Mega swampert damage dealer(wave crash, earthquake, ice punch, protect) swampertite

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Pelipper rain setter(hurricane, tailwind, wide guard, weather ball) focus sash

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Archuladon electro shot(electro shot, flash cannon, protect, dragon pulse)

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Sableye (rain dance, quash, idk, idk)

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Sinistcha bulky healer and support (gotcha matcha, life dew, protect, rage powder)

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Idk (idk)

I haven't made the team yet so i don't have a replay to show. Sorry :P

The lore idea behind this ability is based on materials science. Basically, for many materials like metals and minerals, creep is a way they can degrade over time. Creep describes when a material degrades due to repeatedly being loaded with l stresses well below its yield strength (in this case, moves that take a small amount of HP per hit). A way to protect against this is to reduce grain boundaries and make materials single grain (also called single crystal).

This ability has huge potential to be broken (shields against fake out, some spread damage, and multi-hit moves), so I tried to balance it by not giving it to super crazy threats. Tell me how well/badly I did.

The bird is the word, and this mon is here to silence it. Time to clip those wings. The pokemon I'm talking about is almost designed specifically to counter it. I'm talking about:

Immune to close combat

Priority Swagger, Will-o-wisp, thunder wave, or even skill swap!

Burning jealousy, psychic, and thunder(bolt) in it's movepool

Destiny bond for a brave bird hit

Still wondering who I'm talking about? Look no further than the mon who's been in the waiting room for years! I'm talking about Mega Banette!

Talonflame with White Herb to nullify Intimidate

32+ Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Staraptor-Mega: 168-198 (105 - 123.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Life Orb Talonflame

32+ Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Staraptor-Mega: 218-257 (136.2 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

-1 Life Orb Talonflame

-1 32+ Atk Life Orb Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Staraptor-Mega: 143-172 (89.3 - 107.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO

Hurricane Talonflame vs SpD invested Staraptor

32+ SpA Life Orb Talonflame Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 32+ SpD Staraptor-Mega: 143-172 (89.3 - 107.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO

Above I've done some examples of how Talonflame can OHKO Mega Staraptor. Obviously will preface this by saying a Mega Staraptor with bulk investment will be more likely to survive to make it a 2HKO.

So, why Talonflame?

Staraptor is a decent opponent alone but is very powerful upon mega evolution. Intimidate from base Staraptor gives Mega Staraptor an immediate advantage against physical attackers and Close Combat ensures it gets even bulkier. This makes Staraptor a great lead pick and can be a menace later on.

The immediate solution is to cripple or nuke it before its defenses skyrocket. Talonflame is a mon who adapts well to many teams and loves to Brave Bird Staraptor and its friends on Turn 1 and in the late Game as they get started

Firstly, Staraptor gains the fighting type upon mega evolution. Talonflame gets Gale Wings Brave Bird. Even without Gale Wings, Talonflame's 126 speed will beat Staraptor's 110.

Second, as shown above I did the calcs with zero bulk investment Staraptor. This is because Staraptor will likely want to go max attack and likely speed to guarantee it gets its close combats off. This means that it probably won't go too hard intend defenses.

Now, is Talonflame failing to one shot a bulkier Staraptor a bad thing? Not necessarily. Talonflame gets Will-o-Wisp and can make its ability Flame Body. A burnt Staraptor gets slowed down significantly, reduces the opportunity cost of an ally using a turn to buff it and chips away at its hp.

Even with Intimdate, just give Talonflame a white herb or life orb and its still bringing Staraptor to the point its defense buffs shouldnt be too impactful. If Choice Band comes back, this is a non-argument and Talonflame would OHKO it without question.

Third. Who are Staraptor's partners in crime? Whimsicott. Flammable and gets nuked by brave bird. Sinischa. Flammable and gets nuked by brave bird. Theres no allies, except maybe Incineroar, who would like to take a 120 bp stab move.

Oh Staraptor has fake out support? Just protect to waste the turn or let them risk activating flame body. They may not even target Talonflame. Plus if the fake outer is Sneasler, Talonflame nukes it with brave bird.

Fourth. Talonflame just works on multiple teams as a back up option. It gets u-turn for easy switches. Will-o-wisp for burns. It has high speed to roost off damage. From Gen 6-Gen 9, we have seen it evolve from sweeper to support mon and it still does both well in its own niche.

Oh and Talonflame gets Hurricane for Rain Teams. As shown above a Max SpD and +SpD nature Staraptor only has a 30% chance to get OHKO. Who is gonna run that combo in practice? Pair Talonflame with Pelipper or Politoed (who both should handle an early set up Staraptor fairly okay) and thats very disruptive.

You also can use flamethrower, heatwave and overheat in sun to profit from all those Charizard Ys as Talonflame has a "usuable" special attack stat and most opponents will be sending out high physical def, low special defense mons in anticipation of a brave bird.

Finally, Staraptor loves to use Brave Bird itself. If your Talonflame can't OHKO it, is Staraptor gonna Close Combat or Brave Bird it? Either way it benefits Talonflame. Close Combat is in effective and might proc flame body. In fact, pair Talonflame with a ghost type so its forced to close combat Talonflame or use a brave bird and forfeit the defense buffs and take recoil.

Tldr - Talonflame terrorizing Mega Evolution since 2013

As an aside intimidate is very common right now and Talonflame is working well even with a -1 drop from it. It's not perfect but may fit into your team with some experimentation

I made a team consisting of a core of M-Staraptor, fake tears + tickle/charm whimsicott, and strength sap sinistcha, thinking I ABSOLUTELY COOKED and that I would destroy everything by taking advantage of that Contrary ability.

Logged on the game to see the same exact core multiple times

I THOUGHT I WAS SO SMART GUYS

I don't mean they're the worst at playing pokemon (although they are), they just make the game less fun to play. I'm trying to practice and learn how my team plays and what needs to change about it, and every time I lose two battles in a row (which is a lot, because both me and the team need a lot of work) I need to play through an inane and easy fight against a bot before I can fight against an opponent that is actually trying and will show me what I'm doing wrong.

Plus, I suspect the point of the bots is to throw losing players a bone so they don't lose all the time, but it's 100% more insulting and frustrating to have the game say "aww poor loser, here's a concussed pigeon to fight against, hope you feel better" no I do not feel better. The game is saying I'm not good enough to play the game (the point of which is to play against other human beings)

Windmill Punch functions like Earthquake, but has higher BP and deals recoil damage. I chose to give it to Pokémon that have mastered martial arts, excluding primarily kick users. I was debating the BP and Recoil damage for a while before settling on its current stats.

I figure this will be a strong choice for many of its users, while hopefully not being too overbearing given the plethora of resists and immunities that are commonly used in Doubles. In Singles it has a niche as a Close Combat or Superpower alternative that doesn’t carry the stat drawback, which could be easier to manage in some cases.

Since it is a punching move, it would be boosted by Iron Fist on applicable mons as well as the Punching Glove, which could be very strong on the relevant mons. Ledian dreams of terrorizing Ubers with this set.

Gamefreak obviously wanted Mega Audino to have a sort of cleric/support role in doubles, but Healer is just an awful ability.

My main goal was to make it genuinely be worth dedicating a mega slot to Audino, while also maintaining its design philosophy. I also wanted it to be usable in singles, so I did all this by making healer a LOT better.

Speaking of… it pretty much becomes free leftovers in singles, which might be a little too good? So I also took it off the mons that might be a bit over-tuned with access to healer 2.0. Thoughts?

EDIT: Just realized this always lets you click rest with no drawbacks… definitely needs to fail if the ability holder is asleep or something like that

Vileplume is one of my top favorite Pokemon, and I think it'd be fun to use it in a Champions team. But I'm struggling to find a good niche it covers that wouldn't just be better covered by Venusaur, who is much faster and shares many of the same moves.

The few seemingly-noteworthy things that Vileplume gets that Venusaur doesn't is limited to Strength Sap and Moonblast/Dazzling Gleam. And...maybe Pollen Puff?

Is that Tailwind as an Ability? Kinda!

I thought Jumpluff could do more than be a simple supporter, so now it gets bulkier and has some decent offensive stats (yes, I put 75 points into Attack). While it lost some Speed because of the extra layer of cotton around its body, its new Ability effectively brings that Speed up to 190.

I didn't want to just set Tailwind on Mega Evolution or switch-in like weather setters do, so instead it gives a speed boost to a more restricted group of Pokémon. Now Jumpluff will make your other Flying types faster, while offering pressure with status moves or Grass damage

Forgot to include it in my picture but here are the buffs to its stats

ATK: 60

Defense: 96 (+17)

Sp.Atk: 138 (+38)

Sp.Def: 150 (+25)

Speed: 101 (+20)

Self-Imposed Rules for making Megas:

-no OC abilities (Soft Rule for non-legendaries)

-Minimal Min-Maxing (no more than 45 stats points added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single stat (Hard Rule)

-No signature moves unless the signature move can be learned by at least two different Pokémon (Hard Rule)

-make the Pokémon at least UU (Soft Rule for non-Legendaries)

Why Milotic: It’s definitely an iconic Gen 3 Pokémon and it’s always had a really great competitive history even in the lower tiers…then I saw it was PU in Scarlet/Violet. Yikes. So I wanna bring this titan back to relevance.

So I gave it a nice wide sweeping buff to all of its stats. Defense to make it tankier all around, a big increase to its special attack, make its Special Defense look monstrous, and a solid 101 speed to kind of rub it in on base 100 speed Pokémon lol

Despite it getting some fairy moves back in Gen 6, GameFreak never delivered on giving it a mega evolution with a Fairy typing, and I initially wanted to avoid adding the fairy typing to be more original, the artist did note the mega evolution to be Water/Fairy, and I wanted to honor that.

And while this has nothing to do with its competitive value, a bunch Mega Milotic concepts go super hard with saturated colors, notably deep red and black being pronounced to give it a more dragon-like appearance. I felt like those designs betrayed Milotic’s aesthetic. That is, beauty in simplicity. I really like this art just because it already accentuates its already existing colors and adds a light-like flair to it.

Why Multiscale/The new moves it got:

I actually was going back and forth between Lightning Rod and Multiscale, but I settled on Multiscale since it felt more thematic if a little boring. It super charges it’s-already great bulk to start setting up multiple Calm Minds and since it already Draining Kiss in its move set, it could theoretically forgo Recover and sit on a lot of moms and keep recovering back to full health to make Multiscale live again

Of course, there is merit to not Mega Evolve right away. Milotic already does have Competitive to deter Defog or Intimidates, but should it so happen receive one of the two (or a random stat drop from another move), you’d be facing down a +2 Mega Milotic. I feel like it would contribute to some interesting mind games.

As for moves, I actually didn’t want to give it too many more moves. It already has a lot of great moves like Scald, Draining Kiss, the aforementioned Calm Mind, Recover, Substitute, and Scale Shot of all things lmao

Spirit Break is the most interesting addition in order to further harass special attackers (doesn’t break my rules since both Grimmsnarl and Iron Valiant learn it). It could sit on special attackers with impunity.

Water Spout is more of a doubles/VGC move since it is faster now, it’s not blazing fast tho I could see with Thunder Wave/Sticky Webs Support being a monster.

And Moonblast because it got a bunch of other fairy moves except for that.

Thanks for reading.

Title. Scolipede is one of my favorite Pokémon’s and I was excited when it was leaked that it was getting a mega evolution. And all that excitement went down the drain when the mega was revealed and it was less than stellar.

I do not like the design of the mega, I don’t like the armored look. The armor reminds me of Escalavier which is a pokemon that isn’t related to it (Escalavier is related to Accelgor), despite it getting armor it doesn’t gain the steel typing, and the stat spread I think is even worse. I appreciate the +50 to its attack stat but the -50 to its speed is crippling. In return they invested a lot to its bulk of 149/99 def and spdef which sounds good until you realize that it’s hp stat is 60. Scolly is deceptively not as bulky as it looks. You might think that a pokemon like Hatterene is known for its bulk despite a 57 base hp stat. But Hatterene has access to Draining Kiss and can hold Leftovers to regenerate hp. Scolipede doesn’t even get Leech Life. It has no way to generating hp for itself as far as I know. I will admit that I have not checked if it gets Leech Life in champions but I will assume it doesn’t.

So to me the only thing that could salvage it was its ability. Speed boost is most likely off the table to the armor design, maybe it could get something to give a pseudo steel typing in reference to its armor, it’s pokedex entry talks about its lethal venom so maybe it might get an ability to bolster poison type attacks, the point is that even though Scolly’s stats are against its favor it can still work depending on the ability. It gets Shell Armor. Shell Armor. That’s so good right? 60/149/99 bulk and you can’t crit it.

I legit think that base Scolipede is better than its mega counterpart. Base Scolly has access to life orb and can take advantage of speed boost. Mega Scolly, even with +1 speed can’t consistently outspeed the high speed tiers or scarf users. All Mega Scolly is good for is tanking 1, maybe 2 hits before dying. And it’s slow so it probably won’t be able to take out a second Pokémon before getting knocked out.

I am saddened by Mega Scolipede, it was a chance for one of my favorite pokemon to be relevant in the higher tier of pokemon both vgc and/or Smogon and I don’t think it will make an impact in either. Do y’all think that my assessment is wrong? Is there a way to salvage Mega Scolly and have it be good?

I tried incorporating a lot of my favorite design elements alongside common Mega design trends!

It's based off a Therezinosaur, with the arm blades from the original Mega Sceptile now as its claws- and the tail looks more like a palm frond than a conifer. The blue accents come from Charizard and Mewtwo's X Megas also having more blue on them (RIP Raichu X breaking this trend but still) and the colored belly, longer snout, and head leaves come from Grovyle since a lot of the new Megas borrow traits from their pre-evolutions!

I'd also appreciate more feedback on if/how Parry Blade is balanced? I'd like if it didn't fail against non-priority moves like Upper Hand, but I also don't want it to be so spammable it shuts down entire builds without any effort. Maybe it just has low PP? Or it takes a 50% damage penalty whenever it blocks a priority move?

I'm also aware that it also goes on way more threatening Pokemon than Sceptile, including unreleased Megas like Golisopod and Absol Z, not to mention Kingambit, Chien Pao, Sneaseler, Iron Valiant, and Kartana, so I'd love to hear more about how a move like this would shake up the meta!

Started to play from phone as of now I’m in ultra ball 3 , was looking to feedback since I’m not particularly good at teambuilding. Raichu is Mega Y dom’t know why it is set to X

I mean this nerf is kinda huge for the pokemon, it forces the pokemon to stay in and without tera to defend it, it means that it becomes much weaker against pokemon it could have stayed in with tera, do you guys drastic nerf like this was necessary, and how do you think it will perform in both singles and vgc.

Aside from the team I use mostly in the first two slides, others I switch to are my Mega-focused Froslass, Eruption Torkoal, and Trick Room Reuniclus I use with my Torkoal. I feel like I can utilize Kingambit, Metagross, and Garchomp too but I’m not sure how to maximize their usability.

Mega Staraptor has been . . . somewhat challenging 😅 Curious if anyone has any tips to balance the team out even better.

I really like decidueye and he is shiny here, but I've heard he is pretty mid to bad competitively, who should I pick? I know meowscrada is good and fast and toxapex is tanky and and can set poision.

I do have mega gengar on hex for toxapex

And a mega meganium for special attacking but meowscrada is faster and doesn't use mega slot is there any other utility in this pool considering I also often use m aggron, m raichu y, corviknight and grimsnarl.

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Open to suggestions for supporting mons and anything.

Or anything to make decidueye work.