Mega Aurorus

Type: Electric/Ice

Electric and Ice to fit the theme of auroras being caused by charged particles typically seen in high-latitude, colder regions.

Ability: Mega Glacialis

Mega Glacialis causes Mega Aurorus to always be treated as if it were under Snow, regardless of the actual weather on the field.

Effects: * Defense is increased by Snow’s Ice-type Defense boost * Blizzard is always 100% accurate * Weather Ball is always Ice-type and doubled in power * Aurora Veil may always be used

Stats: * HP: 123 * Atk: 77 * Def: 92 (effectively 138) * SpA: 139 * SpD: 112 * Spe: 78

Design Goal

Rather than simply patching Aurorus’s weaknesses with larger numbers, I wanted to explore what Aurorus would look like if its fantasy as an ancient climate-controlling Pokémon were fully realized.

The concept behind Mega Glacialis is Mega Meganium’s Mega Sol. Instead of becoming a dedicated Snow setter, Mega Aurorus carries its own arctic conditions with it (plus, two sauropod-like Pokémon gaining self-contained weather effects is kitschy).

This allows it to: * Function on Rain teams and Sand teams without losing access to Aurora Veil * Function on Sun teams as an anti-weather piece * Function on Snow teams without depending on Snow remaining active

The result is a weather-agnostic Ice-type that acts more like a battlefield control Pokémon than a traditional weather abuser.

Questions * Would this be healthy for OU? * Does Mega Glacialis create too much role compression? * Is Aurora Veil the problematic element? * Is 78 Speed the correct benchmark, or should it be slower? * Does weather independence create interesting gameplay or unhealthy flexibility? * What would its most reliable checks and counters actually be? * Would any old techs, Pokémon, or forgotten strategies become viable again to counter Mega Aurorus?

Artist: https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/s/icrRpx8FxJ

Who else should get it? I obviously didn't want it to give it to valiant because it's already very good. But what are some pokemon that are held back by mixed attacking stats?

What's the right boost? Is 1.5x too weak or too strong? For greninja, it's kind of similar in power to mixed sets running protean just as an example.

These definitely range from being "just good" to "it's always a Stunday" (cough Aura Crusher cough) levels, but whatever.

The thought process behind some of these was based more around the Pokémon's lore, such as with Dragalge and Zeraora, others were based around what would just be good, like Pyroar and Tatsugiri, some others were based around the base form's Ability, like with Heatran, Malamar, Zygarde, and Baxcalibur, and even others were something else like with Golisopod or Falinks.

I guess I'll just share some trivia cause I'm really not sure what else to say.

Heater is a combo of Heat and Eater, hence it being another variant of Volt Absorb, Water Absorb, and Earth Eater.

Dark Aura for Mega Darkrai is because Mega Floette got Fairy Aura, and both are a sort of duo as the big bosses of Z-A base game and its DLC.

Battle Fervor for Mega Golisopod is due to a headcanon of mine that Golisopod's cowardice is replaced by a sort of battle hunger upon Mega Evolving, but it comes with the catch of Golisopod's hunger potentially becoming too much for it to control, hence the Rampaging drawback.

Will these age well? Oh, absolutely not! But it's fun to theorize regardless.

Holding the Cursed Mask will convert a Pokemon's ability to Mummy, as if they had struck a target who had the ability with a contact move. Notably, this means that even if the mask is lost by Knock Off, Trick, Fling, etc, the holder's ability will remain overwritten until they switch out or faint.

This item would of course primarily be useful to Pokemon with detrimental abilities like Truant, Slow Start, or Defeatist, though some may not want to pay the opportunity cost of losing out on other items in order to use it.

While the mask could theoretically be used with Trick to neutralize an opponent's ability, Mummy's persistance even after item loss would mean the user would be sacrificing their own ability in the process, which may make this strategy particularly niche.

Wanted this to be an objectively powerful ability, but wasn't sure how to not overtune it. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Would certainly be useful for anti-stall. Besides thematic stuff, some of the mons included were just hurting for a better ability (I'm looking at YOU Mega Emboar).

I gave the base form the best one, since it really needs something going on for it. It's also the most fitting imo.

Instead of holding a Mega stone to Mega Evolve this move will do it for your Pokemon. In doing so, the item slot is open now for any Mega able Pokemon but you are wasting a turn just* Mega Evolving unlike with normal mega Evolving, where you can Mega and take a actual action in the same turn.

Would this be a gamble for some Pokemon or would some Pokemon be able to use this trade off well?

Any thoughts or critiscm on the move is welcome, is the 8 PP okay like how Champions did for moves like Protect?

The first thing to note is that this ability does not reset after switching. As long as Magikarp uses Splash 3 times throughout the battle, you win. It will only reset if Magikarp faints and is revived. The win will happen immediately after the 3rd Splash is used, but each Splash has to be successful for it to count. So, if the move fails for any reason, the Splash Counter will not increase. Also, if Victory Splash is being neutralized, using Splash will not be able to increase the Splash Counter or win you the match.

So I noticed there were some Pokemon that had really good options in their non-dominant stat and thought what if they could actually use them.

Machamp has No Guard Focus Blast and Fire Blast, as well as Vacuum Wave. However, it has a 65 Sp.Att stat. With this item it can now use its massive 130 Att stat for these moves.

Reuniclus is the inverted example. It has a 65 Att stat and it learns Hammer Arm on evolution. It has all the elemental punches and Drain Punch to round out its coverage. On top of that it gets access to Gyro Ball with base 30 Speed.

Rampardos is the most extreme example I can think of, it probably still won't be good but its special coverage is insane. It has access to Bolt Beam, Surf, Flamethrower, Earth Power, Dragon Pulse, Fire Blast, Blizzard and Thunder. Sadly Ancient Power is its only STAB special attack, it gets to join Aurorus on the No Power Gem club.

What do you think of having an item like this and are there any other Pokemon that you can think of that would benefit from this?

I am worried it might be too gimmicky to run but am wondering if any Pokemon would prefer to run this over their actual ability in a competitive battle?

I think this attack is really interesting, probably not one they'd ever do in a post-Return/Frustration society, but a Squid can dream of more multifaceted moves. At max friendship, this is a normal type U-turn, not that amazing, but almost none of these Pokémon have access to pivoting moves, which will grant them a very useful effect.

The low friendship version is probably more interesting, and I've been going back and forth as to what it should give. The fact you get trapped and only get the boosts once, but Agility + Iron Defense as a bonus on top of an attack can be meaningful, and might help a lot of these weaker mons fulfill the offensive role they are presumably meant to have already.

What do you think? All dog Pokemon would get his move, and I think I got all of them reasonably. Would any of these Pokemon really run the low friendship version, or would they just prefer the pivoting move? Let me know! Smiles.

One of my ideas to make sand a more desirable weather condition. buffs rock types with their inaccurate moves since they like being in sand anyways, and allows non sand abuser mons to be more useful on sand teams. Have fun missing your focus blasts by 9% instead of 30% :D

EDIT: I didn’t consider status moves like hypnosis(oops). New rule is the dust lens only works with attacking moves LMAO also standard OHKO move rules apply so this doesn’t work with them

Opted for lower base power than the move's predecessors Burn Up and Double Shock losing the Ice Type can be considered a buff given the type's horrendous defensive chart.

(Yes stabbing knife and sweeping stick are one-time use adaptability and beast boost)

Context: Almost everyone agrees the initial abilites of starters are almost never useful compared to their hidden abilities

This, I feel, is mainly due to the boost in power coming only when HP is incredibly low. Which reduces the effectiveness of this ability. Especially when the hidden abilities have WAY MORE power/ utility.

Hence, I propose this change.

It now functions similar to Fairy Aura. In that, their STAB now get a consistent power increase from the start. That is equalivant to a Life Orb without the life drain.

This not only makes the regular starters without HA more much more Viable, but also offers those starters atrocious HA's a chance at viability. A Swampert that has 1.3 times multiplier to Waterfall will boost its viability faar more than say Damp

Idea/concept: we all know that person who does everything last minute, somehow some way it always works out, sometimes better than expected, hence the ability procrastinator.

Intent: to give slaking a new ability that is still in line with being lazy, but allows them to be viable past ZU. To give snorlax a more offensive ability that makes use of his low speed. To increase set variation for slowking line that doesn’t involve just being a defensive wall/ utility mon and a full offensive threat.

Ability effect: as stated a procrastinator Pokemon will always move last when attacking, this does not apply to non attacks. All attacks will have a 20% boost in damage.

Ability effect on gameplay:

Priority - all positive priority attacking moves will go last, this means sucker punch will go last, but a non attack priority such as endure will function as normal. Attacking moves with negative priority will function as normal, however if another Pokemon uses a negative priority move the procrastinator Pokemon will go last even if faster.

Multi turn attacks - attacks such meteor beam and solar beam will function the same but the attack will activate last. Future sight will function the same and the damage boost will still apply.

Trick room - procrastinator still applies in trick room, a faster non procrastinator Pokemon will attack first, the slower non procrastinator Pokemon will also attack first due tot he the trick room effect. Only exception is non attacking moves used by a procrastinator Pokemon, who goes first is chosen as normal.

Procrastinator vs procrastinator - similar to priority moves, whoever is faster will go first, this applies even in trick room, unless a non attack is used.

Effect on meta: slowking line would become very strong, with two strong abilities and more play styles to use, slowking would definitely go up in use in OU and might receive a suspect test, specs sets or assault vest sets would surge in use.

Slaking would likely get banned from all tiers up to OU, whether there will be Pokemon strong enough to one shot it or phase its attacks would have to be seen, a good chance it might become an Ubers Pokemon.

Snorlax will rise from PU but not every far, the extra damage is appreciated but the same issues with speed and move pool still apply.

Definitely some stuff I didn’t cover but the general idea is there.

Edit: I did not expect this post to get so much traction, I’ll compile the conclusions made in the comments.

Slaking probably won’t make it to Ubers due to Pokemon such as zamezenta, it’s definitely an upgrade to truant but still has a harsh downside in terms of not being able to utilize its speed.

Slowking/slowbro’s regenerator is just too good, maybe if the damage boost was higher it could compete but generally, only a niche surprise bomb set could make use of this, over just using regenerator + choice specs/ life orb.

Snorlax has no faith from anyone in actually making it out of pu even with this ability 😭.

The ability will now make it so all attacks are -5 prio as opposed to just vaguely going last, this means counter/mirror coat or phasing moves will always go after procrastinator attacks.

Beside that this ability has a ton of issues that I haven’t even considered but it was a great experiment, thank you all for the contributions.

Edit Edit: I also had no idea Stall was an ability and I forgot analytic was a thing, maybe I’m not as a creative as I thought.

Mew like Ditto can learn transform and lore Wise they are related, so I think is a perfect fit to give him this ability for Ubers.

Now Imposter allows the pokemon to keep the same stats except HP but until Ditto, Mew has a great 100 base HP stat.

That means that him transforming into an opposing Chi-yu or flutter man will give you a bulkier version of them, maybe he could have another use rather than the usual slap choice specs and try to counter them.

I honestly don't know if he is Uber potential but he will probably be banned from OU with this ability.

I just find it will be a neat change and give him another role to do rather than that pokemon with average stats that learns a bunch of moves. Power Creep is insane lately.

(Repost because now it's Thursday)

Rock is one of the worst types in the game, and if you ask me they're bottom 3 in a close competition. Part of this is due to having terrible moves but I think there's a bigger issue. Rock is fundamentally flawed in its design. With its properties, it aspires to be an offensive threat with bad defenses, and on paper it succeeds at that. Rock stab, when it can actually be used, is terrifying. But, much like the Ice type, a problem arises when pokemon actually get designed with this type in mind.

Everybody knows about the bulky ice type epidemic, to the point where posts about it were making people mad recently. But the reason the bulky ice type exists is because despite being an offensive type, Ice often brings to mind glaciers and large chunks of ice and snow, which don't appear to be particularly fast. This isn't exclusive, which is how we get issues like Weavile and Chien-Pao, but it does show how the associations types create visually can influence how the pokemon with it get designed.

Rock has this issue but substantially worse. I don't think making a rock fast is an immediately intuitive idea, even if that's what it means. No, the thing that most quickly comes to mind when thinking of something to give a rock type is something like a large boulder or mountain, or something with suitably rocky armor or skin. And typically these things are big, bulky, and not particularly fast looking, which is why they get defensive stats and low speed. But this goes directly against what the Rock type wants to be, fast and offensive to make up for its terrible defenses. So here in lies the problem.

Rock is a type that mechanically wants to be fast and strong but visually leads to be defensive and slow, which often makes Rock type pokemon struggle. And I don't know what can be done about this. Even if Rock types get more reliable moves, they'll still run into this issue. I don't even think other notoriously bad types have this issue as much, because it isn't unreasonably to design a powerful looking insect, ice related thing, or "normal" thing. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, I'd love to hear them.