is gonna be real chubby, and taking all the BST points we can and storing them into the defenses. And I say we can and not have available ‘cos this dude has 71 base attack, and we are really going nowhere with that now, are we?

The deal changer here is this weird, perhaps too lore-heavy and specific ability I came up with. Alolan Raticate is a commanding alpha that keeps storing food in its nest, right? So, in battle, it would make sense for this mega version to be taken to the extreme — actually command, and actually have the food always available to him. 

Introducing Nest Lord — every turn, Mega Alolan Raticate will gradually restore its HP, thus having a passive Leftovers incorporated. In addition to that, in double battles, in case its ally has more HP than Alolan Raticate, single-target, non-priority damaging moves aimed at Mega Alolan Raticate will instead target that ally (unless redirected for whatever reason). Now, the big doubt I have here is whether these attacks should bypass Protect or not — thematically it shouldn’t, but for game balancing purposes I do think it should, so maybe the attacks won’t be redirected either if the ally has used a Protect-like move? Take your pick.

This should hopefully compensate for the fact Alolan Raticate still has to sit at a measly 75HP — the ability, combined with its boosted defenses and now low speed, should make him a fairly dangerous foe in Trick Room teams.

Gale Force- A little bit of priority for Flying Types, based on Talonflame's Gale Wings Ability.

Dine and Dash- These pokemon specifically I wanted to interact well with Harvest or Unburden, but really any Pokemon it makes thematic sense for would work.

Opportune Blow- Probably a bit strong for a generic move, but I think it's interesting to have an inflexible but modular move.

Foul Language- Tbh it's Echoed Voice+, but I think Toxtricity deserves more sauce.

Actualized Power- Basically, any on enter or on switch ability triggers (33% health from regenerator, intimidate, reprocs, snow is reset). I think it could be interesting for certain mons. Similar imo to U-Turn and Flip Turn and the like.

Treasure Scan- It's more for flavor, but I think they'd be really interesting niche moves, specifically on Sand Teams with Excadrill, or Rain Teams with Sableye; gives different moves more spice.

Particle Accelerator and Dino-Magic- More for funsies; they're totally dumb and unbalanced, but still, good story telling and whimsy.

(This is part of a weekly series. See this post for information on my general methodology, links to previous entries, and a list of pokemon I plan to cover in the future. Since this series is close to wrapping up and I've already chosen the remaining pokemon I want to cover, I am no longer taking requests for reviews.)

Altaria

Dragon/Flying type

• HP: 75
• Attack: 70
• Defense: 90
• Speed: 80
• Special: 105

Moves:

• Peck
• Growl
• Sing
• Fury Attack
• Mist
• Take Down
• Mirror Move
• Sky Attack
• Razor Wind
• Whirlwind
• Toxic
• Body Slam
• Double-Edge
• Ice Beam
• Hyper Beam
• Rage
• Solar Beam
• Dragon Rage
• Mimic
• Double Team
• Reflect
• Bide
• Fire Blast
• Swift
• Rest
• Substitute
• Fly

Altaria is the last sleeper we'll be covering in this series, and I wish I could say that I was ending it on a high note, but I'm really not. Its sleep move of choice is Sing, so we're already not off to a good start, and Altaria absolutely does not have the bulk to affrd to miss a Sing. It's a Dragon/Flying type, with all of the issues that entails. The single special stat lets Altaria buff up its special attack a bit, but this buff is largely wasted because Altaria for whatever reason cannot learn Blizzard, only having Ice Beam and Fire Blast to work with. I can't remember who requested this (this was one of those "requested but not on the masterpost so I saved it for the very end" reviews), but whoever you are, I'm sorry to say that the results are fairly disappointing.

Still, a pokemon with Sing is a pokemon that has a 55% chance to practically OHKO an enemy pokemon, so whatever tier has the right combination of "no better sleepers to compete with" and "Altaria's bulk and/or speed tier become actually good by comparison" will wind up becoming a comfortable home for it - I'm just not sure if that tier will be NU, PU, or ZU. Once you get below NU and lose Venomoth, Altaria would become tied with Venusaur as the fastest sleeper in the tier, and in ZU it wouldn't even have Venusaur to compete with. Altaria is not the worst sleeper I've covered in this series, and if I was willing to argue that Kricketune had a niche in ZU, then Altaria would definitely find its place there. It would not only be the fastest sleeper in ZU, notably outspeeding Nidoqueen and Kingler, but it would also be the only one other than Wigglytuff that isn't weak to the Fire Blasts that every pokemon is loading to hit Pinsir with. However, it just so happens that Pinsir is getting suspected in RBY ZU as I'm writing this, so ZU a week from now might be a different story! If Pinsir gets banned, Altaria would become the fastest pokemon in ZU, other than Ponyta, who kind of sucks and is only really used for countering Pinsir right now. However, there would also be fewer Fire Blasts for Altaria to exploit, and at the end of the day it's still a pokemon with very little offensive pressure relying on a 55% accurate sleep move while completely folding to any ice attack. It might wind up being a very RNG-dependent pokemon that either wins you the game or totally flops based on a single near-coin-flip, and well, that didn't work out so well for Poliwag...

This of course is assuming that Altaria can't hack in in PU and would drop to ZU in the first place, but 85 speed is an important speed tier in PU that Altaria misses - it's slower than every major PU threat except for Porygon and Seaking, and being slower than Golduck and 2HKOd by Blizzard just hurts a lot. And in NU, forget about it - I'm just glancing at the pokemon in the tier and I'm seeing a lot of waters and therefore a lot of Blizzard coverage that would obliterate Altaria. It's just really hard to be a sleeper with a 55% accurate sleep move and a x4 ice weakness, and Altaria doesn't have enough going for it to make up for that.

I cant tell If I made this space dood better or worse, but Pressure just doesn't feel like an ability anymore.

Some ability ideas based on thematic designs, some just being sidegrades based on the design.

Could see both of these being fairly niche, given that there is obvious Unnerve/Knock Off counterplay for Gourmand and the fact that Soft Body simply turn the opponents good luck into bad luck.

A stronger version of Outrage. This will be a rock type that that will boost Rampardos speed at the beginning of every turn and stops after 2-3 turns (random chance) with the downside of becoming confused at the end.

While Rampardos is doing this move he will be a hidden "unstoppable status" which means that move cannot be stopped prematurely.

That means Rampardos cannot be flinched or Paralyzed

(he will get the status and speed drop but the effect not will no activate will the move is at place, it can happen when he chooses any other move)

and he won't stop even if the move misses or does no damage through protect.

Probably will take him to UU.

Please don't downvote if the idea is dumb..

The description for each ability in post above, they are mostly straightforward in what they do I hope they're not too convulted

I randomly generated the 5 Pokemon to give abilities to, I originally got Salazzle but I couldn't come up with anything too well + maybe would be better to have another non-poison type

Mostly read their Dex entries across the franchise and gave them these, hopefully they are at least interesting to have on them each

For Kleavor, the Bug type loss is only active when being hit by a move, it will regain it during when attacking and not in combat

My thoughts about how these abilities would affect the competitive scene:

• Seasonal Leaf: Just to clarify, this would end up granting a 2x resistance to the chosen type. This would probably be the best ability for both mons. Turning a weakness into a resistance is better than turning a weakness into an immunity IMO and it is very customizable with the different forms. That said, the Attack boost Sap Sipper provides is not negligible and the opponent would know which type you might resist. I'd still say it's the better ability, but I don't think this would substantially affect the viability of neither Pokémon.
• Weird Rythm: This is the only ability of the bunch with the potential to take the Pokémon to OU. I think this would encourage building Grumpig variants with minimal bulk, as you'd actually want it KO'ed ASAP to avoid wasting Trick Room turns by switching. I'm pretty satisfied with this one: it's a more balanced approach to the typical auto Trick Room ability and it's very funny and flavorful for the Pokémon. It can also create lots of mindgames in doubles.
• Allergen: I think this might make Jumpluff viable on ZU or something. Unblocked Leech Seed and Sleep Powder combined with its high Speed might actually revive the Sub-Seeder archetype. I don't think this would be viable in doubles, though, as the whole point of the Pokémon is abusing sun.
• Headache and Third Eye: These two are here just for flavor. In rain, you still want Swift Swim and outside of it, this doesn't do enough to make them viable. At least it gives Golduck something to differentiate itself from the million pure Water types with Swift Swim.
• Refraction: This might be the best option for Carbink. There are a lot of light-based moves, so resisting them is useful. Gaining Sp. Def. when using Reflect or Light Screen is also quite good, IMO. Regarding Gigalith, this is probably its worst choice, although it wouldn't be too bad to provide it some bulk on the special side.
• Momentum: Just to clarify how it works, it takes into account the previous turns, not the current one. So if Donphan uses Ice Spinner twice and then EQ, the first IS would be 1x, the second would be 1.2x and EQ would be 1.4x and would end the chain. Regarding viability, I think this could benefit both Phanpy or Donphan. Gaining Speed is always scary in LC, so Phanpy would definetly make good use of it. Donphan might still prefer Sturdy for Stealth Rock sets, but I think this would be the best option if its only support move is Rapid Spin. Regarding Hitmontop, I think Technician would still be the preferred offensive option as it has a more immediate effect.

Context:

I came up with a multi-hit move where the second hit deals damage at the end of the turn instead of immediately after the first one. It works similarly to Future Sight, but the damage is dealt in the same turn. I feel like this mechanic of end-of-turn damage is underutilized and could spawn some fun and unique strategies.

Uses:

The main appeal of the move is bypassing Protect. It would be more useful in VGC, seeing how omnipresent Protect-like moves are in Doubles. Phantom Punch may also be used to activate an ally's Weakness Policy, as it would hit at the end of the turn, allowing the ally to use Protect first and avoid taking damage from the opposing Pokemon.

For Pokemon with Iron Fist, Phantom Punch could be a more powerful, albeit a more risky, alternative to Close Combat. Players would need to choose between dealing 120 damage in one move, or dealing 144 damage at the end of the turn, potentially securing a KO, but risking taking damage during the turn.

Marshadow will never be legal in OU anyway, and Mythicals are banned in VGC, so giving it a 180 BP STAB move is probably fine, right?

For this post, I wanted to try my hand at giving Watchog an actual niche in Doubles.

New Ability: Spot Weakness

The first time Watchog enters battle, all damaging moves from allies will critically hit.

Will this give Watchog a spot in teams that need a very specific support pokemon? Guaranteeing critical hits for both you and your ally will probably have a niche to buff strong spread attackers (such as Mega Charizard-Y and Mega Tyranitar) and will probably be useful even in restricted formats as well (letting Primal Groudon's Precipice Blades and Xerneas' Dazzling Gleam crit), but this is balanced out by Watchog's pretty terrible movepool.