RicePigeon

Link: http://ricepigeon.webs.com Byakuren changelist: 2014.05.07 Yukari changelist: 2014.04.19 Lie Meiling changelist: 2014.04.19

Eviolite killed the Blissey star.

Levitate would ruin its niche as a Steel Trapper though (although Aegislash and losing Dark & Ghost resistances already kinda did that). Then again, a Mega Evo would give it back the speed that it lost when it evolved from Magneton... And it already does a fine job at neutering Skarmory and Ferrothorn

Dugtrio was used in previous generations (namely Gen 3 and Gen 5) as a trapper to either eliminate certain threats, notably steel types, or to revenge kill. Since Priority is everywhere this gen, coupled with the fact that it cannot trap Aegislash courtesy of Ghost types being immune to Arena Trap this gen, Dugtrio is more of a liability. Magnezone is typically better at trapping opposing Steel types not named Aegislash anyway, but even then, Excadrill and Bisharp still give it problems, and (Mega) Scizor can always escape with U-turn and outspeed variants of Magnezone with no Speed investment, though HP Fire still takes a chunk out of even bulky variants: 252+ SpA Magnezone Hidden Power Fire vs. 248 HP / 104 SpD Mega Scizor: 260-308 (75.8 - 89.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock 252+ SpA Choice Specs Magnezone Hidden Power Fire vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Mega Scizor: 432-512 (125.9 - 149.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO Offensive variants of Mega Scizor will always outspeed and can OHKO with Superpower with either hazards set up or after a swords dance boost: 252+ Atk Mega Scizor Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 282-334 (81.9 - 97%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock 252+ Atk Mega Scizor Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 282-334 (81.9 - 97%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes It should be worth noting that while Magnezone can't switch in to Bisharp directly, it can revenge kill or come in on a predicted Sucker Punch and KO a weakened Bisharp as long as it doesn't have any attack boosts (Bisharp will most likely use Knock Off to remove the specs and avoid a OHKO): 252+ SpA Magnezone Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 217-256 (79.7 - 94.1%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock 252+ SpA Choice Specs Magnezone Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 324-382 (119.1 - 140.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO 252+ Atk Black Glasses Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 172 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 150-177 (46.2 - 54.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock 252+ Atk Black Glasses Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 172 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 181-214 (55.8 - 66%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock EDIT: For what its worth, a Timid Magnezone with max speed investment will always outspeed Bisharp (Jolly Bisharp simply isnt used) and score a OHKO with specs Thunderbolt, but the power drop is noticeable against other Pokemon.

Its ability was already confirmed to be Clear Body a while back, though.. More Theorymonning time... Mega Hydreigon Dark/Dragon -> Dark/Dragon 92/105/90/125/90/98 -> 92/135/100/165/110/98 Levitate -> Tri-React* Tri-React: Base Power of attacking moves is reduced to 40%, but hits three times Something me, Xan, and Arpa came up with in Skype last night. Looking at its ability, it's basically the infamous Mega Kangaskhan's Parental Bond, but with an overall damage increase of 20% as opposed to 50%, with the ability to hit 3 times. Backed by a base 165 Sp.Atk stat, Mega Hydreigon remains as a proficient wallbreaker. The main draw, however, is that like Mega Kangaskhan's deadly combination of Parental Bond and Power-up Punch, Mega Hydreigon can make use of Tri-React and Charge Beam to gain as much as +3 towards its already high Sp.Atk, further bolstering its wallbreaking capabilities. Unlike Power-up Punch, however, Charge Beam does not have perfect accuracy, and the Sp.Atk boost only has a 70% chance of occuring rather than PuP's 100% boost rate. Factoring in accuracy, however, Mega Hydreigon's Charge Beam has a 87.57% chance of gaining at least 1 Sp.Atk boost, a 70.56% chance of gaining at least +2 Sp.Atk per use, and a 30.87% chance of gaining all three Sp.Atk boosts. A +2 Sp.Atk Mega Hydreigon is nothing to scoff at, easily taking care of many of OU's walls and defensive Pokemon, and +1 can pull its weight around as well: Offensive Calcs Unlike Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Hydreigon does not have access to any priority move, making it susceptible to being revenge killed by faster offensive threats, including Dragons, Fairies, and Fighting-types, and priority moves such as Ice Shard, Mach Punch, and Gale Wings Brave Bird, though it can comfortably take Sucker Punch. Though it may be able to 2HKO Unaware Clefable and OHKO Mega Mawile and Azumarill, Mega Hydreigon wants to avoid fairy-type attacks at all costs. Defensive Calcs

He already posted a trailer for Impossible Spellcard (14.3) on his Youtube channel, which features Seija as the sole playable character, so hes not dead just yet.

Must really hate that defective ipad doesnt he?

At least you dont run Swagplay cookie cutter teams :p

I think the list applies to Singles almost exclusively though...

And that's what I get for doing a battle format that I'm completely unfamiliar with...

4JCW-WWWW-WWW6-PYBA Testing out a new Poke and more pressure stall feat Zapdos and Choice-locked Gastrodon. :p

It exists. It may have been a gen 5 japan-exclusive event, but it still exists, and is certainly tradeable. And its not like Raichu doesn't get 132 base power electrilate-boosted Return....

I came up with a similar spread of 85/145/130/79/103/88 and Tough Jaw instead of Tough Claws. Retains similar bulk while also being faster. I'll post calcs as soon as I can. In the meantime, here's a little something I'm surprised not even the mascot of the series got: Mega Raichu Electric/Electric Electrilate* 60/90/55/90/80/110 -> 60/130/65/130/90/110 *Electrilate: Boosts the power of Normal-type moves by 30% and changes them into Electric-type. While Raichu's defense doesn't improve by much, it gets a much needed boost to its offensive potential, while still maintaining its 110 base speed. With 130/130 offenses, Raichu can function as either physical, special, or even mixed attacker. Physical Attacker Mega Raichu @ Raichite Static -> Electrilate Extremespeed Knock Off Substitute / Return Focus Punch / Encore 4 hp / 252 atk / 252 speed Jolly / Adamant With Electrilate, M.Raichu's Extremespeed and Return become 104 and 132 base power physical electric-type attacks, respectively. Extremespeed allows it to hit hard while outspeeding all common priority users such as Talonflame, Azumarill, and Bisharp, hitting the former 2 for super effective damage, as well as breaking the speed tie against Keldeo, becoming an excellent tool for scoring revenge kills. Return can also be used to hit slower threats for more damage. M.Raichu can utilize SubPunch, which provides it with near unresisted coverage in conjunction with Knock Off, which is an excellent move in general to punishing switch ins by removing their item. Damage Calcs: Special Sweeper Mega Raichu @ Raichite LightningRod -> Electrilate Nasty Plot Thunderbolt / Thunder Hidden Power (Ice) Focus Blast 4 hp / 252 sp.atk / 252 speed Timid With 130 base Sp.Atk, M.Raichu can come in on anything that it can force out and begin hitting extremely hard. Thunderbolt is its primary stab, although Thunder can be used if used on rain teams. Hidden Power Ice takes out the likes of Dragon types such as Garchomp and Dragonite, as well as Gliscor and both Landorus formes. Focus Blast takes care of threats such as Tyranitar, OHKOing even Assault Vest variants in the sand after a Nasty Plot boost, as well as Heatran, Ferrothorn, and non-Scarfed Excadrill. Damage Calcs:

Except Mega Evolutions always add a total of 100 to the BST (except Mega Alakazam, which only adds 90). You still have 30 points left unused.

Okay, so time to bring more theorymonning into discussion. Gardevoir got a Mega Evolution, but Gallade gets shafted? Doesn't this seem weird to anyone else? Mega Gallade Psychic/Fighting Tough Claws 68/125/65/65/115/80 -> 68/175/85/65/115/110 With its "new" Mega Evolution, it patches up Gallade's speed, which has plagued it in the past. It can now outspeed certain key threats including, but not limited to, Terrakion, Keldeo, both Mega Charizards, Garchomp, both Landorus formes, and Manaphy, while forming a speed tie with Latios, Latias and Gengar. Its frail 65 base physical defense has been slightly patched, while his attack stat reaches 175, the 4th highest in the game. With Tough Claws, most of Gallade's physical movepool becomes even more dangerous with a 30% damage buff, including Close Combat, Shadow Sneak, Knock Off, Ice Punch, and Zen Headbutt, all in combination with Swords Dance turns Gallade into a promising sweeper capable of manhandling many S-rank and A-rank threats in OU:

Not to mention one time use. Unless you can OHKO the Swagger user (which probably wont happen with the likely Substitute) it's not worth it. The only real users of Own Tempo that are actually viable in OU are Smeargle, Slowbro and Slowking, and latter two have access to the infinitely better Regenerator, while Smeargle doesn't do anything except set up hazards and die (followed by lol Defog) or use on Baton Pass chains, and does nothing to stop Paralysis.

The case for Swagger was that it was entirely luck based and makes the game uncompetitive. In previous generations this was much less of an issue. This gen, however, not only do we have Prankster (which was present in gen 5), we also have Klefki, who has an excellent defensive typing, who can abuse the strategy to no end. Incarnate Thundurus, who is now unbanned this gen, is probably the next best user after Klefki, who doesn't even need to rely on Substitute to block Paralysis now that his electric typing does that for him. Foul Play is only icing on the cake, and it gets even worse when you use a choice scarf Ditto as a revenge killer, as now not only do you outspeed your opponent thanks to scarf, but you now have a free +2 attack and possibly even more. Even without Prankster, Swagger by itself was more than a nuisance, especially when you have shit like a team with Swagger Meganium ranking at 1760 (the top 2% of all competitive OU teams) on Showdown. Magic Bounce is really the only way to deal with it, except all of the Magic Bounce users are frail and one of them cannot switch directly in without first using a turn to Mega Evolve. So not only is the strat entirely luck based, but its also overcentralizing, forcing you to utilize Pokemon that otherwise have no place in OU (the same situation was seen with Mega Kangaskhan, which forced people to carry Sableye, Cofagrigus, AND random Pokemon with Rock Helmet that would otherwise never use it).

You may want to consider flagging the recovery frames of Link's attacks. As they are now, they can create false positives in counterhit detection systems (ie: opponent scoring a hit on Link during the last few moments of his recovery frames and still getting the benefits of counterhit such as increased damage and hitstun when they shouldn't). The hitbox on his 5Z (s.HP) could be simplified. Imo, not only would this attack look better as an overhead instead of a regular normal, but the hitbox of the sword should be extended downward to the ground to better approximate the trajectory of the sword (not to mention it would avoid the whiff on crouching opponents). 5A (s.LK) has a high/mid hitbox, yet the hitdef classifies its ground.type as low. It looks awkward that the sword is hitting them in the head when the opponent's gethit anim suggests otherwise. In addition, the hitdef for 5A allows it to hit OTG, despite the fact that the hitbox will never allow it to do so except against really large characters. For a standing Normal, 5B (s.MK) hitting low feels awkward, especially when the move has a 3 frame startup. 2A (c.LK) and 2B (c.MK) both have gethit behavior for opponents that are lying down, but the moves can never hit OTG. Additionally, they doesn't cause fall, yet allows the opponent to recover from the fall? The blockstun on alot of his normals are significantly longer than the hitstun. His 5X jab, for example, is +1 on hit, but +11 on block. A few exceptions are his 5Z (+5H/+5B), 5A (-3H/-13B), 5B (-4H/-4B), and Launcher (+13 on block, which is way too safe if you ask me). Better, but a few of them still feel off. 5A, for example, is -3 on hit but -11 on block, which is kind of lengthy difference for a light kick. 2B and 2C (c.MK and c.HK, respectively) both whiff at point blank range I should note that 5A also has little to no knockback outside of the corner. Any reason why his forward throw throws the opponent backward and his backward throw throws the opponent forward? I should note that Link's launcher still causes fall if hitting an opponent already in a fall state (ie: 5C -> 2Z in corner. True, the opponent can recover out of this situation but...) Seems 5C cant be followed up with 2Z anymore. And as for new feedback: Guardspark on hookshot is misaligned. The pillar effect for the Hammer Smash, since its classified as an attack rather than a projectile, can cause some unintended behavior against anything using reversaldefs (which can ultimately end up creating clones of Link in some cases). Speaking of Hammer Smash, I don't see anything to differentiate between the three versions? Not a major issue, mostly just me nitpicking, but some extra variance between the three could spice things up. Also the attack feels a little too fast, though it would be fine for a light version I suppose. 381 damage for a level 1 on the spin attack seems WAY too high for a level 1. I know its highly unsafe on block, but when you compare it to the 481 damage caused by his level 3... Speaking of Triforce Slash, the super pause makes it have 0 startup frames, when its not even a grab.

Swagger is banned. Fuck Klefki.

MFFA is full of tyrants! :p On a more serious note, however, this is something I would expect from a place like IMT (lol, do they even still exist?) or MMV, not here.

Copypasta from MFG: You forgot the calc against Xerneas with Attrition's residual damage in effect: 0 SpA Titarnius Venoshock (130 BP) vs. +2 4 HP / 0 SpD Xerneas: 132-156 (33.5 - 39.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after trapping damage and poison damage Granted since you need to use Attrition first, its a 3HKO. With the calc you posted, the use of Attrition turns that into a 4HKO. Besides, its not like Xerneas can do anything back to you. Should also be noted that this thing really appreciates having Toxic Spikes support to make its job hella easier. You could even bait in a Defogger and switch to this thing just to trap them. Since the S-rank threats in ubers was covered, perhaps going over the A-rank ubers wouldn't be out of the question: A+ Rank A Rank

After talking to Xan on skype, we thought it would be a good idea to bring some theorymon discussion into the mix. To start off, the idea of an alternate Mega evolution for Gyarados (aptly referred to as Mega Gyarados Z) with Water Dragon typing came about. Following the tradition Gamefreak has done by making alternate Mega Evos physical/special (as seen with Mega Charizard X and Y as well as Mega Mewtwo X and Y), we came up with the following stat spread: Mega Gyarados Z Water/Dragon Adaptability 95/125/79/60/100/81 -> 95/105/109/140/100/91 Gyarados has quite an expansive special movepool, but only has a measly 60 base SpAtk to utilize it (70 in its official Mega Form). By giving it Adaptability in conjunction with a bolstered 140 SpAtk, it becomes a stupidly good wallbreaker, 2HKOing most defensive and bulky OU Pokemon with the exception of Chansey. Just to give an idea of this thing;s power: Being able to 3HKO Ferrothorn on the switch in with a stab water move is no small feat, and Fire Blast utterly destroys it. Thoughts?

Dan pretty much explained it before I could. Additionally, you may also want to put movecontact and movereversed as alternate triggers, unless the move hits more than once. Normals typically don't hit low unless its a crouching normal (though exceptions do exist, like Viper's s.LA in (U)MvC3) but even then, 3 frame startup feels too fast for a such a move, especially one that's a medium level Normal. 6 or 7 might be better values in this case, and you may want to provide a slight frame disadvantage or neutral frames as well (nothing too fancy, 0 on hit and -1, maybe even -2, on block should fit). Indeed they do. Hitstun = ground.hittime, Blockstun = guard.hittime. Generally, you want your Hitstun to always be equal to or greater than your Blockstun unless the move knocks down on hit.

Smogon's real March Useage statistics are up: Goodra, Volcarona, and Lucario all fell to UU. Hippowdon, Manectric, and Gardevoir are now OU. EDIT: I'm aware that Smogon uses 3 month statistics to determine tiers, but since January didn't have 1760 stats to use, these tier changes so far are unofficial afaik.