Mega Grapploct
New Ability: Limber /
Technician ->
Mimicry
Type: Fighting/
Water
New Stats:
HP: 80
Attack: 118 ->
148 (+30)
Defense: 90 ->
100 (+10)
Special Attack: 70
Special Defense: 80 ->
130 (+50)
Speed: 42 ->
52 (+10)
(
580 BST)
New moves: Bullet Punch, Flip Turn, Gunk Shot, Storm Throw
WE'RE FINALLY DOING THIS!!
This is an idea the two of us came up with together
ages ago
literally April of last year I can't believe it's been that long during a conversation about Mimicry, and we've been waiting for the longest time to have the chance to share it P:
The initial line of thinking was a question of "what type combination gets the most mileage out of Mimicry?" - we wanted a type combination that was pretty good on its own but really needed help against the dominant terrain setters and could use Mimicry to gain a defensive advantage.
Fighting/Water was our favorite candidate by far - it's weak to all four of Grass, Electric, Fairy and Psychic, but Mimicry changes these to
resistances to Grass under Grassy Terrain, Electric under Electric Terrain and Psychic under Psychic Terrain, effectively quartering their damage, while Fairy goes from a weakness to a neutrality but also isn't boosted by Terrain.
When I brought up that type combination's unusually major benefits from Mimicry, Kero pounced on it with the brilliant suggestion of
Grapploct, a Fighting-type Pokémon that lives in the water
and is a goshdarned octopus, which makes it easily the most flavorfully perfect candidate to combine Mimicry of all Abilities with Fighting/Water.
The next step was giving Grapploct the tools it needed do justice to its concept - to capitalize on both defensive Mimicry shenanigans and the most unique characteristics base Grapploct itself had to offer.
First of all, we had to make sure it could actually beat the terrain setters Mimicry was meant to help it with, and that's what Gunk Shot is for - we knew Grapploct couldn't rely on its STAB moves regardless, because it would never have STAB on them when facing the Pokémon Mimicry helps it to handle, so we wanted a strong move of a single type that wasn't harmed by Grapploct's loss of STAB and could hit as many relevant terrain setters as possible super effectively.
Enter
Gunk Shot, a 120 BP move (plenty to make up for the lack of STAB!) that hits Rillaboom and all four of the tapu for super effective damage. As Grapploct is, once again,
a goshdarned octupus, this is a super fitting move flavorfully and one it totally deserves, so it's pretty fun to make it into one of the most relevant tools for its role!
Next up,
Bullet Punch helps Grapploct to deal with faster (and often physically frailer) Fairy-types that pose a threat
while it's still Fighting/Water and pairs excellently with Bulk Up sets.
Normally, you'd think Bullet Punch isn't useful as coverage for Fairy-types in a meta where Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini see so much use
and Tapu Lele, for that matter, if it drops - after all, Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini aren't weak to Steel and Tapu Lele is outright immune to Bullet Punch. That's what makes Mega Grapploct so unique as a user of the move: the Fairy-types that have the least to fear from Bullet Punch are the ones that
don't have a type advantage on Grapploct, while the Fairy-types that Mimicry doesn't help Grapploct to resist are the ones that
have a weakness to Bullet Punch.
Flip Turn is a generally cool option on similar grounds - it's not meant to be directly anti-terrain by any means, but it's always an excellent option on a Water-type and suits Grapploct's character to a tee
(have you seen that thing move on Route 9--).
More importantly, though, both of these are
really cool moves to combine with Grapploct's signature
Octolock!
Bullet Punch lets Grapploct pick off a trapped opponent whose defenses have been lowered before it has the chance to pivot out unscathed, and the combination of priority, anti-Fairy coverage for everything but the tapu
(Grapploct isn't weak to the tapu's Fairy moves) and Octolock's Defense reductions to plenty to counteract its lack of raw power.
Meanwhile, Octolock + Flip Turn is a unique combination that capitalizes on Grapploct's new type and low Speed with its most exclusive tool - Octolock is hard to use supportively because Grapploct can only hard-switch out of a trapped opponent, which undermines its main benefit of forcing out a wall and easing ally setup, but introducing Flip Turn means pairing the move with
slow pivoting and allows an ally to come in safely on an opponent with reduced defenses, an incredibly unusual and dynamic spin on Parting Shot or Memento that puts a ton of immediate pressure on your opponent.
Lastly,
Storm Throw is a rare and interesting move that we added in the hopes that Mega Grapploct could have more of a niche in VGC! It may not have much to do with Mimicry or Octolock, but when it comes to a Water/Fighting-type...
-1 0+ Atk Grapploct Storm Throw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Incineroar on a critical hit: 174-206 (86.5 - 102.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
... it's pretty nice to be able to take down VGC overlord
Incineroar so effortlessly!
but wait, what about Mimicry? Surely it's unreliable to try to carve a niche out of an often-non-STAB move and a type combination you won't always have--
-1 252+ Atk Grapploct Storm Throw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Incineroar on a critical hit: 138-164 (68.6 - 81.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Haha nope! That's pretty great damage even without STAB!
Basically, Storm Throw is a way to
preserve the offensive advantages of the Fighting type in the format where that's most valued, even when Grapploct may not always have the type - because critical hits
ignore Intimidate, which is always relevant on Fighting-types in VGC, this very effectively compensates for the loss of STAB and makes Storm Throw easily its strongest move to target Incineroar regardless of the state of the field.
We have absolutely no ulterior motives relating to non-Mega Technician when we suggest adding any of the last three moves... none at all...
The next thing we considered was the stats, and we decided on a
bias towards Special Defense for a few reasons.
A large increase to Special Defense makes it easier for Grapploct to deal with Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini, the terrain setters against which it has the best matchup; it's especially useful since Fairy is the only terrain type that doesn't still resist itself, so Grapploct appreciates all of the help it can get against Tapu Fini... and this totally pays off!
Even completely uninvested, Fairy-type Grapploct handily avoids the 2HKO from 252 SpA Tapu Fini's Hydro Pump (its most damaging move), which frees it up to KO back with a Gunk Shot easily.
Speaking of Fairy-types, the Attack and Special Defense bias means Grapploct also 1v1s Clefable quite handily - no matter how you invest, and even without a terrain up, Grapploct always does more with Gunk Shot than it takes from Moonblast, and it can
very quickly get into OHKO territory if you get to +1, it's easy to Speed creep Clefable, and somewhat defensively-invested Grapploct even avoids the 2HKO from Moonblast
while Fighting-type.
For one example, 252 HP / 40+ Attack / 20 SpD / 68 Speed Grapploct is the most efficient spread I could find that can reliably 1v1 both Magic Guard and Unaware Clefable, either by clicking Gunk Shot twice or by clicking Bulk Up once and then Gunk Shot once as long as you know Clefable isn't Unaware.
And here's the thing...
that's only 380 of its EVs! It has 132 left to put wherever you want and ease whatever other matchups you want - we had customizability at the forefront of our minds with this spread, and it can tech for so many cool interactions!
Defense is slightly less valued here because Rillaboom, the most prominent physical terrain setter and Grassy Terrain user, still has U-turn to hit a Grass-type Grapploct super effectively if it needs
and also hits way freaking harder with Wood Hammer than it has ANY right to hit and barely recognizes single-resistances as a concept; Grapploct isn't going to want to
switch in on Rillaboom's moves to counter it anyway, and Mimicry is more useful to remove Rillaboom as a Grapploct answer than to make Grapploct a Rillaboom answer.
But that's not to say it doesn't have a surprisingly awesome edge against Rillaboom, and that edge once again comes from Bulk Up.
Put it this way:
if you get in your specially bulky Water/Fighting-type tank,
and your opponent immediately tries to switch to their best physically offensive answer to Water/Fighting as you click Bulk Up once,
and their monkey-brained Rillaboom
cannot answer it offensively after a Bulk Up,
Mimicry is doing its job... and check this out:
252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Wood Hammer vs. +1 8 HP / 0 Def Grapploct in Grassy Terrain: 135-160 (44.5 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
+1 0 Atk Grapploct Gunk Shot vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 372-438 (109 - 128.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Notice the 8 HP as the bare minimum investment for this interaction. That's only 8 of your EVs. 8 of them!!!!
Heheh... so yeah! Mimicry does its job. C:
The two of us are decidedly not fans of Rillaboom so we think that's pretty cool P:
In general, a specially bulky stat spread is highly effective to complement Grapploct's Bulk Up, which can naturally shore up any shortcomings in physical Defense. While some comically high amount of physical bulk
might help Grapploct switch in on Rillaboom, it's pretty extraneous and not really worth it; it's much more valuable to lean into Bulk Up's defensive utility and allow it to cover both sides at once.
As a closing note, remember that Grapploct
isn't using Mimicry to function as a terrain abuser but to
remain safe from opposing terrain setters that would otherwise interfere with its role. You're not meant to pair Grapploct with a tapu and somehow sweep - you're meant to use Grapploct for the utility and wallbreaking potential it has to offer on its own, and Mimicry is a unique way to improve its matchups against the Pokémon that would threaten it the most.
This is also why we avoided adding moves like Terrain Pulse and Nature Power, which have no relevant benefits for Grapploct - not only is Mega Grapploct a physical attacker, but for all of the same reasons that Mimicry helps it against opposing terrain (read: most terrain types are resistant to themselves), "against opposing terrain" is when these two type-changing moves are at their least effective.
In general, a Mega Grapploct set shouldn't be completely filled with anti-terrain techs - this is a Pokémon with a ton of cool move options like Bulk Up, Taunt, Drain Punch, priority coverage, and the incredibly cool combination of Octolock and Flip Turn, and we wanted to keep it free to make use of all of these options... so most importantly,
just have fun with this!
Mimicry, Gunk Shot and its stat spread are all it needs to be fearless of teams that rely on common terrain setters to deal with Fighting- and Water-types - the rest is up to you and how you want to use it, and it has three flexible slots with some super neat options to mix and match!
In short, this is
the coolest tech Mega with a crazy amount of customizability, and it relies on Mimicry for its defensive potential in a way that hasn't been properly explored
because freaking Galarian Stunfisk already resists Psychic and Fairy and is immune to Electric why does Mimicry make it actively worse at half of the terrains-- to create some
really interesting matchups as a setup tank.
also: consider running Octolock + STAB Dive if you're not a coward <3
Tsareena-Mega
