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Extrasensory should be fine. If you look back that the attacking moves discussion, special moves are considered noncompetitive and thus allowed by default, with the exception of strong Fire moves.
Guys, I am basically Final Submission, but still kinda sorta WIP with final touches and stuff. I don't expect this to be picked, but I had too much fun making it to really care. Feedback still being accepted and GL to everyone! I hope to bring out Mal's full potential. I personally really like Deck Knight's submission. However, he doesn't have restrictions on his egg moves (idk if that was required, I thought it was).
Edit: Final submission up. I might still edit it but only if I spot a grammar mistake or try to re-word something. Thanks to CiteAndPrune for his input.
EXPLANATION: I was inspired by (read: ripped off) Bull of Heaven's idea of pairing opposite-themed moves for flavor purposes. I think this is a cool idea, because it represents the dual nature of the snake in the Judeo-Christian creation myth. You could argue that this snake did a good thing by giving Adam and Eve "knowledge of life and death"; however, he also led them to sin by doing so. It's a brilliant concept, and I give full credit to Bull of Heaven for coming up with it. However, I did things a little differently than he did.
You'll notice that my Level-Up list has Malaconda starting off with a complete set of four moves: Vine Whip, Bite, Body Slam, and Wrap. The way I figure it, our devious friend has the body of a snake (albeit a nonvenomous one), so he should start off knowing all the basic things that a snake can do - whip it's tail, bite an enemy, etc. It's only with experience that he'll learn how to do the really devious stuff, because that takes finesse.
Moving on, here are the pairs as I see them:
Sweet Scent / Pursuit: Luring enemies in VS. chasing after them.
Bestow / Knock Off: Giving an item VS. taking one away.
Grasswhistle / Nightmare: Obvious combination for a sinister-looking Grass/Dark type. Also has a teensy bit of flavor, since Adam and Eve both fall asleep after eating the apple and having sex (it's only after they wake up that they first begin to feel shame).
Glare / Encore: Discouraging an opponent VS. encouraging one.
Crunch / Power Whip: No real flavor here, just a couple of strong STAB upgrades.
Nasty Plot / Memento: Buffing your own stats VS decreasing your opponent's.
Synthesis / Super Fang: Healing half of your health VS. taking away half the opponent's health. "But McLuvdisc," you say, "Synthesis doesn't always restore half your health; the amount it heals varies with the weather!" "Your FACE varies with the weather!" I hurriedly reply, before dashing away to hide and think of a better counter-argument.
Not much to say here. Like a lot of posters, I stayed pretty conservative here. I guess the one big decision I made was not putting in U-Turn. I'm sorry, but with 55 Speed, I just don't see Malaconda zipping around making high-speed turns, or acting as a highly mobile scout for his team. I'd rather he wear enemies down through patience and trickery, rather than running away and sending in someone tougher to fight for him.
MOVE TUTOR
Bind
Covet Dark Pulse Foul Play Giga Drain
Knock Off
Pain Split Seed Bomb Sleep Talk
Spite
Synthesis
Worry Seed
Again, not much of note here. I did not mark Knock Off or Synthesis as VGMs, since they are both already in Malaconda's Level-Up.
EGG
Covet
Charm
Me First Payback Stockpile
Swallow
Spit Up Yawn
I saw some other posters making their Egg moves into the "Seven Deadly Sins", and I was all like "HELL YEAH." It makes perfect sense flavor-wise too, since the first thing Adam and Eve do after eating the apple is get their baby-makin' on, Daycare-style!
Ahem...anyway, which sins are which should be fairly obvious: Covet is Envy, Charm is Lust, Me First is Pride, Payback is Wrath, Stockpile is Greed, Swallow/Spit Up is Gluttony, and Yawn is Sloth.
Notable Exclusions
U-Turn: See above, in the TM/HM section.
Spikes / Rapid Spin: I don't want Malaconda to be pidgeonholed as a spiker or a spinner.
Ice Fang / Fire Fang / Thunder Fang: I worry about making Malaconda too powerful by giving him too much coverage.
If my calculations are correct, I've given Malaconda 30 Very Good Moves, and 65 Moves in total.
Final Submission has been made (man I love the Field egg group so much... can we always make things that fit there? Art people: everything must always look like it fits in Field!)
Solarbeam
Spite
Sunny Day
Swagger
Sweet Scent
Thief
Tickle
Torment
Worry Seed
Wrap
Wring Out
(30 NVGM)
Facade is a VGM but not marked as such.
Sucker Punch among your Move Tutors is a 4th Gen Tutor move, and already present among your Egg Moves.
Otherwise the moveset looks decent, though I must admit excluding Rapid Spin is risky, at least you attempt to justify that decision... though sometimes your reasoning lacks seriousness to be convincing. Anyway, good luck to you.
Bull of Heaven
31 VGMs
65 Moves Total
Aromatherapy
Crunch
Dark Pulse
Dragon Tail
Energy Ball
Facade
Foul Play
Frustration
Giga Drain
Grass Knot
Hidden Power
Ice Fang
Knock Off
Leaf Blade
Nasty Plot
You fit just right in the limits. You could've marked off Seed Bomb since you're adding Leaf Blade which outclasses it.
It's unusual to see the flavor moves packed in the Level Up list and Competitive moves instead given to Egg moves, but with the Field Egg group it works alright anyway. Good luck to you.
Korski
31 VGMs
? Moves Total
Crunch
Dark Pulse
Dragon Pulse
Dragon Tail
Energy Ball
Facade
Foul Play
Frustration
Giga Drain
Grass Knot
Toxic
U-turn
Yawn
(33, but -2 for Return and Seed Bomb)
Attract
Bind
Bite
Captivate
Charm
Covet
Double Team
Dream Eater
Flatter
Giga Impact
GrassWhistle
Hyper Beam
Leaf Tornado
Me First
PoisonPowder
Poison Tail
Psych Up
Rage
Razor Leaf
Retaliate
Round
Snatch
Snore
SolarBeam
Spit Up
Sunny Day
Swagger
Swallow
Thief
Torment
Worry Seed
Wrap
(32 NVGM)
In your Summary, you count Solarbeam among VGMs, when it's not marked as such on the TM list, and indeed, Malaconda can't use it well because of its underwhelming SAT stat.
Otherwise, this looks extremely solid and you provide detailed reasoning for the competitive inclusions you've made. Good luck Korski.
srk1214
32 VGMs
63 Moves Total
Crunch
Dark Pulse
Dragon Pulse
Dragon Tail
Energy Ball
Definitely one of the top movepolls as far as I'm concerned. Looks clean, polished and presented in order, plus your competitive reasoning is very strong, both for your included and excluded moves. Good luck srk!
I may have miscounted somewhere on the way, but at any rate you're firmly within the moves limit.
Your pre-movepoll explanations explain your reasoning excellently, but the missing reasoning within the different move lists themselves looks strange. Hopefully you'll finish on time, good luck Nyktos.
Menace13
30 VGMs
63 Moves Total
Aromatherapy*
Body Slam*
Crunch*
Dark Pulse*
Dragon Tail*
Energy Ball*
Foul Play*
Frustration*
Giga Drain*
Glare*
Hidden Power*
Iron Tail*
Knock Off*
Mean Look*
Nasty Plot*! (outclassed by Tail Glow)
Super Fang*
Synthesis*
Tail Glow*
Taunt*
Thunder Fang*
Toxic*
U-Turn*
(32, but -2 for Return and Nasty Plot)
Attract
Bite
Captivate
Double Team
Flash
Flatter
Fling
Gastro Acid
Leer
Lick
Poison Fang
Poison Tail
Psych Up
Punishment
Razor Leaf
Retaliate
Round
Scary Face
Snarl
Snore
SolarBeam
Strength
Sunny Day
Swagger
Sweet Scent
Thief
Torment
Twineedle
Vine Whip
Wrap
Wring Out
(31 NVGM)
My count reached the same values as yours, so it seems the totals are right. They fit well in the limit.
Your reasoning is primarily focused around flavor, and that big list isn't the most readable, so there's room to improve there. Still, you give a reason for every move you include, that's worth something. Good luck to you.
Qwilphish
31 VGMs
61 Moves Total
Block!
Confuse Ray!
Crunch!
Dark Pulse!
Dragon Tail!
Energy Ball!
Facade!
Fake Out!
Foul Play!
Frustration!
Giga Drain!
Grass Knot!
Heal Bell!
Hidden Power!
Iron Tail!
Knock Off!
Leaf Blade!
Payback!
Power Whip!
Protect!
Toxic!
U-Turn!
Wild Charge!
(33, but -2 for Return and Seed Bomb)
Astonish
Attract
Bestow
Bide
Bite
Charm
Copycat
Covet
Endure
Fake Tears
Flatter
Follow Me
Giga Impact
Grudge
Hyper Beam
Punishment
Quash
Retaliate
Round
Scary Face
Snarl
Solarbeam
Sunny Day
Swagger
Sweet Scent
Vine Whip
Worry Seed
(28 NVGM)
You have Iron Tail listed as a VGM in your TM list. TM 23 was Iron Tail in 4th Gen, but in 5th Gen that move is Smack Down - you should move Iron Tail to the Move Tutors list... although you do repeat it for Egg Moves, but, the call is yours. Good luck Qwilphish.
Base Speed
22 VGMs
33 Moves Total
Dark Pulse*
Dragon Tail*
Energy Ball*
Facade*
Foul Play*
Frustration
Giga Drain*
Grass Knot*
Hidden Power*
Iron Tail*
I'm afraid the Dig TM on your TM list is disallowed, as per all other Rock and Ground moves that could threaten Fire and Steel types, especially Heatran.
Protect isn't marked as a VGM in the TMs, though it is on your full list.
Your raw list clocks in at 37 VGMs (including the non-competitive Special Attacks) and 60 Moves Overall. Your TMs and Tutors are only 22 VGMs and 33 Total from that number. Mind the deadline and good luck with your entry, Base Speed.
Deck Knight
33 VGMs
66 Moves Total
Level Up
- Ice Fang*
- Follow Me
- Quick Attack
- Leer
- Vine Whip
11 Captivate
90 Substitute*
94 Rock Smash
H1 Cut
H4 Strength
14/29 (-1 for EQ Return)
You move counts are slightly off, especially counting Frustration and Return as 1 VGM and only +1 to Total Moves instead of +2.
Otherwise, your reasoning is extremely solid and focuses on Malaconda's duties on the sun team. I may differ from you on a number of details but you have me convinced with this post your movepoll is a good fit on CAP5. Good luck Deck Knight.
Cretacerus
31 VGMs
64 Moves Total
Aromatherapy
Confuse Ray
Crunch
Dark Pulse
Dragon Rush
Dragon Tail
Energy Ball
Facade
Foul Play
Frustration
Giga Drain
Glare
Grass Knot
Hidden Power
Leaf Blade
Knock Off
Nasty Plot* (outclassed by Tail Glow)
Payback
Power Whip
Protect
You have Sucker Punch in both Egg Moves and Tutor Moves, but Sucker Punch is a 4th Gen Tutor, not 5th Gen.
Also, oddly enough, you gave Malaconda Hyper Beam but omitted Giga Impact, one of the gimme moves.
Your VGM list mentions Night Shade but it's nowhere to be seen on the 4 learn lists. Meanwhile, moves like Torment didn't get a mention in the last two lists.
Round is given on both the VGM and NVGM list (it should be a NVGM).
.... also that V-Create (Unreleased) sticks out real bad.
Despite these flaws, you make a pretty bold moveset excluding Rapid Spin, among others. Clean up before the deadline and hopefully you'll make it, good luck nyttyn.
erisia
34 VGMs
65 Moves Total
Level Up
Wrap
Leer
Pursuit *
Vine Whip
Swagger
Bite
Glare *
Slam
Aromatherapy *
Leaf Blade *
Super Fang *
Crunch *
Captivate
Wring Out
Power Whip *
7/15
TMs/HMs
Roar *
Toxic *
Hidden Power *
Sunny Day
Taunt *
Substitute *
Wild Charge *
Cut
16/28 (-1/-1 for Frustration and repeat of Swagger)
Tutors
After You
Bind
Dark Pulse *
Foul Play *
Giga Drain *
Last Resort
Recycle
Seed Bomb */
Sleep Talk *
Snatch
Snore
Super Fang *=
Synthesis *
Worry Seed
7/14 (-2/-1 for repeated Super Fang and outclassed Seed Bomb)
Egg Moves
Body Slam *
Encore *
Follow Me
Nasty Plot *
Rapid Spin *
Spikes *
Spit Up
Stockpile *
Sucker Punch *
Swallow
Wring Out =
7/11 (-0/-1 for Wring Out)
If my count is correct you are 1 VGM above the allowed limit, even including outclassed/equivalent/repeated moves. Better double check to make sure. But, as Dracoyoshi pointed out, changing Body Slam from NVGM to VGM might've caused this, you just forgot to remove something. Think about it.
Otherwise this moveset is clean and with concise reasoning... if you got time you might want to expand it a little. Anyway, good luck.
Basileus
32 VGMs
62 Moves Total
TMs/HMs
tm06-Toxic
tm10-Hidden Power
tm11-Sunny Day
tm12-Taunt
tm15-Hyper Beam
tm17-Protect
tm21-Frustration*
th22-Solar Beam
tm27-Return
tm32-Double Team
Beat Up
Thunder Fang
Rapid Spin
Wring Out
Attract*
5/10 (-1/-2 for repeats of Sucker Punch and Attract)
Sunny Day among your TMs is a NVGM actually, but otherwise this looks mostly okay. Not bad for a first try, and as you practice more you may want to improve on your reasoning for moves, both on the competitive and flavor side of things. Keep trying, and see you around Basileus.
I'm surprised you put Malaconda's Grass STAB moves in the Egg list, except Seed Bomb, when no illegalities matter due to Smeargle and the Field group. Meanwhile you omit Seed Bomb from Move Tutors because it's already a Level Up move. Despite the redundancy, maybe it should learn the Tutor Seed Bomb? Doesn't change the move count though... ugh, unless my count is wrong somewhere but it still indicates you're within the limit. Better double check before the deadline.
Your reasoning for these moves could be longer though, consider expanding on it if you have the time. Good luck Homeslice.
90 - Substitute
93 - Wild Charge
10/17 (-1/-1 for Frustration and repeated Torment)
Tutors
Bug Bite
Dark Pulse
Recycle
Seed Bomb (outclassed by Leaf Blade)
Sleep Talk
Snatch
Synthesis
4/7 (-1/-0 for Seed Bomb)
Eggs
Baton Pass
Charm
Crunch
Encore
Faint Attack
Mean Look
Pursuit
Rapid Spin
Spit Up
Stockpile
Swallow
Thunder Fang
8/12
Razor Leaf in your Level Up list shouldn't be bolded like other VGMs.
Other than that, your moveset fits the limit, though it's very minimalist you sure cover your basics and your reasoning paragraph looks okay. Good luck ganj4lF.
XXTheDingoXX
3 VGMs
60 Moves Total
Level Up
-Wrap*
-Constrict
-Leer
-Sleep Talk*
6 Torment*
11 Vine Whip
15 Pursuit
21 Sweet Scent
26 Assurance
30 Flatter/Swagger*
35 Slam
39 Seed Bomb* (outclassed by Lead Blade)
44 Crunch
47 Charm/Captivate
51 Power Whip
55 Wring Out
61 Foul Play*
66 Nasty Plot
7/20 (-1/-0 for Seed Bomb)
4/8 (-3/-3 for Foul Play, Iron Tail, and Seed Bomb)
The absence of Frustration, Return, and SolarBeam really sticks out in your TM list.
The Egg combo of Baton Pass and Ingrain strikes me as risky. It's been argued against as anti-concept in the previous stages. But, it's your choice whether to keep it or not.
Also the absence of Sleep Talk in Tutors when Malaconda learns it as a Level Up move looks strange. It's been marked as a repeating move too, but at the moment, it isn't.
Your reasoning for inclusions and exclusions could be longer and more detailed. Give it a look over before the deadline comes. Good luck to you.
Mari
33 VGMs (or 32 if U-Turn outclasses Volt Switch)
66 Moves Total
Physical STAB
Bite
Faint Attack
Foul Play* (does not depend on user's attack stat)
Punishment
Power Whip*
Payback*
Pursuit*
Seed Bomb*
Sucker Punch*
6/9
Physical Coverage
Body Slam*
Gyro Ball*
Ice Fang*
Iron Tail*
Poison Tail
Return/Frustration*
Steamroller
Thunder Fang*
6/9 (-1 for Frustration)
Special STAB
Dark Pulse
Grass Knot
Solar Beam
2/3
Special Coverage
DragonBreath
Electroweb
Hidden Power*
Hyper Beam (lol)
1/4
Utility
Aromatherapy*
Clear Smog*
Destiny Bond*
Dragon Tail*
Knock Off*
Morning Sun*
Protect*
Rest*
Roar*
Sleep Talk*
Stun Spore*
Substitute*
Sunny Day
Swagger
Taunt*
Toxic*
U-Turn*
Volt Switch*
16/18 (but -1 for Volt Switch being outclassed)
Flavor
Assurance
Barrier*
Bide
Bind
Block*
Defense Curl
Double Team
Echoed Voice
Flash
Flatter
Fling
Giga Impact
Grudge
Leer
Rollout
Scary Face
Slam
Snatch
Sweet Scent
Tail Glow*
Thief
Wide Guard
Wrap
3/23
In your TM list You included Echoed voice instead of the required Round.
Also, Dark Pulse is a Tutor move, you don't need to set it to an Event.
My total count went up to 66, so you might want to double check the numbers yourself, or just take away one move of your choice to stay safe, there is a lot of flavor moves in this movepoll, after all.
My own suggestion would be to remove Barrier, as I recall defense boosters (and other booosting moves) were specifically disallowed during the earlier stages, since Malaconda's DEF stat is meant to be exploited by its counters.
Other than that, not bad Mari. Good luck to you.
Well, for a WIP movepoll...
You mixed up Round and Echoed Voice, Round is the move with universal distribution. Other than that, it's a start, though your reasoning could get more detailed. Good luck yoshinite.
Agile Turtle
31 VGMs
65 Moves Total
Aromatherapy
Crunch
Dark Pulse
Dragon Tail
Extrasensory
Facade
Foul Play
Frustration
Giga Drain
Glare
Grass Knot
Hidden Power
Ice Fang
Leaf Blade
Nasty Plot
Thunder Fang
Toxic
U-turn
(33, but -2 for Frustration and Leaf Blade)
Absorb
Attract
Bite
Captivate
Charm
Constrict
Covet
Cut
Double Team
Fake Tears
Follow Me
Giga Impact
Hyper Beam
Lick
Mega Drain
Punishment
Rage
Razor Leaf
Round
Scary Face
Slam
Snatch
Snore
SolarBeam
Sunny Day
Swagger
Sweet Scent
Tail Whip
Thief
Torment
Worry Seed
Wrap
(32 NVGM)
Your Level Up List is built a little strange.... the way it looks now, low level Malaconda found in the wild would have both its elemental fangs by default. Heart Scale moves are best given first in the Level Up list, then followed up by 4 common moves to hide them.
Otherwise, you fit under the limit, just barely. Think about adding some justifications for your moves maybe. Good luck to you.
McLuvdisc
30 VGMs
60 Moves Total
Body Slam
Crunch
Dark Pulse
Dragon Tail
Encore
Energy Ball
Facade
Foul Play
Frustration
Giga Drain
Attract
Bestow
Bind (equivalent of Wrap)
Bite
Charm
Covet
Double Team
Echoed Voice
Fling
Giga Impact
Grasswhistle
Hyper Beam
Me First
Nightmare
Pain Split
Round
Snarl
SolarBeam
Spite
Spit Up
Sunny Day
Swagger
Swallow
Sweet Scent
Thief
Torment
Venoshock
Vine Whip
Worry Seed
Wrap
(29 NVGM)
It's odd not seeing Snore among the Tutor moves, considering its universal distribution.
Your justification for including moves is also very heavy on the flavor side, since you selected flavor themes for the Level Up and Egg Moves. You might want to balance that out with some more competitive reasoning. Anyway, good luck to you.
JEFLIV
? VGMs
? Moves Total
S-Vine Whip
S-Yawn
S-Bite
1-Leech Life
2-Coil
4-Dual Chop
7-Poison Sting
10-Magical Leaf
12-Shadow Claw
15-Faint Attack
18-Body Slam
22-Ice Fang
49-Double-Edge
52-Crunch
57-Iron Head
60-Power Whip
66-Trump Card
70-Perish Song
Unfinished entry, but what you have here.... woah why make the Level Up so huge. O.O It spans TWENTY SIX moves total.
And really, Iron Defense? Trump Card? Perish Song? COIL?!
Look over the list of disallowed moves, rune this down to some 12-16 moves and try again.
...... if I made any errors in these, please pardon me. I've been writing up this post for 4-6 hours straight, wanting to get it up in time for people to get feedback. x.X Don't take my words for gospel either, look over your movesets on your own too.
I'll mark my list as a final submission later... I could use some comments too, so I'm leaving it open. If anything, I'd probably remove moves like Spikes or Torment because they might prove distractions and I see despite my effort to streamline Malaconda's movepoll I nonetheless gave it several support goodies to choose from... hmm, well, we'll see how that goes.
Final submission is done. Most notably I've cut Synthesis. Controversy may ensue. Good luck, all.
CiteAndPrune, thanks for the count. No matter how many times I do it myself, I always worry that I've screwed up somewhere.
Edit: Fear not, Synthesis is back in. After reviewing the threat list and some damage calcs, I decided that giving somewhat reliable recovery to all sets is less problematic than I thought.
I am certain my counts are correct - I am so meticulous it is quite ridiculous. The repeat I have in the TM section is Swagger (from Level-Up), not Return/Frustration - which ARE counted as 2 moves but one VGM. You also add an additional VGM in the Tutors section - there are 7 VGMs total but 1 is an equivalent (Seed Bomb) and another is a repeat (Foul Play), you have 8/13 listed.
The TM is 13/29 on account of Swagger reappearing (all the way from level-up) as the repeat move and Return/Frustration as the EO VGM.
I haven't gone through every submission yet, but I have seen some trends, so I'll put forward some criteria I plan to use for slating.
First of all, if your submission has gotten significant positive commentary, along the lines of being somebody's favourite or being definitely worth slating or whatever, then it will probably be slated. Otherwise, it's going to ride on the justifications. I'd rather not rely too much on my own judgment compared to other people's, but there hasn't been much commentary put forward so far.
I talked about the ideal of every move being justified. That doesn't necessarily mean that an individual submission has to explain every move in excruciating detail. I meant it to be more of a general thing, where community input and similarities between submissions would provide the bulk of the "reasoning" for moves. There are common themes between existing Pokemon and even between the submissions. Based on this, moves in these categories are pretty much in the clear:
My list in the first post
Liepard's non-attacking movepool
Serperior's movepool
I may or may not end up adding more as I go through submissions. If you have moves outside of these categories, then congratulations, your movepool is that much more unique. With uniqueness comes individual justification, though. This can come through testable claims or arguments that are defended by multiple people (for example, in the case of Follow Me).
Slight error correction
- removed Barrier and replaced it with Snatch in the level up movepool (which is a repeated tutor move)
- replaced Echoed Voice with Round
- added Dark Pulse to tutor moves and removed it from event moves
- replaced Flash with Snore
I have finalized my submission with explanations and organization. I still welcome comments and suggestions before the deadline, but absent that, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.
I would like to extend positive commentary to the movepools submitted by CiteAndPrune, Deck Knight, erisia, srk1214, and Vann Accessible (alphabetical order). I have responded positively to these five movepools. Everyone's submissions though are more or less the same when it comes down to functionality (STABs, Rapid Spin, a few other goodies), so I'm looking mostly at flavor here. Still, a few submissions turned me off by excluding U-turn (I really don't think phazing alone is going to cut it when we are relying on teammates to maintain pressure), although srk1214 didn't include it and I still think it's a viable submission. None of the movepools submitted are overpowered by any stretch of the imagination, which is good for voting. Good luck slating, capefeather, and good luck to everyone in the polls!
I would agree that most movepools are roughly the same due to very conclusive discussions and targeted goals.
There are a few differences one way or another, mainly in U-Turn and Spikes, and a few other moves.
Regardless, I'm confident we'll get a good movepool. I'm obviously most in favor of my own movepool and ones like it. In this case, though, "ones like it" means most every movepool.
If I had to get particularly picky, erisia's is my next favorite, probably followed by Korski.
The majority of the movepools include Spikes and/or Rapid Spin. Mine includes neither. Spikes and Rapid Spin are excellent moves and I feel giving them to Malaconda gives every team a reason to use it due to Malaconda's incredible natural special bulk, phazing options and LumRest. Instead, I built my movepool around the idea that Malaconda and sun should be intertwined. To do this, I want Malaconda to provide support that is not readily available to sun teams (some might argue that Rapid Spin and Spikes are not, but Forretress has a notable place on sun teams, specifically sunstall) and options that allow Malaconda to fully take advantage 100% berry regeneration.
Night Shade, Toxic, and Substitute: These moves take advantage of Malaconda's Harvest ability and Sitrus to make something that can most closely be compared to Rain Dish Ludicolo. Malaconda relies of passive healing and reliable forms of damage to slowly wear away at the opponent. This would be a huge boon for sunstall, which is currently an underused playstyle.
U-turn, Glare, Sucker Punch, Pursuit and Synthesis: These moves, along with Malaconda's STAB options, were added on the idea that Malaconda can be used as an offensive pivot for sun teams. Glare provides support to deal with notable threats to sun like Landorus and Salamence. U-turn is useful for scouting and breaking balloons which allows Dugtrio to trap Pokemon like Heatran, which would hopefully allow something like Volcarona to sweep. Sucker Punch and Pursuit deal with the Lati twins.
Roar, Dragon Tail, Aromatherapy, Rest and Taunt: Ideally, these moves could be used on both offensive and stall-based sun teams. Roar and Dragon Tail can force out Latias if she has too many Calm Minds or shuffle for hazard damage. Aromatherapy and Taunt are useful moves, but are generally inferior options. LumRest is a powerful recovery technique that I actually don't like too much but is completely mandatory.[/u]
Rage Powder, Fling, Beat Up and Worry Seed: Since PS! supports doubles, I figured I would throw in some moves for doubles. Fling is an interesting move because berries gain the effect on the opponent when flung. That means on Justified Pokemon, you can Fling Salac Berry for +1 Attack and +1 Speed!
Magical Leaf, Poison Tail, Shadow Ball, Flatter, Nasty Plot, Captivate, etc.: Flavor moves. And by Magical Leaf I mean DARK MAGIC.
I didn't include Ice Fang because it seemed redundant with Glare. I don't like Super Fang because it does 50% solid to our counters.
My movepool is now a final submission, as well. I fear I may have gone a little too far into the "excruciating detail" side, but it wasn't especially intentional: I wrote as much as seemed appropriate. I remain open to feedback; however, I doubt I'll be adding or removing any moves, especially competitive ones, at this stage.
I would like to reiterate what I said in my submission itself, namely that I very much hope at least one movepool with no paralysis moves is included in the slate. Aside from my own, I think Bull of Heaven's is my favourite in this category. It's got some excellent choices of flavour moves (though I dislike Present being a level-up move since canonically nothing but Delibird gets it that way). Competitively it's fairly similar to mine, aside from the inclusion of Spikes (which I don't like, but isn't the worst thing that could happen).
Though I disagree about paralysis, from an aesthetic standpoint I very much like Vann Accessible's movepool, and I agree with most of the other competitive decisions he made. Outrage is a little bit weird, though. erisia's is another one I like aesthetically, though the competitive disagreements are harder to reconcile in that case.
As an includer of Outrage, I thought I'd defend it for two seconds. Competitively, just about the worst thing Malaconda can do is lock itself in on Outrage. It offers little viable coverage, since Grass/Dark already hits most anything not Steel neutrally. And Dragon only really provides good neutral coverage. Yes, it hits Dragons, but the main draw is the neutral coverage, which Malaconda already has. Moreover, with only 100 Attack, Outrage spam isn't going to work really... Furthermore, Outrage locks Malaconda into the field, meaning if it is used as the opponent switches into a Scizor or a Jirachi or a Landorus-T, etc, Malaconda WILL be eating a U-turn. No two ways about it.
Flavorwise, I think excluding Outrage is actually the weird option. It's a tutor move learned by lots of things draconic and not. This list includes Serperior, which is obviously related to Malaconda.
Eh, fair enough then. Just seemed a little odd to me, being mostly worthless competitively and seemingly strange flavourwise. I'd forgetten Serperior gets it (though Arbok and Seviper don't).
Thanks for the support guys! I didn't think my spread would be so popular, so although the moves are going to stay the same i'll try and expand on my reasoning before the deadline.
Removed Spikes, Torment, and Tackle, added Wring Out to Level Up list and Night Slash and Beat Up to Egg moves... I think those were the only changes.
Marked my moveset as Final Submission by now.
Thanks for your kind words, folks. I probably have too many favourites for everyone to get slated but I'm hope that as many as possible make it into the voting stage. Deck Knight, erisia, Korski, Nyktos, srk and Vann Accessible (alphabetical order) definitely have my support though. All the same, good luck to everyone.
---- Nasty Plot*
---- Ancient Power
---- Worry Seed
01 Wrap
01 Dragon Rage
06 Sweet Scent
11 Vine Whip
16 Bite
21 Pin Missile
26 DragonBreath
31 GrassWhistle
36 Magical Leaf
41 Faint Attack 46Spikes 51 Dragon Rush 56 Confuse Ray 61 Power Whip 66 Foul Play
The Level-Up moveset is devided into 6 different groups, which alternate in the level-up-progress:
------ Generell moves: Wrap -> Pin Missile -> Spikes
These are the most basic moves that Malaconda learns, involving the use of its body and thorns. Wrap is a nice starter move for a snake, following the precedence of Arbok and the like. Pin Missile is included as a flavor move to give the spikes some credit, before learning Spikes: a move very rare on sun teams, and it enables Malaconda to take the role of a hazard setter, freeing this teamslot if needed. It's also a generally good and safe move, keeping the critical momentum on the user's side. Lastly, Spikes is much more balanced than Stealth Rock, and doesn't give sun teams an immediate disadvantage.
And setting up hidden traps just suits Malaconda too well :)
------ Dragon-type Moves: Dragon Rage -> DragonBreath -> Dragon Rush
These moves are a referrence to the bibel using the dragon as personification of evil and the devil himself. Young Malaconda are born with Dragon Rage instead of a STAB move to emphasize this. Although both grass and dark type to a good job in concealing things, Malaconda's true nature will always continue to shine trough time to time.
------ Status Moves:Sweet Scent -> GrassWhistle -> Confuse Ray
These moves are ment to influence an opposing creature, as did the snake in Genesis. Malaconda will beginn with infiltrating your sense of smell with the Sweet Scent of its apple, that target your hearing with a soothing GrassWhistle, and finally attacks youre most prominent sense, your sight, with a cunning Confuse Ray to completely leave you helpless.
These moves are purely for flavor, as their unreliability keeps them from being very useful in battle.
------ Grass-STABs: Vine Whip -> Magical Leaf -> Power Whip Vine Whip is a early move and fits a little grass snake rather well. It goes hand in hand with the already learned Wrap, and gives Malaconda its first STAB attack, although it might be a bit weak. The dark aspect of whips, which DJD smartly brought up in his art submissions, gives this move additional flavor. Magic Leaf goes into a different direction, namely that of an illusionist who captivates his spectators with spectacular tricks. In older times magic was also commonly associated with the devil and other unnatural powers. Power Whip followes the line of Vine Whip, but actually is the strongest STAB Malaconda can get. I chose it over Wood Hammer, because it can muster a reasonable balance of Accuracy and Power, and suits the Malaconda's playstyle better. Besides, it no doubt is the more natural choice in terms of flavor.
------ Dark-STABs:Bite -> Faint Attack -> Foul Play
Malaconda doesn't get very powerful dark type STABs by leveling. In order to get access to stronger dark-type moves, Malaconda has to rely on other methods, similar to how the devil abuses others to gain strenth. Malaconda will need the assistance of other Pokemon (Egg Moves) or human (TMs/Tutors) to harvest its true dark powers >:D
------ HeartScale-moves:Nasty Plot -> Ancient Power -> Worry Seed
Once you find the guy who brings back Malaconda's old thoughts, you can glance in horror at the full extend of it's Nasty Plot, that started even before it was born. You will get a feel of the evil and Ancient Power that lies within this Pokemon, and understand how everything began with those small Worry Seeds planted between everyone, which eventually grew into those trees of discord and chaos!
Yeah, this section looks very competetive, with a total of 8 out of 10 moves being VGMs. You can find a lot of rare and exotic things in here, ranging from aesthetical and unique moves to useful competitive assets. Bred Pokemon are something special after all, having inherited traits of completely different parents.
I included Rapid Spin, Aromatherapy and Glare here, aiding Malacondas role as team player and supporter, with sun teams currently severily lacking such options.
Crunch and Leaf Blade give Malaconda reliable STAB attacks to make full use of its unique offensive traits.
Bind
Covet Dark Pulse Dragon Pulse
Foul Play* Giga Drain Knock Off
Seed Bomb Sleep Talk
Snatch
Snore
Worry Seed
------ Notable moves excluded: Baton Pass - passing boosts isn't a priority for a sun team, and only distracts from more essentiell jobs, besides making it also attractive also for teams not using sun. For scouting U-turn is always superior Ice Fang/Thunderfang - they cover specific threats and have little use otherwise. Malaconda doesn't have to deal with everything itself, but should rather concentrate on its key tasks. Glare is usually more than enough to cripple this threats, so others can finish them off. Superfang - even without Superfang Malaconda has options to keep the momentum up, which fit its intended role better than simply halving the HP of random Pokemon. With the inclusion of Roar in its movepool, breaking substitutes is not an issue. Synthesis - Synthesis has only one advantage over Rest: it is not dependend on Lumberry to work. While the greater variety may seem to be positive at first, it can easily become dangerous because of how powerful Harvest can be. Simply giving Malaconda a type-resist-berry can totaly change the list of counters, letting it do crazy things like walling fire attacks (even in sun!) or unboasted fighting attacks. It could also pull off a lot of other weird sets (including those abusing pinch berries), which will prove very hard to control the direction it will take.
------ Notable moves included: Glare - can effectively cripple otherwise dangerous treats like Landorus enough for teammates to handle team, but Malaconda still won't be able to deal with them one on one. Roar/Dragon Tail - phasing is very important for something as slow and offensively limited like Malaconda. The usage of Substitute or Taunt can easily render Malaconda set-up bait to common treats like dragons or fighting types, which dominate the current metagame. In order to prevent this, Malaconda needs to have access to both, Roar and Dragon Tail U-Turn - momentum is key on sun teams, as their strategy can easily be ruined in an instance. U-turn is a nice tool to react to almost any situation and will allow Malaconda to work more effectively with its team, providing flexibility and support. With its bulk and low speed Malaconda will also easily bring in frailer team mates safely.
Also, thank you CiteAndPrune for putting in so much effort and studying every single moveset :D
I'm a big fan of the sets made by CiteAndPrune, Deck Knight and McLuvdisc. I might have a few qualms, but they are pretty minor and consistent among them. My Glare + Roar and/or Foul Play reservations may be unfounded as no one but me thinks it's a big deal. Maybe I'm just paranoid. :D
I like erisia's for the most part, but I really fear Stockpile with Lum+Rest transforming Malaconda into an unbreakable wall.
Still, any one of them would be a great final movelist.
Hey all I summarized the submissions so far in a spreadsheet: link
Anyone can edit it so I suggest checking your own movepool to make sure that everything is correct, and if it isn't go ahead and change things. putting a 'y', 'n', or 'e' in the field will automatically color the background. I strongly believe that there are several mistakes in this sheet, because I was not double checking, etc. It was put together pretty quickly.
Oh, some sources of error may come from people listing a move as VGM when it actually isn't or was not considered to be one. Often if I ran across a move listed as a VGM that I hadn't seen on any other movepools yet, I added it to the sheet and said that every previous movepool didn't have it, so be on the look out for that. Also I included Solarbeam, Sunny Day, and Torment because some people listed those as VGMs.
A few notes:
ganj4lF: your movepool does not appear to include Protect. Might want to look into that.
XXTheDingoXX: Your movepool leaves out several "gimme" moves such as Return/Frustration and Hidden Power. You also have Ingrain listed in your egg moves, but the move has been disallowed.
Edit: The best I can tell, Deck Knight has the most average submission, with only 3 selections that go against the majority. Looking for others!
Edit2: After looking through the submissions, I think that Bull of Heaven's is my favorite. My only real quarrel with the pool is Wood Hammer.