Pet Mod Megas for All v7 - please switch to the new thread for v8! (There's a link in the first and last posts!)

Since JosJet and I had very similar ideas, we decided to work together. This is the result of our teamwork!

:zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika

New Ability
: Vajra
Turns the user's Dark moves into Electric moves and boosts them by 20%.

Type: Electric

New stats
:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 → 120 (+20)
Defense: 63 → 78 (+15)
Special Attack: 80
Special Defense: 63 → 108 (+45)
Speed: 116 → 136 (+20)
BST: 497 → 597

New moves:
Jaw Lock, Sucker Punch, Assurance, Taunt, Snarl

Description:
1) Concept
The "vajra" is one of the most important ritual objects of Tibetan Buddhism and is used by the Indian Vedic rain and thunder-deity Indra to get rid off demons. The objects looks like a mix of a thunderbolt and a bell. While the former represents "method", the latter alludes to "wisdom". When put together, these two aspects embody the union of all dualities, like day and night or truth and ideal; it's a duality we must try to tame in order to achieve balance.

(In a way, this is reminiscent of Zekrom and Reshiram, and it just so happens Zebstrika comes from generation 5 where a binary belief system like "black and white" plays a huge role in the games.)

Back to what we've said earlier, "method" refers to the skillful means to eliminate negative elements like greed, ignorance, or cruelty from living beings, thereby allowing them to achieve enlightenment.
What this means for our Mega Zebstrika is that whenever it relies on tricky tactics Dark moves are generally know for, it uses them for a much different purpose; in fact, Mega Zebstrika tries to convert negative energies into more positive ones.


2) Competitive
Zebstrika is supposed to be a Pokémon that works similar to Spectrier and Regieleki in that it can run lots of STAB moves and/or utility moves while still being effective.

Our Zebstrika prefers running mostly Electric moves, maybe even only Electric moves. Thanks to its ability, it can now start trapping Water and Flying Pokémon since Dark moves turn into Electric moves. The addition of Jaw Lock works well with Pursuit. For one, if the opposing Pokémon decides to stay in, they get trapped by Jaw Lock. For two, if they decide to switch out, they get hurt by Pursuit. This combination makes sure that Zebstrika can always force some progress even if it only runs Electric moves and if the opponent has some Pokémon immune or resistant to Electric moves.

Other Dark moves Zebstrika can take advantage from are Sucker Punch for priority and threatening Unburden Hawlucha or getting around Water Shuriken Greninja; Foul Play can be used to punish set-up sweepers while Taunt disrupts Pokémon relying on Status moves to make progress. There's also Assurance for Zebstrika's strongest Electric move that works well with the fear of Jaw Lock since it can do up to 120 damage if the (new) target gets hurt during the turn, for instance by hazards.
Finally, while (Mega) Zebstrika isn't intended for VGC, if people want to try out (Mega) Zebstrika in VGC, they now have Snarl to support their team, however.
 
:ss/Mudsdale:

Mega Mudsdale
type: Ground
ability:
Sand-adapted : If sandstorm is active when the mon is summon, give it +1 in defenses
Stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 145 (+20)
Defense: 125 (+25)
Sp. A: 55 (+10)
Sp. Def: 100 (+15)
Speed: 65 (+30)



:ss/rapidash:

Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire
ability:
Solar Battery : If sunny day is active, this pokemon speed is x1.5

Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 135 (+35)
Defense: 85 (+25)
Sp.Attack: 90 (+10)
Sp.Def: 100 (+20)
Speed: 115 (+10)

[abandoned cause vetoed and I don't have a really good idea for it]
:ss/zebstrika:

Mega Zebstrika
Type: Electric
ability:

Short circuit: If a weather or a terrain is active, the user's Electric moves are decreased by 25%. If no weather or terrain is active, the user's Electric moves will always hit the target(s) and be unaffected by immunities (immune mons still resist).
Example:
Thunderwave can now paralyse Electric Pokémon
Thunderbolt ignores Volt Absorb and Ground's Electric immunity.

Stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 130 (+30)
Defense: 93 (+20)
Sp.Attack: 100
Sp.Def: 109 (+36)
Speed: 126 (+14)

New moves: bulk up



Explanations: I wanted to do a weather thing because I think that we lack megas who can take an advantage of the weather. And this trio was prefect for this ! So I introduce M-mudsdale, the first with a defensive weather related ability, Rapidash who run so fast under the sun and a new kind of thing with zebstrika who certainly don't want a weather in your team. Zebstrika should be a rain mega in it's first edition but... but Swampert ._. So, I hope you enjoy weather as much as me and vote for these! :D
 
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:bw/rapidash:
Mega-Rapidash
Type:Fire
Ability:Racing Spirit(On switch-in, if the opponent is faster, the Speed is increased by 1 until this Pokemon uses a damage move. The Choice Scarf is included when calculating.)
New Moves:Dazzling Gleam, Discharge
HP 65

Attack 130(+30)
Defense 90(+20)
Sp. Atk 120(+40)
Sp. Def 100(+20)
Speed 95(-10)

Supporter or revenge-killer. Your choice. Ability is for Pokedex Descirption in Yellow, "Just loves to run. If it sees something faster than itself, it will give chase at top speed."

:bw/zebstrika:
Mega-Zebstrika
Type:Electric
Ability:Savanna Rage(In Grassy Terrain, this Pokemon's attacks have 1.3x power.(not full Sand Force clone))

New Moves:Grassy Glide

Stats:


HP: 75
Attack: 120(+20)
Defense: 93(+30)
Sp. Atk: 110(+30)
Sp. Def: 73(+10)

Speed: 126(+10)
Zebstrika is based on a zebra. Ability, Savanna Rage is for this reason.
 
mega_rapidash_by_peegeray-d7wk9wj.png

(c) peegeray and Robbin a.k.a. The Shiny Luxray

:Rapidash: Mega Rapidash
New Ability
: Levitate
Type: Fire/Steel
New stats:
HP: 65 -> 65
Attack: 100 -> 140 (+40)
Defense: 70 -> 100 (+30)
Special Attack: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Special Defense: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Speed: 105 -> 115 (+10)
BST: 500-> 600

New moves: None
Description: Mega Rapidash, the Flaming Winged Horse Pokemon. Rapidash not only gains the ability to fly, but it also gains armor upon Mega Evolution, allowing it to survive dangerous battles unscathed. Its ability to fly even with armor is a testament on how strong its wings are.

Levitate gives it the Winged-Horse flavor without adding the Flying-type, allowing it to focus on its defensive merits by virtue of its Steel-typing. Steel-typing gives it loads of resistances to help it set up a Swords Dance, while also giving it STAB on Smart Strike or Iron Tail (depending on whether you prefer accuracy or power) to hit Fairies such as Clefable hard. Levitate also allows Mega Rapidash to pivot in on Ground-type moves that it would have been scared of.


maxresdefault.jpg

:Mudsdale: Mega Mudsdale
New Ability
: Steadfast
Type: Ground
New stats:
HP: 100 -> 100
Attack: 125 -> 145 (+20)
Defense: 100 -> 130 (+30)
Special Attack: 55 -> 65 (+10)
Special Defense: 85 -> 95 (+10)
Speed: 35 -> 75 (+30)
BST: 500 -> 600

New moves: Flame Charge
Description: Mudsdale reminds me of Boxer from George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm. Boxer is a hardworking horse representing USSR's working class. So yeah, that's the inspiration for this sub. Steadfast as an ability fits its hardworking nature flavor-wise. Flame Charge allows it to slowly boost its Speed while also allowing it to hit Ferrothorn for super-effective damage in the process, while Steadfast can aid it when used against the likes of Jirachi and Bisharp. Stamina pre-Mega helps it flavor-wise for a bulky booster set. An ideal set for this would be Body Press / Iron Defense / Flame Charge / Earthquake or Rest in the final slot.


EDIT: Just realized that someone made a Hard Worker Mudsdale sub before me, so I changed its ability to Steadfast to still fit its hardworking nature flavor-wise.
 
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:Rapidash:
Mega Rapidash
New Ability: Defeatist
Type: Fire
New stats: HP:65
Attack:100 (+50) 150
Defense:70
Special Attack:80(+30) 120
Special Defense:80
Speed:105 (+20) 125
(BST) 500 (+100)600
New moves: Heat Crash,Horn Leech,Burn Up,Drill Run
:Zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
New Ability: Simple
Type: Electric
New stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 120 (+20)
Defense: 63 -> 83 (+20)
Special Attack: 80 -> 110 (+30)
Special Defense: 63 -> 83 (+20)
Speed: 116 -> 126 (+10)
(BST: 597)
New moves: Electro Ball
 
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Mega Rapidash
Fire Type
Ability: Emergency Exit: The Pokémon, sensing danger, switches out when its HP becomes half or less.
New Moves: Horn Leech, Pain Split, Submission
HP: 65
ATK: 125(+25)
DEF: 85(+15)
SP.ATK: 105(+25)
SP.DEF: 95(+15)
SPEED: 125(+20)
Mega Rapidash may be one to charge directly into battle, even if it damages itself in the process, but it also knows when to retreat, so it can gain distance and time... Until it charges right back in.
Recoil moves many times are used as a way to charge into whatever is in front of you, regardless of the consequences, simply hitting your opponents as hard as you can, even if you lose some HP, too. Well, Mega Rapidash may be somewhat of a hothead, but it does know when to back off, and that can make it an excellent user of recoil moves. A Pokémon with Emergency Exit will retreat the moment its HP reaches half, and, paired with powerful moves that deal damage to the user, that means you can manipulate when you will switch out while also doing high amounts of damage. Of course, we wouldn't like that to be a one use thing. Not only rapidash already learns Morning Sun, it would also be able to learn Horn Leech, which means that it can also heal itself while doing damage. That said, it can manipulate its own HP, deal damage, and pivot, all at the same time, if used correctly.
So, if that sounds appealing at all, just go for it! Just don't get too Reckless!

ezgif-1-54033f2207c6.gif


Mega Zebstrika
Electric/Fire Types
Ability: Technician: Powers up the Pokémon's weaker moves.
New Moves: Triple Axel, Zing Zap, Jump Kick, Blaze Kick
HP: 75
ATK: 145(+45)
DEF: 73(+10)
SP.ATK: 105(+25)
SP.DEF: 73(+10)
SPEED: 126(+10)
While working in this one, i think i wouldn't be alone if i said that the movepool feels...lacking. It has some sorta "underpowered" moves, with negative effects, not so good coverage... and... well, it's not really that bad, just, not the best to work with. But definetly possible to. What i personally felt about Zebstrika was that it had a lot of moves but those were in the vast majority weaker moves, such as flame charge, or double kick. So, well, that does pair up with Technician does it not? Sure, Electric type doesn't benefit a lot from Technician, mainly if we're talking physical (with only Nuzzle being affected...), but, what if it had Triple Axel for some power, and coverage? What Zebstrika does lack is setup, so, high raw stats should do! As for fire typing, it offers some good offensive typing, and, despite it's not so good defensively, it can deal quite some damage with STAB, Technician Flame Charge, while also increasing its own speed. Also, just think about it - lava stripes! You want it! I know you do! Also, I do like the idea of Zebstrika using its lightning to light up fires in dry grass, for example, and using that fire for its advantage. It's a good way to go all out, and deal as much damage as you can!
1616637862542.png


Mega Mudsdale
Ground Type
Ability: Weak Armor: Physical attacks to the Pokémon lower its Defense stat but sharply raise its Speed stat.
New Moves: Curse, Pain Split
HP: 100
ATK: 140(+15)
DEF: 110(+10)
SP.ATK: 55(0)
SP.DEF: 130(+45)
SPEED: 65(+30)
Ever met someone who would not stop working, even if it were for the better, 'cause they were too tired to be productive? Someone who overdoes it, and ends up not caring if they should take it easy? Well, Mega Mudsdale does just that. Mudsdale is, for sure, a true Hardworker. It works so hard that even if the layer of hardened mud protecting it starts to crack, it keeps on going, not stopping until its task is complete! Weak Armor makse for an interesting combination with Stamina - you can take hits before mega evolving, to increase your defense, giving you opportunities to use your Weak Armor later. This one is quite simple, but i'd say also quite fun, due to how the base and Mega formes contrast with each other, without actually holding each other back. Not as if anything could hold Mudsdale back!
1616637810161.png


Let's take just another look at Rapidash, shall we? What do we have here, exactly?
We have a Pokémon with 65 HP, a weakness to Rock, a high attack, and a high speed. It can use a powerful move, while dealing damage to itself, and potentially switching out by doing so, due to the low HP. It can also switch out, potentially after moving, by being attacked, due to Emergency Exit, paired up with a high speed. It might be clear by now that this Pokémon enjoys a lot at least one support in its team, to remove the hazards, and maybe set up screens, or wish. Maybe sun, too, to boost it's Fire Type damage, and increase its recovery, that may lie in Morning Sun. Emergency Exit not only gives it easy access to finishers that may snowball, such as Moxie or Beast Boost users, but also to said supports, as well as some wider control of the battlefield. Emergency Exit is a very interesting ability, and, despite i love how Golisopod uses it, as a bulky avenger and being able to tank while switching into its allies, i think that a fast user who can manipulate its HP with relative ease might be really interesting. It's a way to explore the ability as we haven't seen before, and one i believe is a fresh, fun way to do so. This role suits Rapidash so well, also, due to it getting Run Away in base form, which reinforces the idea of it fleeing when needed, and it's already a good user of recoil moves, who also has access to recovery. These points, paired with a team around it, brings us a somewhat new, aggressive but careful playstyle, that i honestly hope to become true in the future. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
 
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MEGA RAPIDASH
:ss/rapidash:
FIRE
Ability: Charred
(Burn version of merciless: burn makes this mon always crit)
HP: 65
ATTACK: 100
DEFENCE: 105 (+35)
SPA: 110 (+30)
SPDEF: 70
140 (+35)

moves: lava plume

DESCRIPTION: As a result of mega evolution, the flames on the outside decrease but MEGA RAPIDASH stores all of its flame power in its horn. When it uses a fire type move it is said that its fire is 5x stronger

OVERALL:
rapidash being a force to be dealt with (and a great counter to volt turn)(also no mudstale bcz its my fav mon and i wanna be amazed by everyone else)
 
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Mega-Rapidash @ Rapidashite
Type: Fire
Ability: Competitive

Stats:
HP: 65
ATK: 100 -> 100
DEF: 70 ->70
SPA: 80 -> 130 (+50)
SPD: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPE: 105 -> 135 (+30)
BST: 600
New Moves: None

At first, I wasn’t sure what ability to give to Mega Rapidash, but then I came across some Pokedex entries for Rapidash.
Very competitive, this Pokémon will chase anything that moves fast in the hopes of racing it.”
“Just loves to run. If it sees something faster than itself, it will give chase at top speed.”
Unable to restrain itself from running after fast trains or cars. Capable of reaching 150 mph at full speed.”
Seems like this horse is very competitive, eh? So, it seemed like a good match. I made it a special attacker so it could take advantage of the ability. It has a high speed and special attack stat with an ability that can raise its special attack, so it may seem a little much, but with Morning Sun as its only recovery (which it most likely wouldn’t run), a stealth rock weakness, and having very low defense, it can be eventually worn down and eventually KO’d, by anything from Bisharp’s Sucker Punch
252+ Atk Black Glasses Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rapidash: 195-231 (71.9 - 85.2%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Black Glasses Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rapidash: 196-232 (58.6 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
from Rillaboom’s Grassy Glide
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 159-188 (47.6 - 56.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 136-162 (50.1 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery
after being worn down a bit. However, if it gets a Competitive boost from switching into a Defog or something, especially from one of the most popular Defoggers right now, Corviknight. However, it has to be careful, because if it switches into a Brave Bird instead, it can take a lot of damage. 0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rapidash: 153-181 (56.4 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO. However, at +2 special attack, it can get a clean KO even with Corviknight at full HP, and still has a chance to KO a fully specially invested Corviknight with no special attack investment. It has nice coverage in Fire/Ground (Scorching Sands)/Grass (if you are running Solar Beam)/Hidden Power.

Mega-Zebstrika @ Zebstrikite
Type: Electric/Normal
Ability: Scrappy
New Moves: Zing Zap, Thunderous Kick, Blaze Kick, Extreme Speed (this one can be taken off if too OP)

Stats:
HP: 75
ATK: 100 -> 140 (+40)
DEF: 63 -> 75 (+12)
SPA: 80 -> 105 (+25)
SPD: 63 -> 75 (+12)
SPE:116 -> 127 (+11)
BST: 597

Summary: So, you might be wondering, “Why in the world would Zebstrika be a normal type?” Well, if you haven’t noticed, a lot of normal types tend to be animal-esque beings as Pokemon, some being Miltank (a cow), Rattata/Raticate (rats), Meowth/Persian (cats), Buneary/Lopunny (rabbits), and most of the regional birds (which are Normal/Flying as their first form, at least). So, technically, Zebstrika is just a zebra that can shoot lighting everywhere, so it made sense to give it the normal type. It also has the ability Scrappy, which may seem there just because it is a splashable ability, but there is another reason. The definition of the word scrappy is, “determined, argumentative, or pugnacious.” (from Oxford Languages). Now, I think most of us know what determined means, and probably argumentative, but pugnacious might be a stretch (well, I had no idea what pugnacious meant, anyway). Pugnacious means, “eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight”. Well, from what I know about zebras, they can get mad pretty easily, and even Zebstrika’s Pokedex entries say that it is “ill tempered”, so it makes sense. Now, onto the competitive standpoint.

Zebstrika gets access to Zing Zap, which gives it a reliable STAB Electric move and Extreme Speed, which, when it mega evolves, will be able to hit ghosts with its new Normal Type STAB (and its new move Thunderous Kick too). It already has access to Return, Double Edge, and Thrash, which are all good Normal type moves too. It has a high attack stat, but mediocre speed and low defenses. It does get access to Agility and Flame Charge so it can increase its speed, though. Thunderous Kick and Blaze Kick allow it to hit Rock/Steel/Grass types more easily and cover some of its resistances better.

Mega Mudsdale @ Mudsdalite
Type: Ground
Ability: Solid Rock
New Moves: Work Up, Sludge Bomb, Wide Guard, Helping Hand, Spikes

Stats:
HP: 100
ATK: 125 ->135 (+10)
DEF: 100 ->135 (+35)
SPA: 55 ->105 (+50)
SPD: 85 -> 95 (+10)
SPE: 35 -> 30 (-5)

Summary: So, it turned out that I had the same (basic) idea as JetManJo for Mega Mudsdale, so we decided to do a collab on it. If we look at Mudsdale's Pokedex entries, there is a lot of stuff about mud. "It spits a mud that provides resistance to both wind and rain, so the walls of old houses were often coated with it. " "Mud that hardens around a Mudsdale's legs sets harder than stone. It's so hard that it allows this Pokémon to scrap a truck with a single kick." Well, it seems like this mud is very resistant and harder then stone. That's when I deceided to do the ability Solid Rock for Mega Mudsdale. (and Camerupt also has Solid Rock, so this isn't the first time that a non-rock type has been given Solid Rock). Solid Rock allows Mega Mudsdale to be even more of a tank and take hits from the likes of Choice Band Rillaboom - 252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Solid Rock Mudsdale in Grassy Terrain: 276-325 (80.9 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery - and Ash Greninja! - 252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja-Ash Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Solid Rock Mudsdale: 366-432 (90.5 - 106.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO - It can make use of Stamina pre-Mega to raise its defense and become a physical tank and also has access to Stealth Rock to set those up. We gave it Sludge Bomb and Work Up with buffed special attack so it can be a mixed attacker and hit grass types (like Rillaboom) after taking a hit. It also got Wide Guard, Helping Hand, and Spikes to have some more utility, being able to support its team in doubles and being able to set up hazards. We lowered its base speed down to 30 so that it can be allowed to use Trick Room well. (most Trick Room users have a base speed of 30 or below). It does have slightly lower special defense, though, and can be worn down due to a lack of reliable recovery. However, it can take a hit or two from most of the physical attackers in the meta and gets access to Body Press, which can deal a lot of damage thanks to an increased defense stat and Stamina pre-mega.
 
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:ss/mudsdale:
New Ability: Water Compaction
Type: Ground/Water

New stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 125 ->135 (+10)
Defense: 100 ->140 (+40)
Special Attack: 55 ->85 (+30)
Special Defense: 85 ->105 (+20)
Speed: 35
(BST) 500 ->600

New moves
: Waterfall, Gunk Shot, Muddy Water
Description: Mudsdale covers itself in dirt that turns into hardened mud when hit by water.
:ss/rapidash:
New Ability: Blazing: This pokemon's fire type moves gain +1 priority, but their base power is multiplied by 3/5.
Type: Fire

New stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 100 ->120 (+20)
Defense: 70 ->90 (+20)
Special Attack: 80 ->100 (+20)
Special Defense: 80 ->90 (+10)
Speed: 105 ->135 (+30)
(BST) 500 ->600

New moves
: Burn Up
Description: Having more energy, its flames glow brighter.
:ss/zebstrika:
New Ability: Serene Grace
Type: Electric/Fairy

New stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 ->116 (+16)
Defense: 63 ->95 (+32)
Special Attack: 80 ->100 (+20)
Special Defense: 63 ->95 (+32)
Speed: 116
(BST) 497 ->597

New moves
: Play Rough, Dazzling Gleam, High Horsepower
Description: Zebstrika runs gracefully through the plains, sending bolts of electricity everywhere it runs.
EDIT: Changed Zebstrika's stat spread, removed Zing Zap, added Dazzling Gleam.
 
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:mudsdale:
New Ability: Solid Rock
Type: Ground

New stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 125 ->145(+20)
Defense: 100 -> 130(+30)
Special Attack: 55
Special Defense: 85 -> 105(+20)
Speed: 35
(BST):590

New moves
: Stone Edge, Accelerock
Description: Mudsale's Pokedex entries talk about how hard its mud is. That mud solidified into rock and surrounded it, making it more resistant.
Mudsdale is now a bulky physical attacker when it Mega Evolves. An idea with Mega-Mudsdale is staying in regular for the defense boost, then mega evolving.

:rapidash:
New Ability: Brisk Flames (All fire-type attacks gain +1 priority while this Pokemon is at 90% or above.)
Type: Fire

New stats:
HP:65
Attack:100->140(+40)
Defense:70->80(+10)
Special Attack:80->100(+20)
Special Defense:80
Speed:105->135(+30)
(BST):600

New moves
:Blaze Kick
Description:A Mega Rapidash walking through a field spells disaster for that field, for its mere footsteps leave flares in its wake. Its speed could rival bullet trains.
Rapidash is now a fast revenge killer with +1 priority Flare Blitzes. With Morning Sun, it could be an incredibly powerful Pokemon, able to keep on firing off priority fire moves.

:zebstrika:
New Ability:Speed Boost
Type: Electric

New stats:
HP:75
Attack:100->120(+20)
Defense:63
Special Attack:80->100(+20)
Special Defense:63
Speed:116->150(+34)
(BST):571

New moves
: Extremespeed, High Horsepower, Nuzzle
Description: Mega Zebstrikas are faster than lightning. Pictures of them look like lightning but with a black stripe.
Speedy Zebstrika. It can even provide speed control for its teammates with Nuzzle, as guaranteed paralysis is very stong.
 
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:Zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika :bw/zebstrika:

New Ability: Blitzlekrieg
(This Pokemon's Speed is 1.5x, but it can only select the first move it executes.)

Type : Electric

New Stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 130 (+30)
Defense: 63 -> 73 (+10)
Special Attack: 80 -> 130 (+50)
Special Defense: 63 -> 73 (+10)
Speed: 116
(BST) : 597 (+100)

New Moves : (None)

Description : 116 speed with Scarf gives it almost the same speed as Regieleki.
Blitzlekrieg is inspired by Gorilla Tactics, which is a pun between Guerilla Tactics and Gorilla, here the pun is between Blitzkrieg and Blitzle, which is Zebstrika pre-evolution.
It's a hit-and-run pokemon mostly, thanks to Volt Switch. It has also Overheat which can be used well.

:rapidash: Mega Rapidash :rb/Rapidash:

New Ability: Fiery Spin
(This pokemon switch-out after using a Fire move.)

Type : Fire

New Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 100 -> 120 (+20)
Defense: 70 -> 90 (+20)
Special Attack: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Special Defense: 80 -> 100 (+20)
Speed: 105 -> 135 (+30)
(BST) : 600 (+100)

New Moves : (None)

Description : This pokemon is definitely a pivoting fire unicorn.
Why is this interesting ?
Overheat : Hit-and-run into everything you want.
Wisp : Burn a Physical foe, switch into what you want.
Mystical Fire : Lower SpA of Special Attacker foe, switch into what you want.
Sunny Day : Set up Sunny Day into Venusaur/other pokemon that will benefits the Sun.
 
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So all of these ideas for Zebstrika sound awesome and I love them all but they are missing one crutial thing that I think would make them all the best, Finesse! Now what I keep seeing is "always hits" or "Ignoring Immunities" and while I agree Zeb should do all these things I think that there is a better solution for Zebstrika that will really get you hype for the Zebra not a HORSE. Anyways without further ado I will introduce Mega Zeb!
Mega Zebstrika Stats, Movepool additions, Ability, And Typing
Stats:
HP: 75
Atk: 100>130
Def: 63>73
SpAtk: 80>110
SpDef: 63>73
Speed: 116>136
Ability: Wild Tempered (When this pokemon takes damage except by status, weather or entry hazards, This pokemon sets Electric Terrain)
Movepool Additions: High Horsepower, Work up, Iron Head
Typing: Electric/Steel
 
Hi everyone, I'm baaack!
I'd like to thank everyone so much for the warm welcome back! I really appreciate it. I dealt with a lot over the past few months - some good, some bad - and all in all, this got swept away from my priorities list, and I hope to make up for lost time by my involvement in the sub. Therefore...I'm going to make Rapidash sub to kick things off!

:Rapidash: Mega Rapidash
Ability: Bridle Veil -
If this pokemon is hit with a steel type attack, all ally pokemon are cured of a status condition. Damage immune (credits to Hematite for the awfully perfect name).
Type: Fire/Fairy
HP: 65
ATK: 100 -> 126 (+26)
DEF: 70 -> 100 (+30)
SPA: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPD: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPE: 105 -> 109 (+4)
BST: 600
New Moves: Play Rough, Dazzling Gleam, Heal Bell, Misty Terrain, Misty Explosion, Retaliate
Set Description/Potential Edits: Coming soon? Coming soon (remind me).

:Zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika
Ability: Paved Roads -
If every other pokemon on the player's team has been on the field (paved the road ;P ) before Mega Zebstrika mega evolves, your next electric attack that lands raises special attack, special defense, and speed by one stage (after Paved Roads triggers once, it cannot occur again in the battle unless Mega Zebstrika leaves and reenters the field).
Type: Electric
Stats:
HP: 75
ATK: 100 -> 120 (+20)
DEF: 63
SPA: 80 -> 125 (+45)
SPD: 63 -> 94 (+31)
SPE:116 -> 120 (+4)
BST: 597
New Moves: Thunder Cage, Shadow Ball, Pay Day
 
Last edited:
- updates length of submission phase because I keep being a day late and maybe making it official will even out
- is late by no less than four more days
I'm great at this

ahem
Oookay, so I think it goes without saying that all of us here kinda need a break, hahah - I apologize for the many repeated delays OTL
That said!! We have been succeeded as Pet Mod of the Season by Fusion Evolution Under Used, meaning our time being hosted on Showdown has come to a close! It's been a huge honor, and we're so happy to have met everyone who's come to be a part of our community in this time!!
We'll now be going on a hiatus, with no new slates for the main mod, while everyone involved with the mod catches up on our personal lives - there's a smaller and low-stakes creative project that will be happening earlier in the break as we wind down details... uh... pretty soon actually!, followed by two weeks of properly stepping away before we come back stronger than ever with slate 33!

:starmie:

Before I continue with the feedback post itself, I would like to deliver an update from the amazing BlueRay, who's really stepped up in welcoming new users and making time to help everyone learn, as well as seriously elevating the spirit of competition! One of the coolest benefits of being Pet Mod of the Season was giving us an active ladder where people who didn't even know each other could meet for a battle at any time, and BlueRay has taken it upon himself to try to organize a similar opportunity at our usual home of Dragon Heaven:


Here are some words from BlueRay to elaborate - he put it far better than I could have!

To anyone who loves laddering Megas for All on Pokémon Showdown:
Ever since Megas for All became Pet Mod of the Season, some people enjoyed the idea of meeting new people and trying to reach the top 1. The fact you could also discover new sets or test your battle skills and teambuilding against haxes, surprises, and skillful players also contributed to the popularity of laddering.
With April soon approaching, Megas for All will no longer be supported on Pokémon Showdown, however. Therefore, the only way to ladder would be on Dragon Heaven. It's a server where you can import your teams from Pokémon Showdown and have access to a plethora of game options not available on Pokémon Showdown, like Megas for All VGC, Megas for All Monotype, or Mix and Megas for All.
Laddering on Dragon Heaven is unusual, since people normally don't go out out of their way and ladder, especially when there aren't as many people as on Pokémon Showdown. Usually, you would ask in a community if someone was interested in a match if you wanted to try out your teams. This is a very individual-based experience and might not cover the wide range of players you would find on ladders.
To get around this issue, I made a poll to figure out if there are enough people who want to ladder on Dragon Heaven and on which day(s) they would like to play. The poll will last one week. Once I have the results, I will let you know.
To be up-to-date, please let me know via message on my Smogon account (BlueRay) or just ping me on Discord if you want to be informed of the final result.​

:krookodile::zoroark::noivern:

Next update: as usual, I'm here to give a detailed report on the latest balance changes update in the thread! The poll ended ages ago, and the results were already announced on the Discord and made live on Showdown, but it's always useful to bring them to the thread as well for posterity - here they are:


For :krookodile: Krookodile to lose access to the move Shore Up:​
19 in favor vs 0 against - passes with a 100% supermajority

For of :zoroark: Mega Zoroark's Ability Forgery not to wear off when it is hit by a move:
17 in favor vs 0 against (2 abstained) - passes with a 100% supermajority
For 15 points of :zoroark: Mega Zoroark's Special Defense to be moved into its other stats (5 into Defense and 10 into Speed):
16 in favor vs 1 against (2 abstained) - passes with a 94.12% supermajority
For :zoroark: Zoroark to gain access to the move Focus Punch:​
16 in favor vs 2 against - passes with an 88.89% supermajority
For :zoroark: Zoroark to gain access to the move Gunk Shot:​
17 in favor vs 1 against - passes with a 94.44% supermajority
For :zoroark: Zoroark to gain access to the move Superpower:​
13 in favor vs 5 against - passes with a 72.22% supermajority

For :noivern: Noivern to gain access to the move Psyshock:​
16 in favor vs 3 against - passes with a 84.21% supermajority

As noted, these changes are already live and have been for some time! :> Just noting the results in the thread as usual!

delibirdmegafestiverider.png

Okay, so this one might be disappointing news for some, but it was personally requested by the one who initially submitted this Mega, and we think it's important to respect his wishes!
As of now, Mega Delibird (Festive Rider) is no longer a part of Megas for All - there will be only one Mega Delibird.
At the time Festive Rider was added, it was intended as a sort of compromise: DrPumpkinz had explicitly intended to withdraw his submission in the interest of letting another submission win, but it was so overwhelmingly popular at the time that we felt it would be disappointing for everyone if we just ignored it like he asked, so we decided to make a special exception and allow two Mega Delibird instead of one - the runner-up as the "main" Mega Delibird, as he had officially withdrawn, but his own as a fun bonus on the side (to reflect its popularity and the fact that it was clearly still the chosen winner).
However, he's since made clear that this choice made him uncomfortable, and he would rather have actually been excluded like he requested in the first place. We're currently looking into some alternative options, like leaving it as a surprise only to be found in Random Battles as pat of the upcoming overhaul, but for the moment, the important thing is that it is just being deleted from the main format and will no longer be usable starting with the next update.

With all of that out of the way, though: it's time for sub feedback!

:rapidash::zebstrika::mudsdale:

If I don't mention your sub in this post, it's probably fine balance-wise and you're not required to make any changes! It doesn't mean I forgot!​

Quick general updates on :zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika and :mudsdale: Mega Mudsdale first:​

:zebstrika: It's been pointed out that Volt Tackle, whether or not it needs to be strictly disallowed, is an extremely special case that we will strongly discourage. It's an almost completely unique case even compared to other signature moves (like Apple Acid or Origin Pulse, which have since been distributed), in that even the Pikachu line, its only existing users, does not learn it naturally. Prior to Generation VII, the move could only be learned at all as a hidden trick by breeding with the Light Ball; since then, it's also been made available as a move tutor dedicated overtly to Pikachu in every appearance. This is primarily flavor-driven, so it feels unwise to enforce it at the last minute given that we haven't communicated it in advance, but it will probably become a rule from now on, and anyone who has already added Volt Tackle to their Zebstrika is sincerely requested to remove it! Volt Tackle, as well as the equivalent examples of :keldeo-resolute: Secret Sword, :meloetta: Relic Song and :rayquaza: Dragon Ascent, was clearly never meant to be on any other line, and it's a more serious breach of flavor than redistributing a more normal signature move.

:mudsdale: This is a ruling that is applicable to all Mudsdale because it relates in no small part to Mudsdale's base form and not any one Mega Evolution: the addition of Shore Up (and reliable recovery in general) is no longer allowed on :mudsdale: Mudsdale, and any submissions that add the move will not be vetoed but will have it removed when they are included the compilation of submissions.
Stamina is an incredibly strong Ability on paper that's pretty delicately balanced as-is, and giving Shore Up access to base Mudsdale risks turning it into... basically :nidoqueen: Mega Nidoqueen without taking the Mega slot, which is already unhealthy competition for what's currently something of a metagame staple and goes against the spirit of the mod. Shore Up Mudsdale has been likened in the past to an alternative to Hippowdon, but Stamina does a ton more for it than Sand Stream would, especially with Mudsdale's access to Body Press; it seems like it could be pushed over the edge pretty easily by reliable recovery in a way we hadn't really considered before submissions opened.
Anyone who would like to amend their subs with this change in mind is welcome to do so! For what it's worth, though, we do have some shining examples of :araquanid: Pokémon that rely on Rest for recovery in our metagame, and they're not any less of a threat for it - on review, we felt that most of the submissions that are affected by this loss would still have a great chance of being worthwhile additions without any further changes. They're all certainly welcome as they are, and we hope everyone will give them fair consideration despite the loss!

Now for user-specific feedback! (I would like to extend huge thanks to inkbug and ausma for sharing their own input as we went through these and BlueRay for answering some specific questions of mine as well!)


:mudsdale: Super quick clarification - I know you know this already yourself because you're the one who asked, but this is to have it somewhere in the thread for posterity, mostly! - but I believe we agreed that Body Press would not be affected by Inner Fortitude for consistency with other related mechanics!


:rapidash: We felt your Rapidash definitely needed to be streamlined and toned down a lot - raising Speed probably only by one stage! when hit while preparing a move is already very good and synergizes super well with Swords Dance (a move it already has that can't be removed, unfortunately), and that is absolutely all it needs! This will be vetoed as it is; it definitely should not affect any stat but Speed, and it's maybe up to you but should probably only raise Speed by one stage even then.
While it's not at the point of needing to be vetoed on the movepool side, it was also brought up that it arguably doesn't need any of the moves you've given it except Moonblast for a STAB of its new type (though it has Play Rough anyway) and Electro Ball, if competitively irrelevant, for the understandable synergy with its Ability; we would encourage you to remove some of these if you're open to it!
(On the opposite side, inkbug suggested as some more fun feedback that it could be cool for this to gain Whirlwind if you're interested in another way to exploit the Ability! It's a decreased priority move, meaning Rapidash will more reliably gain Speed from using it even if it already outspeeds its immediate opponent, but it also has useful utility at the same time.)

qways:​

:rapidash: This one is prooobably too strong as it is - getting to +6 from one Flame Charge is super dangerous on something with Swords Dance access and effectively invalidates conventional Speed control - and having two more or less unrelated like this also comes off as pretty messy compared to how a normal Ability would look. It was suggested that you tone this down to doubling modifications to the Speed stat - like the Ability Simple but for just the one stat, maintaining the direct synergy you wanted with Flame Charge without going to quite the same extreme.

:zebstrika: This one is definitely not allowed for a lot more reasons, I'm afraid;;
The most straightforward alternative we could agree on was just to replace it with Static, which has direct synergy with the stat boosts you've chosen to give it and avoids all of the problems with its current state.
To elaborate on the issues as it is:
- It's unrealistic and generally best to avoid making Abilities that do direct damage with a base power and a type, at least unless there is absolutely no way to achieve the same premise any other way, and in this case it doesn't seem that way at all. We've made an exception in the past with the Ability Seismic Scream, but that was because type effectiveness was the entire point of the Ability, whereas this mild chip damage could be done any other way to more or less the same effect. On the note of Seismic Scream, we're actually also still polishing that one to try to make it more palatable as an Ability and have just recently been discussing minor revisions to it on the Discord, which is all the more reason not to replicate it.
- As a mechanic, recoil is fundamentally odds with competitive use of RNG, because these moves are designed to be less spammable and therefore more luck-based; it's not about getting more chances to use the move but about getting lucky in the few you have.

:mudsdale: This one is not a veto, but it's still a case of bad practice that's worth highlighting and advising against - fundamentally, everything about Mudsdale's role and the way it functions would be exactly the same or better if it had Stamina, so you should just give it that! Also reiterating the above notice of no Shore Up (and it already has Mud Bomb) There's no reason to use a custom Ability here because it doesn't add anything to the sub.


:rapidash: Not a veto, but a point we felt was worth raising: consider dropping Calm Mind? As an addition, it doesn't seem competitively significant, but it is very extraneous boosting and is not really an obvious flavor fit for the sub, and setup isn't reeeally something to take super lightly in any case.
:zebstrika: Just gonna reiterate how Pursuit needs to work:
"I think the most realistic and streamlined take would be for it always to use its first move, at the priority of its first move, and then immediately follow it with the second move ('first' and 'second' being in moveset order)"​
(here on the Discord for those who are there)
Not a veto or anything, but I am making no promises to implement it any other way than that :P
:mudsdale: Also not necessarily a veto, but we're sorta questioning Pain Split after some discussion for being potentially too good at stallbreaking and would like to invite you to consider removing that; it strikes us as highly possible that it will eventually have to lose it in a nerf if it wins, and it would be easier just to remove it from the start? It's not worth completely disallowing the sub if you don't, but it would definitely be our preference :'D
(Optionally: ink also mentioned that giving it Stockpile but neither Swallow nor Spit Up feels odd-- if you want to give it one or both of those, I wouldn't mind and it can be a "freebie" without being considered too many moves!)


:zebstrika: okay this is not necessarily a veto but I cannot stress my stance on this enough so I really want to bring this up regardless--
Are you a doubles player yourself? Do you play M4A VGC and is this something you feel is needed there? If you are not, please don't do this.
In general, I strongly, strongly discourage building for a format you don't play yourself and would not do this unless you are actually confident in its purpose.
So far, nearly all of the Megas that are actually viable in VGC were built initially for singles and then discovered after the fact to work as well or better in a doubles context; you shouldn't need to set aside our main format outright to build something doubles-viable, and no one has done so successfully so far.
I would really advise you to familiarize yourself with the format, or make something you expect to be singles-viable but give it some specific tools that give it an edge in doubles (see Cacturne gaining Assurance for synergy with its Ability), but I don't think it's wise at all to go out of your way to make a doubles-and-not-singles Mega if you aren't actually a doubles player; the fact that, unlike even our other two doubles-oriented Megas, this doesn't have an effect in singles at all is worrying to me and is a major obstacle to balancing it in that it leaves very little room for recourse if it turns out not to be a successful niche.
In this case it doesn't look like it will go horribly wrong in any obvious way, so I don't think it would be appropriate to veto it, but I want to stress I am hugely uncomfortable with this as a practice, and the way it's presented doesn't really suggest that it's based on personal experience or something you're personally confident is needed.
Please submit for the format you play ;-; that's all


:rapidash: Super minor - would you be cool with lowering Speed at least by like 10 points (to 140)?
Like, admittedly the general lack of things between 140 and 150 makes this feel weird as a nerf and I won't mandate it - high Speed with Swords Dance just really scares me and I'm at least leaning in favor of staying close to the other Megas we already have XP
If all else fails, we can just nerf it later; 150 does freak me out a little, though, so it would be appreciated!

:zebstrika: Okay, this one... the boring but practical answer is "just use Tough Claws" - there's really little reason to introduce a new category like this, and it's something we've come to learn is best avoided unless it's either very unambiguous or very necessary. Realistically, the only difference that will actually come of changing to contact moves would make is that Tough Claws would also include its main STAB, and... arguably it needs that? so I don't think it's a bad change and I really would rather not introduce more extraneous categories if there's no substantial difference. Somehow people have problems understanding Hard Worker.


:rapidash: Thiiis is going to be subject to a mandatory nerf; it's definitely not okay as-is and will be vetoed. The main nerfs that we'd accept are significantly lowering Attack (i.e. switch with Special Attack) or significantly lowering Speed (somewhere 110-, perhaps even lower than base Rapidash). The other Magic Guard Rapidash has much lower Attack and Speed than yours to avoid abusing Flare Blitz's sweeping potential beyond reason when removing its main intended balancing factor, but it's worth noting that yours still has an edge over that one in its access of a dual STAB (and one that synergizes super well with Rapidash's coverage in High Horsepower - Fire/Fairy/Ground is an amazing offensive combination) while the other Rapidash pointedly does not gain any physical Flying moves, so if you're using it as a reference point at all, I would suggest that you lean on the side of weaker rather than stronger in any other respect.
also, I think your movepool additions ("flavor moves to justify newfound typing") are rooted in a misconception: you don't have to have all of the strongest STABs of your type on both sides just to have that type - Moonblast in particular is neither consistently distributed to Fairy-types nor related at all to Rapidash, so that one in particular seems very extraneous as an addition, but really all it needs are the Fairy moves it's going to use, which in your case just means Play Rough and it already has that


:rapidash: Small thing first - we're not totally sure if we're understanding the Ability correctly and it's worth double-checking what it means? mostly I'm questioning because of the part where you changed it from 3% to 5% as a nerf and I can't really tell if the numbers mean what we think they do
To clarify, then, we're working under the assumption that you mean for the first part of the effect to change the damage it takes on switch-in by 95%? Like a sort of reverse Stakeout, in that a move that's targeting it deals 5% (1/20) of the damage it would have dealt, but only on the turn when it's switching in.
Uh, the first thing about the Ability itself is that (if we're interpreting it correctly) that seems kind of ridiculous and like way too big a damage reduction (consider just doing... half? not 19/20), and the second part is that it's completely unrelated to the hazard-clearing part when it switches out and you do need to pick just one of the two - either reducing damage as it switches in or clearing a hazard as it switches out. As another alternative, ink brought up the possibility of Shadow Shield while we were discussing, which is close enough to the first part of the Ability but also has applications in easing setup (direct synergy with Rapidash's role) and also still stays very close to the flavor you seem to want, without any unneeded complexity.
The second thing is about the stats, and this one is in some ways a bigger deal and is definitely mandatory as a nerf - 185 Speed is absolutely ridiculous for something with Swords Dance and Flare Blitz. Given the added Pursuit weakness from its new type, its unusually low Attack and the fact that it doesn't have a reliable Ghost STAB other than Shadow Sneak, we would tentatively allow something like 150 on this (which I should note is higher than I've considered acceptable for any other sub), but 185 is definitely well beyond reason.


:mudsdale: Fffirst thing:
This idea is based solely on my love for Terrains and my wanting to see one for every type.​
This is really bad practice and you should never just do it for the sake of it.
We do not take field effects lightly here, and they are not to be introduced for something like this. If we eventually get a Ground terrain (but bear in mind that we already have introduced a Ground weather, so it's hard to say whether we ever will), it will have to justify itself very well.
So uh-- yeah, no, this is vetoed; consider any other way to achieve the same effect, like Gooey or Tangling Hair... or Speed Boost...?? or really anything but this, haha.
Worth bringing up that there also already effectively exists a Ground terrain - we're still lacking an offensive Gravitas user if you want to use that!
But to this as it is, definitely not.


:mudsdale: There are a few problems with the Ability on this; the first is that it has two completely unrelated effects, the second is that one of those effects introduces an entirely new category of moves that is absolutely not needed and most of which don't make any sense on base Mudsdale, and the third is that the other is vaguely confusing and unintuitive (how do you mean an individual Pokémon be immune to the effects of a terrain? is it just like... non-grounded, so it can't benefit? on an individual level, being grounded is actually always strictly better than not when it comes to terrains specifically - unless you're a Steel-type, but you aren't - so the ideal way to be "immune" to a terrain is actually to stop everything else from using it).
With all of this in mind, it reeeally shouldn't be allowed in its current state until you work on it a bit, I'm afraid. One very simple suggestion would be to give this the existing custom Down-to-Earth for the part of the Ability that can't be replicated any other way (terrain "immunity") and simply Normal STAB for the part that can (the only relevant part of boosting "travel moves" to Mudsdale is definitely having a stronger Extreme Speed and Rapid Spin), which I think would result in basically the same outcome while avoiding all of the issues.

:rapidash: Drought actually came up a few times on the Discord before you got to it, and... to be honest, I do want to say first that I'm actually pretty impressed by your restraint, and you did come a lot closer to making a balanced sub than I think most people would have when they tried to work with Drought. That said, I'm afraid it's still borderline even now - I do not believe Rapidash is a safe time for Drought and I do not think this is or can be balanced, so I'm not going to allow this even so;;


:zebstrika: (super minor: Zebstrika is totally fine assuming it works like Body of Water and doesn't count boosts to Speed - your description and the addition of Work Up imply that this is already as you intended, so nice! but just felt like clarifying this for posterity)

:rapidash: Onnn the other hand, I do not think I am comfortable with the Rapidash at all, statwise or Ability-wise - this one is going to be vetoed;;
The main thing here is that the Ability boosts moves that already have recoil without being able to add any more of a drawback to them; Rapidash's main STAB already has recoil, so it just gets the massive 1.5x boost from it entirely for free. I don't think Rapidash's stats are at a level where this is okay at all; this basically gives it a 180 BP STAB, and that's on top of Swords Dance and 125 Speed.


:rapidash: I think there are... much simpler and more effective ways to do what you want? If I'm not mistaken, your goal is to have a different Speed stat between the first and second turns of Bounce, right? I think the better approach would be just to swap Attack with Speed on the semi-invulnerable turn of a move, with nothing else/let Speed be Speed under any other circumstances (or even just to lower Speed by some amount on the semi-invulnerable turn of a move). I'm rrreally not comfortable allowing something this unintuitive and awkward as it is. As a side note, I think you are misusing the term "grounded" but I feel like I should note that Rapidash has no way to become non-grounded except by an opposing Pokémon's Telekinesis - from your previous comments on the intended outcome, I believe you mean "during the semi-invulnerable turn of a move" and will be working with that assumption unless clarified otherwise!

:mudsdale: While discussing this, we generally agreed that this is super unintuitive and has way too much going on, and the Defense-raising effects have the potential to be... situationally kind of broken (maybe? unclear) in conjunction with the type change; I'm pretty sure I'm not okay with this, I'm afraid.

:zebstrika: This one is actually totally fine! but you have 10 more points to spend C:
if you put them in Special Attack, your middle stats can be 90/90/90 (eyes emoji)


:rapidash: As with okispokis, on account of Swords Dance + dual STABs that pair very well with High Horsepower, I would adviiise lowering Speed a bit from here, even with the offenses as tame as they are; in your case, I think something in the 140 to 130 range would be fine! I would probably not veto this either way, but I feel like asking if you don't mind at least!
as a clarifying note, I believe you miscalculated - your Speed it should be 145 as it is!

:zebstrika: ... ahem
my friend ink has asked me to beg you to rename the Ability to Bug Zapper.
you don't have to listen to him. he just really wanted me to ask.
This is... not a veto or anything he just
he really wanted me to ask

okay moving on--


:rapidash: Yyyeah, I believe this hits too hard? You're either gonna have to get a bit slower or choose an Ability that doesn't boost damage to this extent (especially in conjunction with all of the added coverage, which kind of misses the point of Adaptability if I'm being honest - this Ability has few non-boring applications, but the thing it does well is incentivizing STAB and disincentivizing coverage in favor of more varied STABs or more freedom to run non-attacking moves, while here you're using it and giving massively stronger STAB than Rapidash normally has, for just a major power boost all around). As one alternative Ability, ink suggested Flash Fire, which provides defensive utility in the form of additional switch-in opportunities, while resulting in roughly the same effect but not unconditionally (and therefore not nearly broken).


:mudsdale: In our discussion, we were vaguely concerned by how hard it hits with Body Press given that it can boost with Iron Defense, especially after having to nerf Araquanid; I talked it over with the competitive council and we decided that it would prooobably be safest to ask you to keep its Special Defense lower/perhaps the same as base Mudsdale's (so it still has some kind of clear weak point), and possibly also lower Defense a little (to 130ish at most?) if you can? I think the Special Defense point is perhaps the more important of the two, though addressing both would be nice if you're willing!

:rapidash: aaaa I feel bad because I'm pretty sure I said I was okay with this when you initially posted it, but when we were conferring, it seemed to be met with more concern than I expected because of the Ability in conjunction with Swords Dance; I don't thhhink it warrants vetoing and I plan to allow it even if you leave it as-is, but I guess I should mostly be advising caution or at least relaying that for posterity and transparency?

ViZar:​

:zebstrika: This one is considered to overlap too significantly with ChoiceScarfed's Zebstrika; we're just gonna have to ask you to collaborate on this and not accept both, I'm afraid. :x


:rapidash: This one was deemed to hit much too hard with Reckless, so we're not going to allow that;;


:rapidash: Oookay, so the thing you need to remember is that every single one of the moves you add is given to base Rapidash, which is a major optics concern - say whatever you will about the flavor of the Mega, but there is no way that regular Rapidash should ever be getting any of these except maybe Air Slash, Horn Attack and Defog.
Of particular note, I think Acrobatics should be singled out as an unwelcome addition because it is actively unusable for a Mega while buffing its base form, which is the exact opposite of the scope of the mod. Meanwhile, Horn Attack, while inoffensive as an addition, is still questionable in that it has no more to do with the Mega than the base form, and we have no more reason to add it than Game Freak did; the fact that it is utterly irrelevant means it's not a problem, but it also means it's not worth adding in the first place and I would be on board with removing it anyway if you don't have a particular reason to feel strongly about it.
I know this sounds stupid, but actually it does matter and Dual Wingbeat, Fly and Roost are all not allowed.

:mudsdale: This is probably the least questionable thing here, rrrelatively speaking, but High Jump Kick specifically is almost definitely too strong on it and should not be allowed.
Following up on the previous note, while this has important enough competitive applications that I wouldn't object to stretching it if it were well balanced (but again, pretty sure it's actually too strong in this case), it's worth noting that High Jump Kick is explicitly a knee-based move learned exclusively by bipeds, while the weaker Jump Kick is a better option that's more often learned by ungulates (see also: Sawsbuck) and actually is a kick. I would be far more comfortable allowing a 100 BP move than a 130 BP move on this in any case, so I would go with that if you want a move in this vein? Your spread of, uh, basically 100/160/115/60/100/115 is still going to do just fine with one less thing going for it.

:zebstrika: This... does not need to be nearly this fast. The low Special Attack helps a bit with balancing it, but it should still be like. 150-ish at most? Definitely not 174 with Dazzling. Obligatory reminder that the fastest thing in our meta right now is 170 with absolutely no setup.


:rapidash: O k a y , I don't like that this has a 150 BP Dark STAB that burns the target if resisted. If I were just asking you to nerf this, that would be the first thing to go (either the inclusion of Lash Out or the fact that the Defense drop happens before its attack and not after).
Admittedly, though, I'm rrreally not sure I'm comfortable with this in general?
Punishing opponents this significantly for switching to a resist, i.e. using the most basic form of defensive counterplay, would be okay on something that didn't need it that badly - but resistances being valid matters a lot against something with a Swords Dance sweeper with 145 Attack, 115 Speed and decently complementary dual STABs. I think this premise would be okay on something that either wasn't a setup sweeper or wasn't as good at it, but I think it's an unsafe premise on this Rapidash in particular and I don't believe it would be safe to allow this Ability here at all.

:zebstrika: This one seems like it's a bit more complicated and less streamlined than it needs to be (personally, I would much rather you just made the move and the Ability do recoil separately - however much recoil the move should do, then also 1/3 from the Ability - instead of making the Ability modify the recoil that's already there; it seems more consistent and intuitive for the Ability to add 1/3 of the damage dealt like it does for every other move than to make, say, Wild Charge only do an extra 1/4). Admittedly, I'm also kinda scared of how strong it sounds on a Pokémon with this much Speed, added recoil or no (this isn't because of Extreme Speed or anything - its other moves are much better); instinctively, I feel like I would lean towards making the effect boost by only 50% instead of 2x, even if that means buffing the Ability as a whole (such as removing either the HP requirement or the recoil, but not both), than making it hit as hard as it does now with dual STABs as good as it has, even circumstantially. I'm not sure this calls for a veto, and unlike Rapidash it's probably fine as it is, so it's your choice; however, if you'd be willing, I think I would appreciate a change like that? OTL


:zebstrika: Hi this is a really dumb and minor problem but you... do have to rename the Ability, because there is already a move called Overdrive and that will cause problems with the coding that I don't know how to solve. Uh, you can kind of just do this whenever you want/if it wins and you haven't decided by then, I'll just ask again on the Discord, so this is far from a veto or anything! but yeah that is. a thing we will have to deal with eventually. I know it's so dumb I'm so sorry
(Admittedly I'm historically against Electric Scrappy and I believe I advised someone else against that, but the low Special Attack in particular kind of helps, and notably the simplicity of the Ability and weaker Electric options both make this tamer than that one at least)

:mudsdale: I am just supposed to ask if this happens every five turns or just once at the five turn mark! I'm guessing every five turns? but just making sure!
(Also, it feels wrong to say so - I know it's a buff and I have no idea if I'm properly judging how strong it is in its current state, so I should be afraid to suggest buffs - but... for the purposes of having cleaner numbers and being more consistent with other healing... thoughts on making it 1/8 instead of 1/10? this is mostly aesthetic and maybe a bad idea but I would be for it if you wanted!)


:rapidash: Okay, I know you got advice from the rest of the competitive council earlier, so I feel like I can't reasonably veto it outright and therefore won't; however, I'm peeersonally still against this and I feel like drawing attention to the obligatory Mawile comparison to highlight the crazy breaking power this has:

252+ Atk Huge Power Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mew: 279-328 (69 - 81.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Sheer Force Rapidash Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mew: 280-330 (69.3 - 81.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO​

(I know they wouldn't have the same nature realistically, but they could - the fact is just that Jolly is even better for it than Adamant, and that makes this comparison more flattering, not less so)
Anyway, uh, my own instinct is that this + Swords Dance + 65 more points of Speed than Mawile is probably not a great idea and I would adviiise against doing it? This is, again, not a veto, but I hope you'll take it into consideration regardless because I don't love the idea of giving so much breaking power to something so fast;;


:mudsdale: Super minor: in terms of interactivity, I would support making it happen only after a physical move rather than after just any move? but I can't see that being necessary for balance - it's more just a personal opinion! I'm totally a fan of this in any case!!


:zebstrika: Okay, uh-- there is an infinitely better-balanced Speed Boost Zebstrika already, so I'm just vetoing this one outright anyway, I think? but to elaborate a bit for your own reference: Nasty Plot is definitely a problem with this (and to a lesser extent I'm kind of skeptical of even just Work Up + Speed Boost); strong Fighting coverage is a problem in conjunction with its type change and Speed Boost; and you, like some others before you, have fallen into the trap of giving a lot of moves that Zebstrika would never learn just because they suit your vision of the Mega. Remember that a Mega Evolution learns the same moves as its base form - if regular Zebstrika can't fly and doesn't have wings, you can't give Fly and Dual Wingbeat to regular Zebstrika just to help it as a Mega.


:rapidash: This one is definitely a no - it has much higher Speed and Attack than we've allowed for others, and that's a much bigger deal in conjunction with Rock Head removing the main balancing factor of Flare Blitz.

:mudsdale: This is not a veto, but we were talking about this and just wanted to draw your attention to Filter as an alternative option (on account of that Ability revolving entirely around defensive type and this one having an entirely different defensive type, we would consider allowing it regardless of there being other Filter subs), because Soot Guard on this is... almost impressively pointless, haha - there are so few types that hit it neutrally and almost no one is going to target it with them.

CrLmao:​

Sigh.
So, uh, first of all I just want to like. point out. that people did give you feedback on these already and pointed out how far they were from the scope of the mod, and you just chose not to take that into account? Which is kind of disappointing, and I cannot stress enough that I dislike these and strongly oppose them, whether you fix the balance issues or not. Please just have an ounce of respect for the people who take this mod seriously, and maybe we wouldn't even be talking about these subs.
But more importantly:

:rapidash: Reiterating the doubles issue - if you are not a doubles player and don't know what you're doing, please do not make Abilities that do nothing in singles (also, even if you do stick with this effect after making other changes, please make the modifier 1/3 rather than 35%). That aside, none of these moves are optically sound on base Rapidash, and you're going to find another way to give STABs to the Mega (such as an -ate Ability or Liquid Voice) because I'm just not going to allow that.

:zebstrika: Feel like emphasizing that Ghost -ate is not to be taken as lightly as other type-changing effects, and I don't reeeally like it with Double-Edge, Return and 120/126 physical offenses; it's maybe tolerable given Zebstrika's lack of setup, so I won't veto it, but I would invite you to lower either Attack or Speed if nothing else also, what mod do you think this even is

:mudsdale: Yyyeah, no, we are not giving a Mega multiple forms for as little or as baseless mechanical reason as this, reference or not also, what mod do you think this even is


:zebstrika: Thiiis is broken, and most of the move additions do not make optical sense on base Zebstrika; we're just giving it a hard no.


(First thing: we already had this conversation, so I want to stress that I am rather annoyed by your saying "I think that we lack megas who can take an advantage of the weather" and your persistence in tying all three of these to field effects; please remember that this was against the advise of everyone present in submission feedback and I am still wholly opposed. .-.)
More importantly, though:

:rapidash: This might highkey be broken in sun on account of Inferno (which was obviously the point); I'm gonna say that you should pick one between the accuracy boost and the Speed boost, but not both. That aside, for the purposes of use outside of sun, is it... weird to ask for at least just -5 base Speed? I would rather it had 115 than 120, but that's not the biggest of its worries.

:zebstrika: This one is just a hard no. We have one Electric Scrappy Zebstrika already (not also Corrosion on top of that) already, and it was much tamer and had no setup; that one is all I will allow and we don't need another. Meanwhile, Corrosion is also an entirely separate effect and has no reason to be tied into ignoring immunities. Also going to point out that we have enough precedent for how ignoring immunities works to say that it doesn't turn them into resistances, and even though it's ostensibly a balancing factor in this case, defying that precedent for just one edge case is not something I'm comfortable with. There's also just a lot going on here and this is way more complicated an effect than it needs to be; the field effect association continues to be completely unnecessary, Electric Scrappy is an effect unto itself and has already been done, and Corrosion for Paralysis is also an effect unto itself but not one I would really suggest using on Zebstrika specifically.


:rapidash: I'm preeetty sure this one is too strong off the bat, and the 25% HP "downside" will realistically not be enough to keep it in check because that's such a small range. You could maybe get away with giving it some crazy offensive stats and just giving it Defeatist, or perhaps do the opposite and play with recoil + Rocks weakness + the need for setup time by giving it Second Wind, but in its current state I'm not comfortable allowing it (and I'm not entirely sure those two alternatives are actually worth pursuing).

:mudsdale: This is conceptually very similar to BitBitio's (and the Ability is much messier), and the difference as far as voting basically just comes down to "does a given voter want Fighting STAB or not," which I think would be unfair and go against the spirit of the mod; the subs overlap enough that I feel you can be asked to direct suggestions to him and collaborate if you have input, but I'm not going to allow this separately because it does not seem appropriate to have it come down to that one factor, and they essentially are not otherwise different subs.


:zebstrika: When we discussed this one, people were uncomfortable with the fact that the point of this one is ostensibly just flinchhax on something so fast; I know Serene Grace + flinching is precedented and it's not, like, completely abhorrent, but at least our recommendation would be that Zing Zap should pretty much just not be added if you want Serene Grace on this. As an alternative, ink suggested leaning on the special side to take advantage of STABs like Discharge and Charge Beam for useful-but-less-RNG-based secondary effects if anything? I'm not sure this one should be a veto at this time, but I would like to advise against the direction all the same.


:rapidash::zebstrika::mudsdale: All three of these overlap very, very significantly with subs other people have already made, so instead of including them separately in the voting slate, I am just going to ask you to direct your feedback to the other people who got to them first (and suggest that you collaborate and provide input if you disagree with how they handled them).
In your case, that would be:
:rapidash: KamranShah's Rapidash if they fix it (if they don't and it still has illegal moves when voting starts, yours could maybe be allowed instead, but I would ask you to lower its offenses if so - I would prioritize removing its Speed increases at least, since being naturally super fast kind of undermines the point of the Ability and just encourages Swords Dance sweeping, but probably some of its Attack too because it's also just a very strong spread; something much more like 65/130/100/100/100/105 seems reasonable to me)
:zebstrika: StarFalcon555's Zebstrika
:mudsdale: JetManJo's Mudsdale (also be aware that you can't raise HP on yours anyway, and I should point out that dual Ground/Rock with Solid Rock is massively redundant to Rhyperior)

:conkeldurr::archeops::chandelure:

Last thing for this post: I think I should take this opportunity to respond to KamranShah's recent post, in which they observe a potential bias towards physical attackers in our metagame and call for action against this.
There are actually a lot of reasons why I don't agree with this stance, but I think these are the most important points to address:

The first issue is more with the nature of the list - as noted in the first post of this thread, raw base stats mean almost nothing out of context!
A much greater range of factors, including Speed, setup access, offensive movepool and boosts from Abilities, is necessary to gain a complete picture of a Pokémon's role in the metagame.
This list is unwittingly misleading, and it places undue emphasis on the high raw attacking stats of Pokémon that actually aren't anywhere near the biggest offensive threats; there are obvious reasons why Archeops's high Attack shouldn't count (and this is noted with an asterisk), but it's also worth bringing up that Mega Conkeldurr's best chance of being used over its base form is in a supportive role as a Defogger, as it doesn't come anywhere close to outdamaging its base form (it also often doesn't even invest EVs in Attack because the returns on investment are so low).
Conversely, one of the most threatening physical sweepers in the mod - a genuinely highly dangerous setup abuser that's had to be nerfed once before and has since proven to be a top threat all the same - is our Mega Bibarel, whose base Attack is below the threshold used to make this list. Bibarel is setup- and Ability-reliant for its power rather than having an immediate raw attacking stat, but these factors actually go so much further than a raw stat alone possibly could - its low-looking base 130 Attack is one of the most threatening in the mod by because of the power of its STABs (which are boosted by its Ability and also complement each other well, making it hard to wall) and Swords Dance access with the benefit of pre-Mega Simple.
(On the subject of setup- and Ability-reliant physical attackers, Reuniclus is down as the second-strongest special attacker given a glance at its base stats and isn't even present on the physical list at all, but it's actually a mixed breaker that primarily prefers to attack on the physical side once it's used Psycho Boost once or twice. The fact that Reuniclus is so convincingly strong on the physical side is actually the most important part of its viability, and it takes advantage of the incredible value of mixed offenses on a breaker that can pull them off, with a type combination that can harshly punish the Pokémon that would ordinarily be able to take a Psycho Boost the best; the fact that it's being recognized as the second-highest Special Attack in the mod and nowhere to be seen on the physical side is a huge misrepresentation of its strengths, rooted in overreliance on base stats out of context as a way to judge power.
Meanwhile, ask, say, BitBitio what special attackers he fears most, and I believe you'll be told Slowking and Araquanid, neither of which is on your list right now!
Tl;dr here: base stats alone are not enough to make a judgment like this, and other than Speed (and perhaps HP in the case of, like, Wish only), a direct comparison of any one stat between two Pokémon is essentially meaningless without the context around them. While we appreciate the attempt at help, it's very important to stress that this goes against many of our design principles and is very misleading - the same stat alone does not mean the same thing between two different Pokémon, and we strive to tailor (and limit) the stats of all submissions based on the Pokémon they're on, the moves they learn and the benefits their Abilities contribute rather than trying to standardize around benchmarks for one number at a time.

The other thing, though, is just that there's no reason why it would be a bad thing for there to be stronger Pokémon on the physical side.
By the nature of many of the game's core mechanics, more abundant counterplay exists for physical attackers than special attackers!
Among other things, nearly every team (or at least every team that attempts to form a defensive backbone) has a way to inflict burns and punish physical attackers, plenty of relevant Abilities and items exist to punish contact (a primarily physical-oriented trait) but not a single effect exists to punish exclusively non-contact moves, physical attackers are vulnerable to the important Ability Intimidate (notably found on more than one of the most prominent glue Pokémon in the metagame) while no such equivalent exists for the special side (the closest thing that will ever exist to special Intimidate is the Assault Vest, which is viable only on a few Pokémon in singles), and even important moves like Foul Play and Strength Sap and Abilities like Stamina (not just on Mudsdale here - we have several new Megas with this) are all stacked against physical attackers. Even of our own defensive Megas, Corviknight and Nidoqueen are highly effective blanket checks that can handle almost every physical attacker safely and reliably, something we don't really have on the special side.
In other words: the mechanics are not symmetrical - why should the Pokémon be?
That aside, it's important to recognize that our Mega Evolutions cannot be paired with each other, but they can be paired with what is already there. Of the Pokémon that currently exist in the metagame, some of the non-Mega attackers that prove the most straining and require the most specific attention when teambuilding are Ash-Greninja and Tapu Lele; special attackers are already more versatile and harder to blanket-check by their nature, and it can be argued that putting even more pressure on the special side to manage an even more diverse array of Pokémon is unwise.
Fun bit of history, by the way: the very game that introduced Mega Evolution as a mechanic also categorically nerfed special attackers, by individually weakening almost every competitively relevant special move. It was actually one of the biggest mass balance changes in the series, and I would argue it was one of the best - special attackers totally deserved to be toned down, and plenty of them are on the scarier side even now!
I think it's worth noting even then that despite the comparisons you've made based on their raw stats, the ongoing viability rankings project is probably a more useful way to get a picture of what offensive threats are most prevalent in the metagame, and plenty of the lower-end special attackers are abundant in the higher ranks all the same!

To conclude, the most important thing is not to focus on whether the overall shape of the metagame is physically and specially equal but on whether the additions to the metagame are balanced and sustainable, and holding physical attackers and special attackers to different standards (which often means special attackers being weaker!) is more important (and better in the long term) than actively trying to create more special threats and "keep up" with the physical attackers. Our mod is healthier for embracing its asymmetry, and I would, at least personally, not want it any other way.

Thank you for your input! but I hope this puts your mind at ease a bit and also gives you a better idea of what to expect here. C:

:xerneas:

That should be all for now!
Submissions will close and voting should begin in about 24 hours, and I'll make a compilation of all of the legal entries then! If you've gotten feedback here, it would be best to implement it as soon as possible with that in mind.
(As usual, though: no worries if you can't quite make it by then! If you need to make changes, then as long as you can do that before voting closes just leave enough time for people to vote for you!, I'll be happy to make the amendments you need!)

Uh, at some point I am also meant to add a sub of my own for Zebstrika, but I'm not going to make this post take e v e n l o n g e r trying to justify it, so I'm just going to edit it in at some point today and not keep you guys waiting for the important part to go up!

:zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika
New Ability: Lightning Rod/Motor Drive/Sap Sipper -> Seismic Scream
(The existing :exploud: Mega Exploud's Ability: after using a sound move, follows up with 60 BP of Ground-type spread damage.)
Type: Electric/Ground

New Stats
:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 135 (+35)
Defense: 63 -> 103 (+40)
Special Attack: 80 -> 105 (+25)
Special Defense: 63
Speed: 116
(597 BST)

New moves: High Horsepower, Horn Leech, Overdrive

In much the same way that our Mega Raichu's Electric/Fighting STAB combination makes it stand out, I've long had the opinion that Electric and Ground are individually two of the strongest and most important attacking types in the game, so I've always been interested to see an offensive Pokémon that can make use of both.
Offensively, Electric and Ground are both dangerous; they're individually relatively hard to resist, and the types that do resist them are easy to cover, so each of them is part of some of the most well-known coverage combinations (think EdgeQuake and Bolt Beam as examples - but it's also worth noting that both Electric and Ground individually pair well with Ice, so even the weak Hidden Power can complement this STAB combination super well in just one type! or how about Zebstrika's existing access to Overheat, my last short essay on Ground/Fire coverage in mind?).
It's also worth bringing up that - alongside Mega Raichu's famously optimal Electric/Fighting STAB combination - Electric/Ground is one of the only two combinations of STABs that can hit both Steel and Water (two of the most important defensive types in the series) super effectively without being resisted by the other... and Electric and Ground aren't resisted by Fairy, either!
Electric even directly covers the main switch-ins to Ground-type damage - at least provided they're not named Landorus or Gliscor, your opponent's Flying-types can't come in to avoid Ground-type damage without being punished by Electric STAB that hurts twice as much.

With this in mind, and in the context that a somewhat obvious horse flavor move in High Horsepower is already Ground-type, I actually started approaching Zebstrika with the vague direction that it would be neat to have an Electric/Ground-type - being able to attack with both of those types sounds like an appealing selling point for an offensive Pokémon, doesn't it?
So I started doing research on Zebstrika's flavor, and--

They have lightning-like movements. When Zebstrika run at full speed, the sound of thunder reverberates.​

Literally the first Pokédex entry and I've learned that one of Zebstrika's key design elements (and the clever detail that's supposed to bridge the gap between zebras and electricity) is themed after sound.
A sound-related Pokémon that would benefit from a way to do Ground-type damage, huh...? Why does that sound familiar?
... they say we don't revisit old customs enough around here. Let's fix that!

Seismic Scream is an Ability from the sound-themed slate 26, created by the amazing ausma for her Mega Exploud.
Like my Zebstrika, her goal was to exploit the type chart in a unique way - her Exploud had not one but two powerful sound-based STABs that were both resisted by Steel, and Ground is notably one of the best ways there is to punish Steel-types for switching in on a move. Attacking with two types in one turn has proven to be a major advantage for Exploud, and it's one of the coolest wallbreakers in the mod and can be genuinely terrifying in the right circumstances.
With everything I said about Electric and Ground, then-- what if you could attack with those two types in one turn?
One key difference between her Exploud and my Zebstrika is how much closer together the power of its moves is - her Exploud used the 140 BP STAB Boomburst and the 100 BP STAB Clanging Scales, but it paired them with the non-STAB 60 BP Ground coverage from Seismic Scream, so the difference between the two hits was more like 140:40 or 100:40. Here, Zebstrika's main sound STAB is only the 80 BP Overdrive - but its Ground-type followup also receives STAB, so its second hit is still hitting for 75% as much damage.
On one hand, this makes Zebstrika's one-two punch that much more dangerous, since resisting the first hit no longer remotely means escaping the worst. As mentioned earlier, Zebstrika's first hit also hits Flying-types twice as hard, so just switching one of them in to mitigate the second hit's damage still leaves them taking more damage overall than a neutral hit, which can be devastating! It can be incredibly challenging to take less than neutral damage from Zebstrika's Overdrive.
On the other hand, as Seismic Scream fails to activate if the move doesn't hit, you can still send in a Ground-type to deal with Zebstrika and nullify both hits - just be wary of doing that too often, because Hidden Power can still punish it severely.

With its advantages from exploiting the type chart in mind, I opted to give Zebstrika relatively tame offenses, especially for the Special Attack which it uses for its sound-based moves; I'm also honestly relieved that Zebstrika is for the first time in what feels like ages a fast enough Pokémon to be threatening without also having setup, meaning it's okay to experiment with dangerous coverage like this without the risk of turning it into something uncounterable after one stray free turn to set up. Overall, I'm pretty sure this Zebstrika can create interesting lose-lose situations when played skillfully and live up to the advantages of its intriguing combination of STABs and coverage, but hopefully without being so dangerous a wallbreaker as to put undue pressure on defensive team styles.

One minor addendum worth noting: in the near future, we'll be announcing and polling a potential change that was agreed upon for Seismic Scream - making the second hit do physical damage unconditionally - which might make now seem like a bad time to experiment with a second Seismic Scream user.
However, I would like to draw attention to the fact that its offenses are exactly 30 base stat points apart! 31 is the number of base stat points you get from EV investment, so (at least provided its nature doesn't modify either one) the offenses of a Zebstrika with fully invested Special Attack and uninvested Attack should be almost identical, with final values of 306 Attack and 309 Special Attack.
Consider this a bit of insurance to make sure Zebstrika is an equally fine addition to the metagame no matter how the poll goes - it shouldn't affect the stats that Zebstrika was designed around at all! Hopefully that puts people's minds at ease about voting however they like on the poll regardless of whether how this particular Zebstrika fares. C:
 
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Sigh.
So, uh, first of all I just want to like. point out. that people did give you feedback on these already and pointed out how far they were from the scope of the mod, and you just chose not to take that into account? Which is kind of disappointing, and I cannot stress enough that I dislike these and strongly oppose them, whether you fix the balance issues or not. Please just have an ounce of respect for the people who take this mod seriously, and maybe we wouldn't even be talking about these subs.
But more importantly:

:rapidash: Reiterating the doubles issue - if you are not a doubles player and don't know what you're doing, please do not make Abilities that do nothing in singles (also, even if you do stick with this effect after making other changes, please make the modifier 1/3 rather than 35%). That aside, none of these moves are optically sound on base Rapidash, and you're going to find another way to give STABs to the Mega (such as an -ate Ability or Liquid Voice) because I'm just not going to allow that.

:zebstrika: Feel like emphasizing that Ghost -ate is not to be taken as lightly as other type-changing effects, and I don't reeeally like it with Double-Edge, Return and 120/126 physical offenses; it's maybe tolerable given Zebstrika's lack of setup, so I won't veto it, but I would invite you to lower either Attack or Speed if nothing else also, what mod do you think this even is

:mudsdale: Yyyeah, no, we are not giving a Mega multiple forms for as little or as baseless mechanical reason as this, reference or not also, what mod do you think this even is


Yea I get this completely, to be fair I don't remember getting any feedback. But It was really not a serious sub, I really don't care about being veto'd. I probably should have done some more serious work but besides that have a good day :)
 
84A69BC7-9547-437A-B006-053988F9A030.png

Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire
Ability: Flash Fire
New Moves: Focus Blast, Grass Knot, U-turn
Stats:
Hp: 60
Atk: 90 (Swap SpA +10)
Def: 110 (+40)
SpA: 120 (Swap Atk +20)
SpD: 105 (+25)
Spe: 110 (+5)
BST: 600 (+100)
For this mega, I avoided changing too much about its base form aside from prioritizing its special attack and defense.

I chose to make its defense stat higher so it could fair well against physically offensive Steel, Grass, Ice, and Bug types, which is what this Mega Rapidash's main offensive purpose would serve. :Rillaboom: :Corviknight: :Kartana: :Excadrill: :Ferrothorn: :Bisharp: :Jirachi: :Buzzwole: :Weavile:

(Adding stats in defense also made it easier to not over-buff any of its stats)

Its new ability Flash Fire would also allow it to take on new utility based capabilities. In conjunction with its added move U-turn, Mega Rapidash would be able to take on a more pivot based play style.

As an example, I took a closer look at Rillaboom :Rillaboom: and Corviknight :Corviknight: who are currently really strong in the meta: Without allocating a portion of its mega stat boost to defense, Rapidash would get OHKO’d by Wood Hammer from a choiced Rillaboom (+252 Atk) on Grassy Terrain (or hazard + Wood Hammer for non +Atk Rillaboom), and be 2HKO’d by Brave Bird from a Corviknight with no attack investment. (Although Rillaboom hits everything hard, for this Mega Rapidash, I wanted it to be able to at least withstand one of its hits!)

Old Defensive Calcs:
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash: 154-183 (56.8 - 67.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO :Corviknight:
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 273-321 (100.7 - 118.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO :Rillaboom:

New Defensive Calcs:
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash: 106-126 (39.1 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO :Corviknight:
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 187-221 (69 - 81.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO :Rillaboom:

Simple Counter Examples: With its new speed stat, it would still be outsped by common offensive water types like Greninja, and without access to very strong special electric/ground/psychic type moves, it could be walled well by Toxapex and other bulky water types. Bulky dragon types would also fair well against Mega Rapidash.

Mixed Attacking Potential: With its new 80 attack stat and inability to be burned, it would still hold potential to be a mixed attacker with SD and its decent physical move-pool. Keeping its attack fairly low helps balance it. I personally wasn’t as interested in making it a completely mixed attacker since the last two slates gave us two mixed attacking fire type megas. (Which isn't bad!)

Utility Potential: With its boosted defenses and great utility move-pool and , it has potential to take on an offensive utility role in a team.

New moves:
Focus Blast – Having a new form of special coverage would suit it well, but it isn't inherently necessary for it to function well.
Grass Knot – Other than Solar Beam/Solar Blade which are charge moves, it doesn't have other grass type coverage.
U-turn – This would allow it to pivot from Pokémon that wall/counter it. With its limited special move coverage, I think it would be a great addition.

Notable Special Moves: Overheat, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Heat Wave (Doubles), Scorching Sands, Solar Beam
Notable Physical Moves: Flare Blitz, Wild Charge, High Horsepower, Play Rough, Poison Jab, Swords Dance
Notable Utility Moves: Mystical Fire, Morning Sun, Toxic, Substitute, Rest, Sleep Talk, Ally Switch (Doubles)
(Shout out to Ink for the Flash Fire suggestion!)
Thank you for taking the time to read!!
 
Mega Mudsdale
type: Ground
Ability: victorious trot: this pokemon's own stat changes, positive or negative, dont matter.
New moves: outrage, last resort, overheat
hp: 100
attack: 145
def: 120
spatk: 75
spdef: 105
speed: 55 (plus 20 in all non hp stats)
bst: 600
"ancient writings from an empire in the aroma region talk about how king shandrona, grandfather of the great king vesryn, rode on the back of the sturdy mega mudsdale in battle, and how the aroma empire won every battle, no matter the odds. many have theorized that it wasnt just victini that made it possible for the endless streak of victories they had to happen."

Mega rapidash
type: fire/ghost
ability: scorching blood
upon getting a ko, traps its replacement. if it does switch out when rapidash isnt on the field, it gets burned.
stats:
hp: 65
attack: 80 (swapped with spatk)
def: 60 (-10)
spatk: 140 (swapped with atk, +40)
spdef: 115 (+35)
speed: 140 (+35)
bst: 600
New moves: shadow ball, shadow sneak, foul play, haze
"Upon mega evolution, this pokemon's desire to win turned sour, as it uses any measure, no matter how gruesome, to win a race. when one murdered its own trainer so it could win a race , Mega Rapidash was banned from pokemon races, and the stone itself was soon banned from existence altogether, now being only illegally sold in the black market.
 
Last edited:
I think I actually feel somewhat rested after a week away. Thank gods.

The Damned:

:rapidash: As with okispokis, on account of Swords Dance + dual STABs that pair very well with High Horsepower, I would adviiise lowering Speed a bit from here, even with the offenses as tame as they are; in your case, I think something in the 140 to 130 range would be fine! I would probably not veto this either way, but I feel like asking if you don't mind at least!
as a clarifying note, I believe you miscalculated - your Speed it should be 145 as it is!

:zebstrika: ... ahem
my friend ink has asked me to beg you to rename the Ability to Bug Zapper.
you don't have to listen to him. he just really wanted me to ask.
This is... not a veto or anything he just
he really wanted me to ask

okay moving on--

First and foremost, good to see you, Hematite.

Secondly, these are all reasonable requests. Gods, it shows how out of it I was last week that I somehow not only greatly underestimated Ground's excellent coverage with Fire/Fairy despite specifically using the coverage tool to be "sure"--which only works with no (drowsy) user error--of Fire/Fairy's offensive resists but also miscounted Rapidash-Mega's Speed when adding everything up. Thankfully the last one isn't too much of a problem since I suspected its Speed would need to be lowered anyway, so I have now lowered it to 137 (the same as Lycanroc-Midday-Mega's Speed tier). The 8 points that were actually leftover have been dumped into Special Attack, meaning my Rapidash-Mega's Special Attack is now 108.

As for inkbug's request, sure. "Buzz Off!" has been renamed to "Bug Zapper", which is honestly another pun that I didn't think of in my tiredness last week since "Buzz Off!" was the only one that immediately came to mind in my addled state. I was admittedly trying to keep the name a bit more general in case another future Mega wanted to use it (in the case that my Zebstrika-Mega wins), but I do like "Bug Zapper" better anyway given the typing combination. Besides, if someone else wants to use that ability or name if it doesn't, then they're free to do so. I still view it basically like ViZar's ability anyway, which is why I hope I can come with something more originally finally for whatever is next. So, thanks, inkbug.

Finally, all that said, I'm glad my Mudsdale-Mega is acceptable as it is. As with Torterra-Mega last time, that's the one I was actually most worried about to be honest. So good to see it's fine.
 
Hello, everyone!! Finally time for submissions to close and voting to begin!!

As always, I really appreciate everyone who took the time to respond to the feedback I gave!!
A couple of subs are still being excluded, though, so I'll tag the people in question just in case they still want to make changes!
(As is the usual policy, it's not too late to update your sub if you just didn't have time in the last 24 hours! If you need to make any changes to a disqualified sub before the voting phase closes, just let me know by DM or in the Discord, and I'll add it back right away if it's fixed! As long as there are still people voting, you have time to win their votes, haha.)

With that said, subs from the following people are still being excluded at the moment:

superstrike66 (:rapidash: nerfed but not really enough by my standards - still needs either Speed toned down or Attack lowered a lot, as described in the previous feedback post)
Poké Legend (:rapidash: also nerfed but not enough - they actually DMed me to ask if it was fine and I responded with why it wasn't, so I think they just haven't gotten around to fixing it yet)
StarFalcon555 (:mudsdale: unchanged)
ChoiceScarfed (:rapidash: unchanged, I think? :mudsdale: reworked but now far too close to another accepted sub)
ARandomPerson (:rapidash: doesn't look like you changed it but I know you talked about reusing the Ability for Incineroar so you may have been giving up on this one on purpose)
fratelli bc (:zebstrika: in addition to being overly complicated in general, this breaks the rules about custom Abilities in being a significant straight upgrade from Mold Breaker)
Bmw6446 (:zebstrika: unchanged)
The Main Mon (:rapidash: pretty sure these are stats we haven't allowed on anyone else's, regardless of the nerfed and... strangely chosen Ability)
CrLmao (:rapidash: and :mudsdale: unchanged, seemingly on purpose but I'm just recording it for posterity)
greyllama8 (:zebstrika: unchanged)
Loukarya (:zebstrika: unchanged, seemingly on purpose but I'm just recording it for posterity)
Wheeveelution (:rapidash::zebstrika::mudsdale: ostensibly unchanged? you edited according to a timestamp, but not in a way that's any different from what I remembered or what I addressed already;;
harmony96369 (:rapidash: illegal stat spread, vaguely questionable Ability; :zebstrika: overcomplicated and RNG-based as heck; :mudsdale: relies on moves that can't reasonably be added to the base form, which is something we're clear about avoiding for optics - unrelated but can I ask about the Zebstrika flavor I'm really confused)

If any of you still want to make changes and get them in, now would be the time!
Every other submission (I think - if I missed any, that's a mistake, so please tell me!) is included! Thank you guys so much for your cooperation and your fantastic ideas! C:

Slate 32 Voting

Those exceptions aside, here's the list of legal submissions for your voting convenience! As per usual, they will be split across three posts and barely within the character limit, ahah.

:rapidash: Mega Rapidash
:swsh/rapidash:

078.png

Mega Rapidash
New Ability
- W.I.P - If this Pokémon gets hit by a Pokémon that outspeeds it, or a priority move, its Speed stat is raised by 1 stage.
Type:
Fire.png
Fairy.png


New Stats:
HP: 65 -> 65
Attack: 105 -> 115 (+15)
Defense: 70 -> 95 (+25)
Special Attack: 80 -> 115 (+35)
Special Defense: 80 -> 95 (+15)
Speed: 105 -> 115 (+10)
(500 BST -> 600 BST)

New Moves:
Blaze Kick, Triple Axel, Moonblast, Electro Ball, Whirlwind

Description: This submission was inspired from all three of these Pokédex entries below:



The Yellow Pokédex entry is the reason for the ability, the Black and White 2 Pokédex entry is the reason for the Fairy-typing, and the Leaf Green Pokédex entry is another the reason for the ability, mainly the competitive part. Blaze Kick, High Jump Kick, and Triple Axel have been added because, well...its a horse! They kick! There are also there to provide some good coverage against the Ground-types that would usually wall it. Moonblast and Electro Ball are there for no reason than just for flavor, but Electro Ball may be a nice thing to have so you can have some better Electric-type coverage. The ability really benefits from Blaze Kick or Triple Axel missing, so it really doesn’t need to worry about missing it. Overall, Mega Rapidash is a very unique Pokémon with a nice ability, and if you mess up around it, you’ll regret it.
Mega Rapidash
rapidash.gif


Type: Fire
Ability: Racehorse - This Pokemon cant have its speed stat lowered. Any increase in speed is doubled.

HP: 65 (+0)
Attack: 100 -> 100 (+0)
Defense: 70 -> 95 (+25)
Sp Atk: 80 -> 135 (+55)
Sp Def: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Speed: 105 -> 115 (+10)

New Moves: Electro Ball
; Dazzling Gleam

This ability takes Inspiration from this Dex entry

Thus any speed increasing effect will be doubled.
This is especially useful in combination with Flame Charge,
In addition because its so fast i thougth it shouldnt be affected by speed lowering effects.
I then made it a Special attacker and gave it Electro Ball to take advantage of its new ability. Dazzlimg Gleam is coverage against Dragon Types that resist Fire and Electric moves. Its Galar form already learns it, so i thougth its reasonable to give it access to it.
:rapidash::parasect::parasect::parasect::parasect: (wait wasn't there only 1 parasect before?)

Mega Rapidash
fiery-horse-gif.324592

Type:
fire-png.324591

Ability: Flash Fire/Run Away/Flame Body --> Grassy Surge

Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 100 -> 110 (+10)
Defense: 70 -> 95 (+25)
SpAtk: 80 -> 90 (+10)
SpDef: 80 -> 105 (+25)
Speed: 105 -> 135 (+30)

New Moves: Grassy Glide, Horn Leech, Terrain Pulse.

Description: Mega Rapidash has a strong connection with the grass it gallops on. Therefore it has harnessed the ability to recreate the terrain it once stood upon in order to move and attack at high speeds during battle. It is sometimes seen fighting alongside Rillaboom.
Slow your horses people, I know what's on your mind "Grassy surge doesn't fit on thi-" I have a reason! Rapidash gallops across grassy fields! Don't believe me?

Rapidash's Emerald entry says: " It usually canters casually in the fields and plains. But once a Rapidash turns serious, its fiery manes flare and blaze as it gallops its way up to 150 mph. "

It's always hanging around grassy fields, now I know a lot of animals including horses do this but rapidash gallops a lot too. It knows its way around a grassy field, and through the power of mega evolution it brings the field with it. Now from a competitive standpoint it allows more coverage against water and ground types, something rapidash struggles with. With Grassy Glide it gains priority, but it wont need it since its so frickin fast. But with horn leech you can recover your health twice, and it synergizes with flare blitz. It's also safe against Blissey, just sappin up all of that HP. And what do you know, it has high-horsepower as well.

Defensively, earthquake gets neutralized and you can also run a defensive set with Will-O-Wisp, and Morning Sun. Speaking of morning sun it'd be more like Mourning Sun because under drought this thing obliterates you with solar blade and flare blitz, not to mention reliable recovery as well. If you want mixed/special you have terrain pulse now, take advantage of it if you want. (Btw shoutouts to inkbug for mentioning grassy glide on rapidash, I wouldn't have a sub for it if it wasn't for him lol)

[ I don't have much in mind for a design but I thought it'd be cool if it had brown markings starting from its hooves that worked their way up and turned green as they rose, representing grass growing from the ground ]
:rapidash:
Mega Rapidash
New Ability: Run Away/Flash Fire/Flame Body --> Super Luck
New Typing: Fire/Ground

New Stats:
HP: 65
ATK: 100 --> 120 (+20)
DEF
: 70 --> 80 (+10)
SPA
: 80 --> 90 (+10)
SPD
: 80 --> 130 (+50)
SPE
: 105 --> 115 (+10)

New Moves
: Blaze Kick, Focus Energy

Desc: Super Luck elevates the already high crit-ratio Blaze Kick and Drill Run to have a 50% chance to crit per hit, allowing it to bypass defensive stat stages and Intimidate drops. Fire/Ground is absurd two-STAB coverage as well, which in combination with its very solid Speed and Swords Dance access make it incredibly difficult to wall.

Its high Special Defense and solid two-move coverage also give it some spare moveslots to play around with -- Toxic, Will-o-Wisp, and Morning Sun are all fun utility options to give it more longevity and support its teammates, while Scorching Sands and Mystical Fire make for interesting Special utility.

As an alternative to Swords Dance sets, it also has access to Focus Energy, with which someone using it could potentially sacrifice some of its damage output in exchange for more consistency. Super Luck combined with Focus Energy gives it a 100% guaranteed critical hit rate, allowing it to run its stronger STABs of Flare Blitz and High Horsepower instead.
1616290657504-png.324624

Rapidash-Mega
Fire-> Fire/Ground
Flame Body/Flash Fire/Run Away-> Sap Sipper
Stats
HP: 65
Atk: 100->
110 (+10)
Def: 70-> 85 (+15)
SpA: 80-> 100 (+20)
SpD: 80-> 100 (+20)
Spe: 105-> 140 (+35)
New Moves: +Pursuit

"Rapidash usually can be seen casually cantering in the fields and plains. However, when this Pokémon turns serious, its fiery manes flare and blaze as it gallops its way up to 150 mph."
Description: With the boost from Mega Evolution, Rapidash can travel at such speeds that it kicks up a huge dust storm whenever it moves, making it part Ground; in practice, this also allows it to evade a Rocks weakness and makes Heatran a shakier check. With its amazing speed stat, I decided to not add more than 10 points to Attack to keep it balanced with SD. Sap Sipper seemed like a natural fit since it's presumably grazing when not on the run (all that running probably requires a lot of energy), and also allows it to counter Rillaboom (especially with Flame Body pre-Mega) and generally allow some opportunities for switch-ins. Aside from STAB, it also gets access to options like Wild Charge, Play Rough and the newly accessible Pursuit, which allows it to trap frail foes that aren't as fast and is inspired by its instinct to chase down and race anything fast. Of course, it's not too durable physically and can be vulnerable to priority bar Glide, so taking it down isn't too difficult (especially when its main STAB deals recoil). Of course, speed is a pretty huge asset when you have actual power to back it up, and once it's in Mega Rapidash can be a pure demon.
:rapidash:
Mega Rapidash (Kanto)
New Ability
: Mold Breaker
Type: Fire

New stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 130 (+30)
Defense: 90 (+20)
Special Attack: 80
Special Defense: 90 (+10)
Speed: 145 (+40)
(600 BST)

New moves: no (I also can't remove any either, which sucks quite a bit)
Description:
"vanilla ability", they said.
MOLD BREAKER FIRE TYPE, I saw.
(ok this is somewhat of a joke, but I think you get the idea)
Now, I get what you're thinking about this sub. I understand where you're coming from with these complaints. "War Incarnate/Nightcap, why Mold Breaker? This has High Horsepower already, Mold Breaker is completely pointless."

See, the thing is, Rapidash actually doesn't always run Ground coverage. The typical set for Rapidash here is usually SD/Flare Blitz/Wild Charge and then usually either High Horsepower or Morning Sun (this is only for offensive sets btw, I don't really have knowledge of other potential sets that vanilla Rapidash runs). While we can't really remove moves from Megas, what we can do is work around them.

Mega Rapidash's role in the meta would be a plain and simple one. It utilizes its decent attack and blazing fast speed tier to boost w/ Swords Dance before hitting hard and hitting first. 65/90/90 defenses actually aren't that bad either, giving it a decent amount of time to setup if it has to and letting it take a few hits or two. Mold Breaker lets it hit Heatran if it doesn't run Ground coverage, but also has some other pretty cool applications outside of that.
:ss/rapidash:
Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire/Flying
Ability: Aerilate
Stats:
  • HP: 65 (+0)
  • Attack: 100 (+0)
  • Defense: 95 (+15)
  • Special Attack: 120 (+40)
  • Special Defense: 95 (+15)
  • Speed: 135 (+30)
New Moves: Air Slash, Hyper Voice

It's the pegasus Rapidash everyone has been wanting for a billion years. Enough said. Made it a special attacker because I feel that works better.
Mega Rapidash
rapidash.gif

fire.gif

Ability - Runaway, Flash Fire; Flame Body ➝ Firestarting Gallop (Upon hitting the foe with a contact move, the user gains a boost to its Fire-type moves of 1.2x until it switches out.)

HP - 65 ➝ 65
Atk
- 100 ➝ 130 (+30)
Def - 70 ➝ 100 (+30)
SpA - 80 ➝ 90 (+10)
SpD - 80 ➝ 100 (+20)
Spe - 105 ➝ 115 (+10)
BST - 500 ➝ 600 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Blaze Kick
Competitive Corner - Mega Rapidash blends the role of a wallbreaker, with Swords Dance and deadly Flare Blitzes, as well as having solid enough Speed to act as a great offensive pivot and revenge killer! Although, it's hard to sweep with *only* base 125 speed these days, and a weakness to Stealth Rock along Flare Blitz recoil could make things a little troublesome, but all in all, Mega Rapidash is a pretty strong contender and you can be sure it will cause some damage throughout the game.

Rapidash & Zebstrika Flavor Corner - Given both Rapidash and Zebstrika draw inspiration from Helios's horses (more specifically, Rapidash from Pyrois ("the fiery one"), Eous ("he who turns the sky"), Aethon ("blazing"), and Phlegon ("burning") and Zebstrika from Bronte ("Thunder") and Sterope ("Lightning")), I thought making them a duo of sorts would be a cool idea! Hence the similar statlines and abilities. The abilities more specifically are drawn from the idea that friction can be used both to create fire, as well as transmit electricity!! And given these two would spend the day galloping around the sky, they surely would create a lot of friction! Also can I just point out how stupid it is that Zebstrika doesn't get High Horsepower?? Like not only is it a horse, but the "Horsepower" also works as a brilliant pun!! Shame GameFreak didn't catch it :|
:bw/rapidash:

FireIC_Big.png
/
FlyingIC_Big.png


Ability: Magic Guard

HP: 76
Atk: 105 (+5)
Def: 95 (+25)
SpA: 120 (+40)
SpD: 105 (+25)
Spe: 110 (+5)

New Moves: U-turn, Air Slash

Reasoning
:

This is an eerily simple approach for someone like me, but thankfully I think Magic Guard is pretty much a perfect ability for a Pokemon like this. Let's put it into perspective: a Fire/Flying type pegasus... inherently, something mythical and magical, which does flavorfully justify Magic Guard. Being completely immune to Stealth Rock, making use of a very solid defensive typing, Flare Blitz/Wild Charge recoil, and having great coverage/longevity to bat is the perfect recipe for an offensive pivot, and that's what we're going for here! Magic Guard suits this Pokemon like a glove, especially with the pegasus flavor, and can make use of a really cool typing and movepool in order to operate as a very fun, one-of-a-kind pivot.

Sadly, Swords Dance is a variable we have to balance for, which really puts a wrench into my plans. So, a lot of the BST gain has to be put into bulk and Special Attack to be actually balanced. However, in doing so, we can still let Rapidash perform as a flexible pivot, making use of a solid Special attack with a justifiable Flying-type STAB in the form of Air Slash to expand its options.

(also im sorry superstrike but i mentioned wanting to do this on the discord server at the start of this slate's confirmation;; i think ours fundamentally are designed differently enough to where it's ok, but ye i just wanted to let you know i'm not ripping you off)
:SS/Rapidash:
Rapidash-Mega
Type:Fire/Flying
Ability:Gallop
Switch its spatk and its speed
Switch its atk and speed if it use a semi-invulnerable moves, return to normal after damage calculation

Stats:65/120(+20)/70/120(+30)/90(+10)/145(+40)
New moves:Signal Beam, Dazzling Gleam
Desc:This horse can deal some serious damage with its ability. Its ability make it run mixed which is fun
rapidash-png.325795
rapidash.png
Rapidash(-Kantonian)-Mega @ Rapidashite
New Typing:
FireIC_Big.png
/
FairyIC_Big.png

New Ability: Misty Surge

NEW STATS
HP:
065
Atk: 100 => 110 (+10)
Def: 070 => 090 (+20)
SpA: 080 => 108 (+28) {previously 100 (+20)}
SpD: 080 => 090 (+10)
Spe: 105 => 137 (+32) {previously 145--not 150 given my brief inability to add--and +40}
(BST: 500 => 600)

Movepool Additions: Blaze Kick, Dazzling Gleam, Misty Explosion, Misty Terrain, U-Turn

Pokédex Description: "Fairy energy now faintly radiates from Rapidash at all times, covering the ground as Rapidash speeds across the battlefield."

Oh hey, an actually "short" explanation from me for once given this is obviously just meant to be a fast Misty Terrain pivoting physical attacker. No need to pretend otherwise for the following three paragraphs--er, make that four.

Flavor-wise: I personally try to avoid adding Fairy to mons just because I view the Fairy typing as overpowered with how it is now even if I think Dragon types did need to be reined in somehow. There is also the not-so-small issue of the Simisear-Mega that won two slates ago ending up as Fire/Fairy. Still, Rapidash-Mega becoming Fire/Fairy seems like it fits given a) Rapidash-Alola is partially Fairy and b) unicorns tend to be marketed as one of the most stereotypically "girly" type of mythical creatures, which Fairy types in this series seem to lean into when not pretending to be Grass types like with Florges or Comfey. Hell, the latter is probably why Rapidash-Alola ended up part Fairy in the first place. Finally, my Rapidash-Mega basically got 150 Speed because half of the Pokédex entries make a weird emphasis on Rapidash running specifically at 150 miles per hour. So I chose to be as literal as possible this time (again), in part because that's also conveniently (much) faster than Tapu Koko. [EDIT #2: Since literally so rarely works out for the best, its Speed has been nerfed to 137 since Hematite himself asked for it to be 140 or lower, so it may go lower still.]

Movepool-wise: I dislike pivot moves, especially this gen where we got two new really obnoxious ones. As such, I tend not to give them to mons unless they really fit whatever new design I'm giving them. U-Turn has enough merit here if I want to really separate this from Tapu Fini (and Weezing-Galar) as a Misty Terrain setter that it's worth giving to Rapidash-Mega, especially since Misty Terrain is (thankfully) the weakest of the four canonical terrain types. The Fairy type moves of Dazzling Gleam (there over Burning Jealousy), Misty Explosion, and Misty Terrain are there as moves basically all Fairy types get now, even if only Misty Explosion isn't somewhat redundant--just self-destructive. Finally, Blaze Kick is there to give Rapidash a weaker Fire STAB that doesn't kill itself at the additional cost of slight inaccuracy, which people will have to individually decide is worth it even with the higher crit rate. (Admittedly, it did also seem weird that a blazing horse didn't already have Blaze Kick--it already gets Play Rough, amusingly enough.)

Mechanic-wise: Easily the simplest of the entries in this slate for me given, as stated above, this Rapidash-Mega is meant to be a fast Misty Terrain setter that can either pivot to its teammates or use Swords Dance to set up on its own while avoiding status like paralysis or poison or sleep (or full paralysis--[insert image of a shaking fist here]). Unlike Tapu Fini (or Weezing-Galar), setting up Misty Terrain doesn't sabotage itself at times (unless you're really fishing for Flare Blitz burns or want to use Will O'Wisp) and it has greater speed and physical power than either of those mons in addition to being able to get out of dodge more aggressively. I wanted to make sure that its base Atk was at least a bit higher than any of the Tapu's highest stats even if Rapidash-Mega is still overall weaker than any of them but Fini since Misty Terrain (thankfully) doesn't boost the power of one of its STABs. The Fire/Fairy combination also gets walled by other Fire types, which U-Turn doesn't help and which it can't brute force like Simisear-Mega can, in addition to still being weak to Stealth Rock, which means it basically has to choose its fourth move carefully between High Horsepower, Morning Sun, or Swords Dance for the most typical sets. It could easily use something else even, such as Misty Explosion.

As it stands, despite having just ended up with a Fire/Fairy mon two slates ago, I don't think Rapidash-Mega actually steps on Simisear-Mega's still developing niche at all. I am thankful that Misty Terrain is so relatively weak as far as Terrain goes since it allows the option to be so much speedier than Simisear-Mega without being automatically problematic due to already having Swords Dance.* That is what helps set the two apart the most besides the terrain setting itself.

(*I will admit that Rapidash-Mega's Atk was...significantly higher before I saw Hematite's note, which I think is reasonable even with the aforementioned coverage issues and 4MSS. So said Atk is now the lower 110, which I think is fair even with all that Speed and Misty Terrain back-up.)
:ss/rapidash:

mega rapidash

fire
stats
hp- 65
atk- 100(+15)>115
def- 70(+25)>95
spa- 80(+40)>120
spd- 80(+30)>110
spe- 105(-10)>95

ability: fiery neigh- when the user k.o.'s a pokemon, its speed raises by one

new moves: extreme speed

i originally had a completely different idea for this but Random Person had a similar idea so i decided to go in a different direction. at first i was gonna do a fire/dark type with grim neigh but then i thought why not make a third neigh ability, so now we have fiery neigh. i had to be very conscious of its stats bc this ability can easily let it get out of hand. it is kinda weird that despite having so many of its dex entries and even its name reference how fast it is, it really isn't crazy fast! so hopefully this is a fun way to go about that
2975263-jpg.324702

:rapidash: Mega Rapidash @ Rapidashite
Typing: Fire
Ability: Reckless
Stats: HP: 65
ATK: 112 (+12)
DEF: 99 (+29)
SPA: 107 (+27)
SPD: 99 (+19)
SPE: 118 (+13)
New move : Jump kick

Rapidash is described in the pokedex as a very competitive mon, trying to race with anything that move fast. I wanted to refelct that fiery and reckless nature in its ability. Competitively , 118 speed allow it to outrun notable threath like mega falink , Starmie or keldeo , threateing them with a strong reckless boosted flare blitz or wild charge. The speed is slow enough to let it be revenged killed by faster mon like mega staraptor , weavile or zeraora. Priority is also a good way to revenge kill that mon as its abuse recoil move and easily fall into their range , espacially aqua jet or accelrock . The added bulk help it in setting up sword dance or making its acces to morning sun relevant to recover the hp lost due to abusing recoil move. Jump kick is a little addition to its move pool that profit the addition of Reckless and can help against specific mon such as tyranitar .
With the combinaison of its ability and movepool that mon can act as a fast wallbreaker or sweeper, but still need heavy support by the team to perform well due to its incresead weakness to hazard on top of recoil that make it easy to cheap. Its bulk while correct isn't that great easier and let it be easy to revenge kill.
:bw/rapidash:
Mega Rapidash
Ability: Ambitious (This Pokemon's Speed is raised by 2 for each of its stats that is lowered by a foe.)
Type:
FireIC_Big.png
FairyIC_Big.png

Stats:
HP: 65
Atk: 100 (+45) --> 145
Def: 70(+30) --> 100
SpA: 80(+30) --> 110
SpD: 80(+30) --> 110
Spe: 105(-35) --> 70
New Moves: Blaze Kick, Spirit Break

Description:
Concept
I saw the Yellow Pokedex entry for Rapidash ("Just loves to run. If it sees something faster than itself, it will give chase at top speed.") and decided that it was a playful horse, which is the reason behind the Fairy typing. The Red and Blue Pokedex entry ("Very competitive, this Pokémon will chase anything that moves fast in the hopes of racing it.") is the inspiration for its new Ability, Ambitious.

In Battle
Ambitious functions like Defiant or Competitive, but with Speed instead. This can be helpful for punishing Defog, Intimidate, or Parting Shot, all of which are fairly common in this meta. With access to Swords Dance and 145 base Attack, Rapidash can become a threat once it gets an Ambitious boost off. It also already gets access to Play Rough, and now it doesn't have to rely on Flare Blitz (and its recoil) thanks to Blaze Kick. However, Rapidash is held back by its bad speed, so it has to depend on its ability (or Agility) to outspeed its foes.
252+ Atk Rapidash Blaze Kick vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 166-196 (48.6 - 57.4%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Rapidash Play Rough vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 175-207 (51.3 - 60.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Alright, time for Rapidash. Let's check out them Pokedex entries, shall we?

"Very competitive, this Pokémon will chase anything that moves fast in the hopes of racing it."

Cool. That seems pretty straight-forward.

:ss/rapidash:
Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire
Ability: Competitive
Stats:
[indent]HP: 65[/ind

Oh, hold on one second. I should take this.

Hey, what's up?
...
Oh shit, someone already called dibs? That's a shame.
...
No, no, it's fine.
...
Yeah, thanks for letting me know. Oh hey, can you pick up some cranberry juice on the way home? We're running low.
...
Cool, thanks.
...
Alright, I gotta go. See ya.
...
Bye.

Alright, change of plans.

:ss/rapidash:
Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire
Ability: Defiant
Stats:
HP: 65​
Att: 115 (+15)
Def: 70​
SpA: 100 (+20)
SpD: 110 (+30)
Spe: 140 (+35)

All jokes aside, Defiant Rapidash and Competitive Rapidash would obviously play very differently, but there is one specific role where I think Defiant is much better than Competitive, and that's punishing Intimidate in singles. You might think "hold on a second, if a Competitive user gets Intimidated, it ends up at +2 SpA, but if a Defiant user gets Intimidated, it ends up at +1, how is that better?" but consider why someone would include an Intimidate user on their team. If someone has an Intimidate user on their team, it's probably there to deal with physical attackers. This means that a Pokemon with Defiant prevents the Intimidate user from doing its job, and puts the burden of dealing with it on the Intimidater's teammates, teammates who might not be very well equipped to deal with physical attackers. Meanwhile, the Intimidate user has little reason to switch into a Competitive user, since dealing with special attackers isn't its job. (Competitive is probably better in doubles though, since hiding an Intimidate user is much less feasible, and also in the specific case of Rapidash it has STAB Heat Wave.)

Almost none of what I just said was specific to Rapidash, and was instead my own musings on the functionality of two mirror abilities in a vacuum, so I'm not sure why I went into such great detail about it. Anyway, onto Rapidash itself. Let's start with the speed. I have an obsession with base 140 speed. Just look at the Nat Dex teambuilder and sort by speed.

its_free_real_estate.png


That's a seven point gap between speed tiers. We've made a few megas that fall in that range, but we need more. We always need more. *cough* Sorry about that. Moving on. Since I made Rapidash so fast, I was extremely cautious with Mega Rapidash's Attack stat, since it has Swords Dance and a very strong STAB (it hits has hard as a Lando-T Earthquake or a Xurkitree Thunderbolt) but then I remembered we have a Terrakion with 150 Attack and 142 Speed in this mod named Mega Dusk Lycanroc, and it's only decent. While the Murder Dog certainly holds the advantage in power, Mega Rapidash is much better defensively, with enough bulk to actually set up a Swords Dance, as well as some nifty tools like fast Morning Sun, Will-O-Wisp, and Hypnosis.

If your reaction to this post was "Pumpkinz what the fuck is this rambling mess?" then you're not alone. I had that same reaction while proofreading. I may have displaced my mind.
I love you
1616336848079-png.324736

(image cred: Michael Adams)
Rapidash-Mega (Fire/Flying)
Ability: Fiery Mane (When at full HP, fire moves gain priority (Gale wings for fire))

HP: 65 (+0)
Atk: 130 (+30)
Def: 100 (+30)
Spa: 100 (+20)
Spd: 100 (+20)
Spe: 105 (+0)

New Moves: Air Slash, Defog

Description: I loved rapidash as a kid, and it always reminded me of Pegasus. So, when this opportunity came around, I turned it into one! As to the moves, I added the only flying move I could see rapidash getting, and defog. I'm tempted to put horn leech because of its horn, but I decided against it.
:ss/Rapidash:

Rapidash-mega
Type: Fire/Dark
Ability:
Cursed Body
New moves: Foul Play, Pursuit

Stats:

HP: 65 > 65 (-)
Atk: 100 > 140 (+40)
Def: 70 > 100 (+30)
SpA: 80 > 80 (-)
SpD: 80 > 100 (+20)
Spe: 105 > 115 (+10)

This sub is inspired by the brazilian folklore story of the headless mule.
The myth has lots of variations, but the most commons tells about a sinful woman that is cursed by her actions, and every friday night transforms into a giant terrifying horse-like creature that has intense flames in the place of the head.
This creature's cry of sorrow is loud and agonizing, and is also the announcement of a vicious attack. Extremely violent, the creature will attack anything that moves with its powerful legs, even loved ones, and can even kill.
It spits fire to burn entire villages, and the only way to stop the curse is to collect it's blood with a virgin needle. Yes, you must approach a big vicious creature that spits fire, and collect its blood. It is immune to swords and bullets btw, so no killing it.

1617195884489-png.327886

Translating the story into Mega-Rapidash:
Mega energy makes Rapidash, that now has intense flames almost covering it's entire head, much more competitive and violent.

Rapidash's body reacts to mega energy. It gains weight, becoming a bigger horse now, but it's flames can now hurt it. The only way to relieve that pain is to never stop running.

Speeking of running, Rapidash will not only chase anything that moves in hopes of racing it. If they refuse, this cursed horse will viciously attack them.

Also, it stills alive (both rapidash and the headless mule), explaining why Dark and not Ghost.

New moves:
Foul Play fits it's competitive side.
Pursuit is about it chasing anything that moves fast in the hopes of racing that.

Why use this mega-rapidash:
There are two pokemons with Fire/Dark typing: Houndoom and Incineroar lines. Both have very different uses, the former beeing quite exclusive to sun teams with its mega, and the latter beeing more supportive/defensive and VGC proned.

This sub is a good physical dark and fire type attacker that is fast, can boost its high attack stat with swords dance and has a good overall ability that can be annoying and punishing to oposing pokemon.

From the resistances side, receiving neutral hits from fairies is cool for a Dark-type, such as receiving an immunity to psychic moves.

It is also bulky enough to switch into resisted ice, dark, fire, grass and ghost attacks. Be aware of rocks tho.
rapidash.gif.m.1523036372


Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire
Ability: Analytic

HP: 65 (+0)
ATK: 100 -> 120 (+20)
DEF: 70 -> 100 (+30)
SPATK: 80 -> 95 (+15)
SPDEF: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPE: 105 -> 120 (+15)

BST: 500 -> 600 (+100)
From the LGPE dex entry: "Just loves to run. If it sees something faster than itself, it will give chase at top speed"
That sounds like analytic waiting to happen. If you run into something as fast as you can from behind I'd think that would hurt quite a bit more than normal, especially from a fire horse. (also yes I know that this thing will probably just spam curse but as far as i know we don't have a cool curse using mega so sue me)
:ss/rapidash:
Mega Rapidash
Type:
Fire ---> Fire
Ability: Flash Fire / Run Away / Flame Body ---> Dazzling
Stats:
HP:
65
Atk: 100 ---> 100
Def: 70 ---> 70
SpA: 80 ---> 130 (+50)
SpD: 80 ---> 100 (+20)
Spe: 105 ---> 135 (+30)

New Moves: Focus Blast, U-turn

Description: speedf control
:bw/Rapidash: Mega <Rapidash>
New Ability
: Sheer force
Type: Fire

New stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 120 (+20)
Defense: 90 (+20)
Special Attack: 120 (+40)
Special Defense: 100 (+20)
Speed: 105
(BST)

New moves: Iron head, Blaze kick
Description: Big horse, big kick! This rapidash is going all out with sheer force, boosting attacks like flare blitz and play rough, as well as most of it's special moves. I have added Iron head for some utility against rock types, and Blaze kick as a less risky alternative for rapidash if you (yes, you) don't like recoil damage. This rapidash doesn't have any flying unicorn mumbo jumbo, and just uses it's sheer power (funny) to break through walls, but don't expect it to fight greninja, it WILL get destroyed.
images-8-jpeg.324902
So this one took a bit more work than my Mudsdale, this is my Mega Rapidash, I don't have much connection to Rapidash apart from it being my sisters favorite pokemon, I watched a bit of My little pony to get some inspiration, and I was like, Power of friendship. As a former VGC addict I was like why don't I make this a VGC support mon, and the best way to do that would be Tailwind. So here's my Mega-Rapidash.

Mega-Rapidash
Typing:Fire
Ability:Updraft(Liable to Change)
When Mega-Rapidash Mega Evolves, or switches in, it summons the effects of Tailwind on its side of the battlefield, these effects stay until Mega-Rapidash Leaves the field, or faints.

HP:65
Attack:100->115(+15)
Defense:70->125(+55)
Special Attack:80->140(+60)
Special Defense:80->120(+40)
Speed:105->35(-70)
Added Moves:Helping Hand
This is just to give it a bit more utility to act as support, lots of pokemon without hands learn it so its not that weird either.


Description: Okay this one is big, Updraft would allow rapidash insane speed, and I mean insane if it wasn't lowered massively. So I gave it the speed tier to speedtie Max Speed Jolly Mega Krook, With Jolly and Max investment, which is the 119 Base Stat, The negative 70 gave me 170 to spread around, and make it reasonably bulky for its atrocious hp stat. and also to give it some better offenses, you might be thinking 140 Special Attack is insane but Rapidash gets 2 special moves that aren't fire or normal and those moves are Scorching Sands and Solar Beam. In VGC the bulk combined with the Updraft boosts makes it a great mon to have on your side, offering near perfect speed control. And with the gain of helping hand it can be a good partner to any mon slow or fast. Mega-Rapidash isn't bad in singles either, with this level of speed coupled with swords dance it can also be a decent physical wallbreaker but its outclassed in this role by quite a few mons. The gains to its defenses are massive, and really help it to survive a few hits and with morning sun recovery it can survive another few. Its main offense in VGC is Stab Heat Wave, off of 140 Special attack it can do a lot of damage but its not the best offensive threat.
Its main use is speed control but its not too bad at a lot of other roles as well. And in singles it is still a respectable pokemon. :]
:rapidash: Mega-Rapidash

Fire/Electric

Ability: Victory Star

Stats:

HP:65
ATK:105 (+5)
DEF:90 (+20)
SPA:130 (+50)
SPD:95 (+15)
SPE:115 (+10)
BST:

New Moves:
-Triple Axel
-Discharge
-Extreme Speed

Description: Pegasus was said to carry Zeus' Thunder during battle, so I did just that and gave it an Electric type.
Jokes aside, Mega-Rapidash would work as a mixed attacker with incredible coverage, it has Fire Blast, Megahorn, High Horsepower, Play Rough and its new moves, Triple Axel and Discharge, most of which are boosted by Victory Star, meaning you can actually use these moves in a more consistent way, and then, it also gets Extreme Speed as an amazing priority move.
Other than that, it's just your standard mega-wallbreaker.
:ss/rapidash:

Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire
ability:
Solar Battery : If sunny day is active, this pokemon speed is x1.5

Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 135 (+35)
Defense: 85 (+25)
Sp.Attack: 90 (+10)
Sp.Def: 100 (+20)
Speed: 115 (+10)
:bw/rapidash:
Mega-Rapidash
Type:Fire
Ability:Racing Spirit(On switch-in, if the opponent is faster, the Speed is increased by 1 until this Pokemon uses a damage move. The Choice Scarf is included when calculating.)
New Moves:Dazzling Gleam, Discharge
HP 65

Attack 130(+30)
Defense 90(+20)
Sp. Atk 120(+40)
Sp. Def 100(+20)
Speed 95(-10)

Supporter or revenge-killer. Your choice. Ability is for Pokedex Descirption in Yellow, "Just loves to run. If it sees something faster than itself, it will give chase at top speed."
mega_rapidash_by_peegeray-d7wk9wj-png.325423

(c) peegeray and Robbin a.k.a. The Shiny Luxray

:Rapidash: Mega Rapidash
New Ability
: Levitate
Type: Fire/Steel
New stats:
HP: 65 -> 65
Attack: 100 -> 140 (+40)
Defense: 70 -> 100 (+30)
Special Attack: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Special Defense: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Speed: 105 -> 115 (+10)
BST: 500-> 600

New moves: None
Description: Mega Rapidash, the Flaming Winged Horse Pokemon. Rapidash not only gains the ability to fly, but it also gains armor upon Mega Evolution, allowing it to survive dangerous battles unscathed. Its ability to fly even with armor is a testament on how strong its wings are.

Levitate gives it the Winged-Horse flavor without adding the Flying-type, allowing it to focus on its defensive merits by virtue of its Steel-typing. Steel-typing gives it loads of resistances to help it set up a Swords Dance, while also giving it STAB on Smart Strike or Iron Tail (depending on whether you prefer accuracy or power) to hit Fairies such as Clefable hard. Levitate also allows Mega Rapidash to pivot in on Ground-type moves that it would have been scared of.
:Rapidash:

Mega Rapidash
New Ability: Defeatist
Type: Fire
New stats: HP:65
Attack:100 (+50) 150
Defense:70
Special Attack:80(+30) 120
Special Defense:80
Speed:105 (+20) 125
(BST) 500 (+100)600
New moves: Heat Crash,Horn Leech,Burn Up,Drill Run
Mega Rapidash
Fire Type
Ability: Emergency Exit: The Pokémon, sensing danger, switches out when its HP becomes half or less.
New Moves: Horn Leech, Pain Split, Submission
HP: 65
ATK: 125(+25)
DEF: 85(+15)
SP.ATK: 105(+25)
SP.DEF: 95(+15)
SPEED: 125(+20)
Mega Rapidash may be one to charge directly into battle, even if it damages itself in the process, but it also knows when to retreat, so it can gain distance and time... Until it charges right back in.
Recoil moves many times are used as a way to charge into whatever is in front of you, regardless of the consequences, simply hitting your opponents as hard as you can, even if you lose some HP, too. Well, Mega Rapidash may be somewhat of a hothead, but it does know when to back off, and that can make it an excellent user of recoil moves. A Pokémon with Emergency Exit will retreat the moment its HP reaches half, and, paired with powerful moves that deal damage to the user, that means you can manipulate when you will switch out while also doing high amounts of damage. Of course, we wouldn't like that to be a one use thing. Not only rapidash already learns Morning Sun, it would also be able to learn Horn Leech, which means that it can also heal itself while doing damage. That said, it can manipulate its own HP, deal damage, and pivot, all at the same time, if used correctly.
So, if that sounds appealing at all, just go for it! Just don't get too Reckless!

ezgif-1-54033f2207c6-gif.325553
Let's take just another look at Rapidash, shall we? What do we have here, exactly?
We have a Pokémon with 65 HP, a weakness to Rock, a high attack, and a high speed. It can use a powerful move, while dealing damage to itself, and potentially switching out by doing so, due to the low HP. It can also switch out, potentially after moving, by being attacked, due to Emergency Exit, paired up with a high speed. It might be clear by now that this Pokémon enjoys a lot at least one support in its team, to remove the hazards, and maybe set up screens, or wish. Maybe sun, too, to boost it's Fire Type damage, and increase its recovery, that may lie in Morning Sun. Emergency Exit not only gives it easy access to finishers that may snowball, such as Moxie or Beast Boost users, but also to said supports, as well as some wider control of the battlefield. Emergency Exit is a very interesting ability, and, despite i love how Golisopod uses it, as a bulky avenger and being able to tank while switching into its allies, i think that a fast user who can manipulate its HP with relative ease might be really interesting. It's a way to explore the ability as we haven't seen before, and one i believe is a fresh, fun way to do so. This role suits Rapidash so well, also, due to it getting Run Away in base form, which reinforces the idea of it fleeing when needed, and it's already a good user of recoil moves, who also has access to recovery. These points, paired with a team around it, brings us a somewhat new, aggressive but careful playstyle, that i honestly hope to become true in the future. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
MEGA RAPIDASH
:ss/rapidash:
FIRE
Ability: Charred
(Burn version of merciless: burn makes this mon always crit)
HP: 65
ATTACK: 100
DEFENCE: 105 (+35)
SPA: 110 (+30)
SPDEF: 70
140 (+35)

moves: lava plume

DESCRIPTION: As a result of mega evolution, the flames on the outside decrease but MEGA RAPIDASH stores all of its flame power in its horn. When it uses a fire type move it is said that its fire is 5x stronger

OVERALL:
rapidash being a force to be dealt with (and a great counter to volt turn)(also no mudstale bcz its my fav mon and i wanna be amazed by everyone else)
Mega-Rapidash @ Rapidashite
Type: Fire
Ability: Competitive

Stats:
HP: 65
ATK: 100 -> 100
DEF: 70 ->70
SPA: 80 -> 130 (+50)
SPD: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPE: 105 -> 135 (+30)
BST: 600
New Moves: None

At first, I wasn’t sure what ability to give to Mega Rapidash, but then I came across some Pokedex entries for Rapidash.
Very competitive, this Pokémon will chase anything that moves fast in the hopes of racing it.”
“Just loves to run. If it sees something faster than itself, it will give chase at top speed.”
Unable to restrain itself from running after fast trains or cars. Capable of reaching 150 mph at full speed.”
Seems like this horse is very competitive, eh? So, it seemed like a good match. I made it a special attacker so it could take advantage of the ability. It has a high speed and special attack stat with an ability that can raise its special attack, so it may seem a little much, but with Morning Sun as its only recovery (which it most likely wouldn’t run), a stealth rock weakness, and having very low defense, it can be eventually worn down and eventually KO’d, by anything from Bisharp’s Sucker Punch
252+ Atk Black Glasses Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rapidash: 195-231 (71.9 - 85.2%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Black Glasses Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rapidash: 196-232 (58.6 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
from Rillaboom’s Grassy Glide
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 159-188 (47.6 - 56.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 136-162 (50.1 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery
after being worn down a bit. However, if it gets a Competitive boost from switching into a Defog or something, especially from one of the most popular Defoggers right now, Corviknight. However, it has to be careful, because if it switches into a Brave Bird instead, it can take a lot of damage. 0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rapidash: 153-181 (56.4 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO. However, at +2 special attack, it can get a clean KO even with Corviknight at full HP, and still has a chance to KO a fully specially invested Corviknight with no special attack investment. It has nice coverage in Fire/Ground (Scorching Sands)/Grass (if you are running Solar Beam)/Hidden Power.
:ss/rapidash:

New Ability: Blazing: This pokemon's fire type moves gain +1 priority, but their base power is multiplied by 3/5.
Type: Fire

New stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 100 ->120 (+20)
Defense: 70 ->90 (+20)
Special Attack: 80 ->100 (+20)
Special Defense: 80 ->90 (+10)
Speed: 105 ->135 (+30)
(BST) 500 ->600

New moves
: Burn Up
Description: Having more energy, its flames glow brighter.
:rapidash: Mega Rapidash :rb/Rapidash:

New Ability: Fiery Spin
(This pokemon switch-out after using a Fire move.)

Type : Fire

New Stats:
HP: 65
Attack: 100 -> 120 (+20)
Defense: 70 -> 90 (+20)
Special Attack: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Special Defense: 80 -> 100 (+20)
Speed: 105 -> 135 (+30)
(BST) : 600 (+100)

New Moves : (None)

Description : This pokemon is definitely a pivoting fire unicorn.
Why is this interesting ?
Overheat : Hit-and-run into everything you want.
Wisp : Burn a Physical foe, switch into what you want.
Mystical Fire : Lower SpA of Special Attacker foe, switch into what you want.
Sunny Day : Set up Sunny Day into Venusaur/other pokemon that will benefits the Sun.
:Rapidash: Mega Rapidash
Ability: Bridle Veil -
If this pokemon is hit with a steel type attack, all ally pokemon are cured of a status condition. Damage immune (credits to Hematite for the awfully perfect name).
Type: Fire/Fairy
HP: 65
ATK: 100 -> 126 (+26)
DEF: 70 -> 100 (+30)
SPA: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPD: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPE: 105 -> 109 (+4)
BST: 600
New Moves: Play Rough, Dazzling Gleam, Heal Bell, Misty Terrain, Misty Explosion, Retaliate
Set Description/Potential Edits: Coming soon? Coming soon (remind me).
84a69bc7-9547-437a-b006-053988f9a030-png.327681

Mega Rapidash
Type: Fire
Ability: Flash Fire
New Moves: Focus Blast, Grass Knot, U-turn
Stats:
Hp: 60
Atk: 90 (Swap SpA +10)
Def: 110 (+40)
SpA: 120 (Swap Atk +20)
SpD: 105 (+25)
Spe: 110 (+5)
BST: 600 (+100)
For this mega, I avoided changing too much about its base form aside from prioritizing its special attack and defense.

I chose to make its defense stat higher so it could fair well against physically offensive Steel, Grass, Ice, and Bug types, which is what this Mega Rapidash's main offensive purpose would serve. :Rillaboom: :Corviknight: :Kartana: :Excadrill: :Ferrothorn: :Bisharp: :Jirachi: :Buzzwole: :Weavile:

(Adding stats in defense also made it easier to not over-buff any of its stats)

Its new ability Flash Fire would also allow it to take on new utility based capabilities. In conjunction with its added move U-turn, Mega Rapidash would be able to take on a more pivot based play style.

As an example, I took a closer look at Rillaboom :Rillaboom: and Corviknight :Corviknight: who are currently really strong in the meta: Without allocating a portion of its mega stat boost to defense, Rapidash would get OHKO’d by Wood Hammer from a choiced Rillaboom (+252 Atk) on Grassy Terrain (or hazard + Wood Hammer for non +Atk Rillaboom), and be 2HKO’d by Brave Bird from a Corviknight with no attack investment. (Although Rillaboom hits everything hard, for this Mega Rapidash, I wanted it to be able to at least withstand one of its hits!)

Old Defensive Calcs:
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash: 154-183 (56.8 - 67.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO :Corviknight:
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 273-321 (100.7 - 118.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO :Rillaboom:

New Defensive Calcs:
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash: 106-126 (39.1 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO :Corviknight:
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Rapidash in Grassy Terrain: 187-221 (69 - 81.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO :Rillaboom:

Simple Counter Examples: With its new speed stat, it would still be outsped by common offensive water types like Greninja, and without access to very strong special electric/ground/psychic type moves, it could be walled well by Toxapex and other bulky water types. Bulky dragon types would also fair well against Mega Rapidash.

Mixed Attacking Potential: With its new 80 attack stat and inability to be burned, it would still hold potential to be a mixed attacker with SD and its decent physical move-pool. Keeping its attack fairly low helps balance it. I personally wasn’t as interested in making it a completely mixed attacker since the last two slates gave us two mixed attacking fire type megas. (Which isn't bad!)

Utility Potential: With its boosted defenses and great utility move-pool and , it has potential to take on an offensive utility role in a team.

New moves:
Focus Blast – Having a new form of special coverage would suit it well, but it isn't inherently necessary for it to function well.
Grass Knot – Other than Solar Beam/Solar Blade which are charge moves, it doesn't have other grass type coverage.
U-turn – This would allow it to pivot from Pokémon that wall/counter it. With its limited special move coverage, I think it would be a great addition.

Notable Special Moves: Overheat, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Heat Wave (Doubles), Scorching Sands, Solar Beam
Notable Physical Moves: Flare Blitz, Wild Charge, High Horsepower, Play Rough, Poison Jab, Swords Dance
Notable Utility Moves: Mystical Fire, Morning Sun, Toxic, Substitute, Rest, Sleep Talk, Ally Switch (Doubles)
(Shout out to Ink for the Flash Fire suggestion!)
Thank you for taking the time to read!!
Mega rapidash
type: fire/ghost
ability: scorching blood
upon getting a ko, traps its replacement. if it does switch out when rapidash isnt on the field, it gets burned.
stats:
hp: 65
attack: 80 (swapped with spatk)
def: 60 (-10)
spatk: 140 (swapped with atk, +40)
spdef: 115 (+35)
speed: 140 (+35)
bst: 600
New moves: shadow ball, shadow sneak, foul play, haze
"Upon mega evolution, this pokemon's desire to win turned sour, as it uses any measure, no matter how gruesome, to win a race. when one murdered its own trainer so it could win a race , Mega Rapidash was banned from pokemon races, and the stone itself was soon banned from existence altogether, now being only illegally sold in the black market.
edit: uh... added harmony96369's Rapidash after it was fixed! interesting flavor decisions o.o'
 
Last edited:
:zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika
Mega Zebstrika
zebstrika.gif


Type: Electric
Ability: Static

HP: 75 (+0)
Attack: 100 -> 132 (+32)
Defense: 63 -> 113 (+50)
Sp Atk: 80 -> 90 (+10)
Sp Def: 63 -> 71 (+8)
Speed: 116 -> 116 (+0)

New moves:
Flareblitz; Jump Kick
:zebstrika:

Mega Zebstrika
thunder-horse-gif.324602

Type:
1616283446872-png.324598
1616283452438-png.324599

Ability: Motor Drive/Sap Sipper/Lightning Rod --> Power Link (In your first two move slots dark and electric damaging moves are linked meaning one is used after the other. (1st then 2nd) You can also link electric with electric or dark with dark. Damage for each move is reduced to 1/2. Linked moves will always move at the priority of the first move.)

Stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 130 (+30)
Defense: 63 -> 63 (+0)
SpAtk: 80 -> 130 (+50)
SpDef: 63 -> 63 +(0)
Speed: 116 -> 136 (+20)

New Moves: High Horsepower, Rising Voltage, Dark Pulse, Assurance, Zing Zap, Work Up, Sucker Punch, Knock Off

Description: When zebstrika mega evolves it is capable of using its anger and electricity in sync. Rather than uncontrollably unleashing its rage, it will channel that rage into one destructive thunderbolt. It is also able to let loose, and fuel itself with more enragement to unleash destructive blows
Reusing the same ability from Toxtricity-Amped except with dark moves, its still pretty cool though. Anyway its black entry reads: "This ill-tempered Pokémon is dangerous because when it's angry, it shoots lightning from its mane in all directions."

So you could put it like this. Anger is associated with wrath, wrath is a sin. Anything that gets angry is likely to do bad things, which mischief or violence is a theme you see in dark typed pokemon. Not all of them but a few. So yeah I'm not just saying dark because Zebstrika is black, I'm saying dark because its ill-tempered, and what comes with that anger is thunder. Dark? Electric? yeah I can just slap em together.

Now what's cool about linking two moves is the infinite possibilities created from it. Do you want me to go through a list? I don't so I'll provide examples. Assurance. Any move linked with assurance works, you could even volt out and then hit your target afterwards. Dark Pulse + Zing Zap allows you to flinch spam your opponent, Pursuit + Volt Switch allows you to hit 2 targets at once basically. There's a lot you can do here, maybe not as much as toxtricity could but you could even try getting paralysis off of Discharge, and then going for Dark Pulse next to paraflinch. Rising Voltage + Assurance to deal a ton of damage. Dark Pulse + Volt Switch. you'd be assuming to flinch a lot with Dark Pulse, and more so reliant on it too. But wait, there's more! You can use the same type to link up. So Discharge + Volt Switch still works, Pursuit and Dark Pulse still works.

Sucker punch is also really cool because loosing the mindgame allows you to pivot into a pokemon with magic bounce, and since sucker punch goes first you're given a priority volt switch no matter what. To compensate for Zebstrika being mixed, it now has work up. Swords Dance and Nasty Plot would be too strong here, and work up increases both of those by a manageable amount. It's not amazing but its still great.

There's a lot you can do, and this also allows zeb to trap its opponents more fluently while dishing out good amounts of damage. Maybe its not that competitive but it still can be worth using.
:ss/zebstrika:
Ability: Thunder Conductor Ability Description: Electric Moves will hit all the Pokémon on the field (not the user) Types: Electric, Steel Stats: 75 / 130 (+30)/63/135(+55)/63/131(+15) Moves: Iron Head, Flash Cannon, Iron Tail, Rising Voltage Description: Based on its dex entry from White, W2, X and Omega Ruby: "When this ill-tempered Pokémon runs wild, it shoots lightning from its mane in all directions." here it is! Thunder Conductor can be a nice ability to use in m4a vgc, with lightning rod, and another things. This is a mega more focused for doubles but i hope it is a nice idea! Tho, some types of metal are electric conductors, so that's why it's electric/steel.
:zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
New Ability: Lightning Rod/Motor Drive/Sap Sipper --> Tempestuous (a pre-existing custom ability designed for Mega Jolteon: Gains the effect of Charge (+1 Special Defense, x2 power on Electric moves next turn) when replacing a fainted ally.)
New Typing
: Electric (unchanged)

New Stats:
HP: 75
ATK: 100 --> 140 (+40)
DEF
: 63 --> 123 (+60)
SPA
: 80 (--)
SPD
: 63 (--)
SPE
: 116 (--)

New Moves
: Horn Leech, Thunderous Kick

Desc: Tempestuous is a really cool ability that's on what is basically my favorite Mega Evolution in the entire mod. For Zebstrika, I thought it would be really interesting to explore some potential different applications of this ability, for a Mega that would end up using it in a significantly different way than Jolteon does!

First of all, there's the matter of boosting. While Jolteon was given access to Calm Mind for its Mega, Zebstrika doesn't get any boosting moves, and I haven't given it any here. This is because it has several other interesting options to abuse the switches caused by the threat of a x2 power Wild Charge, as well as helping to differentiate it more from Tempestuous' original user.

The first main thing a Physical abuser of Tempestuous can take advantage of that a Special one cannot is Pursuit, dealing some chip to something that's running away from potentially getting revenged by a double power Wild Charge. The second thing to keep in mind is the addition of Thunderous Kick, which softens up potential switch-ins and allows it to keep the pressure up against bulkier opponents. Finally, the addition of Horn Leech gives it some nice coverage and longevity, especially helping it heal off Wild Charge chip and making Ground-type switch-ins a bit less of an immediate "correct answer".

Stats-wise, it's got very respectable physical bulk, which in combination with the +1 Special Defense it gets off Tempestuous when revenging adds together to a fast, unique bulky wallbreaker that hopefully wont be as disappointing as usual when i think i have a good idea!
1616290670748-png.324625

Zebstrika-Mega
Electric
Lightning Rod/Motor Drive/Sap Sipper-> Tough Claws
Stats
HP: 75
Atk: 100->
125 (+25)
Def: 63-> 93 (+30)
SpA: 80-> 105 (+25)
SpD: 63
Spe: 116->
136 (+20)
New Moves: +Blaze Kick, High Horsepower

Description: A bit odd at first glance, but hooves and claws are technically different forms of the same thing (nails). Plus, I figured letting it have better STAB and some boosted coverage would be the perfect way to finally let it serve as the physical Electric type it was meant to be. Blaze Kick and High Horsepower, both natural choices flavorwise (as would Thunderous Kick, but I don't wanna be banished to the Shadow Realm so no to that), allow it to kick its way through virtually every Steel type, as well as tearing through Corviknight and Toxapex without wearing itself down with recoil. With those new kicks and Wild Charge as set-standards, Zebstrika has a surprising variety of options for its fourth slot, including Volt Switch to keep up momentum (probably best option), Low Kick to slice through Ttar, Pursuit to pick off frailer mons or even HP if you really want to smack some otherwise reliable defensive answers. Additionally, Sap Sipper pre-Mega allows you one free switch-in to Rillaboom, allowing you to force it out with +1 Blaze Kick. That said, Zeb isn't too bulky, so if you fall short on the KO it might very well be curtains, especially against special attackers. Without HP it falls short against Grounds like Hippowdon and Lando, and even with HP Grass it can't 2HKO Swampert without significant investment. Still, so long as you can predict right, many meta staples simply can't stand up to its lightning-fast kicks.
:zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
New Ability
: Reckless
Type: Electric

New stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 135 (+35)
Defense: 73 (+10)
Special Attack: 115 (+35)
Special Defense: 63
Speed: 136 (+20)
(597 BST)

New moves: Flare Blitz
Description:
When you look at Zebstrika's stat spread, you'd think it'd be a physical attacker. Matter of fact, it's actually largely a special attacker despite having lower special attack. While it's justifiable (given Zebstrika's better special coverage), I've always found it quite odd that this pokemon doesn't utilize its otherwise decent attack.

So, how about we make it utilize that physical attack?

Now, I know what you're thinking: "War Incarnate, why would I use Mega Raichu over Mega Zebstrika?". Well, two things. First, you hit harder than Mega Raichu does on both the physical and special side (125 versus 135, and 110 vs. 115 hint hint). Granted, the second part isn't particularly important, but still, you hit overall harder. You're also faster than Mega Raichu, which means you have a lot more opportunities to hit your opponent in their face with attacks of all sorts, Reckless-boosted or not.

While at first, this sounds like something that'd tear the meta apart, Zebstrika still has paltry bulk, and while it's enough to live most priority attacks, against faster targets (either via a higher natural speed tier, the use of a Choice Scarf, or speed boosts on the opponent), Zebstrika usually won't be able to last long. Since you're relying on recoil moves as your main source of damage output, you are taking a LOT and I mean A LOT of damage in exchange for such power, further digging into the issue of very poor longevity.
:Zebstrika:
Rock Head
HP 75
Attack 140
Defense 78
Special Attack 90
Special Defense 78
Speed 136
Flare Blitz - obvious synergy and Zebstrika already has fire coverage in Flame Charge and Overheat
Zebstrika is a cool physical electric attacker but almost exclusively has access to recoil moves as its physical damage options, but doesn't really have the tankiness to be able to function with the recoil damage. This is now fixed.
:sm/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Type: Electric/Dark
Ability: Speed Boost
Stats:
  • HP: 75 (+0)
  • Attack: 130 (+30)
  • Defense: 83 (+20)
  • Special Attack: 100 (+20)
  • Special Defense: 83 (+20)
  • Speed: 126 (+10)
New Moves: Zing Zap, Throat Chop, Dark Pulse, Flare Blitz

A solid physical sweeper with a great STAB combo and an excellent ability in Speed Boost. Zing Zap is a much better physical Electric move, Throat Chop and Dark Pulse are new STABs, and Flare Blitz just seems like a move Zebstrika should already learn.
:ss/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Type:
Ion Deluge - Electric-type

Ability: Galvanize
Stats
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 135 (+35)
Defense: 63 -> 83 (+20)
Special Attack: 80 -> 85 (+5)
Special Defense: 63 -> 83 (+20)
Speed: 116 -> 136 (+20)
New Moves: Double Edge, Body Slam, Thunderous Kick
Description: Everyone else solved the "No good physical electric moves" problem with Zing Zap or making it a special attacker, so I did something else.
"Poachers that wander into fields guarded by Zebstika see a black and white flash, before having their hearts paralyzed in a matter of seconds."
Mega Zebstrika
zebstrika.gif

electric.gif

Ability - Lightning Rod, Motor Drive; Sap Sipper ➝ Triboelectric Gallop (Upon hitting the foe with a contact move, the user gains a boost to its Electric-type moves of 1.2x until it switches out.)

HP - 75 ➝ 75
Atk
- 100 ➝ 130 (+30)
Def - 63 ➝ 80 (+17)
SpA - 80 ➝ 87 (+7)
SpD - 63 ➝ 80 (+17)
Spe - 116 ➝ 145 (+29)
BST - 497 ➝ 597 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Swords Dance, High Horsepower, Thunderous Kick
Competitive Corner - Mega Zebstrika is very similar to Mega Rapidash, having wonderful coverage and being even faster, but at the cost of a slightly weaker choice in STAB, as well as the fact that it's STAB can very often be nullified by common Ground-types and other Electric immunities, making it's ability a tad more situational than Rapidash's. Still a really strong choice!

Rapidash & Zebstrika Flavor Corner - Given both Rapidash and Zebstrika draw inspiration from Helios's horses (more specifically, Rapidash from Pyrois ("the fiery one"), Eous ("he who turns the sky"), Aethon ("blazing"), and Phlegon ("burning") and Zebstrika from Bronte ("Thunder") and Sterope ("Lightning")), I thought making them a duo of sorts would be a cool idea! Hence the similar statlines and abilities. The abilities more specifically are drawn from the idea that friction can be used both to create fire, as well as transmit electricity!! And given these two would spend the day galloping around the sky, they surely would create a lot of friction! Also can I just point out how stupid it is that Zebstrika doesn't get High Horsepower?? Like not only is it a horse, but the "Horsepower" also works as a brilliant pun!! Shame GameFreak didn't catch it :|
:bw/zebstrika:

ElectricIC_Big.png


Ability: Soot Guard (inkbug's custom ability; incoming damage that hits neutrally is reduced by 25%.)

HP: 76
Atk: 110 (+10)
Def: 83 (+20)
SpA: 80
SpD: 93 (+30)
Spe: 156 (+40)

New Moves: U-turn, Synthesis, Reflect Type

Reasoning
:

Hematite, ink, and I are all doing a grand trinity of custom abilities and this is my contribution to that cycle, featuring ink's fantastic Soot Guard ability! Basically, I noticed that Zebstrika's pure Electric-type is a really good candidate for the ability, and we can very effectively create an interesting offensive pivot out of that with a greater impunity to chip damage, a phenomenal speed tier, and access to solid coverage options. I designed this sub around solar panel flavor, which is sort of where Soot Guard, Synthesis, and Reflect Type manifest. The latter two are a bit finnicky flavorfully but I think this concept manifests enough in its base form to justify.

I gave it U-turn to let it more consistently pivot, also being a strong option to batter Grass-type Pokemon that may want to swap into its Electric-type STAB. Synthesis in my eyes was the most reasonable recovery option to give Zebstrika given the whole "solar panel" flavor going on. For the same reason, I thought it'd be super fun to have a Soot Guard user with access to Reflect Type, a fascinating move that changes your type to your opponent's on use. This makes it an incredibly adaptable offensive Pokemon, letting it check a surprising amount of offensive Pokemon in tandem with this and Soot Guard and essentially choose what Pokemon it wants to gain the momentum advantage against.
:xy/Zebstrika:

Zebstrika-Mega @ Zebstrikite

Ability: Kinetic Energizer – This pokemon’s Electric-Type moves use its speed stat as its attacking stat. Does not factor speed boosts.

Stats:

Hp: 75

Atk: 125 (+25)

Def: 63

Spa: 105 (+25)

Spd: 83 (+20)

Spe: 146 (+30)



New Moves: (Bold = Notable) Work Up



Flavor: It’s dex entry states: “They have lightning-like movements. When Zebstrika run at full speed, the sound of thunder reverberates”. I took this to mean it breaks the sound barrier, and the sound of thunder was a sonic boom (that’s actually dangerous af). The ability comes from this, as you will be producing a lot of kinetic energy when breaking the sound barrier.
Comeptitive: SPEEEEEEEEED
Seriously though, speed is the focus of this mon, even more than rapidash, who in my entry is more focused on recoil (Spoilers?). To break the sound barrier, you must travel at ~770 mph, opposed to rapidash’s 150 mph. It’s ability makes speed it is most important stat. Agility still works as a boosting move cause electro ball, which will be an extremely powerful stab option as it is indirectly boosted by agility. Work up provides manageable setup as well. For flaws, Unlike mega araquanid, it’s most powerful attacks have something immune to it. It’s also... not bulky. And unmatched speed still folds to priority, so it’s prone to getting revenge killed, and is killed by stuff with sashes. (no extreme speed for balancing, even though it would make sense flavor wise). Checks and Counters? Any pokemon with an electric immunity (or resistance if it’s bulky enough) not 4x weak to grass or ice. Ferrothorn can switch into electric attacks and hidden power, but crumples to overheat. However, the best check might be specially defensive/assault vest rillaboom. Bulky, resists electric, and if Zebstrika doesn’t use hp ice/overheat/signal beam on the switch, it’ll die to grassy glide. While this will probably outclass regieleki offensively, regieleki still has team support in rapid spin, dual screens, the ability to run an item, and still being much faster, with a similar attacking stat thanks to transistor.
(relevant clarification: the way this Ability works is consistent with Body of Water! this is as it should be C:)
:SS/Zebstrika:
Zebstrika-Mega
Ability:High Voltage

If this pokemon use an electric move, raise its speed by one.
Stats:75/156(+56)/90(+27)/80/90(+27)/106(-10)
New moves
:Flare Blitz, High Horsepower, Play Rough
Desc:Nothing new here, just lower its speed to buff its atk and both its def which make it bad
zebstrika-png.325867
zebstrika.png
Zebstrika-Mega @ Zebstrikite
New Typing:
ElectricIC_Big.png
/
DarkIC_Big.png

New Ability: Bug Zapper = While this Pokémon is active, if any Pokémon uses a Bug-type move, it is prevented from executing and the attacker loses 1/4 of its maximum HP, rounded half up. [EDIT #2: Previously named "Buzz Off!", but since inkbug apparently asked nicely, it is now named Bug Zapper.]

NEW STATS
HP:
075
Atk: 100 => 080 (switched with SpA)
Def: 065 => 080 (+15)
SpA: 080 => 128 (switched with Atk and +28)
SpD: 063 => 090 (+27)
Spe: 116 => 146 (+30)
(BST: 497 => 597)

Movepool Additions: Dark Pulse**, Knock Off, Parting Shot, Rising Voltage, Work Up
[**I admittedly sort of want to give it Fiery Wrath, but I also don't want to push its power and take a move currently exclusive to a legendary mon despite it fitting the jist of this submission, especially since I ended up letting Zebstrika-Mega still have Work Up--down from initial Nasty Plot]

Pokédex Description: "Mega Evolution has made Zebstrika more ill-tempered than ever, with the brunt of its thunderous anger being directed towards bug Pokémon for reasons not yet known."

This originally had a different yet still Bug-related ability, but then I realized that if this somehow won, the more general ability would be locked behind a rather specific name that couldn't be easily used by other mons in this mod if other people wanted to use it. As such, I decided to change things a bit and ended up effectively ripping off Sawsbuck-Spring-Mega's Spring Fever ability as I focused more on Zebstrika's rage. Whoops? (I guess I'll credit ViZar here for thinking up that ability before I forget again. So, uh, thanks, ViZar.)

Flavor-wise: [Insert "dark horse" puns here.] In continuing my usual "look at the Pokédex entries I usually completely ignore and don't take seriously since no one should" methodology for these, I was surprised to see that half of Zebstrika's entries focus on how ill-tempered it is. That's generally something you see with only Dark types or Fire types from what I've noticed--maybe some of the more aggressive Fighting types. Given that becoming Fire would both be even more random than becoming Dark as well as step on regular Rapidash, who is also in this very same slate, I decided to go with Dark (since I also didn't want to go Fighting). Rapidash also being in this slate is part of why I decided to make Zebstrika more special attack-oriented (which is part of why I dind't go Fighting either) even though that required swapping its attacking stats.

As for the seemingly random anti-Bug ability, when looking up the actual real-life animal of the zebra, I was reminded that of the many theories for why they are striped in the first place, the one that seems to have most consensus still is that the stripes are to confuse and ward away flies. Between the bad temper angle, even this mod surprisingly having no anti-Bug ability as of yet, and personally being tired of pivot moves, of which U-Turn and Volt-Switch were the original versions of (ignoring Baton Pass), the ability and the name came to me rather quickly after I put my original ability aside.

Movepool-wise: I guess I should start by addressing the hypocrisy of saying I'm tired of pivot moves only to give two mons in a row in one slate pivoting moves--technically three since last slate ended with my Empoleon-Mega getting Flip Turn. Here Parting Shot seems both on flavor and decently fine, especially since I gave Zebstrika Work Up instead of Nasty Plot as I was initially going to do. The hypocrisy is admittedly a bit amusing in this instance, but I actually wouldn't have indulged in it at all if Zebstrika didn't already get Volt Switch anyway. Parting Shot also seems fine given Soundproof Kommo-o already seemed at least somewhat viable in the current Megas for All meta from what little I've played of it via both tours over the last weekend, especially with all of the Acid Rock lurking around thanks to Toxtricity-Lowkey-Mega being so good--we did it guys! (There's also just something very amusing to me about the mental image a zebra cursing you out as it prances it off to send someone else to destroy you.)

As for its other moves, Dark Pulse is needed (special) STAB since otherwise it would be stuck with only Hidden Power Dark and, of all things, Pursuit and Snatch. Knock Off is also for STAB but mostly for screwing over Blissey and Chansey due to lowered Atk. Rising Voltage is just something that all Electric mons get now, though getting that is part of the reason why I ended up making sure its SpA was below 130 even though it doesn't automatically set Electric Terrain. The other part for this and for getting Work Up instead of Nasty Plot is just because of how high its Speed ended up being due to not wanting to dump that much into bulk--it's already bulkier than Manectric-Mega now, which is also amusing. (I just wanted to stick to Zeraora while also not obviating Boltund-Mega's speed tier, so they tie and Boltund-Mega kind of beats this Zebstrika-Mega amusingly due to Fairy type.) [/amusing]

Mechanic-wise: The dark elephant in the room is what becoming part-Dark does for this both positively and negatively--I swear that's not an electricity pun. When it comes to the positives of Dark typing for Zebstrika-Mega, it's actually the third most effective typing combination with Electric as far as (neutral) coverage goes. The only types better at complimenting Electric are Ice, which has horrific weaknesses and a singular crappy resist, and Ghost, which would be weird to randomly add and likely screw over Rotom-Mega down the road with this becoming a special attacker. (For the record, I'm not concerned with screwing over Morpeko-Mega down the road just because that seems likely to end up a physical attacker since Aura Wheel is physical.)

With Dark type, unlike with Ice or Ghost, you get actual resists while still getting at least one immunity even ignoring Buzz Off! effectively making this Zebstrika-Mega also immune to Bug. Being newly resist to Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch is pretty nice when you're also immune to First Impression (from things other than Haxorus) even you normally wouldn't be, even if becoming weak to Mach Punch is an unfortuante downside. In a weird way, however, becoming Dark makes this easy to place on Psychic Terrain teams as well, which stops Mach Punch dead for you anyway as well helps Zebstrika-Mega's teammates bully Fighting types.

Most importantly, however, as noted above Zebstrika is now resistant to both of the most common pivot moves while also getting STAB on moves that super effectively hit the most common Flip Turn-or-Teleport-using mons. This leaves only opposing Parting Shot users as the mons that can most readily pivot out against it "safely".

Still, it's not like it's all sunshine since even with Buzz Off! activate, this Zebstrika-Mega is now weak to Fighting and Fairy moves in addition to Ground and all hazards and all damaging weather. That's not great, especially with no recovery and with the unfortunate tendency of many Fairy types to have great SpD. At least you can pivot out of them easily, but it's still annoying for Zebstrika-Mega.

Finally, the most subtle downside to this Zebstrika-Mega is that it can't use Signal Beam (or Hidden Power Bug) to hit the relatively few mons that do still resist its new STAB combination--largely other Dark types--since Buzz Off! will activate on itself too. Most of those mons are hit reasonably well by Overheat, but it's certainly still a downside, especially when Hydreigon and Kommo-o are exceptions to that--not that Signal Beam hits Kommo-o well either.
:ss/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Type:
Electric
Ability: Contrary
Moves: Rising Voltage, Burning Jealousy, Lash Out
Stats:
HP: 75​
Att: 125 (+25)
Def: 93 (+30)
SpA: 90 (+10)
SpD: 93 (+30)
Spe: 121 (+5)

I almost want to say that Mega Zebstrika is white with black stripes instead of its usual black with white stripes, but that just feels morally wrong, so all I'm gonna say to justify Contrary is that zebras are real pieces of shit who only hang out in groups because it's pragmatic (and also their black and white color scheme is contrary to itself in a way, like contrast and whatnot).

Anyway, balancing this mega was very scary. Serperior has an incredibly mediocre base Special Attack, a terrible offensive typing, and absolutely dogshit coverage, and yet it still manages to be a terrifying offensive threat just due to the sheer power of Contrary Leaf Storm. And here I was trying to put Contrary on a Pokemon who's naturally stronger, faster, and has great coverage. True, its defensive typing is worse, its movepool lacks the utility of Serperior, and its Contrary move is non-STAB, but I still had to handle it delicately.

Step 1: Put as few points as possible into Special Attack and Speed. Zebstrika is already very fast, so a mere 5 points is enough to put it on the level of Tornadus-Therian. A little bit of extra power compared to Serperior is fine since Overheat isn't STAB, but being able to quickly acquire boosts means it can't go too high.

Step 2: Put a moderate amount of points into Attack. This is mainly to throw them away, but part of me hopes that it somehow makes use of those points to be a mixed attacker or punish Intimidate or something.

Step 3: Put the remaining points into bulk. I was hoping it wouldn't be almost identical to Serperior's bulk, but given its worse defensive typing and lack of Leftovers, Leech Seed, and Synthesis, it's probably fine.
:ss/zebstrika:

mega zebstrika

electric
stats
hp- 75
atk- 100(+25)>125
def- 63(+15)>78
spa- 80(+15)>95
spd- 63(+30)>93
spe- 116(+15)>131

ability: supercharger- when hit with a contact move the user has the "charge" effect applied to it (the next electric move does double damage and the user has its special defense raised by 1 stage)

new moves: flare blitz, zing zap
I've wanted to make a mega zebstrika for a while and (if i ever get around to it) will be making one in a fan game in the future, however my idea for that wouldn't really fit the format of this pet mod, so instead we have supercharger! with the new addition of zing zap, it's able to last longer in battle since it's not taking recoil plus its flinch chance, and if it does get hit with a contact move its next move will be doing double damage, making it a major threat
:bw/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Type: Electric
Ability: Thunderclap - On the second turn after this pokemon has successfully landed an electric type move, the entire field undergoes the effect of electrify. (Pokemon with soundproof are not affected)
'The air reverberated with the sound of thunder'
Just in case people don't know what this move does, it is an electric type status move that 'Changes the target's move to electric type this turn'
New Moves: Jump Kick, U-Turn, Rising Voltage, Work Up
HP - 75
ATK - 125 (+25)
DEF - 78 (+15)
SpA - 120 (+40)
SpD - 78 (+15)
SPE - 121 (+5)
Based of the many dex entries that state 'When Zebstrika run at full speed, the sound of thunder reverberates.', the ability for this pokemon allows it to force all moves too be electric type two turns after Zebstrika has attacked with an electric move.
Zebstrika can make use of this ability to give it a circumstantial 120 BP Physical Electric STAB in Double Edge. Changing the type of the opponents attacks also significantly weakens them by removing STAB, and against Zebstrika (and a well built team), making their hits resisted. By pivoting out with Volt-Switch, Zebstrika can support their team with the effect, giving Dragon, Ground, Grass and other Electric types much safer switch ins on the turn of the effect.
All of these are after the move has become electric type due to electrify.
252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zebstrika: 73-86 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Landorus-Therian Gigavolt Havoc (175 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zebstrika: 128-151 (43.9 - 51.8%) -- 11.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zebstrika: 130-153 (44.6 - 52.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
The ability also gives some of your more offensive mons strong electric type coverage on certain turns, which could help prevent them from being walled by things like Pex, Corv or Slowbro

There are downsides however, as due to the ability affecting the entire field, the opponent can also take advantage of and make smart use of their electric resists.

There is always the option to pair Zebstrika with a Lightning Rod or Motor Drive pokemon, which sounds like a lot of fun, however unfortunately most of the non-mega lightning rod pokemon are very underwhelming. (The pokemon that would be the most promising are Manectric and Electivire respectively. Electivire in particular sounds pretty heat w/ a choice band or life orb)
:bw/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Ability: Rampage (This Pokemon's attacking Moves have their Base Power multiplied by 1.5x, but attack for 2-3 turns before causing Confusion. Does not affect moves which already do this, like Thrash, or pivoting moves like Volt Switch)
Type:
ElectricIC_Big.png
DarkIC_Big.png

Stats:
HP: 75
Atk: 100(+15) --> 115
Def: 63(+15) --> 78
SpA: 80(+35) --> 115
SpD: 63(+15) --> 78
Spe: 116 (+20) --> 136
New Moves: Crunch, Dark Pulse
Description:
Concept
Zebstrika's Pokedex entry in White states: "This ill-tempered Pokémon is dangerous because when it's angry, it shoots lightning from its mane in all directions." The idea of Zebstrika getting angry and attacking ruthlessly made me give it the Dark type and the custom Ability Rampage.
In Battle
One interesting thing about Zebstrika is that all three of its Abilities give it immunities. Lightning Rod and Motor Drive give it an immunity to Electric, and Sap Sipper gives it an immunity to Grass. Using one of these Abilities before Mega Evolution allows it to get both a safe switch-in and a stat boost. After this, Zebstrika can hit back hard and punch some serious holes in the opponent's team using the stat buff AND the boost from Rampage, especially now that its a mixed attacker with more options. Alternatively, it can also be brought in late-game when all the checks and counters have fainted, and used to clean up what is left. However, since the moves lock Zebstrika in, it is still easy to counter. On top of this, its movepool is also very bad, so there are less options to abuse Rampage.
+1 252+ Atk Zebstrika Wild Charge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 222-262 (65.1 - 76.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 252+ Atk Zebstrika Crunch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 198-234 (58 - 68.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO [neutral hit]

+1 252+ SpA Zebstrika Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 141-166 (20 - 23.6%) -- guaranteed 5HKO

+1 252+ SpA Zebstrika Dark Pulse vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 126-148 (17.9 - 21%) -- possible 5HKO
1616337094188-png.324739

Zebstrika-Mega (Electric/Dark)
Ability: Dazzling

HP: 75 (+0)
Atk: 120 (+20)
Def: 93(+30)
Spa: 90 (+10)
Spd: 73(+10)
Spe: 146 (+30)

New Moves: Dark Pulse, Lash Out, Throat Chop, Nasty Plot, Electro Ball

Description: "Zebstrika can move as quickly as lightning, releasing thunderclaps at full gallop". Fast as lightning you say? Let's do it >:]. The dark typing was added because of its primarily black body, and I think it would be cool for a zebra to be half dark (ghost, dark) and half light (electric, fairy, normal). I don't really expect this one to get votes, but I thought it was cool.
I would like to clarify I dont like this idea very much, please dont vote for it.
Ok here we go first sub

zebstrika.gif.m.1523036372


Mega Zebstrika
Type: Electric
Ability: Momentum: This pokemon gains +1 speed after it KO's an opponent.

HP: 75 (+0)
ATK: 100 -> 130 (+30)
DEF: 63 -> 96 (+33)
SPATK: 80 -> 100 (+20)
SPDEF: 63 -> 96 (+33)
SPE: 116 -> 130 (+14)

BST: 497 -> 597 (+100)

New Moves: High Horsepower (seriously this is the only horse mon that doesn't get it)

Pokedex entry from Y "They have lightning-like movements. When Zebstrika run at full speed, the sound of thunder reverberates."
When it runs it creates the sound of thunder. It literally breaks the sound barrier. Yea i'm pretty sure this horsie should go fast.
:ss/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Electric
Ability: W.I.P. (This pokemon's Electric-type moves hit Ground-types for neutral damage.)

Hp: 75
Att: 140 (+40)
Def: 73 (+10)
SpA: 90 (+10)
SpD: 73 (+10)
Spd: 146 (+30)

New Moves: Zing Zap

Description: This pokemon's main problem is Ground-types because it can't hit them very hard physically. This changes that.
:zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika
New Ability:
Surge Surfer
Type: Electric

New stats: 75, 135, 78, 96, 78, 135
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 135 (+35)
Defense: 63 -> 78 (+15)
Special Attack: 80 -> 96 (+16)
Special Defense: 63 -> 78 (+15)
Speed: 116 -> 135 (+19)
(597 BST)

New moves: Flare Blitz, Jump Kick, Rising Voltage, High Horsepower
Description: soooooo basicaly alolan raichu but an mega
:ss/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Type:
Electric ---> Electric
Ability: Lightning Rod / Motor Drive / Sap Sipper ---> Sharp Striker | Mega Launcher clone (see Mega Cinderace)
Stats:
HP:
75 ---> 75
Atk: 100 ---> 120 (+20)
Def: 63 ---> 83 (+20)
SpA: 80 ---> 130 (+50)
SpD: 63 ---> 63
Spe: 116 ---> 126 (+10)

Added Moves: Electro Ball, Energy Ball, Focus Blast

Description: when you have to add the moves its gonna abuse urself uh special wallbreaker
:sm/zebstrika:
Mega Zebstrika
Zebstrikanite

Ability: Inertia - This pokemon takes up to 50% reduced damage from direct attacks, based on how much faster it is than the attacker.

Damage Reduced = 25 × User's Current Speed / Target's Current Speed. (For qwik mafs, you need twice the enemy's speed to reach full boost.)

Stats:
HP - 75 (+0)
ATK - 80 (Swapped +0)
DEF - 81 (+18)
SPA - 130 (Swapped +30)
SPD - 81 (+18)
SPE - 150 (+34)

New Moves: Electro Ball, Thunder Cage, Parabolic Charge, Taunt, Recover

When Zebstrika Mega Evolves, the power of the form finds its home almost entirely in its muscular legs, allowing it to reach a velocity so high that blows from enemy attacks merely glance off its hide. A little ironically, this dramatic increase in strength actually hinders its physical capabilities, as this heightened power comes with a new lack of control, and Mega Zebstrika relies on the incredible amounts of static discharge it produces as a byproduct at moving at such high speeds.
Mono-Electric is an incredibly cool and potentially powerful defensive typing. It is nearly identical to the Normal type in this manner - a type effective in tanking not due to a high number of resistances, but rather its complete lack of weaknesses other than one allowing it to outlast enemy attacks from any source, if given the right stats to work with. It's why Snorlax and Blissey can prove so formidable, but as an almost exclusively "glass canon" type, Game Freak hasn't granted us a great example of this potential.

So, I have. Zebstrika has a lot of tools that allow it to be an incredibly unique wall in more ways than just being mono-Electric. The method of damage reduction allows Zebstrika to maintain decently high offensive stats while still being able to shrug off hits that would cripple other hard-hitting carries - yet Zebstrika's lack of offensive setup prevents it from running away with this new freedom (pardon the pun). It also interacts interesting with both Zebstrika and the concept of tanks in general - Zebstrika has Flame Charge and Agility allowing it to get full benefit from its ability even when forced to run with less-than-ideal matchups against faster foes. Additionally, tanks are traditionally slower Pokemon - whereas Zebstrika throws this constraint out the window. Status like Thunder Wave, Toxic, and Taunt will make Zebstrika very reminiscent of Prankster tanks - which also happens to be a very key ability when thinking about ways to counter Zebstrika.

Thunder Cage also pairs really well with a tanky Electric-type, as Zebstrika resists one of the three damaging pivot moves and its super effective against the users of another. Electro Ball may be a little gimmicky an unreliable, but it is extremely in line both mechanically and flavorfully with the concept and it ultimately unlikely to harm anything in the long run, and so I kept it in. Parabolic Charge gives Zebstrika the potential to become an interesting drain tank as an offset to the more likely to be meta bruiser carry or status heavy builds, and Recover is a more reliable option for both bruiser and status builds alike to provide longevity and get the most out of its newfound defensive capabilities (especially against harder-hitting faster Pokemon that require an Agility/Flame Charge or two before getting the full ability's benefit against).

It's a little unfortunate that I couldn't keep Zebstrika as a physical attacker with this concept, but the fact of the matter is that there's no good options for physical STAB (not just on Zebstrika, but on anyone besides Pikachu) and it lacks good coverage outside of it as well. Thunder Cage, Thunderbolt, and Parabolic Charge are just tools too good to pass up for this concept, and the special boost gives it access to much harder-hitting coverage like Overheat (compared to Flame Charge, which is a good utility but bad offensively) or whatever HP it might want to take.
Mega Zebstrika

Electric/Dark

Ability: Adaptability

Stats:

HP:75
ATK:126 (+26)
DEF:100 (+37)
SPA:90 (+10)
SPD:100 (+37)
SPE:106 (+10)
BST:597 (+100)

New Moves:
-Zing Zap
-Thunderous Kick

Description: Zebstrika makes great use of Adaptability by giving a power boost to its mediocre movepool, Zing Zap for STAB, Thunderous Kick for coverage, Sucker Punch for priority and Pursuit to punish switches.
:swsh/zebstrika:

:zebstrika:Mega Zebstrika
New Ability
: Immunity
Type: Electric

New Stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 110 (+10)
Defense: 63 -> 123 (+60)
Special Attack: 80
Special Defense: 63 -> 89 (+26)
Speed: 116 -> 120 (+4)
(BST: 597)

New moves: Refresh, Morning Sun, Sunny Day, Fire Fang
Description:
:swsh/zebstrika:

Zebstika-Mega
Phaethon - This pokemon draws the carriage of the dawn goddess. (Ghost type -ate)
Electric/Ghost

Hp- 75
Attack- 120 (+20)
Defense- 83 (+20)

Sp.Atk- 100 (+20)
Sp.Def -93 (+30)
Speed- 126 (+10)


Flavor: I wanted to make another mon based off of greek mythology and I decided that I would choose Phaethon because it draws the carriage of Eos, dawn goddes. also I wanted another ghost electric type
:zebstrika:

Mega Zebstrika

New Ability
: Vajra
Turns the user's Dark moves into Electric moves and boosts them by 20%.

Type: Electric

New stats
:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 → 120 (+20)
Defense: 63 → 78 (+15)
Special Attack: 80
Special Defense: 63 → 108 (+45)
Speed: 116 → 136 (+20)
BST: 497 → 597

New moves:
Jaw Lock, Sucker Punch, Assurance, Taunt, Snarl

Description:
1) Concept
The "vajra" is one of the most important ritual objects of Tibetan Buddhism and is used by the Indian Vedic rain and thunder-deity Indra to get rid off demons. The objects looks like a mix of a thunderbolt and a bell. While the former represents "method", the latter alludes to "wisdom". When put together, these two aspects embody the union of all dualities, like day and night or truth and ideal; it's a duality we must try to tame in order to achieve balance.

(In a way, this is reminiscent of Zekrom and Reshiram, and it just so happens Zebstrika comes from generation 5 where a binary belief system like "black and white" plays a huge role in the games.)

Back to what we've said earlier, "method" refers to the skillful means to eliminate negative elements like greed, ignorance, or cruelty from living beings, thereby allowing them to achieve enlightenment.
What this means for our Mega Zebstrika is that whenever it relies on tricky tactics Dark moves are generally know for, it uses them for a much different purpose; in fact, Mega Zebstrika tries to convert negative energies into more positive ones.


2) Competitive
Zebstrika is supposed to be a Pokémon that works similar to Spectrier and Regieleki in that it can run lots of STAB moves and/or utility moves while still being effective.

Our Zebstrika prefers running mostly Electric moves, maybe even only Electric moves. Thanks to its ability, it can now start trapping Water and Flying Pokémon since Dark moves turn into Electric moves. The addition of Jaw Lock works well with Pursuit. For one, if the opposing Pokémon decides to stay in, they get trapped by Jaw Lock. For two, if they decide to switch out, they get hurt by Pursuit. This combination makes sure that Zebstrika can always force some progress even if it only runs Electric moves and if the opponent has some Pokémon immune or resistant to Electric moves.

Other Dark moves Zebstrika can take advantage from are Sucker Punch for priority and threatening Unburden Hawlucha or getting around Water Shuriken Greninja; Foul Play can be used to punish set-up sweepers while Taunt disrupts Pokémon relying on Status moves to make progress. There's also Assurance for Zebstrika's strongest Electric move that works well with the fear of Jaw Lock since it can do up to 120 damage if the (new) target gets hurt during the turn, for instance by hazards.
Finally, while (Mega) Zebstrika isn't intended for VGC, if people want to try out (Mega) Zebstrika in VGC, they now have Snarl to support their team, however.
:bw/zebstrika:
Mega-Zebstrika
Type:Electric
Ability:Savanna Rage(In Grassy Terrain, this Pokemon's attacks have 1.3x power.(not full Sand Force clone))

New Moves:Grassy Glide

Stats:


HP: 75
Attack: 120(+20)
Defense: 93(+30)
Sp. Atk: 110(+30)
Sp. Def: 73(+10)

Speed: 126(+10)
Zebstrika is based on a zebra. Ability, Savanna Rage is for this reason.
:Zebstrika:

Mega Zebstrika
New Ability: Simple
Type: Electric
New stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 120 (+20)
Defense: 63 -> 83 (+20)
Special Attack: 80 -> 110 (+30)
Special Defense: 63 -> 83 (+20)
Speed: 116 -> 126 (+10)
(BST: 597)
New moves: Electro Ball
Mega Zebstrika
Electric/Fire Types
Ability: Technician: Powers up the Pokémon's weaker moves.
New Moves: Triple Axel, Zing Zap, Jump Kick, Blaze Kick
HP: 75
ATK: 145(+45)
DEF: 73(+10)
SP.ATK: 105(+25)
SP.DEF: 73(+10)
SPEED: 126(+10)
While working in this one, i think i wouldn't be alone if i said that the movepool feels...lacking. It has some sorta "underpowered" moves, with negative effects, not so good coverage... and... well, it's not really that bad, just, not the best to work with. But definetly possible to. What i personally felt about Zebstrika was that it had a lot of moves but those were in the vast majority weaker moves, such as flame charge, or double kick. So, well, that does pair up with Technician does it not? Sure, Electric type doesn't benefit a lot from Technician, mainly if we're talking physical (with only Nuzzle being affected...), but, what if it had Triple Axel for some power, and coverage? What Zebstrika does lack is setup, so, high raw stats should do! As for fire typing, it offers some good offensive typing, and, despite it's not so good defensively, it can deal quite some damage with STAB, Technician Flame Charge, while also increasing its own speed. Also, just think about it - lava stripes! You want it! I know you do! Also, I do like the idea of Zebstrika using its lightning to light up fires in dry grass, for example, and using that fire for its advantage. It's a good way to go all out, and deal as much damage as you can!
1616637862542-png.325791
Mega-Zebstrika @ Zebstrikite
Type: Electric/Normal
Ability: Scrappy
New Moves: Zing Zap, Thunderous Kick, Blaze Kick, Extreme Speed (this one can be taken off if too OP)

Stats:
HP: 75
ATK: 100 -> 140 (+40)
DEF: 63 -> 75 (+12)
SPA: 80 -> 105 (+25)
SPD: 63 -> 75 (+12)
SPE:116 -> 127 (+11)
BST: 597

Summary: So, you might be wondering, “Why in the world would Zebstrika be a normal type?” Well, if you haven’t noticed, a lot of normal types tend to be animal-esque beings as Pokemon, some being Miltank (a cow), Rattata/Raticate (rats), Meowth/Persian (cats), Buneary/Lopunny (rabbits), and most of the regional birds (which are Normal/Flying as their first form, at least). So, technically, Zebstrika is just a zebra that can shoot lighting everywhere, so it made sense to give it the normal type. It also has the ability Scrappy, which may seem there just because it is a splashable ability, but there is another reason. The definition of the word scrappy is, “determined, argumentative, or pugnacious.” (from Oxford Languages). Now, I think most of us know what determined means, and probably argumentative, but pugnacious might be a stretch (well, I had no idea what pugnacious meant, anyway). Pugnacious means, “eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight”. Well, from what I know about zebras, they can get mad pretty easily, and even Zebstrika’s Pokedex entries say that it is “ill tempered”, so it makes sense. Now, onto the competitive standpoint.

Zebstrika gets access to Zing Zap, which gives it a reliable STAB Electric move and Extreme Speed, which, when it mega evolves, will be able to hit ghosts with its new Normal Type STAB (and its new move Thunderous Kick too). It already has access to Return, Double Edge, and Thrash, which are all good Normal type moves too. It has a high attack stat, but mediocre speed and low defenses. It does get access to Agility and Flame Charge so it can increase its speed, though. Thunderous Kick and Blaze Kick allow it to hit Rock/Steel/Grass types more easily and cover some of its resistances better.
:ss/zebstrika:

New Ability: Serene Grace
Type: Electric/Fairy

New stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 ->116 (+16)
Defense: 63 ->95 (+32)
Special Attack: 80 ->100 (+20)
Special Defense: 63 ->95 (+32)
Speed: 116
(BST) 497 ->597

New moves
: Play Rough, Dazzling Gleam, High Horsepower
Description: Zebstrika runs gracefully through the plains, sending bolts of electricity everywhere it runs.
:Zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika :bw/zebstrika:

New Ability: Blitzlekrieg
(This Pokemon's Speed is 1.5x, but it can only select the first move it executes.)

Type : Electric

New Stats:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 130 (+30)
Defense: 63 -> 73 (+10)
Special Attack: 80 -> 130 (+50)
Special Defense: 63 -> 73 (+10)
Speed: 116
(BST) : 597 (+100)

New Moves : (None)

Description : 116 speed with Scarf gives it almost the same speed as Regieleki.
Blitzlekrieg is inspired by Gorilla Tactics, which is a pun between Guerilla Tactics and Gorilla, here the pun is between Blitzkrieg and Blitzle, which is Zebstrika pre-evolution.
It's a hit-and-run pokemon mostly, thanks to Volt Switch. It has also Overheat which can be used well.
So all of these ideas for Zebstrika sound awesome and I love them all but they are missing one crutial thing that I think would make them all the best, Finesse! Now what I keep seeing is "always hits" or "Ignoring Immunities" and while I agree Zeb should do all these things I think that there is a better solution for Zebstrika that will really get you hype for the Zebra not a HORSE. Anyways without further ado I will introduce Mega Zeb!
Mega Zebstrika Stats, Movepool additions, Ability, And Typing
Stats:
HP: 75
Atk: 100>130
Def: 63>73
SpAtk: 80>110
SpDef: 63>73
Speed: 116>136
Ability: Wild Tempered (When this pokemon takes damage except by status, weather or entry hazards, This pokemon sets Electric Terrain)
Movepool Additions: High Horsepower, Work up, Iron Head
Typing: Electric/Steel
:Zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika
Ability: Paved Roads -
If every other pokemon on the player's team has been on the field (paved the road ;P ) before Mega Zebstrika mega evolves, your next electric attack that lands raises special attack, special defense, and speed by one stage (after Paved Roads triggers once, it cannot occur again in the battle unless Mega Zebstrika leaves and reenters the field).
Type: Electric
Stats:
HP: 75
ATK: 100 -> 120 (+20)
DEF: 63
SPA: 80 -> 125 (+45)
SPD: 63 -> 94 (+31)
SPE:116 -> 120 (+4)
BST: 597
New Moves: Thunder Cage, Shadow Ball, Pay Day
:zebstrika: Mega Zebstrika
New Ability: Lightning Rod/Motor Drive/Sap Sipper -> Seismic Scream
(The existing :exploud: Mega Exploud's Ability: after using a sound move, follows up with 60 BP of Ground-type spread damage.)
Type: Electric/Ground

New Stats
:
HP: 75
Attack: 100 -> 135 (+35)
Defense: 63 -> 103 (+40)
Special Attack: 80 -> 105 (+25)
Special Defense: 63
Speed: 116
(597 BST)

New moves: High Horsepower, Horn Leech, Overdrive

In much the same way that our Mega Raichu's Electric/Fighting STAB combination makes it stand out, I've long had the opinion that Electric and Ground are individually two of the strongest and most important attacking types in the game, so I've always been interested to see an offensive Pokémon that can make use of both.
Offensively, Electric and Ground are both dangerous; they're individually relatively hard to resist, and the types that do resist them are easy to cover, so each of them is part of some of the most well-known coverage combinations (think EdgeQuake and Bolt Beam as examples - but it's also worth noting that both Electric and Ground individually pair well with Ice, so even the weak Hidden Power can complement this STAB combination super well in just one type! or how about Zebstrika's existing access to Overheat, my last short essay on Ground/Fire coverage in mind?).
It's also worth bringing up that - alongside Mega Raichu's famously optimal Electric/Fighting STAB combination - Electric/Ground is one of the only two combinations of STABs that can hit both Steel and Water (two of the most important defensive types in the series) super effectively without being resisted by the other... and Electric and Ground aren't resisted by Fairy, either!
Electric even directly covers the main switch-ins to Ground-type damage - at least provided they're not named Landorus or Gliscor, your opponent's Flying-types can't come in to avoid Ground-type damage without being punished by Electric STAB that hurts twice as much.

With this in mind, and in the context that a somewhat obvious horse flavor move in High Horsepower is already Ground-type, I actually started approaching Zebstrika with the vague direction that it would be neat to have an Electric/Ground-type - being able to attack with both of those types sounds like an appealing selling point for an offensive Pokémon, doesn't it?
So I started doing research on Zebstrika's flavor, and--

They have lightning-like movements. When Zebstrika run at full speed, the sound of thunder reverberates.​

Literally the first Pokédex entry and I've learned that one of Zebstrika's key design elements (and the clever detail that's supposed to bridge the gap between zebras and electricity) is themed after sound.
A sound-related Pokémon that would benefit from a way to do Ground-type damage, huh...? Why does that sound familiar?
... they say we don't revisit old customs enough around here. Let's fix that!

Seismic Scream is an Ability from the sound-themed slate 26, created by the amazing ausma for her Mega Exploud.
Like my Zebstrika, her goal was to exploit the type chart in a unique way - her Exploud had not one but two powerful sound-based STABs that were both resisted by Steel, and Ground is notably one of the best ways there is to punish Steel-types for switching in on a move. Attacking with two types in one turn has proven to be a major advantage for Exploud, and it's one of the coolest wallbreakers in the mod and can be genuinely terrifying in the right circumstances.
With everything I said about Electric and Ground, then-- what if you could attack with those two types in one turn?
One key difference between her Exploud and my Zebstrika is how much closer together the power of its moves is - her Exploud used the 140 BP STAB Boomburst and the 100 BP STAB Clanging Scales, but it paired them with the non-STAB 60 BP Ground coverage from Seismic Scream, so the difference between the two hits was more like 140:40 or 100:40. Here, Zebstrika's main sound STAB is only the 80 BP Overdrive - but its Ground-type followup also receives STAB, so its second hit is still hitting for 75% as much damage.
On one hand, this makes Zebstrika's one-two punch that much more dangerous, since resisting the first hit no longer remotely means escaping the worst. As mentioned earlier, Zebstrika's first hit also hits Flying-types twice as hard, so just switching one of them in to mitigate the second hit's damage still leaves them taking more damage overall than a neutral hit, which can be devastating! It can be incredibly challenging to take less than neutral damage from Zebstrika's Overdrive.
On the other hand, as Seismic Scream fails to activate if the move doesn't hit, you can still send in a Ground-type to deal with Zebstrika and nullify both hits - just be wary of doing that too often, because Hidden Power can still punish it severely.

With its advantages from exploiting the type chart in mind, I opted to give Zebstrika relatively tame offenses, especially for the Special Attack which it uses for its sound-based moves; I'm also honestly relieved that Zebstrika is for the first time in what feels like ages a fast enough Pokémon to be threatening without also having setup, meaning it's okay to experiment with dangerous coverage like this without the risk of turning it into something uncounterable after one stray free turn to set up. Overall, I'm pretty sure this Zebstrika can create interesting lose-lose situations when played skillfully and live up to the advantages of its intriguing combination of STABs and coverage, but hopefully without being so dangerous a wallbreaker as to put undue pressure on defensive team styles.

One minor addendum worth noting: in the near future, we'll be announcing and polling a potential change that was agreed upon for Seismic Scream - making the second hit do physical damage unconditionally - which might make now seem like a bad time to experiment with a second Seismic Scream user.
However, I would like to draw attention to the fact that its offenses are exactly 30 base stat points apart! 31 is the number of base stat points you get from EV investment, so (at least provided its nature doesn't modify either one) the offenses of a Zebstrika with fully invested Special Attack and uninvested Attack should be almost identical, with final values of 306 Attack and 309 Special Attack.
Consider this a bit of insurance to make sure Zebstrika is an equally fine addition to the metagame no matter how the poll goes - it shouldn't affect the stats that Zebstrika was designed around at all! Hopefully that puts people's minds at ease about voting however they like on the poll regardless of whether how this particular Zebstrika fares. C:
 
:mudsdale: Mega Mudsdale
Some Mudsdale subs were modified to remove reliable recovery, in line with the previous announcement.
I chose to leave these unmarked so that the perceived nerf would not affect their chances of winning.
Mudsdale-Mega :mudsdale:
:ss/mudsdale:

Ground-type
/
Rock Smash - Fighting-type

(I know you don’t like it, Mossy, but Ground/Fighting fits Mudsdale pretty dang well, and it makes this much more interesting.)
Own Tempo/Stamina/Inner Focus--->
Inner Fortitude
(when this Pokemon's HP is at or below half, Defense and Special Defense are doubled. Immune to Intimidate.)
"Mudsdale revealed strength from within!"
Note: the Intimidate immunity can absolutely be removed if necessary; It seemed mostly like something that GameFreak would do if the ability was actually in the game given their tendency to do so with other abilities, so I opted to include it. It also makes Mudsdale better in VGC which is cool.
If possible, I'd like to make it so that Inner Fortitude boosts Body Press, but I understand if it can't.

New Stats: 100/150/110/80/120/50
HP: 100--->100 (+0)
Attack: 125--->150 (+25)
Defense: 100--->110 (+10)
Special Attack: 55--->80 (+25)
Special Defense: 85--->110 (+25)
Speed: 35--->50 (+15)
Total: 500--->600 (+100)
New Moves: Pain Split, Wide Guard, Bulk Up

Description:
Mudsdale is super cool. With a calm, patient, and tough demeanor, Mudsdale is such an awesome Pokemon. Flavorwise, Mudsdale becomes even larger and bulkier, with red streaks in a longer mane.
Competitively, I just wanted to gush a bit- Mudsdale has a seriously cool playstyle in which it is willing to take hits in order to get stronger! Stamina operates super uniquely from a mechanical perspective and since we already have a few Stamina Megas in the mod now, I thought I'd do another take on Stamina which also happens to be an idea that I had for Mega Bastiodon.
Now, Ground/Fighting is a pretty interesting typing- while Ground and Fighting are two of the best types in the game offensively, they have a bit of overlap hitting Steel and Rock, so the STAB combo, while strong offensively, isn't anything crazy good. Defensively, the typing is actually very interesting and is what I wanted to focus on. Ground/Fighting boasts an immunity to Electric, a resistance to both Bug and Dark, and a 4x Rock resistance. Additionally albeit less notably, it resists Poison. These resistances are such a unique set- being resistant to some of the most spammable and important moves in the game such as Knock Off, U-turn, Volt Switch, and Stealth Rock, and although the tradeoff is 6 weaknesses, I think that it's worth it!
The ability is the centerpiece here- in terms of flavor, Mudsdale has something of a second wind in combat, like- "No, you aren't gonna take me down that easily!" And so when Mudsdale gets down to half, it effectively has the same bulk as it does at full HP. There are interesting implications to consider here- Mudsdale is capable of absorbing constant chip and benefitting from it in the long run, while also nailing things with a powerful set of STABs and good coverage! I'm noooooot suuuuuuure I'm comfortable with Bulk Up, so I'd love to hear feedback there, but it happens to synergize super well with Mudsdale's large bulk and ability to gradually get down to 50% range for that Inner Fortitude boost. Wide Guard pairs well with Rock Slide, Earthquake, and the Intimidate immunity to make it a solid bulky attacker in Doubles, as well!
Pain Split or Rest are its recovery options, both of which have their tradeoffs, but with an ability this strong, it doesn't need anything better!
Anyway, Mudsdale is insanely cool and I think that this fits it and helps it out a ton! Enjoy!
clarification: we agreed off-site that Inner Fortitude would not affect Body Press
Mega Mudsdale[/B]
mudsdale.gif


Type: Ground
Ability: Solid Mud - Whenever this Pokemon uses a special Ground type attack (even if it misses), its physical defense increases by 1.

HP: 100 (+0)
Attack: 125 <-> 55 (Atk<->Spatk swap)
Defense: 100 -> 175 (+75)
Sp Atk: 55 <->125 (Atk<->Spatk swap)
Sp Def: 85 -> 105 (+20)
Speed: 35 -> 40 (+5)

New Moves:


This ability takes inspiration from 2 Dex entries:


I made it a special attacker because mud throwing attacks are usually special. I then thougth it should increase its defenses whenever it uses a special Ground type attack because its Dex entry says it uses mud to become more solid and this also has similarities with its base ability.
Atlast i gave it Mud Bomb which is a fitting move for a Pokemon who likes to utilize mud.
:mudsdale:

Mega Mudsdale
beeg-horse-gif.324601

Type:
ground-png.324600

Ability: Stamina/Own Tempo --> Magic Guard

Stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 125 -> 142 (+17)
Defense: 100 -> 123 (+23)
SpAtk: 55 -> 83 (+28)
SpDef: 85 -> 112 (+27)
Speed: 35 -> 40 (+5)

New Moves: Heat Crash, Rapid Spin, Curse, Stockpile, Swallow, Spit-Up

Description: Mega Mudsdale is very durable and often used for arduous journeys. It can withstand harsh environments and remain mega evolved for long periods of time. If it has a mission, it will stop at nothing to complete it, even if it is being starved to the bone.

So I just made this thing a bulky ground type that actually has some special defense (finally). I think that magic guard fits Mudsdale quite a lot. Mudsdale has a lot of stamina and endurance, being able to trample through anything. It can even walk over a spiked surface without feeling a thing, remember the poke-ride mudsdale in sun and moon? Also no rocky helmet chip, no Iron barbs chip, no leech seed, no toxic or will-o-wisp, and no annoying paralysis from glare. You can punch straight through ferrothorn and not have to worry, the best its going to do is power whip. And even then some ferro's never run it. You could easily set up with stamina before hand anyway. If you're still looking for some setup, you have curse and stockpile to raise offense or defense. Mudsdale really doesn't need recovery, so I think pain split is fine enough.

Plus mudsdale works as a good rapid spinner now, being immune to hazards it can sweep away quickly while also being capable of setting its own. Short and simple, Magic Guard Mudsdale. Making custom abilities just for the sake of making them took a small toll on me, It was genuinely difficult to use an ability that already existed, but I powered through it. Just like mudsdale.
Haha Donkey go brrr
Mega Mudsdale

:ss/mudsdale:
Ability: Dry Skin
Type: Ground
HP: 100
Attack: 145
Defense: 130
Special attack: 65
Special defense: 105
Speed: 55
New moves: Heat Crash, Rapid spin

Flavor: Most horses have a dull coat and flaky dry skin, kinda why I gave it to mega Mudsdale. Heat crash is almost obvious why i gave it to it, while rapid spin mostly comes from its physical attacking animation. I have no idea what mega mudsdale will look like, maybe muddy skin or something? idk lol

Competitive: With obtaining dry skin upon mega evolving, Mudsdale no longer needs to worry about one of its weaknesses, water. This means that it no longer needs to worry about scalds from Slowbro or Pex. This also means that Mudsdale can be used on rain teams, with getting recovery every turn. Not to mention, Mudsdale is also now immune to water attacks and is immune to thunder as well, so it can also be a great rain counter. Heat Crash is added so Mudsdale can attack grass types like kartana, ferrothorn, and tangrowth (Though sadly it gets weakened in rain) and rapid spin is a cool utility tool that gives mudsdale a speed boost and clears hazards for its teammates :)

Mudsdale @ Mudsdalite
Ability: Stamina
EVs: 128 HP / 128 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Protect/Rapid Spin
1616290682313-png.324626

Mudsdale- Mega
Ground
Inner Focus/Own Tempo/Stamina-> Unaware
Stats
HP: 100
Atk: 125->
145 (+20)
Def: 100-> 140 (+40)
SpA: 55-> 65 (+10)
SpD: 85
Spe: 35->
65 (+30)
New Moves: +Bulk Up

Description: Ya' ever heard tell of being stubborn as a mule? Well, I don't know what a "mule" is, but Mudsdale is pretty darn stubborn, the kind of stubborn that pushes a Pokemon to lug multiple tons for days on end. And with the boost from this here Mega stone, Mudsdale is so set on gettin' its work done that it trudges along against opponents that would make most Pokemon turn tail, I reckon. Mudsdale don't care about your fancy stat boosts; it'll keep on trudgin' as if those boosts didn't exist. And this thing is pretty darn tanky, even if it don't have much in the way of recovery, especially in conjunction with Bulk Up. What? Ya' think a Pokemon that can carry 10 tons ain't packin' some serious muscle? 'Course, ya' gotta keep an eye on that ol' HP bar, but y'all can just pair it with a Wish Clefable if that really bugs ya'. Sure, there might be a few Pokemon who can tear through it raw, but still ol' Mudsdale just keeps on trudgin'.
Mudsdale
Ability - Stamana - When this pokemon is hit by an attack, raise its Special Defense by one stage.
HP - 100
ATK - 150 (+25)
DEF - 150 (+50)
SPA - 55
SPD - 100 (+15)
SPE - 45 (+10)
New Moves: None
Explanation: I thought it would be cool to do a Pokemon that had one high defense naturally but a way to build up its other defense with its ability.
Mega Mudsdale
mudsdale.gif

ground.gif

Ability - Own Tempo, Stamina; Inner Focus ➝ Stamina

HP
- 100 ➝ 100
Atk
- 125 ➝ 150 (+25)
Def - 100 ➝ 125 (+25)
SpA - 55 ➝ 75 (+20)
SpD - 85 ➝ 100 (+15)
Spe - 35 ➝ 50 (+15)
BST - 500 ➝ 600 (+100)

Movepool Changes - Bulk Up
Competitive Corner - Mega Mudsdale is kind of a tank, but maybe a bit more on the offensive side? With Bulk Up and Stamina, as well as a passable Special Defense, Mega Mudsdale can be quite the threat to break past! So yeah, it kinda sits around, Bulks Up, and tries to win!
Flavor Corner - Mudsdale is inspired draft horses, also known as cart horses or workhorses, so Stamina really is the perfect ability for it, which is why I kept it. But to add that little sprinkle of flavor on top, I made a connection to Boxer from "Animal Farm", the epitome of what it means to be a draft horse, and the epitome of the Stamina ability! And this also would be the reason behind Bulk Up, aside from the fact that work horses, well, work!
:ss/mudsdale:

Mudsdale-Mega @ Mudsdalite

Ability: Sap Sipper

Stats:

HP: 100

Atk: 135 (+10)

Def: 150 (+50)

Spa: 75 (+20)

Spd: 85

Spe: 55 (+20)

New Moves: (Bold=Notable) Wide Guard

Overview: This thing is a physically defensive behemoth. It can get a few stamina boosts before mega-evolving and wreck with body press/earthquake/rock slide under the right conditions. Also, a ground type that dumpsters rillaboom’s attempts to counter it, being an amazing rillaboom check Itself. 100/150 Physical bulk is some of the best in the game. Of course, it had to be held back somewhere, and this comes in the form of it’s lack of reliable recovery, average special bulk and below average speed. Speed isn’t as much of a problem, as trick room exists, which is especially good in vgc (however the speed increase means it’s less good, also how many trick-room focused megas exist now?), But without the ability to boost it’s special defense outside of ev investment, it’ll still falter to ice and water moves. Even if they can’t threaten them with STAB, grass types are still good checks (not ferrothorn though), and bulky waters are still great. For sets, you pretty much are always running earthquake + body press, with stealth rock, rock slide, stone edge and iron defense (and maybe the addition of wide guard in vgc) filling out the last 2 slots.
:SS/Mudsdale:
Mudsdale-Mega
Type:Ground/Fighting(it's a hard-worker like how conk get its fighting type but not how bibarel does not)
Ability:Soildier
User gain the aqua ring/ingrain effect if user get hit by water/grass type move

Stats:100/135(+10)/140(+40)/55/135(+50)/35
New moves:Bulk up
Desc: It's litterally a clay-horse. This ability is when you improve the soil and make it better
mudsdale-png.325797
mudsdale.png
Mudsdale-Mega @ Mudsdalite
Typing:
GroundIC_Big.png

New Ability: Oblivious

NEW STATS
HP:
100
Atk: 125 => 135 (+10)
Def: 100 => 145 (+45)
SpA: 055 => 075 (+20)
SpD: 085 => 110 (+25)
Spe: 035
(BST: 500 => 600)

Movepool Additions: Calm Mind, Gyro Ball, Power Gem, Spikes

Pokédex Description: "Mudsdale's increased size has not removed its docility. In fact, the opposite has happened as it often now continues to work even when asleep."

Ugh. Mudsdale is easily the most difficult of these mons for me since it's natural want to make its Mega rather bulky, but I also still want it to be capable of eventually going down, especially given its relatively high Atk. Mons do need to be capable of being defeated without having being forced to resort to highly damaging super effective attacks after all, which is why I'm not giving Musdale-Mega any additional recovery--Rest will have to do for it.

Flavor-wise: Distributing Mudsdale's stats in a way that took account of the above was...annoying, especially since I didn't just want to make Speed a dump stat. I tried to make it bulkier than at least Drapion-Mega and Spiritomb-Mega on the physical side since it seemed weird for those mons to outdo its Defense stat. This even though Mudsdale already has more HP than both, which may make that desire (still) a mistake even without the instant recovery. Given that the in-game Pokédex emphasizes how docile Mudsdale actually is, being basically the exact opposite of Zebstrika in temperament, I figured I would with the ability that outright blocks Taunt, which is the closest thing to an anger-inducing move in this game. Incidentally Oblivious ended up seeming like the least obnoxious option anyway out of at least four other canonical abilities that I could considered a decent fit. Being immune to Taunt also helps mitigate its slow Speed somewhat; that Oblivious blocks Intimidate as Gen 8 is nice but somewhat coincidental.

This same calmness is what let me thankfully dump some of the Mega boost into SpA and grant it Calm Mind when I normally wouldn't have bothered despite already being uncomfortable Mudsdale's bulk as it is. I guess I'm mostly just worried about its overall bulk because it's very easy to imagine this taking at least a hit or two with Stamina incidentally before it has to Mega Evolve.

Movepool-wise: I've already explained why Calm Mind made the cut for new moves, which is part of the reason that Power Gem made the cut despite my just liking that underused special attack in general. Spikes is--ugh, still correct grammar--the new move I added first and part of the reason I decided to have Oblivious ultimately be my Mudsdale-Mega's ability. Gyro Ball was the last addition after initially having Refresh instead, with Gyro Ball being added after I finally realized that Mudsdale (thankfully) lacks Curse and thus wouldn't become a monster with it almost automatically. Refresh was mostly there for the same reason I gave it to my Torterra-Mega, though here I imagined Mudsdale-Mega was just using new mud on itself rather than a seasonal reasoning. I also get rid of it, however, after I eventually realized it's mostly just redundant with Rest too.

Mechanic-wise: In a way, this Mudsdale-Mega is almost as straightforward as my Rapidash-Mega in its role: a slow and steady wall that supports its teammates and has good coverage with minimal moves due to just the combination of Ground and Rock still being so good. The addition of Oblivious, however, makes it secondarily a good set-up mon between nigh unstoppable Iron Defense, Calm Mind, and Rest. It also generally just hits hard without having to invest much of anything into its offenses in-between being immune to Intimidate and having to access both Body Press and Gyro Ball even if neither are STAB. Calm Mind is probably more usable than it looks despite the below average initial SpA just due to Mudsdale-Mega's physical bulk even uninvested and just how well both Earth Power & Power Gem coverage thanks. Chansey & Blissey and the Unaware mons obviously just wall you anyway if you go the Calm Mind route though. Yay!
:ss/mudsdale:

mega mudsdale

ground/fighting
stats
hp- 100
atk- 125(+20)>145
def- 100(+30)>130
spa- 55(+25)>75
spd- 85(+10)>95
spe- 35(+15)>50

ability: mold breaker

new moves: blaze kick
okay so this might be the one I'm most proud of because of how simple it is. mudsdale is covered in hard clay-like mud, and clay is a common material for molds to be made out of, so it's practically screaming to have this ability! and it certainly appreciates not having to worry about levitate users like rotom. its incredible endurance and unbreakable spirit made me think that the additional fighting type would be pretty fitting as well, and the stab bonus on body press certainly doesn't hurt. hope y'all enjoy!
:ss/mudsdale:
Mega Mudsdale
Ability: Endurance (If this Pokemon is hit super effectively, raises Defense and Special Defense by 1 stage)
Type: GROUND PSYCHIC
Stats:
HP: 100
Atk: 125(+10) --> 135
Def: 100
SpA: 55(+45) --> 100
SpD: 85(+15) --> 100
Spe: 35(+30) --> 65
New Moves: Zen Headbutt, Work Up

Description:
Concept
In Ultra Sun, the pokedex entry on Mudsdale states: "It remains calm and unmoving no matter the situation." This was my main motivation behind adding the Psychic type to it (since they are the type known for calm, cool thinking), and also the custom Ability, Endurance.
In Battle
Ground/Psychic is terrible defensive typing, but it is designed to work well with Endurance. Mudsdale now stops pivots in their tracks, since the chip damage from U Turn or Flip Turn isn't worth the buff in the defenses that it will trigger. In addition to this, the Ground type also offers immunity to Volt Switch. Work Up fits it in terms of flavour as a hardworking horse, but can also make it into a sweeper under Trick Room, with a sort of defensive Weakness Policy. However, Mudsdale still lacks reliable recovery, which makes it less of a threat.
252+ Atk Mudsdale Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 186-219 (54.5 - 64.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Mudsdale Zen Headbutt vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 148-175 (43.4 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO [neutral hit]
1616336983186-png.324737

Mudsdale-Mega (Ground/Fighting)
Ability: Canter (Upon switch in, this pokemon receives a boost to its speed)

HP: 100 (+0)
Atk: 150 (+25)
Def: 115 (+15)
Spa: 75 (+20)
Spd: 100 (+15)
Spe: 60 (+25)

New Moves: Bulk Up, Power Whip, Jump Kick

Description: Mudsdale is a tough, hard fighting horse. You can even see it in their bulbapedia entry: "Regardless of the trouble it is in, it will never cry out and defeats opponents with a single blow". Because of this calm minded, powerful mentality, I'm reminded of a fighter, and mudsdale already has some great fighting moves. I feel JK is a good addition cus its a horse/mule, so it would be able to both jump and kick (lol), much like stantler. As to power whip, I added that because of its dread locks, which in the mega, I envision getting longer.
:ss/Mudsdale:

Type: Ground
Ability: Clay Crust
This pokemon receives 50% less damage from moves that does not makes contact. Water type moves deals 2x more damage to it.

New moves: N/A
Stats:
HP:
100 > 100 (-)
Atk: 125 > 155 (+30)
Def: 100 > 100 (-)
SpA: 55 > 80 (+25)
SpD: 85 > 100 (+15)
Spe: 35 > 65 (+30)

"It remains calm and unmoving no matter the situation. It mixes dirt with the saliva in its mouth to make a special kind of mud."

I think Mudsdale is a perfect candidate for reverse world Fluffy.

What diferenciate this from other ground-type pokemon on the meta?
It's ability to sponge moves that are usually special. Excadrill, Hippowdon and Nidoqueen fears strong special attacks that, as long it is not a water move, Mudsdale-Mega can handle.

Not only Special moves, actually. It receives much less damage from Earthquakes, that can a threaten folks like Excadrill and Nidoqueen-M.

Mudsdale is also resistant to Ice attacks, since basically all important ice moves does not makes contact, including physical moves.

Most multi-hits and ballistic moves also, making this the perfect counter for Scale Shot Garchomp, that usually runs SD, Scale Shot, Earthquake and Stone Edge. All those moves are resisted by clay crust, and one of them can activate stamina pre-mega more then one single time.

Of course, mold breaker and Rillaboom/Bulu ruins it, just like rain teams and things like Ash-Gren, Crawdaunt and specially Urshifu-R. But it is overall fun to use.
:ss/mudsdale:
Mega Mudsdale
Ground
Ability: W.I.P. (This pokemon heals itself by 1/8th of its max hp for every Defense boost it has. This effect happens every 5 turns and upon mega evolving.)

Hp: 100
Att: 135 (+10)
Def: 130 (+30)
SpA: 80 (+25)
SpD: 95 (+10)
Spd: 60 (+25)

New Moves: Bulk Up

Description: Ha ha Iron Defense go brrrrrrrr
* okay so the submission post says 1/18 but I'm like 80% sure this was a typo because it was previously 1/10 and a suggestion was made to change it to 1/8 so I've fixed that - correct me if you wanted 1/18
:ss/mudsdale:
Mega Mudsdale
Typing:
Ground ---> Ground / Normal
Ability: Own Tempo / Stamina / Inner Focus ---> Hard Worker | HM Moves have x1.5 power (see Mega Bibarel)
Stats:
HP:
100
Atk: 125 ---> 150 (+25)
Def: 100 ---> 140 (+40)
SpA: 55 ---> 55
SpD: 85 ---> 105 (+20)
Spe: 35 ---> 50 (+15)

Added Moves: Heat Crash

Description: Physical Wallbreaker. can do rocks too
Mudsdale as a pokemon has an item that it has a chance of being caught with, and this item is Light Clay, this is strange because Mudsdale doesn't have access to Light Screen, Reflect, or even Aurora Veil. Mudsdale is renowned for its ability to take most physical hits because of its ability stamina, and it has decent special bulk as well, so I decided to make my Mudsdale, able to summon the Reflect effect when taking a hit, allowing it to become more defensive itself but also give a boon to its allies.

Mega-Mudsdale
Typing:Ground
Ability:Body of Clay
When hit by a physical move the clay surrounding its body creates a barrier summoning the Reflect as if used with a light clay protecting it and its allies.
HP:100
Attack:125->145(+20)
Defense:100->120(+20)
Special Attack:55(+0)
Special Defense:85->120(+35)
Speed:35->60(+25)


Added Moves:U-turn
Mudsdale gains U turn to be able to more viably leave its screens support for its allies, and also get out when there is a threat.

Description: Mega-Mudsdale's mud surrounding its body has become tougher now able to surround its enemies even when its not there, additionally it has become a more threatening attacker and has gained more bulk and more speed through its mega.
Okay yeah so this is actually a massive boon to offensive Mudsdale, it can survive choiced RIllaboom
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mudsdale in Grassy Terrain through Reflect: 204-240 (50.4 - 59.4%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
Defensive also has some pretty cool gains as well, with stamina boosts+reflect making it able to take any physical attack but the special attack defense additions give it some calcs like this
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 188 SpD Mudsdale: 184-218 (45.5 - 53.9%) -- 45.3% chance to 2HKO
But its offensive presence shouldn't be denied when countered by its main counter rillaboom, it can survive a hit and then U turn right out of there
252+ Atk Mudsdale U-turn vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 198-234 (58 - 68.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
And it has a chance to ohko pex after 1 layer of spikes+stealth rock
252+ Atk Mudsdale Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 206-246 (67.7 - 80.9%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes
But yeah, :)
:sm/Mudsdale:
Mega Mudsdale
Mudsdalite

Ability: Simple

Stats:
HP - 100 (+0)
ATK - 140 (+15)
DEF - 110 (+10)
SPA - 90 (+25)
SPD - 110 (+25)
SPE - 60 (+25)

New Moves: Amnesia

Mega Mudsdale has a single duty: ... to complete whatever duty it has set by its trainer. Mega Evolution's source of Pokemon-Trainer bonds draw on Mudsdale's hard-working pride and loyalty, and it becomes completely and utterly dedicated to the job that needs to be done. It will stop at nothing to accomplish the task at hand - a feat enabled by the immense durability granted by Mega Evolution and its ability to ignore and power through anything that would stand its way.
It's no secret that anything with Simple is potentially VERY threatening and scary. However, not only does Simple fit Mudsdale's straightforward, hard working attitude, but it also fits with the way pre-Mega Mudsdale operates, and functions with Mudsdale's kit without breaking it. Important to note is that Mudsdale has no way to boost its offensive stats - in fact, it only has ways to decrease them via Superpower. Instead, Simple grants Mudsdale the capability of being an extremely fast setup tank, made to take blows to the face and keep on chugging to do whatever job it needs to do - whether that's to hit hard or provide utility. It also lacks recovery, meaning that while it can be difficult to take down, damage you deal is permanent and meaningful - even when paired with Wish support, the required switchouts grant the opponent plenty of room to counterplay with hazards, traps, and making the most of the time it takes Mudsdale to build its defenses yet again.

It is important to recognize that Mudsdale does have Body Press, which gives it an outlet to make offensive use of its ability. However, Mudsdale is already pretty well balanced around having reliable and quick ways to bolster Defensive stages and abuse Body Press, so this change will be stronger than before, but not broken and entirely still balanceable if it does turn out to overperform. Special attackers, Ghost and Flying type Pokemon, and Toxic/Burn bots are all effective strategies in taking down a Mega Mudsdale. Special attackers force Mudsdale to use Amnesia, delaying when it wants to build defenses and abusing Body Press. Ghost types are immune to Body Press and Flying types resist it, but are immune to Mudsdale's STAB. Toxic ignores Mudsdale's defenses entirely, and while Burn melts through slower than Toxic, it stunts the Body Press damage significantly while it does so.

All in all I think this is the best way to both differentiate Mega Mudsdale from regular Mudsdale and make them distinct entities while also staying true to the base form and encapsulating its game plan and feel. It also applies Simple in a much more interesting way than the offensive hypercarry enabling it is almost shown to be or suggested as - all while perfectly fitting within Simple's very specific flavor and style.
:mudsdale: Mega-Mudsdale

Ground

Ability: Muddy Guard
Ability Description: Activates Mud Sport after Mega-Evolving or after switching in.
Stats:

HP:100
ATK:128 (+3)
DEF:135 (+35)
SPA:62 (+7)
SPD:120 (+35)
SPE:55 (+20)
BST:600 (+100)

New Moves:
-Heat Crash
-Wide Guard

Mudsdale is pretty interesting as a support Pokemon, since it has a useless ability for itself that can be used to support Electric-weak teammates.
Your game plan with Mudsdale pretty much goes like this: Set up Stealth Rocks, Mega Evolve, then U-Turn into an Electric-weak teammate, start setting up with the boosting move of your choice and go to town.
This strategy can even work with Weakness Policy, if paired up with a teammate like Gyarados, who doesn't mind the Rock weakness as much.
On Doubles, besides its ability, Mudsdale has a bunch of other useful moves for this format, including Rock Slide for damage, Bulldoze for support, Earthquake/High Horsepower as its STAB and the newly added Wide Guard for even more support.
* while the sub doesn't list U-turn as an added move, the description strongly implies it, so that will also be given if this wins
:swsh/mudsdale:

:mudsdale:Mega Mudsdale
New Ability
: Filter
Type: Ground/Steel

New Stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 125 -> 130 (+5)
Defense: 100 -> 140 (+40)
Special Attack: 55
Special Defense: 85 -> 140 (+55)
Speed: 55
(BST: 600)

New moves: Iron Tail, Autotomize, Smart Strike
Description:
500px-750mudsdale-png.325014

Mega Mudsdale
Type: Ground
Ability: Solid Rock | Reduces damage from super effective moves by 25%.
New Moves: Sludge Bomb, Work Up, Wide Guard, Helping Hand, Spikes
Stats:
Hp: 100
Atk: 135 (+10)
Def: 135 (+35)
SpA: 105 (+50)
SpD: 95 (+10)
Spe: 30 (-5)
BST: 600 (+100)

So it turned out that EeveeGirl and I had the same (basic) idea for Mega Mudsdale, so we decided to collab on it! If we look at Mudsdale's Pokedex entries, there is a lot of stuff about mud. "It spits a mud that provides resistance to both wind and rain, so the walls of old houses were often coated with it. " "Mud that hardens around a Mudsdale's legs sets harder than stone. It's so hard that it allows this Pokémon to scrap a truck with a single kick." Well, it seems like this mud is very resistant and harder then stone. That's when I deceided to do the ability Solid Rock for Mega Mudsdale. (and Camerupt also has Solid Rock, so this isn't the first time that a non-rock type has been given Solid Rock). Solid Rock allows Mega Mudsdale to be even more of a tank and take hits from the likes of Choice Band Rillaboom - 252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Solid Rock Mudsdale in Grassy Terrain: 276-325 (80.9 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery - and Ash Greninja! - 252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja-Ash Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Solid Rock Mudsdale: 366-432 (90.5 - 106.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO - It can make use of Stamina pre-Mega to raise its defense and become a physical tank and also has access to Stealth Rock to set those up. We gave it Sludge Bomb and Work Up with buffed special attack so it can be a mixed attacker and hit grass types (like Rillaboom) after taking a hit. It also got Wide Guard, Helping Hand, and Spikes to have some more utility, being able to support its team in doubles and being able to set up hazards. We lowered its base speed down to 30 so that it can be allowed to use Trick Room well. (most Trick Room users have a base speed of 30 or below). It does have slightly lower special defense, though, and can be worn down due to a lack of reliable recovery. However, it can take a hit or two from most of the physical attackers in the meta and gets access to Body Press, which can deal a lot of damage thanks to an increased defense stat and Stamina pre-mega.
Mega Mudsdale is made to be versatile. Work Up and its high special attack give it the potential to be a strong mixed attacker. With its added ability (Solid Rock) and its enhanced bulk, it could be used as a great defensive wall. With doubles in mind, its added moves Wide Guard and Helping Hand allow it to take on a bulky supportive role. In tandem with its new offensive and defensive capabilities, its low speed stat enables it to synergize well with Trick Room teams. The addition of Sludge Bomb for special coverage would also make it harder for strong/bulky grass types to switch into it. :Rillaboom::Tangrowth::Tapu Bulu:
As Mudsdale mega evolves, the hardened mud surrounding its hooves, hair, and tail entrap more of its body. This has had a great toll on its approach to work and battling. The weight of the mud on its body has made it slower while allowing it to gain more strength and stamina. With its slower speed and heightened strength and stamina, Mega Mudsdale is often found hauling large packages that weigh over 30 tons non-stop for a week. While Mudsdale is known to be a great support to its trainer and other Pokémon, No matter what kind of trouble it's in, it only relies on itself to complete its work. This amount of resilience and unmatched tranquility tends to leave it in a meditative-like state while working. With mega energy, it has harnessed these qualities to strengthen its special attack.
Mega Mudsdale
New Ability
: Aftershock
(After a Ground-Type move is used, this Pokemon will immediately follow-up by using Bulldoze)
Type: Ground

New stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 125
Defense: 100 -> 125 (+25)
Special Attack: 55 -> 85 (+30)
Special Defense: 85 -> 115 (+30)
Speed: 35 ->50 (+15)
(BST) 500 -> 600 (+100)

New moves: Blaze Kick, Amnesia
Description: This Mudsdale would utilize its added bulk and stamina pre-mega in order to slow down opponents with Thunderous Tremors, forcing key offensive threats to switch out after the speed drop in order to better benefit its team by alleviating the intense pressure faster Pokemon often apply. In addition, due to its ability, but relatively low speed, this Mudsdale would excel as a wallbreaker while still being slow enough that even at minus one many faster Pokemon will still outspeed it. Flavor-wise, the ability for this Mudsdale is based on the smaller tremors that occur after a major earthquake, as you might of already guessed, these smaller quakes are called aftershocks.
:ss/Mudsdale:

Mega Mudsdale
type: Ground
ability:
Sand-adapted : If sandstorm is active when the mon is summon, give it +1 in defenses
Stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 145 (+20)
Defense: 125 (+25)
Sp. A: 55 (+10)
Sp. Def: 100 (+15)
Speed: 65 (+30)
maxresdefault-jpg.325428

:Mudsdale: Mega Mudsdale
New Ability
: Steadfast
Type: Ground
New stats:
HP: 100 -> 100
Attack: 125 -> 145 (+20)
Defense: 100 -> 130 (+30)
Special Attack: 55 -> 65 (+10)
Special Defense: 85 -> 95 (+10)
Speed: 35 -> 75 (+30)
BST: 500 -> 600

New moves: Flame Charge
Description: Mudsdale reminds me of Boxer from George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm. Boxer is a hardworking horse representing USSR's working class. So yeah, that's the inspiration for this sub. Steadfast as an ability fits its hardworking nature flavor-wise. Flame Charge allows it to slowly boost its Speed while also allowing it to hit Ferrothorn for super-effective damage in the process, while Steadfast can aid it when used against the likes of Jirachi and Bisharp. Stamina pre-Mega helps it flavor-wise for a bulky booster set. An ideal set for this would be Body Press / Iron Defense / Flame Charge / Earthquake or Rest in the final slot.
Mega Mudsdale
Ground Type
Ability: Weak Armor: Physical attacks to the Pokémon lower its Defense stat but sharply raise its Speed stat.
New Moves: Curse, Pain Split
HP: 100
ATK: 140(+15)
DEF: 110(+10)
SP.ATK: 55(0)
SP.DEF: 130(+45)
SPEED: 65(+30)
Ever met someone who would not stop working, even if it were for the better, 'cause they were too tired to be productive? Someone who overdoes it, and ends up not caring if they should take it easy? Well, Mega Mudsdale does just that. Mudsdale is, for sure, a true Hardworker. It works so hard that even if the layer of hardened mud protecting it starts to crack, it keeps on going, not stopping until its task is complete! Weak Armor makse for an interesting combination with Stamina - you can take hits before mega evolving, to increase your defense, giving you opportunities to use your Weak Armor later. This one is quite simple, but i'd say also quite fun, due to how the base and Mega formes contrast with each other, without actually holding each other back. Not as if anything could hold Mudsdale back!
1616637810161-png.325790
:ss/mudsdale:

New Ability: Water Compaction
Type: Ground/Water

New stats:
HP: 100
Attack: 125 ->135 (+10)
Defense: 100 ->140 (+40)
Special Attack: 55 ->85 (+30)
Special Defense: 85 ->105 (+20)
Speed: 35
(BST) 500 ->600

New moves
: Waterfall, Gunk Shot, Muddy Water
Description: Mudsdale covers itself in dirt that turns into hardened mud when hit by water.
Mega Mudsdale
type: Ground
Ability: victorious trot: this pokemon's own stat changes, positive or negative, dont matter.
New moves: outrage, last resort, overheat
hp: 100
attack: 145
def: 120
spatk: 75
spdef: 105
speed: 55 (plus 20 in all non hp stats)
bst: 600
"ancient writings from an empire in the aroma region talk about how king shandrona, grandfather of the great king vesryn, rode on the back of the sturdy mega mudsdale in battle, and how the aroma empire won every battle, no matter the odds. many have theorized that it wasnt just victini that made it possible for the endless streak of victories they had to happen."
(please yell at me if I messed anything up or missed anything!
edit: I did indeed mess something up and miss something - corrected The Main Mon's name in the spoiler!
edit 2: ack, I also accidentally listed the same sub twice! it was a collaborative sub two people shared, and I accidentally listed it once as both of them and again as just one of them XP
edit 3: added harmony96369's Mudsdale after it was fixed!


Reminder on Voting Rules

For a reminder, Megas for All uses a variation on instant runoff voting, meaning that it uses a systematic process of elimination to find the submission that's supported by the most people. This system takes into account both the total number of people who voted for the submission at all and how those people ranked it in relation to any other submissions that have not been eliminated.

Your votes should consist of however many submissions you like.​
Including a submission in your post at all is "voting for it," but you can vote for as many (or as few) as you want! It doesn't have to be exactly three.​
Your votes should also be ranked from most preferred to least preferred, just like they were in the previous system.​

It's also now acceptable to self-vote in first!​
One of the benefits of the new system is that you get less extreme an advantage from this and there's not as much room for one individual to swing the results dramatically in their own favor, so we can afford to loosen up the rules in that area.​
That said, I would still ask you to include at least two other people in your vote if one of your votes is for yourself (this was already in the rules before).​

Please make sure you tell inkbug if you edit your vote! He generally adds them to his list as soon as they're posted, so edits may go unnoticed. You can contact him on his profile here or on the Discord. C:​

Voting will last until 0:00 GMT on Saturday, the 3rd of April!

:exploud::krookodile::rillaboom::toxtricity-low-key:

Balance Changes Update

In addition to the voting phase of the current slate, I'm also here with another balance changes poll!

Mega_Dragonite_Icon.png
Mega Dragonite's nerf is still being ironed out - we did finally make some more progress by testing the nerf in a tournament recently, but it actually proved, ah, still pretty broken for completely different reasons (we wanted to lower its Speed, but then we had to put 30 points somewhere, so now it has excellent mixed offenses and turned out to be a defensive behemoth). The good news is that we know more than we have for the past several months, and we'll be working on further revisions in the future! but we've decided not to poll the changes so far or unban it at the present time, so please be patient for more updates!
Okay mostly I just wrote this section as an excuse to spam its icon more
Mega_Dragonite_Icon.png
Mega_Dragonite_Icon.png
Mega_Dragonite_Icon.png

Mega Dragonite is my favorite it's so cute


That aside, there are some more changes to various other Mega Evolutions that we'd like to put forward for a poll! All of these have been approved by their original submitters and the competitive council, so now it's up to you guys to make them happen by voting!

First up is a super minor change to :exploud: Mega Exploud! This is less for the sake of rebalancing and more an attempt to make its Ability more intuitive and consistent in its behavior, since it's something of an edge case among Abilities as it is.
In its current state, Seismic Scream lets Exploud do 60 BP of Ground-type damage to all adjacent Pokémon after using a sound-based move. This part is relatively normal, though it's admittedly not the most characteristic of an Ability and we're still working on improving the presentation of it so that it's easier to follow in battle, but it also follows a strange set of rules when it comes to deciding the damage category: no physical moves can activate the Ability at all, but the damage is special when it succeeds a special move and physical when it succeeds a status move.
We've agreed that it would be easier to communicate the Ability and generally more intuitive if the attack it made was always the same, so we'd like to make it always do physical damage regardless of what sound-based move Exploud uses to activate it. This was primarily to preserve the interaction with Screech, which is the main reason status moves resulted in a physical Seismic Scream in the first place (no particularly unique interactions rely on a special Seismic Scream), and it has pros and cons in terms of stat investment but isn't exactly a bad thing for attacking moves, either - getting to do damage of two different categories in the same turn is a natural extension of getting to do damage of two types in the same turn and comes with many of the same advantages.
This isn't likely to be a significant buff or nerf to Exploud, but it's a way to streamline the functionality of an Ability that could stand to be simplified, so it would be an appreciated change nonetheless!

Next up moderate reworking of :krookodile: Mega Krookodile's movepool based on some of our experiences when testing it.
First up, Parting Shot is generally agreed to be broken on Mega Krookodile and compress too many advantages into a single turn: pivoting out to a better matchup, protecting an ally from damage, potentially bringing in a Pokémon with Taunt or Defiant to prevent hazard control, and setting a layer of Spikes all in one entirely safe move. This move has seen enough testing and usage in tournaments and on the ladder that we're all pretty sure it just has to go.
As a much more minor change, submitter BitBitio has given his attention to the fact that Topsy-Turvy is a highly unusual and somewhat flavor-specific move that doesn't particularly match Krookodile at all, and after significant testing, it's proven more or less irrelevant to Krookodile anyway; since it's admittedly kind of a bizarre addition for flavor and hasn't proven practically relevant to its role at all, he's invited us to put to vote whether that should be removed as well.
Finally, while Parting Shot has proven to be a problem, BitBitio also made the alternative pitch of Memento as a more moderate alternative, and... honestly, I think everyone we asked was thrilled about this! Memento is an interesting but relatively unseen move that totally encapsulates Krookodile's current style of team support, momentum swings and, uh, "rudeness," providing similar opportunities to Parting Shot in inviting in teammates safely and even blocking Defog and Rapid Spin from slower users, while at the same time - crucially - only being usable once rather than being the most spammable part of its toolkit and constantly making hazard stacking easier for its team.
As a final note, the possibility is definitely also on the table to poll the addition of Sucker Punch on Krookodile in the future, but there hasn't been time to develop a clear consensus on this just yet. With that in mind, we're not making that particular change today, but everyone is encouraged to share their thoughts on this in the #balance-changes channel of the Discord!

:rillaboom: Mega Rillaboom is... a problem child in many ways, and we would like to address the problems it's been causing by giving it its second direct nerf. The idea of making a Mega Rillaboom so early in the mod was admittedly fraught from the start, and along with Dragonite, it's a rather unfortunate example of the reason we've been becoming increasingly strict on putting off certain already-strong Pokémon until later in the mod's lifespan.
With its own base form already being one of the most-used Pokémon in the mod and regarded by some as a mindlessly effective wallbreaker, it would have been difficult to compete with that directly - it's tough to strike a balance that's good enough to consider using (both over base Rillaboom and over any other Mega!) without being broken by taking what's strong about base Rillaboom and outdoing it.
This is illustrated by the relatively awkward position of Mega Rillaboom right now - its base form is so widely usable and dominating that an overwhelming majority of Rillaboom usage is non-Mega and relatively few people have even considered the Mega worth using (part of why it took so long to discover that it needed nerfing in the first place despite being one of the earliest submissions in the mod), but its recent uptick in usage has demonstrated that in the relatively rare cases when it is used, it's still unhealthy and has extremely limited counterplay in its own right; it's also dangerously capable of brute-forcing through conventional Rillaboom answers after a boost.
In a perfect world, we would probably just not have made a Mega Rillaboom until the Ubers metagame existed (and it's possible that we'll just rework my Mega Rillaboom when we get to that point), but since it already exists, we're going to do our best to tone it down and make it a healthier or at least tamer part of the metagame.
Also I feel like I should apologize because this was my own submission and one of my first times contributing to the mod
I'm sorry I messed it up so badly and even more so that the first nerf we made wasn't enough :'D

After some discussion on what exactly an appropriate stat nerf might be, we came to the conclusion that Mega Rillaboom should lose 30 points of its Attack, putting it at 135 (10 points higher than its base form) instead of 165 like it has now, in order to be less effective at breaking through would-be checks; in return, it was suggested that it be given 10 points of Speed, putting at base 95 (also 10 points higher than its base form) for more customizability in VGC where it is expected to be more relevant after the nerf (Arena Rock is even stronger there as it is), while the remaining 20 points would be thrown away into Special Attack.

Finally, :toxtricity-low-key: Mega Toxtricity (Low-Key Form) has been waiting for a nerf for some time, as it heavily abuses the residual damage from the poison it spreads passively and is highly effective at stalling for several turns due to its naturally high bulk, excellent defensive type and reliable recovery. While its Amped Form is nowhere near in need of a nerf, its role also doesn't rely nearly as much on the residual damage from Acid Rock and instead just uses the status to enable its moves if at all, so it was decided that directly nerfing Acid Rock would be the simplest and most effective way to nerf Toxtricity-Low-Key without unduly inhibiting Amped.
For reference, the current effect of the Ability is as follows:

On switch-in, this Pokémon poisons every Pokémon on the field. Pokémon with Soundproof are immune.​

The change we settled on is extremely simple - for poison inflicted through the Ability Acid Rock to do only half as much damage while behaving exactly the same as ordinary poison in every other way. Notably, the new Acid Rock - doing only 1/16 per turn instead of 1/8 - can effectively be canceled out by residual recovery such as Leftovers or Grassy Terrain, instead of outweighing it like before.
This version of the Toxtricity nerf has been playable in the side format M4A Submission Sandbox for quite some time, so it's been tested extensively and people are broadly happy with it after the change. If you're interested, you can still try it out yourself on Dragon Heaven by giving the item Nerfed Toxtricitite to a Toxtricity in the format M4A Submission Sandbox!

As usual, we will require at least a 60% supermajority in the poll to go through with the changes! That said, all of these changes have been approved unanimously by the competitive council and by their original submitters - this is just to check the public opinion before we go through with them!


This poll will last until the end of the voting phase, and the results will be announced at the same time as the winners! We'd love to have everyone's input on this, so please vote to let us know how you feel about it! C:

Future Plans

As previously announced, we will be going on a break for the next few weeks!

We plan to return to action with the artificial Pokémon-themed slate suggested by shinxthe17! by the end of the month, beginning with :silvally: Mega Silvally and :golurk: Mega Golurk and probably voting (closer to that time) on a third Pokémon to take the place of Porygon-Z, then featuring :porygon-z: Mega Porygon-Z itself as part of the following slate, and finally doing the recently-voted slate of :decidueye::incineroar::primarina: the Alola region's starter Pokémon as the third in line after that. C:
Incidentally, there's a bit of a for-fun, low-stakes creative exercise that's still planned for early in this break as we wind down, but it's not something that will significantly affect the mod's future, so we don't expect it to be super taxing and it'll just be considered part of the break!

There are also (optimistically) going to be more tournaments, VR and VL updates, potentially balance changes and perhaps some improvements to the random battles format, so stay tuned for updates on the Discord! (The Teambuilding Competition run by Hematemesis has also recently been revived, and that's being held on the Discord as well!)
That said, this break is also an opportunity for us to come back down from the high level of activity while we were PMOTS so that we can focus on our personal obligations and breathe for a bit, so it's also important to recognize that most of us will need space - we won't necessarily be cramming every day with exciting events like we did for our winter break, haha.
 
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Hey guys, I stayed up about as much as I normally do cause I was going to wait for the post, and yeah basically its time to vote

Mudsdale:As the most recent horse introduced, I think this one should be voted for first, and I've got a little bit to say before I do, yeah I don't really have anything to say but still
I'm voting for
Bitbitio:Bitbitio is the only one that I feel really good about with the dual type submissions, I myself believe that they should be monotype. But Bitbitios submission is the consolation I'll make because its really damn cool, and well utilizes the ground fighting typing.
KeroseneZanchu:This is pretty simple, I just like simple mudsdale, I don't think its the coolest but I like it
Paulluxx:Out of principle I don't vote for myself first, but I'm pretty proud of this one even if I built it in the space of like 20 minutes. Thanks to Hematite for perfecting the way it works flavorwise though.

Rapidash:As the oldest horse, I'm voting for this one second, as most real life elections go. You want the youngest candidate to win, but the old one usually wins. I do have to say that this is my sisters favorite pokemon, so if you guys vote wrong, I'll get a psycho teenage girl to kill you.
I'm voting for

Dr.

Pump

No I shouldn't no,

No
n



nooo


Paulluxx:I'm sorry guys, I had to break my own principle, but I really like this one, its very powerful, but its a support mon with a lot of interesting uses in VGC, and as a not metadefining but super interesting singles mon, as sort've the inverse but not enemy of Mega Slowking

Dr Pumpkinz: I'm a big admirer of the work of the Doctor, his style of posts are always fun to read, and I do love his Competitive, no wait, not competitive. Defiant rapidash, sick statspread, interesting use of abilities, overall pretty sick.

I completely forgot that I had to vote for one more person and that person is my dude
Hematemesis: Bridle veil is too good to pass on, I like it :)




Zebstrika: The zebra has never been a favorite of mine, I mean I didn't sub for it but damn, there were 2 subs that were super sick



VAJRA(Blueray, and Josjet)


Mad props to my man Blueray, and Josjet for this idea, its super sick, and y'know, its way better than nearly every other idea on this list, with the electric type pursuit, and the reference to the Hindu mythology(funny callback to last slate) really liked this one.


Hematite:I am a big fan of the seismic scream, and bringing it together with a Zebra Zeigh and some of the coolest coverage, is super cool



Thanks for reading :)
Just wanted to add later, the hematite line is a pun, mixed with a rhyme, Its not just me calling it cool even if it is cool
 
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Voting time lets gooooo

Ausma
abismal
DrPumpkinz
MegaFlareon
Inkbug
Hematemesis
Fratelli bc
zxgzxg
War Incarnate
I-Deepblue-I

Hematite
War Incarnate
StarFalcon555
KerosuneZanchu
DrPumpkinz
Ausma
kakaks
The Damned
EeveeGirl1380
Inkbug

MrFish777
Paulluxx
okispokis
BitBitio
abismal
Vipotis
I-Deepblue-I
lydian
Eeveegirl1380
ARandomPerson

and theres my votes! as for the artificial pokemon to take p-z's place, why not claydol? its pokedex entries talk about how its man made from pure clay. Other than that, have a good day all!
 
Rainbowdash: Vipotis, Ausma, Starfalcon555, Hematemesis, Exilas

Zecora: Kerosenezanchu, Ausma, Themainmon, Vipotis, Exilas

Big McIntosh: Themainmon, Kerosenezanchu, Fratelli bc, Pokemonkingalan, Zxgzxg
 
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