u/HasteMaster

Self-Imposed Rules:

-No OC Abilities

-No more than 45 stat points added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single

stat (Hard Rule)

-No Signature moves other than its own unless the signature move can be learned can be leared by at least two different Pokemon (Hard Rule)

-Make the Pokemon at Least UU (Soft Rule for Non-Legendary)

Why Tinkaton:

Funnily enough, this was actually my second choice for a Gen 9 mega, but there weren’t a lot of Flamigo mega designs floating around so I went with this.

Anyways, I remember when I saw that big hammer and thought this thing was gonna have a massive ATK stat, only to be let down when it was revealed to have a middling one. Stellar design and a good BST, but its abilities are so-so and its actual Stat Spread is so strangely distributed that I have to wonder what GameFreak was smoking when they made it like this.

Anyways, I buffed its ATK to match that gigantic hammer, buffed its speed since its design now has it fly, and gave it a good boost to its DEF so that it now has great well rounded bulk overall. Really simple set of changes here.

Why Levitate/The New Moves Received:

So there were a handful of abilities that I thought about before giving it Levitate such as Regenerator, Magic Guard, Serene Grace, and even Steelworker, but given its design and the artist saying it flies now, I think Levitate was the more flavorful choice. That said, it would have three great immunities in Dragon, Ground, and Poison, which all service it in setting up Shift Gear so it can start hitting things really hard with impunity.

Of course with the additions of U-Turn and Close Combat, it’s not beholden to merely setting up as it could serve as a offensive pivot thanks to the great typing and ability, letting it bonk something before switching to another mon on the team.

Psycho Cut is there due to the blade on its hammer-turned-axe now (probably should’ve gone with Axe Kick but it ain’t kicking anything with those stubby legs), Power Trip should it opt for more setup shenanigans, and Meteor Mash for lower power but consistent means of steel type damage with the potential added bonus of being able to potentially get another +1 ATK boost.

Thanks for reading.

Self-Imposed Rules:

-No OC Abilities (Hard Rule)

-No more than 45 stat points added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single stat (Hard Rule)

-No Signature moves unless the signature move can be learned can be learned by at least two different Pokémon (Hard Rule)

-Make the Pokémon at Least UU (Soft Rule for Non-Legendary)

Why Hatterene and Grimmsnarl:

Apparently they are counterparts of each other, and they are the handful of Gen 8 Pokemon designs that I genuinely like (Cramorant is my number one favorite in case you wanted to know) and because the artist posted both of their megas together, I’m inclined to include them together as opposed to separating them.

Normally, I’d talk about their abilities in their own separate section, but I thought it would be cute to switch their...well I’d say signature abilities, but they aren’t unique to them, and I can’t say Hidden Abilities because only Magic Bounce is an HA and Grimmsnarl’s HA is the worthless Pickpocket. So I guess they’re the abilities that they are most well known for and switching them around seemed fun.

For Hatterene: Honestly, it’s just more Hatterene.

Higher Bulk across the board, and we pump its SAtk even more though even with the higher bulk, 57 base HP is still fairly low. There’s not much else to say here.

For Grimmsnarl:

Now I’m not entirely sure why, but it’s base firm’s base stats reminded me of Breloom if you squint hard enough at its statline so I just went in that direction, pumping its bulk up to give it a solid line of 95/100/90. Couple that with a high ATK stat and somewhat higher speed, you got a Pokemon that can be hard to take down in one go.

Why Prankster/The New Moves Hatterene received:

Again, just thought it would be thematic to switch the duo’s abilities around. With Prankster combined Calm Mind, Draining Kiss, Substitute, and the newly added Moonlight, it does become fairly difficult to take down if it’s your late game wincon. To say nothing of the plethora of support moves it already has such Thunder Wave, Healing Wish, Screens, and even Skill Swap to switch to a more advantageous ability on the fly. In my mind, despite Dark Pokemon being immune to Prankster, I can’t think of very many of them that would want to switch into its Fairy Coverage (Bisharp/Kingambit excluded probably with sets without Mystical Fire). Heck, even in Doubles/VGC, it gets Charm, Quash, and After You (I’m actually of fan of the After You/Choice Band Focus Punch combo from a long time ago).

With Will o’ Wisp to deter most physical attackers and Nasty Plot for a potential early wall breaking attempt, it has a pretty neat array of tools to torment whichever tier it would land in.

Why Magic Bounce/The new Moves Grimmsnarl received:

Now on a first glance, Magic Bounce might be a tad wasted because its Dark Typing already prevents Prankster shenanigans from opposing Mons, but hey. Non-Priority Taunts exist. Non-Priority Hazards exist. Grimmsnarl is here to deter every attempt to status in any capacity unless your name is Mold Breaker Excadrill/Tinkaton. You can also be kind of cheeky before it Mega Evolves. You can Bulk Up with Prankster before Mega Evolving, and then be safe from a Taunt or Wisp when you do mega Evolve.

Which leads me to the elephant in the room in Rapid Spin. Well...it’s only really here as a set up move lol, but if you happen to see some hazards drop before it can Mega Evolve, itcan at least clear them. Plus with Swords Dance, it can pull Double Dance Set. Or it can break out its PU Bulk Up Sub set with Drain Punch in the mix.

Or it can opt for a Pivot Set with Parting Shot, Knock Off (which I’m kind of surprised it didn’t already get), and Fake Out to scout. Honestly, Grimmsnarl has such an embarrassment of riches in its movepool that is enabled by Magic Bounce that you can’t exactly go wrong imo.

Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: Please ignore that Play Rough is a new move. I didn’t realize it already got it until I was just about to post this lol

Self-Imposed Rules:

-No OC Abilities

-Minimal Min-Maxing: No more than 45 stat points added to one stat, no more than 20

stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single

stat (Hard Rule)

-No Signature moves unless the signature move can be learned can be leared by at

least two different Pokemon (Hard Rule)

-Make the Pokemon at Least UU (Soft Rule for Non-Legendary)

Why Tsareena: Honestly, I was actually on mapping out a unified Mega Lycanroc that all the Lycanroc forms can mega evolve to, but I didn’t realize Dusk had a different HP stat from the other two so I just ended up scrapping the write up (even tho there was a raw as hell design for it).

Anyways I chose Tsareena because it looked interesting enough to do so. As for the stats, I have it a fairly balanced spread of stat buffs, the most being thrown into ATK while being somewhat faster and fairly bulkier.

As for the typing, I actually wouldn’t have gone Grass/Fairy because I actually hate that typing defensively, but because the artist decided on that typing and most likely based the Aesthetic around that typing, I will honor that typing although I would’ve gone Grass/Fighting or even kept it as pure Grass.

Why Technician/The New Moves Received: Originally it was Grassy Surge, but I also realized it would just be LO Rillaboom without an Item Slot and while that’s not necessarily bad, it doesn’t exactly stand out. Then I realized that Grassy Glide does get boosted by Technician…and that Rapid Spin gets a nifty boost from it…and that all three hits of Triple Axel get buffed by Technician. So uhh…Grass type Scizor started looking better and better lmao

As for the moves, I did not realize that a Pokémon known for kicking doesn’t get Double Kick. Color me surprise. Bulldoze is there for coverage that also gets boosted by Technician while Stomping Tantrum is also there for thematic purpose really (and I guess it can buff base Tsareena too). I also didn’t realize it didn’t get a reliable move to buff its ATK so I gave it Swords Dance.

In my mind, there are multiple ways to play with Mega Tsareena. One way is to have it put on its best Scizor cosplay and run a Synthesis/Substitute /Swords Dance set with Grassy Glide to become a scary late game cleaner. Another is just to run Swords Dance +3 Attacks on a setup opportunity with Triple Axel/Slide/Bulldoze or even High Jump Kick (accuracy willing of course). Another could be a Pivot set of U-Turn/Knock Off/Slide/ a Coverage move though I think that could be done by a Pokémon with better typing. And then of course, Double Dance with Rapid Spin and Swords Dance with Grassy Slide and a coverage move.

Thanks for reading.

Self-Imposed Rules:

-No OC Abilities

-Minimal Min-Maxing: No more than 45 stat points added to one stat, no more than 20

stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single

stat (Hard Rule)

-No Signature moves unless the signature move can be learned can be leared by at

least two different Pokemon (Hard Rule)

-Make the Pokemon at Least UU (Soft Rule for Non-Legendary)

Why Haxorus: tbh most Gen 5 designs don’t hit that hard for me, but Haxorus is one of the handful of exceptions. It’s a Pokémon that just exudes of raw power to me. That said, it is currently RU BL so it is already UU on a technicality, but I haven’t done a gen 5 Pokémon yet and I do like him so…

Anyways, base Haxorus has a sky-high ATK already at 147…so I just decided to pump that up to an ungodly base 187 just to really let the rawness of its design sink in. We have him some boosts to his defenses and as far his speed goes…it was a toss up between leaving it at base to leave people malding for memes, putting it at 99 for even more memes, or put it just slightly over one of the more important benchmarks. As funny as the first two would’ve been, I think the correct choice was to make it a smidge faster.

As for the typing, I personally would have left it with pure Dragon, but the artist put it down as Dragon/Dark. Kind of steps on the toes of Hydreigon, but we will roll with that to honor their design choice.

Why Sharpness/The New Moves Received:

I mean, its base design is based on an axe and mega design just goes crazy with the sharp edges so this feels like a no brainer.

As for the moves, it already has Night Slash and Dragon Claw, and imagine my surprise when I found out that Sharpness boosts Dragon Claw. So I just handed it a couple of extra slicing moves for coverage along with U-Turn if it decides forgo setting up with DD or Swords Dance (though it does get Scale Shot). I think the only one that goes a little overboard is Sacred Sword, but being based off a slicing weapon, it would feel weird not to include it.

Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: So I only have one rule regarding abilities and that is that I cannot make OC Abilities. That doesn’t mean I want to start slamming Primordial Land or Intrepid Sword on everything, but I do have a tendency to avoid the signature abilities of Legendaries. Most other abilities are fair game, and even new ones like Dragonize, Mega Sol, and Eelevate are included. I do avoid the ones as outlined in the Theorymon Thursday rules (I.e. giving Huge Power or Fur Coat to any Pokemon), but I just thought I’d throw this out there because I do try to get a little creative first (either by adhering to lore or using abilities that are only on lesser seen Pokemon) before resorting to the real heavy hitting Abilities. That, and I usually go by the artist’s depiction first when thinking about an ability.

Speaking of the artist, I am not the artist of any of these Mega designs. I usually put the link to the artist in the picture of the Pokemon to credit them. I usually honor their intended typing (such as the typings of the Mega Pokemon I bring before you today) as it is a core part of the aesthetic that they go for, and only give new typings if they do not already have one in their social media post.

Self-Imposed Rules:

-No OC Abilities (Soft Rule for non-Legendaries)

-Minimal Min-Maxing: No more than 45 stat points

added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single stat (Hard Rule)

-No Signature moves unless the signature move can be learned can be leared by at least two different Pokemon (Hard Rule)

-Make the Pokemon at Least UU (Soft Rule for Non-Legendary)

Why Bellossom and Vileplume:

-For Bellossom: Generation 2 is probably my favorite generation in terms of design. They really do feel like an extension of the original 151 while still having an identity they can call their own. Bellossom has a simple, but aesthetically pleasing design. It has some usage in ZU, being ZUBL in Gen 9, meaning it doesn’t see much use anywhere else. So I want to fix that.

So for this wonderful mega evolution, it gains a secondary Fire type, which is fitting because it is often associated with the sun in its Dex entries. We shore up its speed as much as we can while maintaining our rules, and give it a superb Special Defense and Special Attack increase. This was a very simple array of stat increases, but I think it works thanks to some very notable moves in its existing moveset, which I will get to shortly.

-For Vileplume:...really it’s because the artist I found drew and posted both at the same time so I didn’t really want it to be left out.

That said, its typing is very interesting. It loses its Grass typing and becomes Fairy while keeping its secondary Poison typing, leading to some very interesting resistances, including its ability which I will also get to later. It’s been a lower tier defensive tank so I decided to dig its heel into that role further. That said, I did want it to mirror Mega Bellossom’s base stats while rearranging where they go without breaking my rules since they are the final evolutions of the Oddish line...which actually was kind of difficult. The speed and attack increase is a little awkward, but my hope is that its typing plus the moves I will give it can help circumvent that awkwardness.

Why Flash Fire/The New Moves Bellossom received: While it is associated with the sun, I felt like giving Drought would make it a lesser Charizard Y, and its neutrality to Fire becomes more a hindrance under the Sun if facing something like Charizard Y. So I thought giving it an immunity to Fire was more fitting and would actually stifle Charizard Y with its large Special Defense, a quadrauple resistance to Grass, and completely nullifying its fire moves while boosting its own.

As for the moves, Bellossom has an interesting existing movepool, including one of the best boosting moves in the game, Quiver Dance. So to fit it aesthetically, it gains Fiery Dance to potentially snowball Special Attack Boosts (learned by both Volcarona and Iron Moth so I’m not breaking my rules here), Heat Wave for Doubles usage, and Focus Blast for additional coverage. This does make it a side-grade to Volcarona on the surface. In return for more immediate speed and immediate special bulk, it cannot run items like Heavy Duty Boots, it takes your Mega Slot, and doesn’t have coverage for Fire/Flying type opponents. That said, I fully expect this Mega to muscle through most of its checks and counters if it allowed to set-up properly.

Why Water Absorb/The New Moves Vileplume Received: This ability definitely leans more into the real world flower that Vileplume is based off of as it very often found near water, and it lets it gain its most valuable resistance from its prior Grass typing, and turn it into not only an immunity, but a means of recovery. With a unique set of immunities (Dragon/Water) and resistances (x1/4 Fighting, x1/2 Dark, x1/2 Grass and other resistances not mentioned here), I think it’s poised to be a stalwart tank.

Imagine my surprise when I saw it already has access to Moonblast and Moonlight. Coupled with good existing moves like Sludge Bomb, Strength Sap, and Leech Seed, its utility is already pretty sound...so we gave it more utility in Knock Off and U-Turn so it can also be a defensive Pivot. It also has Swords Dance for some reason so I thought it would be funny to give it physical Poison moves in Gunk Shot and Poison Jab, and Play Rough for physical fighting STAB. Also with Acid Armor and Body Press, it can bully would-be Steel checks though a lot of Steel Types do run Ground coverage so it’s not foolproof.

Thanks for reading.

Forgot to include it in my picture but here are the buffs to its stats

ATK: 60

Defense: 96 (+17)

Sp.Atk: 138 (+38)

Sp.Def: 150 (+25)

Speed: 101 (+20)

Self-Imposed Rules for making Megas:

-no OC abilities (Soft Rule for non-legendaries)

-Minimal Min-Maxing (no more than 45 stats points added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single stat (Hard Rule)

-No signature moves unless the signature move can be learned by at least two different Pokémon (Hard Rule)

-make the Pokémon at least UU (Soft Rule for non-Legendaries)

Why Milotic: It’s definitely an iconic Gen 3 Pokémon and it’s always had a really great competitive history even in the lower tiers…then I saw it was PU in Scarlet/Violet. Yikes. So I wanna bring this titan back to relevance.

So I gave it a nice wide sweeping buff to all of its stats. Defense to make it tankier all around, a big increase to its special attack, make its Special Defense look monstrous, and a solid 101 speed to kind of rub it in on base 100 speed Pokémon lol

Despite it getting some fairy moves back in Gen 6, GameFreak never delivered on giving it a mega evolution with a Fairy typing, and I initially wanted to avoid adding the fairy typing to be more original, the artist did note the mega evolution to be Water/Fairy, and I wanted to honor that.

And while this has nothing to do with its competitive value, a bunch Mega Milotic concepts go super hard with saturated colors, notably deep red and black being pronounced to give it a more dragon-like appearance. I felt like those designs betrayed Milotic’s aesthetic. That is, beauty in simplicity. I really like this art just because it already accentuates its already existing colors and adds a light-like flair to it.

Why Multiscale/The new moves it got:

I actually was going back and forth between Lightning Rod and Multiscale, but I settled on Multiscale since it felt more thematic if a little boring. It super charges it’s-already great bulk to start setting up multiple Calm Minds and since it already Draining Kiss in its move set, it could theoretically forgo Recover and sit on a lot of moms and keep recovering back to full health to make Multiscale live again

Of course, there is merit to not Mega Evolve right away. Milotic already does have Competitive to deter Defog or Intimidates, but should it so happen receive one of the two (or a random stat drop from another move), you’d be facing down a +2 Mega Milotic. I feel like it would contribute to some interesting mind games.

As for moves, I actually didn’t want to give it too many more moves. It already has a lot of great moves like Scald, Draining Kiss, the aforementioned Calm Mind, Recover, Substitute, and Scale Shot of all things lmao

Spirit Break is the most interesting addition in order to further harass special attackers (doesn’t break my rules since both Grimmsnarl and Iron Valiant learn it). It could sit on special attackers with impunity.

Water Spout is more of a doubles/VGC move since it is faster now, it’s not blazing fast tho I could see with Thunder Wave/Sticky Webs Support being a monster.

And Moonblast because it got a bunch of other fairy moves except for that.

Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I actually haven’t played Smogon Singles in a while (since maybe 2023ish), but I do occasionally look up meta shifts in OU or UU. Maybe I’ll play again later in the year lol

Self-Imposed Rules for making Megas:

-no OC abilities (Soft Rule for non-legendaries)

-Minimal Min-Maxing (no more than 45 stats points added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single stat (Hard Rule)

-No signature moves unless the signature move can be learned by at least two different Pokémon (Hard Rule)

-make the Pokémon at least UU (Soft Rule for non-Legendaries)

Why Luxray: Most people remember Luxray fondly from Gen 4 as part of their main team for their playthrough. I remember it fondly because a random Japanese Shinx nicknamed Ren that I received through Wonder Trade in ORAS. It does have a really cool design, but because design does not equate to competitive value, it languishes in the lowest pits of ZU currently. When people theorize a Mega Luxray, they imagine adding a Dark Type. I decided go against the grain here thanks to this wonderful piece of art I found and went for Psychic typing instead. Electric/Psychic is only used by Alolan Raichu and it’s an offensive typing that is also stuffed by other in typings in Ground and Dark. I think this will be balanced because of the other things I gave it.

With its stats, I dropped all pretenses of having any defenses (save for a smidge more defense to get more value out of its Intimidate on switch in). A big attack boost, a sizeable special attack boost which I will discuss why shortly, and a huge speed to make it use of the offenses it was given. Feels self explanatory.

Why Galvanize/The new moves it got:

Since we are already stealing a typing from one Alolan Pokémon, we might as well take an ability from another one, and I think Galvanize deserves to be on a Pokémon with more speed overall

Let’s address the elephant in the room. That is, Boomburst. Its distribution is somewhat scarce, but I do see low tier heroes like Swellow, Toxcitricity, and Exploud using it to great effect. I recognize how powerful Boomburst is so in return for being the fastest (non-scarf) and 2nd strongest (non-specs) user of it, Mega Luxray obviously can’t use specs, and Galvanize makes it so that it can be stuffed by any ground type. It does get Nasty Plot to be a set up sweeper to make up for not being able to use Specs, but you still have to take a turn to get a boost. I think it’s a nice balance between power and opportunity cost.

As for its physical movepool, giving it Extremespeed makes the most of Galvanize off a base 156 Attack. Bulk Up to ramp up its physical attack and defense. It already has Ice Fang, but it now gets Superpower and Stomping Tantrum for greater coverage.

While it definitely leans physically offensive, I think it’ll be great at mixed sets thanks to Boomburst. It already has Psychic Fangs for physical Psychic STAB, or it can do ExtemeSpeed/Boomburst/Ice Fang for pseudo BoltBeam Coverage. I think the variety of its sets, that is to say, whether it goes physical, special, or mixed, will be the reason to use it.

Electric/Psychic definitely isn’t the most threatening offensive combination, but I think it does enough to give Mega Luxray a good role in whatever tier it would land in.

Thanks for reading.

I wasn’t actually going to make a second post today, but I ended up finding this really cool Mega Tauros concept and inspiration struck.

Self-Imposed Rules for making Megas:

-no OC abilities (Soft Rule for non-legendaries)

-Minimal Min-Maxing (no more than 45 stats points added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single stat (Hard Rule)

-No signature moves unless the signature move can be learned by at least two different Pokémon (Hard Rule)

-make the Pokémon at least UU (Soft Rule for non-Legendaries)

Why Tauros: tbh it’s just because I found this art and I thought it looked really cool. It’s very simple and still very much looks like Tauros while accentuating all the things that make it look like it. That and he hasn’t had OU viability since Gen 1 and as of this writing, he is ZU. I want to bring him back to stardom.

His speed was alright good so I just buffed it a little bit. I buffed his Defense because I thought it would be kind of funny to have him switch in before Mega Evolving, get the intimidate off on a physical threat, then Mega Evolve and become a hell of a physical wall. His Attack got so much needed love since 100 baser Attack isn’t what it used to be, then some stats to his special defense to make him just a little more tank overall.

I chose ground type because alongside normal, it does get two interesting immunities to electric and ghost. There are three Pokémon with this typing (Both Urusaluna and Diggersby), whom have seen great success in their respective tiers (for reason outside their typing of course but I’m sure it helped). Had I went with steel, he would have a crippling x4 weakness to the Fighting, which I really didn’t want

Why Steelworker/The new moves it got:

I didn’t have a rule for signature Abilities so I decided to give it Steelworker because of how it looks. Imagine my surprise when I realized it already had Iron Head and Smart Strike so I decided not to give it other steel type moves. I was very deliberate in not giving Heavy Slam because I didn’t want to math anything out, and a 1.5 boost to a move that that could potentially reach 120 Base Power sounded just a bit too much.

I was also deliberate in not giving it a good Attack boosting move since I wanted to give it Steelworker and still have it be somewhat balanced. It still has Curse and Work Up, but the former puts its good speed to waste while the latter is understandably mediocre beyond belief, and with no recovery options outside of Rest, a substitute/curse set wouldn’t get much mileage, but I could be flat out wrong.

Thanks to it being around since Gen 1 and being a normal type, Tauros already had a solid movepool. That said, I gave it Headlong Rush for flavor mostly, but also for a STAB alternative to Close Combat. Iron Defense + Body Press would give it another playstyle as I would imagine aSteelworker-boosted Iron Head from an uninvested 132 base attack would still hit hard, and it would still have an attacking option should it get burned provided all Ghost Types haven’t been dealt with.

That said, it still fairly fast. It has the EdgeQuake combo, STAB Body Slam to fish for Paralysis, Raging Bull to break screens if that was ever needed, and even Trailblaze to boost its speed.

Thanks for reading.

Artist Source (forgot to include it in the picture):

an_artist_astray on Instagram (www.Instagram.com/p/CoXOc2Ev0Nz/)

Disclaimer: I actually haven’t played Smogon Singles in a while (since maybe 2023ish), but I do occasionally look up meta shifts in OU or UU. Maybe I’ll play again later in the year lol

Self-Imposed Rules for making Megas:

-no OC abilities (Soft Rule for non-legendaries)

-Minimal Min-Maxing (no more than 45 stats points added to one stat, no more than 20 stats subtracted from the BST, and no more than 10 stat points subtracted from a single stat (Hard Rule)

-No signature moves unless the signature move can be learned by at least two different Pokémon (Hard Rule)

-make the Pokémon at least UU (Soft Rule for non-Legendaries)

Why Goodra: So my top 3 favorite Pseudo-Legendaries (in no particular order) are Tyranitar, Metagross, and Goodra. What they have in common is how “unique” they are. Tyranitar and Metagross are the only non-Dragon Pseudo-Legendaries, and Goodra is the only single typed Pseudo. That said, it’s always been kind of middling among its contemporaries. Really high special defense, but average offenses, low physical bulk, so-so speed, and no reliable means of recovery. It is currently NU and while its Hisuian form seems to have a place in the higher tiers, the original doesn’t seem to be reaching those heights any time soon. So let’s change that by giving it a mega evolution, the gimmick in its inaugural generation that it mysteriously never received even in ZA.

It did take me a while to figure out what direction I wanted it to go in as far as a Mega Evolution goes so I ultimately decided to just plant its feet firmly in its specialty of being a special wall with a decent increase to its offenses. I gave it some speed because I feel like that’s what GameFreak would do though I don’t necessarily think it needs it, but 90 speed is pretty okay for what I’m trying to accomplish here. A small increase to its physical defense so it doesn’t 100% die to any physical moves.

Lastly, I’m getting rid of the thing that makes it unique and make it Dragon/Water since its Dex entries imply its affinity to water along with its existing movepool. That, and Dragon type on its own isn’t the most stellar defensive typing imo.

Why Regenerator/The new moves it got: Its original abilities are nothing special or downright bad. Gooey on a mon with low physical defense is miserable, Hydration came a generation late, and while Sap Sipper gives a decent immunity, it does increase its lower Attack. I want to give it Regenerator to give it at least one means of recovery.

As for the moves, I actually didn’t want to give it too much since it already has an expansive move pool. Flip Turn is key here to make it a hell of a slow Pivot, giving a slower means of letting an teammate get in safely while recovering the hit it took. Strength Sap is another way to get reliable HP recovery. 85 defense with 90 HP is okay on the physical side, but with Strength Sap, I imagine it becomes annoying to take down. More than likely it will have max HP investment to let it tank at least one physical hit, use Strength Sap to recover, now the -1 opposing Mon has to either switch out as it can’t knock out Goodra physically anymore. Goodra is free to flip turn or manually switch out to something else that can set up

That said it still has great utility moves like Scald, Knock Off, and Dragon tail to name a few. It can lean into its utility while remaining an excellent pivot.

Liquidation and Grass Knot are there for “filler.” Maybe not 100% filler as it does get better Attack and STAB to use the former, and the latter can probably better in some matchups.

Thanks for reading.