I am not sure if this has been noticed or not, but I actually edited my wormadam-sandy-mega, Its fine if this is not a good update, I am sorry for disturbing.(EDITED)
It's no disturbance! We did notice your edits, but we still found it to be a bit too much to handle still, sorry. If you have any questions in the future, feel free to PM either me or the Council member who reviewed your sub, and if you have Discord, join ours for speedier replies.I am not sure if this has been noticed or not, but I actually edited my wormadam-sandy-mega, Its fine if this is not a good update, I am sorry for disturbing.
Wormadam-Sandy
Type: Bug/Ground
Ability: Gravitas
Stats:
HP: 60
Atk: 94 (+15)
Def: 115 (+10)
SpA: 84 (+30)
SpD: 110 (+25)
Spe: 56 (+20)
New moves: Shore Up
F L A V O R
It's a bagworm. Bagworms dangle in mid-air. Honestly, never really gave the flavour much thought, the idea felt right. Anyways now for the real debate
Competitive Impact
Having finally had the opportunity to play some M4A Kalos over the past week, I noticed 3 things:
1) The shocking lack of viable specially defensive Ground-types (Nidoqueen doesn't get Milk Drink, Hippowdon is primarily physical, and Gliscor doesn't appreciate special hits either)
2) The even more shocking lack of viable Stealth Rock users, although that is in due part because of the prevalence of strong defoggers like the Rotoms, Zapdos and Moltres, which are all immune to Ground moves.
3) Magnezone.
This is, to put it simply, an empathic middle finger to all three of those issues: Not only does Wormadam-Sandy Mega serve as a check to threats such as Magnezone and Nidoking, but it can also set up Stealth Rock with the additional advantage of being able to punish incoming Defoggers with STAB Earthquake/Earth Power.
Wormadam-Sandy
Level: 100
Calm Nature
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Shore Up
- Toxic
Now this is spicy. But shinx, you may ask...
0 SpA Rotom-Heat Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Wormadam-Sandy: 198-234 (61.1 - 72.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Wormadam is still prone to SR and Toxic chip, and while it may be able to withstand most hits on the first try...
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Wormadam-Sandy: 168-198 (51.8 - 61.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Zapdos Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Wormadam-Sandy: 194-230 (59.8 - 70.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
...it'll still die to the Pokemon that it's intended to counter, right...?
Pfft, nah.
0 SpA Rotom-Heat Overheat vs. +1 252 HP / 252+ SpD Wormadam-Sandy: 134-158 (41.3 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
That's where the strongest aspect of Wormadam-Sandy shines through.
+1 0 SpA Wormadam-Sandy Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-Heat: 504-592 (165.7 - 194.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Wormadam-Sandy
Level: 100
Calm Nature
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Shore Up
- Quiver Dance
Most Pokemon that have Quiver Dance tend to use it offensively. We've seen it with Butterfree, Volcarona, Vivillon, you know how it goes. Wormadam strives to use the move defensively. Earth Power, even without a boost, can easily OHKO Rotom-H and Magnezone, but the extra QD boost allows it to not risk a 2HKO from SE moves, while also buffing it up against the likes of Hydreigon and Sylveon. With +1 Speed Wormadam is able to outspeed base 60 speed Pokemon not running a +Speed nature.
Obviously, the low speed tier means that it is possible to knock out Wormadam before it can snowball out of control: Pyroar can break it down with 2 Fire Blasts, Zapdos can KO it with Hurricanes on the switch-in, and obviously strong physical attackers such as Weavile decimate it. Rain also does not favor Wormadam at all, turning potential 2HKOs into OHKOs even with QD stacks. Grass type Pokemon such as Chesnaught, Ferrothorn and Gogoat-Mega can safely switch in and force it out handily. Finally, Toxic chip is always handy to wear down the bagworm, as are hazards
You wanted a specially defensive Ground type? You wanted something to fuck over those stupid Electric birds? You wanna win games with a fucking bagworm? Here you go.
Mega Drifblim
New Ability: Neutralizing Gas
Type: Ghost | Flying
New stats:
HP: 150
Attack: 80
Defense: 44
Special Attack: 90 → 145 (+55)
Special Defense: 54 → 89 (+35)
Speed: 80 → 90 (+10)
BST: 498 → 598
Description:
1) Concept
Drifblim is based on hot air balloons. As such, they are reliant on gas to "fly". After all, the gas used to fuel the burner heats the envelope. The air inside becomes hot and rises upwards. Against this background, the gas reference in the Pokédex entry makes a lot of sense on Drifblim; in fact, it mentions how the gas inside this Pokémon's body is made of souls. So, basically, every time Drifblim rises, you could interpret it as burning souls.
Here, Neutralizing Gas is supposed to underline Drifblim's pragmatic nature. Below, you will realize how exactly this will manifest.
2) Competitive
This Mega Drifblim mainly uses Neutralizing Gas to underline the unique defensive strengths of its dual Ghost and Flying type.
a) Mega Drifblim walls Guts users like Conkeldurr or Heracross. Normally, if Guts were shut down, these two Fighting Pokémon would still have the option to resort to Facade, which ignores the halfed damage from Burn and doubles in its power. However, because Mega Drifblim is a Ghost type, Conkeldurr and Heracross cannot touch it with Facade. That's a very valuable niche to have in a Kalos centric metagame since these two Fighting Pokémon are notoriously difficult to handle on the defensive side. This niche can extend even to VGC where Ursaluna, another terrifying Guts user, becomes helpless in the presence of a hot air balloon.
b) Mega Drifblim shuts down any ate-ability, therefore making it immune to any Normal move as a Ghost Pokémon. This means Pokémon like Sylveon can no longer rely on Hyper Voice to break through teams. This advantage becomes even more prevalent in VGC where Pokémon like Mega Salamence or Mega Gardevoir loose a lot of their main power.
c) Other unique defensive applications involve checking Huge Power Diggersby, Pure Power Medicham, and Chlorophyll Venusaur in Kalos. Moreover, in VGC, Mega Drifblim can avoid taking damage from an ally's Earthquake thanks to its Flying type while allowing its partner to ignore opposing Levitate users, like Rotom-Wash.
d) On the offensive side, Mega Drifblim can spam Shadow Ball without having to worry about Bulletproof (from Chesnaught, for instance) or abilities that take advantage of stat drops, such as Competitive (from Wigglytuff), Contrary (from Malamar) or Defiant (from Bisharp). Mega Drifblim can even use Strength Sap without having to worry about these punishing abilities.
e) Utility wise, Mega Drifblim can spread Will-O-Wisp without having to worry about Synchronize (from Umbreon), Flash Fire (from Houndoom) or Magic Bounce (from Espeon). This synergizes very well with Hex as this Pokémon inflicts status conditions more reliably.
All these qualities make Mega Drifblim a very unique user of Neutralizing Gas, be it in Singles or in VGC. I believe it would be a healthy addition to these metagames since it further stabilizes them with its unique utility options and defensive applications as a dual Ghost and Flying type.
While it is true that Ghost in combination with Calm Mind, Will-O-Wisp, and Strengh Sap can be very scary, Mega Drifblim isn't very fast. So, it can't become a fast oppressive threat. There's enough counterplay in Kalos. A lack of Taunt means Mega Drifblim becomes very susceptible to status, such as Toxic. Moreover, its Def is very low, making it therefore an easy target from fast physical attackers, like Krookodile, Sharpedo or Aerodactyl. There are also special attackers like Hydreigon, Heliolisk, Zapdos or Pyroar that can keep it at bay, even more so if Stealth Rock is on the field.
Mega Heliolisk
Typing:
Ability: Cloud Nine
HP: 62
Atk: 55 ---> 55 (0)
Def: 52 ---> 72 (+20)
SpA: 109 ---> 124 (+15)
SpD: 94 ---> 139 (+45)
Spe: 109 ---> 129 (+20)
New moves: Morning Sun, Flame Burst,
Interesting isn't it? Why would i give Heliolisk, a mon whose entire design relies in taking in advantage of weather, an ability that just nullyfies weather effects? The answer relies on how weather abusers work. Quoting Hematite during the dog slate, as he explains it better than i do:
I am always really uncomfortable with people flinging around weather-reliant Abilities so readily on every Pokémon that has the right type or remotely appropriate flavor, and I think it's a lot harder than people realize for a Mega to be even good on a weather The thing is that it has to be strong enough to justify using a Mega Stone over any other item, to justify using the Mega slot over any other Mega on a weather team and demands a ton more active team support in return than any Mega that functions effectively outside of specific conditions
For comparison, Swampert has a lot more justifying its own use on rain than its stats - in addition to its incredible bulk and Attack, Ground is a crucial defensive type because rain is otherwise incredibly Electric-weak, Mega Swampert is the best rain abuser at setting Stealth Rock to support its team, Mega Swampert can easily beat Mega Sableye in rain (this is the Pokémon best known for preventing hazards from going up and wants to be able to switch in on a rocker), and many other prominent rain abusers including the best setter are specially offensive so Swampert can break different walls from them This is on top of the fact that one of its attacking types is both important and not redundant to other rain users (Ground, objectively one of the best attacking types in the game if not the best, and no other Pokémon on a Swampert rain team is going to have that), while its other type actually has direct benefits from rain and gets a significant power boost from it. Swampert is incredibly thoughtful, incredibly optimized and does so much more to carry the archetype than just having Swift Swim and good stats.
So, how does heliolisk justify its use over other megas in weather and outside of it? The answer relies on Heliolisk's role in any weather team. You see, the biggest enemy that weather team might have aside from excesively fat teams (which can still fall to stall breakers like Darmanintan or Others) is opposing weather teams. Opposing weather teams make it so weather war are often determined by who positions its weather users the best, and as such these teams are left at pretty disadvantegous positions whenever they are not controlling the weather. Heliolisk helps against opposing weather teams and even regular teams alike by neutering/aiding a variety of weather based teams in various numerous ways:
Rain: This is the weather that heliolisk disrupts the most, being able to twart it in multiple ways. For starters, cloud nine nullifies the effects of rain, meaning that heliolisk can afford to take water types attacks like nobody's buisness as well as click its fire coverage under rain to nail fire weak mons who thought they could easily abuse the weather. It is very annoying for rain to face as it ruins the day of two notorious non-water type abusers in Scizor and ferrothorn. It also has a particularly easy time switching into pelipper, and swift swimmers like kingdra or kabutops get outsped.
Sun: Sun is in a similar boat as rain. It being able to fire water type coverage in surf under sun can prove genrally useful for sun teams, as well as working against them when said water type attacks prey on their vulnerable fire types. Torkoal doesn't like this coming in unless it has body press and chlorophyll sweepers (namely venusaur) are unable to abuse the nuclear power of weather ball and/or growth, making Heliolisk a hard stop for the special leaning ones.
Sand: Sand is interesting. While it cannot really switch into any sand abuser an thus proving this to be its worst matchup (even if this is irrelevant to kalos meta due to no sand sweepers), it hits the sand setters (ttar in particular hates this mon) for decent enough damage so that they cannot switch in safely either. In Nat dex it could probably try to outspeed and ohko exca with Fblast but its an iffy matchup thanks to Excadrill's huge damage output and rapid spin to make Cloud Nine useless.
Hail: In nat dex it likely doesn't do too much to hail teams besides possibly outspeeding Arctozolt and nailling it with Focus Blast but given that hail is super dead in kalos meta that doesn't matter here.
Flame Burst hits grass types and Steel types that usually love rain like Ferro or Scizor and Morning Sun is recovery that remains constant regardless of the weather. Sdef helps it switch into various special attacks (i debated making it higher at some moment.) Speed is good enough to outspeed a significant amount of targets, specifically weather sweepers as it is able to outspeed adamant Barraskewda on rain (not relevant to kalos meta but is neat on nat dex as well). It got a smidge of defense so it doesn't fold to priority physical attacks but otherwise that should be what keep this in check, alongside scarfers and fat mons.
Mega Wormadam
New Ability: Anticipation/Overcoat ---> Poison Heal
Type: Bug/Ground
New Stats:
HP: 60
Attack: 79 -> 91(+12)
Defense: 105 -> 155 (+50)
SpAtk: 59 -> 74 (+15)
SpDef: 85 -> 105 (+20)
Speed: 36 -> 39 (+3)
New Moves: None
Competitive Concept, and How it relates to its function:
So this started with me looking at pokedex entries, and I noticed it said "When Burmy evolved, its cloak became a part of this Pokémon's body. The cloak is never shed." Immediately I thought of Shed Skin, which would be excellent on this, but of course it doesn't fit flavor-wise at all. From there, considering Shed Skin's competitive appeal, I realized how cool a Poison Heal Mega Quiver Dancer would be.
How it works: Offensively this is a dynamic Quiver Dance Sweeper with ample oppurtunity for EV fluidity. Even with that though it doesn't blow past everything. For example when modest, after a Quiver Dance, it's still outsped by timid Volcanion, although, when timid, it can outrun Weavile at +2. It creates a lot of flexibility in sets as its coverage is pretty set. Earth Power+Hidden Power Ice+Bug Buzz hits surprisingly strong with its special attack packed up by the Quiver Dances it can collect.
Defensively it's a very interesting mon too: its biggest need for bulk is to facilitate Quiver Dances. Wormadam is actually quite prepared, with high physical bulk, a ground resist and most of its weaknesses being special and covered up by the special defense boosts. And now it gets Poison Heal, giving it not only a toxic immunity but, actively dissuade toxic from being used against the team because of how quickly a Mega-Wormadam could kill your entire team. This all means that a more defensive Mega-Wormadam spread can threaten to clean out your team by getting more Quiver Dances than an offensive variant due to its superior bulk.
Counterplay: From all of this, it honestly might seem to be a bit overwhelming and - while it is strong - it definitely isn't broken. It is slow, doesn't hit extremely hard even when set up, misses out on crucial KO ranges, and lacks recovery so its bulk doesn't pertain long-term unless poisoned..
Herbs and Spices:
The idea of this, to match the aforementioned pokedex entry, has to do with its cloak never shedding. In this situation, the cloak would more-or-less become part of the Wormadam's body, so it makes sense that with a Mega Evolution the cloak would become more valuable as protection for Wormadam, explaining the large increase in defense as well as the Poison Heal ability.
Mega Heliolisk
Ability - Dry Skin, Sand Veil; Solar Power ➝ Solar Power
HP - 62 ➝ 62
Atk - 55 ➝ 85 (+30)
Def - 52 ➝ 62 (+10)
SpA - 109 ➝ 129 (+20)
SpD - 94 ➝ 124 (+20)
Spe - 109 ➝ 129 (+20)
BST - 481 ➝ 581 (+100)
Movepool Changes - Dragon Tail, Morning Sun
Competitive Corner - Mega Heliolisk stands as a powerful attacker for sun teams, with Electric and Dragon as STAB options, and Solar Beam and Weather Ball at its disposal to nuke Electric-resistant Pokémon. Morning Sun is also an option to give it more longevity, and counteract the hazard and Solar Power chip damage! It can also be used without a specific weather synergy, and make use of Surf, however, without Solar Power its output is not as notable. The main competitive idea at play here, is to test how an off-type Sun-attacker would benefit those teams (especially a Dragon-type one, as Dragon is the only single type that resists both Fire and Grass), as well as how its secondary move options (i.e. its non-STAB options) play around with weather dependency, from Weather Ball and Solar Beam, to Morning Sun, aside from the obvious Solar Power which is what defines Heliolisk as a Sun-reliant attacker to begin with!
shinxthe17! also kindly pointed out that this fella has a really good matchup against rain, and that could be very helpful for a Sun sweeper! by resisting Water STAB, and threatening back with a powerful Thunderbolt (or Dragon Pulse in metas where Mega Swampert is allowed). Fast Volt Switch and/or U-turn allows it to keep up momentum as well, which is incredibly important on a weather battle, and Dry Skin pre-Mega can help Heliolisk's longevity too, if needed, to outlast the weather war!
Flavor Corner - The frilled lizard, Heliolisk's inspiration, is also known as the frilled dragon! On top of this, many dragons in pop culture have neck frills similar to Heliolisk and frilled lizards, such as Niv Mizzet, from Magic, say! As for its design, Mega Heliolisk also pulls inspiration from parabolic reflectors, with its frills acting as one, and its neck lengthening further, so that all light is directed right to its head, boosting the solar absorption, and thus, Mega Heliolisk's power output.