Dropping in real quick to remind you that this slate's playtesting roomtour will be tomorrow at 4 PM EST on DragonHeaven!
To help you teambuild with all the new stuff, I've made a couple pastes of new potential viable sets from the last two slates, which can see below:
Slate 7
Slate 8
That's all for now, see you tomorrow!
The lack of Coil Milotic here sickens and disgusts me. /s
Seriously, thanks. This is useful as someone who already managed to forget that both Blunt Force and Shield Dust won just last slate, to say nothing of Wash Away. It also means I don't "have" to be as long-winded going over the recent distribution, which like last couple of I've rather liked overall. I mean, I will be, but I don't "have" to be.
SLATE 08 DISTRIBUTED MOVES:
Brick Break:
FIFA Bunny didn't already have this? ...What. Was it too busy rolling around and faking an injury from High Jump Kick to ever learn it?
Psychic Fangs: Oh gods, I've become one of those people who ended up buffing
Moonmoon. What have I become? What's next? Accidentally buffing
Sneasler?
Sledgehammer Blow: Ignoring the Steels who got it--R.I.P.
Perrserker and R.I.H.
Jirachi--and focusing on the non-Steel mons, I'm unsure which one it benefits the most (relatively speaking). I was going to say
Conkeldurr, whose ugly headed self I thought got Iron Head but apparently not, as a slightly stronger alternative to Poison Jab that trades exploding
Ninetales-Alola and
Mimikyu for hitting Milotic only neutrally, but
Crawdaunt might appreciate it more as someone who likes being able to hit Water/Fairy at least neutrally now with something besides Metal Claw (or the meme Choice Specs set that uses Sludge Bomb). Also implicitly seeing
Crabominable on that list makes me somewhat regret not making this a Fist move, especially since
Lucario missed out. Oh well.
Desert Storm: Even with its apparent current issues, I know I'm going to forget this is a physical move tomorrow and get destroyed for it somehow despite it thus being susceptible to Intimidate and even Burn I imagine.
Dragon Rage: Of the mons who don't get STAB, ironically non-Sheer Heart now-Fairy
Milotic might use this best. That or
Dondozo of all things just because of its sheer stupid bulk (and ignoring SpD boosts unless they're contributing to Stored Power).
Rage: Given how it has been treated over the years since like Gen 01, can you code this so
Flareon always does like double damage with this and ignores Ghost immunity unless it's
Gengar and family, Yoshiblaze? Joke aside, this might actually be nice for it with Fur Coat at least.
Latent Venom: Regenerator mons obviously make the best usage of this, with
Glowking making the best of it probably since Chilly Reception is busted like that. Still, this might be nice on
Okidogi too since it got just Parting Shot, and of the three non-Poison mons,
Gliscor's obnoxious self can doubtless use it well since it actually doesn't have 100% Toxics for all that it hits them without fail and has STAB Earthquakes to destroy the two naturally immune types;
Trevenant can probably use it decently even if it needs a bit of luck with Harvest and probably not in OU, and poor
Pincurchin still wishes it actually got Volt Switch but always wishes that anyway.
SLATE 08 ABILITIES:
Blaze / Torrent / Overgrow: Despite not being given to any new mons, these should be good at least a few of the starters, though Blaze was ironically the one highlighted while only the other two had occurred to me. After all, Torrent boosts Snipe Shot's damage for
Inteleon after it needed to lose Sniper, which is nice for it without necessarily outclassing...Outclass (until it somehow falls into crit range without exploding...while it Rains), and Overgrow at least benefits the similar always crit Flower Trick for the similarly frail
Meowscarada too.
Swarm: Probably the least impactful of all the abilities that won, which is why I'm glad it was grouped with the above, between a combination of almost everything that got it already having better abilities, having no boosting field effects like the others have Sun, Rain, and Grassy Terrain respectively, and Bug being the worst attacking type by far of the four types just boosted (and, in the case of
Ariados and
Spidops, being stuck with terrible stats). The best users are almost assuredly the ones who have U-Turn (doubly R.I.P. Ariados though that wants Battle Spines anyway), so
Vikavolt (and
Charjabug) and, of all things,
Scizor seem like the best users of it at a glance since it works as a generic boosting move for the Electric/Bugs and boosts Scizor's important Bug moves besides Bug Bite while Technician also "only" really cares about Bug Bite, Bullet Punch, and the rare Dual Wingbeat as far as moves that Scizor actually uses (now that it has Knock Off again and can stop using Thief). Hmmm.... [/clearly not planning anything]
Fairy Ringer: Glad to see this went to at least some mons that can make use of the SpA boost too even if the Fairy-absorption is obviously the bigger deal here. And yeah,
Umbreon is the biggest winner and I feel stupid for not thinking of that, probably because it actually used Synchronize unlike
Espeon's frail self, which wouldn't drop Magic Bounce for anything short of Magic Guard or Sheer Heart anyway; Fairy Ringer is definitely better for it than Synchronize though, going back to pre-Gen 06 weaknesses. I also feel dumb for not considering
Breloom as the mushroom mon in question at all, being so focused on the SpA boosting. Otherwise it's also a strict upgrade from Cute Charm for
Clefable, an interesting sidegrade that's mostly a buff for
Mismagius (and Hand Mirror now exists anyway), and another funny defensive option for
Ursaluna that actually blocks Moonblast unlike that fraudster Bulletproof. A shame that we can't save
Chimecho or
Noctowl with basically anything we give them, but they're at least better now. (Also a bit of a shame that
Flutter Mane didn't get this since I really can't see that mon ever getting unbanned via a slate, especially at this point, since it would have to be gutted harder than anything else, including
Spectrier which at least can be a package deal with buffing
Glastrier. Then again, if there's ever a VaporeMon Ubers, it probably would have just made Flutter Mane (Hand) mirrors even more obnoxious, so meh.)
Justified: Huh. I didn't consider giving this to
Charcadet and family at all, so that's nice. While
Honchkrow makes sad and affronted noises over (justifiably) not getting it, it does make sense on
Corviknight...even if every slate I get slightly more and more "glad" that the OU meta is so bad for that thing this Gen, due almost solely to
Captain String Cheese, even in this Pet Mod still despite all the (implicit) buffs it's gotten between Shrapnel Shot. Mud Wash, and now this among a few other things. It has shades of
Melmetal in the first half of Joltemons except thankfully nowhere near as strong. (Also, yeah, Justified is at least something nice for
Iron Leaves. Too bad poor
Virizion seems cursed whether it's fully organic or techo-organic since it gets Dark-Absorbing Justified during the same Slate where two different abilities that promote even more U-Turns to happen also won. Whoops.)
Momentum: I still don't fully understand this ability, but I also still don't fully get Counteract I'm sure, so I guess that I'll see how Momentum bodies me tomorrow in some way. At least all the mons it went to sense even if there's no saving
Glalie, especially now that
Froslass just won by herself, and even if seeing
Brambleghast there feels ever so slightly like a cruel joke. [/Gen 09 Sand curse continues :(] Here's hoping, if this has to exist now, it finally makes
Revavroom worth a damn (though I doubt it).
Brick Break:

Psychic Fangs: Oh gods, I've become one of those people who ended up buffing


Sledgehammer Blow: Ignoring the Steels who got it--R.I.P.








Desert Storm: Even with its apparent current issues, I know I'm going to forget this is a physical move tomorrow and get destroyed for it somehow despite it thus being susceptible to Intimidate and even Burn I imagine.
Dragon Rage: Of the mons who don't get STAB, ironically non-Sheer Heart now-Fairy


Rage: Given how it has been treated over the years since like Gen 01, can you code this so


Latent Venom: Regenerator mons obviously make the best usage of this, with





SLATE 08 ABILITIES:
Blaze / Torrent / Overgrow: Despite not being given to any new mons, these should be good at least a few of the starters, though Blaze was ironically the one highlighted while only the other two had occurred to me. After all, Torrent boosts Snipe Shot's damage for


Swarm: Probably the least impactful of all the abilities that won, which is why I'm glad it was grouped with the above, between a combination of almost everything that got it already having better abilities, having no boosting field effects like the others have Sun, Rain, and Grassy Terrain respectively, and Bug being the worst attacking type by far of the four types just boosted (and, in the case of





Fairy Ringer: Glad to see this went to at least some mons that can make use of the SpA boost too even if the Fairy-absorption is obviously the bigger deal here. And yeah,











Justified: Huh. I didn't consider giving this to







Momentum: I still don't fully understand this ability, but I also still don't fully get Counteract I'm sure, so I guess that I'll see how Momentum bodies me tomorrow in some way. At least all the mons it went to sense even if there's no saving




Short of my computer or myself ceasing to (pretend to) function tomorrow, I will be around to get bodied. Should be fun. See you then.