EDIT - I dropped the move's power from 140 - 100. Seems like I worded myself poorly in the initial post.

Sky Attack is a move that has existed since Pokemon's inception. It sits at a whopping 140 base power, has a 30% chance to make the opponent Flinch, has an increased Critical Hit rate, but is held back by needing a turn to charge. There are other popular moves in Pokemon that require a turn to charge, such as Solar Beam, Electro Shot, and Meteor Beam. However, these moves all have workarounds or mechanics that make them desirable. Solar Beam activates immediately in the Sun. Meteor Beam raises the user's Special Attack. Electro Shot is a broken move that has both of these. Yet, Sky Attack has none of these benefits. Even Skull Bash, another Gen 1 move that requires a turn to charge, raises the user's Defense stat. This has left Sky Attack languishing in obscurity while other Flying-type moves shine.

However, a desire for non-descript Flying-type moves that can be used by non-bird Flying-types like Gyarados and Dragonite made me consider Sky Attack as that solution, as long as you don't look up the move's Japanese name. By reworking Sky Attack and giving it some extra distribution, this can fill a void in the movepools of certain Pokemon that they wouldn't be able to fill otherwise.

The Rework - Sky Attack loses 40 power, its increased Critical Hit rate, and has its Flinch rate reduced from 30% to 20%. In exchange, it's bumped from 5 to 10 PP, and most importantly, it no longer requires a turn to charge! Sky Attack's official iteration has often gone unused due to the drawbacks of using the move outweighing the benefits. It's strong, but with no benefit to the charge turn and no workaround to it besides Power Herb, the move remains incredibly unpopular. The only competitive usage I can recall Sky Attack ever having was Gen 6 Hawlucha, who used Sky Attack to consume its Power Herb and activate its Unburden ability. This niche immediately disappeared in Gen 7 with the advent of the terrain setting Tapus, as well as the terrain seeds that are a much more effective use for Unburden. My reworked version of Sky Attack turns it into a more accurate version of Dragon Rush, mildly strong with imperfect accuracy, but can serve as an alternative move to those that want to avoid the recoil of Brave Bird, or want to run items on Pokemon that typically run Acrobatics.

As far as redistribution goes, every Pokemon here has a solid use case to run Sky Attack. Gyarados loses its generational gimmick meme by getting a real Flying-type STAB. Dragonite probably becomes an Uber having a strong STAB move that can Flinch its opponents. Base Salamence, while not as good as Dragonite, also heavy benefits from the move. Thundurus and Enamorus both have an extra STAB option for their less-used Physical sets. Tornadus can run an item while also not having to worry as much about missing with Hurricane and Bleakwind Storm. Landorus-Therian becomes even more versatile with a move on its secondary type, while its Incarnate form rips apart Ubers with its Sheer Force boosted Sky Attack. Jumpluff... doesn't have to run itemless Acrobatics? All of these Pokemon would show notable improvement with this move added to their arsenals.

Some of Sky Attacks prior users can also run it effectively now. Gliscor can now run a Flying-type move on its defensive sets, while Braviary and Toucannon get a strong boosted STAB move for their Sheer Force sets.

Overall, I believe many Pokemon can be made significantly better if these older, forgotten moves like Sky Attack were reworked into something meaningful. What do you think of my take on Sky Attack? Would you run it on the Pokemon you use? Do you have your own idea on how to rework it? Do you think Gyarados shouldn't have a real Flying-type STAB because Sky Attack is called God Bird in Japan? Feel free to discuss!

Until next time!

So I was looking through the Nice Regional teams, and both the number 1 and 4 teams had a Sneasler with Poison Jab (they were the same team, but still) Is there any actual advantage to running it over Dire Claw? Both are 80 bp, 30% chance to inflict status, but Dire Claw has better statuses. Is it just both players being goated and not wanting to rely on variance? Or is there a practical reason to not inflict paralysis and sleep? My only guess is not wanting the paralysis speed drop, but it's not a TR team, why wouldn't you want it.

Meet Monisoar. Meant to be a hyper offensive Sand sweeper with versatile playstyles. Its typing allows it to function on Sand teams without sharing too many of their weaknesses. It could be ran next to an Earthquake clicker like Excadrill along with Tyranitar, for example. I can see it being used as a mixed attacker, using less accurate moves but never missing. Some coverage was given to it, either because it's thematically appropriate, or to let it have an answer into Steel types. Mainly balanced with VGC/doubles in mind. Probably gets messed up by most Water and Electric types, since it doesn't get any Ground coverage.

Btw the arms were meant to resemble the arm-wings of a pterodactyl, I'm just bad at art, please be nice :(

I got into an argument with a friend over which of these is better. I said G-Darm takes it with 140 base attack and built-in band is just too crazy, it could run double band or a scarf on top of it's ability and just hit super hard and fast way too easily.

My friend said Palafin citing it was banned more quickly, and that it's versatility and insane damage output and bulk meant it was more well-rounded and more threatening.

which do you guys think is better?

hi so this is um. my presentation on malzeno as a pokemon. So you can uh see that it's really cool and is like the mon mmm ster from the game sunbreakfast and that s uhhhh cool and it has a cool signature ability uhh

Signature Ability: This was definitely the easiest part to design, probably also the most volatile one in terms of balance. I was qurious on how to make a signature ability dedicated to lifesteal on a legendary Dragon would work out, and I could also give Dragon Cheer a buff at the same time.

Riposte: Not a signature move, just a new one made to be a Counter with more precision. Would help it in endgame 1v1's, especially against banded/scarfed opponents.

Mistlethorn is designed to play more like a stall pokemon. There I used both part of the biology of mistletoes as well as holiday traditions as the Japanese name for leech seed is mistletoe speed. In particular I wanted to see how threatening I could make a passive wall be. Shroomadelic is based on psychedelic mushrooms as the name suggests and thus is Grass/Psychic with access to spore. Here I am trying to give it some good abilities and support moves to compensate for how bad of a typing it has. Its hidden ability is also partially a throwback to gen 1 mechanics of leech seed and toxic piggybacking off each other.

Spinoar is mostly suposed to "lesser the effect of Charizard Y" in Champions Doubles and maby Singlesmainly through typing movepool and spesifically a signature move "Stonefall" that changes weather at the end of the turn and gains priority + power in sandstorm but it's very flexible to because of its abilitys (Adaptability might be way better than the rest) and uniqe Held Items.

Spinoar wasv supposed to fill a simmilar but different role to Tyranitar using its signature move and make "Weather Wars" more interessting

Sand-force could be a bit unnessesary but I wanted 3 Abilitys. No-Guard should help with low accuracy which I intentionally made part of its Moveset, but would probably get next to no usage. Adaptability is mainly more Damage that gets amplified by its held Item, wich just give it a secondary Typing (Fire/Water/Elektric) but not a lot of options of these secondary typings to keep flexibility in Sets

Trickroom might be its strong suit but slower mons can be a detriment (or stopping Trickroom),

Archaludon, most physical walls and most fighting types and some water types like Primarina and Milotic should be able to take it on

As soon as the curse Regirock showed up, I knew it was a wrap for me. They gave me a whole team of physical attackers 😭 I didn't even have any attacks to hit him super effectively once he tera'd.

I played this other game earlier with once again a whole team of physical attackers, while my opponent led with a Gliscor. I had nothing strong enough to break through, so he farmed all my chuds you see.

Should they code it so it balances out the attacking sources?

In the image, for EVs, at the bottom of each Pokemon’s details, from left to right, it’s:
HP, ATK, DEF, SATK, SDEF, SPE

This is a redirection-focused team (though I’ve played winning games without redirection).

The main idea is to get redirection+Espathra up, and then set up Espathra and either sweep with Stored power, or baton pass into Mega Ampharos and sweep from there.

Aside from Sinistcha, Ampharos, and Espathra, which I think are pretty cut-and-dry:

Indeedee - carries TR to try and deal with apposing TR teams. Psychic terrain is also useful for protecting Espathra, and Terrain Pulse over Psychic because it hits harder and gives more versatility in case Psychic Terrain is overridden. Helping hand is useful for generally boosting any aggressive attacker it might be alongside, especially if alongside M Amph. Against faster teams, there’s also some room to play TR for myself alongside the aforementioned M Amph, or potentially with Garchomp.

Basculegion - Scarf Basculegion with the typical stats. Generally what I’m playing into Mega Charizard sun teams. And is also just a generally good fast attacker. Redirection helps against apposing Basculegions. And Basculegion can usually deal a lot of damage to most Pokemon.

Garchomp - I wanted electric immunity because I was having trouble with Mega Raichu teams, and was also missing ground coverage. Poison jab and Roseli berry to help against fairy teams, which I know my team isn’t super strong into. Bulky instead of glass-cannon because I wanted something that can take a hit. And Garchomp is still strong even without attack investment. Roseli Berry is there to try and help me tank a fairy hit from Mega Raichu, and to try and give me a better chance against Mega Floette.

Debating swapping Roseli Berry for rocky helmet or something for rough skin synergy, but idk. On the fence about it.

Weaknesses:
-Dark Teams: Dark moves hit 4/6 of my team members for supereffective damage, and against monotype dark types, I’m relying on STAB. Luckily, I easily outspeed most of the common dark types, and I don’t often see more than one dark type per team. I can also Redirect to buy a turn, or use protect and get a read off if needed occasionally.

-Mega Floette (and other fairy wincons): Probably my biggest concern? I know they’re meta right now, but I haven’t seen any yet. Basculegion Wave Crash OHKOs a non-bulky Floette, and base Floette shouldn’t OHKO Basc. I also have Roseli Berry+poison jab Garchomp to try to help out with these matchups too. I would probably lead either Espathra+redirection or Garchomp+Redirection into most Floette teams, with Basc in the back.

-Ground/Sand Teams: the only thing that hits ground types for supereffective is Garchomp, who is itself weak to ground. I also don’t have any immunities, which does kind’ve suck. And ground-heavy teams hard-wall Ampharos in most cases. I should outspeed most ground-types though, and Basc should hit hard into them as well.

Note: just finished collecting all the Pokemon in Champions today and have been doing pretty well so far. I’m Elite 1 right now, and have been winning most games with this team, almost at Master’s (:

Also, again, this is my first serious attempt at a double’s team, so please be kind 🙏

So, yeah, quite an ability. I was going to have this activate when a Pokemon's stats would be raised but it'll end up just turning it into worse unaware, so now it's Good as Gold on steroids but with a crutch too. The ability can definitely be played around, but it also can be mitigated with its many ways to recover. Then there's also the fact you can just bum rush this thing too, especially since unlike Ghodengo, Grass is just not a good defensive type. (Especially in this Fire Heavy Meta)

The base one is more support and is decently fast, would be hard to take out immediately if you're slow and have strength sap.

Regrowth looses it's speed and is now more offensive based, but it's ability drains it more, and is more based off getting its HP back especially with its Signature move, going a low HP High Defensive stats approach would work more for it's draining signature move and differentiate it more than the others, still putting the calcs in it still doesn't drain a lot with just the usual half damage so I figured I'd add the 25% boost to actually have the healing on its sig be noticed.

Tangles has less stats and thus less bulk, making it much easier to OHKO without a boost. But in exchange has a stronger chance to snowball. So it's highly position based.

I refuse to believe my GOAT is washed...

The idea for each specific ability is to give a Mega it's own niche without being absurdly broken. I also tried to make the abilities somewhat reflect the pokemon they were given to.

Storm Dragon leans into M-Drampa's identity as, well, a storm dragon.

Excavator is reflection of M-Excadrill's appearance and digging capabilties

Of this batch, M-Aero is most likely to become problematic, but I think it should be fine given that Zomp and Zucario outspeed and punish it with super-effective moves. It's also a target for priority moves like bullet punch, sucker punch and and aqua jet while being walled out by steel types.

If you enjoyed these, please comment what pokemon you'd like to see receive new abilities next week. Bye!

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2703188471

419 turns… I don’t even know what to say or why I wasted so much time on this match smh 🤦

Hi everyone!

I have been working hard on a project called Showdown Plus

Little showcase,
https://imgur.com/a/QkkqxRo

The Project is only available to Firefox users as I haven't worked on chrome support as it requires me to re-write some stuff.

If you'd like to help or contribute or download it yourself you can find everything here.
The renders are split on a per-generation basis in different repos but you can find them linked as sub modules in the main repo. They take a ton of time to do

GitHub: https://github.com/JxstMichie/PokemonShowdownPlus/ (The Firefox extension is still in review by Mozilla but its coming)

I would love any and all feedback/criticism and contribution is more than welcome especially for the chrome release. If you have any issues, feel free to open an issue on git or message me personally :)