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Ok that's basically all there is to be said about masquerain. We're gonna do it this way one more week and I encourage anybody responding to post their opinions on which format this thread should follow, it's up to your guys' preference.
Our next subject is Furfrou! This could go offensive, defensive, get new typing, or improve it's poor movepool so this should be good.
Offensive Furfrou would be hard to do since regularly the other dog (Stoutland) in the tier outclasses it a lot of the time but I tried my best to do something with it, so here you go:
This variant of Furfrou gives it a typing worth caring about defensively, allowing it combat a lot more things that it already could. Zen Headbutt is featured here as an alternative over Sucker Punch so it can hit Poison-types, useful for stuff like Roselia and Arbok.
Justifications for the change:
Poodles are very frilly natured and like Bulldogs (Which are the other Fairy-type dog in the form of Snubbull/Granbull) they are very kind-natured and loyal. Suiting of a Fairy-type. Play Rough is to give it STAB for its new type. Its kept it check by its mediocre Attack stat and losing to a lot of things faster than it. (Also loses to stuff like Pawniard and Probopass especially with the new typing but those can be handled by partners such as Piloswine or Poliwrath)
The closest I could to making the thing offensively viable. (Unless I did Special attacking Furfrou (With buffed Special Attack stat) which under the rules set here would be impossible to submit IIRC) I was going to add Glare but I passed on it because I'd thought it be too good. (It can paralyze EVERYTHING in the meta since Limber is nowhere to be found)
I thought of a concept that could be a very interesting point of discussion.
Furfrou can have its hair trimmed and each trim could have its own typing
Natural-Normal
Heart-Fairy
Diamond-Ground or Fighting
Star-Flying
Pharoah-Water
Kabuki-Fire
Le Reine-Ice
Matron-Psychic
Dandy-Grass
Debutante-Electric
Each trim could be similar to a Rotom form (heat, frost ect) but provide more then just one STAB move to go with the new typing and new abilities to boot (like eeveeloutions)
This is an example of typing/ability/move change which is all plausible. Moves:
Return - Furfrou-Star main STAB. Powerful damage Output thanks to its new typing+Aerialte bone-is ;) U-Turn - Pivot move for escaping walls eg SOLROCK Bonemerang - Takes out Steel/Rock/Electric which resists furfrous stab Thunder-Wave / Wild Charge - T-Wave cuts the opponents speed down and has a chance to para. Wild Charge is an offensive move to take out bulky water types.
If anyone has feedback to this id like to hear it since I though its an awesome idea :)
I thought of a concept that could be a very interesting point of discussion.
Furfrou can have its hair trimmed and each trim could have its own typing
Natural-Normal
Heart-Fairy
Diamond-Ground or Fighting
Star-Flying
Pharoah-Water
Kabuki-Fire
Le Reine-Ice
Matron-Psychic
Dandy-Grass
Debutante-Electric
Each trim could be similar to a Rotom form (heat, frost ect) but provide more then just one STAB move to go with the new typing and new abilities to boot (like eeveeloutions)
This is an example of typing/ability/move change which is all plausible. Moves:
Return - Furfrou-Star main STAB. Powerful damage Output thanks to its new typing+Aerialte bone-is ;) U-Turn - Pivot move for escaping walls eg SOLROCK Bonemerang - Takes out Steel/Rock/Electric which resists furfrous stab Thunder-Wave / Wild Charge - T-Wave cuts the opponents speed down and has a chance to para. Wild Charge is an offensive move to take out bulky water types.
If anyone has feedback to this id like to hear it since I though its an awesome idea :)
I got the other things for them.
Natural-Nothing new, it's is the regular form
Heart-Play Rough and Pixilate
Diamond-Earthquake and Arena Trap if Ground or Close Combat and Scrappy if Fighting
Star-your set above
Pharaoh- Waterfall and Water Veil
Kabuki-Flare Blitz and Flash Fire
Le Reine-Ice Shard and Refridgerate
Marton-Psycho Cut and Magic Guard
Dandy-Leaf Blade and Chlorophyll
Debutante-Fusion Bolt and Volt Absorb
Those are my ideas, Marogod. Hope you enjoy them.
I got the other things for them.
Natural-Nothing new, it's is the regular form
Heart-Play Rough and Pixilate
Diamond-Earthquake and Arena Trap if Ground or Close Combat and Scrappy if Fighting
Star-your set above
Pharaoh- Waterfall and Water Veil
Kabuki-Flare Blitz and Flash Fire
Le Reine-Ice Shard and Refridgerate
Marton-Psycho Cut and Magic Guard
Dandy-Leaf Blade and Chlorophyll
Debutante-Fusion Bolt and Volt Absorb
Those are my ideas, Marogod. Hope you enjoy them.
Furfrou @ Leftovers
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Wish
- Body Slam
- Protect
- Roar/Twave/U-turn/Toxic/etc.
Wish is a sort of standard move for cutemons, and the other domestic animal pokemon, Delcatty, gets it too. Meanwhile basically everything except Furfrou gets body slam so? Pretty simple overall, gives Furfrou way more utility while still filling a very valuable defensive role. Its physical bulk is pretty insane, I mean:
+2 252+ Atk Barbaracle Stone Edge vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Furfrou: 152-179 (43 - 50.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
It takes a little less than full phys def tangela when leftovers are factored in, with way better spdef at the same time. The last slot can be filled with some of its handy utility moves, or maybe some coverage to hit some of the mons it walls more effectively. U-turn is actually pretty nice as it allows furfrou to maintain momentum on offensive teams and to safely pass wishes to teammates against faster mons. Furthermore wish passing furfrou fits well with some of the recovery-less defensive pivots in the tier, such as Grumpig and Misdreavus.
So basically a fast phys def licki, which would make it for more splashable on stall and a good pivot for balance.
Imo the biggest problem with Furfrou is its amazing ability to do absolutely nothing ever. With Taunt, Furfrou can now make others do just as much as Furfrou does.
But seriously, the addition of Taunt makes for an interesting pivot. The speed tier of 102 is pretty cool, and with the ability and Taunt Furfrou can be useful as an offensive pivot or even a lead. Suspect your opponent will lead with Custap Golem? Lead with your new Taunt Furfrou and Taunt before the rocks go up. Then, U-turn on the switch or just U-Turn to break Sturdy. Or just do that with every lead really. With max speed you also outrun Whirlipede at +1, so you can Taunt that too.
The ability to outspeed and Taunt then U-Turn is quite the commodity. The additional bulk that the ability provides is also nice, letting you use this pivot for a long time. You outspeed just about every single common defensive poke quite handily and have the bulk to take enough hits to justify your presence as a reliable pivot for offense who need an answer to setup mons. So...this is kind of like a variation of the speedy Grumpig, only faster and with more physical bulk and less power.
As for justification for why Taunt works...have you ever seen two dogs meet on aggressive grounds? They just taunt each other before attacking. Same thing.
I got the other things for them.
Natural-Nothing new, it's is the regular form
Heart-Play Rough and Pixilate
Diamond-Earthquake and Arena Trap if Ground or Close Combat and Scrappy if Fighting
Star-your set above
Pharaoh- Waterfall and Water Veil
Kabuki-Flare Blitz and Flash Fire
Le Reine-Ice Shard and Refridgerate
Marton-Psycho Cut and Magic Guard
Dandy-Leaf Blade and Chlorophyll
Debutante-Fusion Bolt and Volt Absorb
Those are my ideas, Marogod. Hope you enjoy them.
To be honest there isn't much to be said about Staryu :/. Good Status/Recovery/Support Moves
Toxic, Thunder-Wave, Reflect, Light Screen, Reflect Type, Recover, Magic Coat Good Attacking Moves
Scald, Dazzling Gleam, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Hydro Pump, Psychic, Power Gem, Signal Beam, RAPID SPIN
All of those moves Staryu can learn in game. Its kind of sad...i mean i hope someone can theory something good about it but realistically there is nothing (from my point of view) you could do to make it better when the one thing holding Staryu back is its stats.
Sure Eviolite is nice but 30/55/55 is pitiful even with it (although does make a decent spinner in the Pu meta) but overall nothing can truly make an impactful change to the starfish pokemon.
I know that isnt a Theory set but can someone please prove me wrong on those accounts? i literally can not see anything that can be done with it that could make it better+not be un-realistic.
Staryu + Steel type
Dank stoutland check, comes with flying resistance to come in on birds which are stupidly good rn thanks to everybody running tangela to deal with stoutland (swanna, dodrio, chatot all v good). Doesn't come with an electric immunity like an added ground type could, but also loses its grass weakness and neutrality to rock in trade for no fire resist and a ground weakness, which I think is fair considering it's actually getting a niche now. Idk, came up with that in like 10 seconds but it may actually be the only good thing to add on.
Staryu + Steel type
Dank stoutland check, comes with flying resistance to come in on birds which are stupidly good rn thanks to everybody running tangela to deal with stoutland (swanna, dodrio, chatot all v good). Doesn't come with an electric immunity like an added ground type could, but also loses its grass weakness and neutrality to rock in trade for no fire resist and a ground weakness, which I think is fair considering it's actually getting a niche now. Idk, came up with that in like 10 seconds but it may actually be the only good thing to add on.
Regenerator + rapid spin in this crazy hazard stack meta would be a godsend even if its stats are underwhelming. To ensure viability the move Spikes could be added to give it a niche as a Defensive Spinner with hazard setting utility. Certainly not A rank, but this would give it much more viability than it currently has without making it too overpowered for PU.
I don't really know how to justify spikes other than there are spiky fish underwater ;s. Perhaps heal bell would work better, but it wouldn't be nearly as good.
Now sharing a Psychic type like it's evolution makes it now have a resistance to Fighting, which is important to this meta as the Fighting type is one of the most feared types in the metagame. With the typing comes a new move, and that new move is Calm Mind. Combined with the decent Special Attack and Speed, it is very likely for this thing to be a Special Sweeper. It gets also Psyshock because it is similar to Starmie and it makes it a pretty good Sweeper.
This is way more relevant with smashers now being incredibly good. Water/Steel would be a nice check to them, how else can we use Staryu to check Barb/Costa?
Glaceon @ Life Orb
Ability: Ice Body
- Ice Beam
- Freeze-Dry
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Agility
The biggest problem Glaceon has is its lacking movepool and speed. The latter I sadly can't fix without something ridiculous like Speed Boost but the addition of Freeze-Dry allows Glaceon to hit Water-types it was generally useless against. Agility is added to boost its Speed.
Choice Scarf would be a clutch check to Smashers that don't run defensive EVs especially with hazard up. But overall this is the best I can do to help the poor thing. (Unless I do a Mini Aurorus with Snow Warning/Refrigerate and Freeze-Dry but I'm pretty sure someone's going to steal that idea and only one idea is available per user so yeah) Pair with something that beats Piloswine and you should be good to go.
Edit: Forgot that its main flaw is being a shittier Regice. Oopsies. Also changed set. (Agility > Refrigerate)
Glaceon @ Life Orb
Ability: No Guard
- Blizzard
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Sing
No Guard gives spammable Blizzard without muscling in on Aurorus' niche, as well as an excellent way to deter counters from switching in with 100% accurate Sing. Focus Blast gives it coverage it desperately needs. It does suffer a bit from SE attacks that had a chance to miss (Fire Blast, Overheat, Stone Edge, Focus Blast), but I think the positives would significantly outweigh the negatives here.
Mittens (Glaceon) (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Sniper
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Frost Breath
- Shadow Ball
- Signal Beam
I wanted to get at a different approach than just slapping on Refrigerate and calling it a stronger Aurorus, which would make it banned from PU obviously. What we have here instead is something innovative, and I'd like to announce Sniper Glaceon as my pick for this week's Theorymon! For those of you unaware of the Sniper ability, allow me to define it. "If this Pokemon strikes with a critical hit, the damage is multiplied by 1.5." And for those of you not familiar with Frost breath, it has 60 base damage but always results in a crit making it do exactly the same as Ice Beam. But since it always results in a crit, Sniper boosts it by 1.5 damage! It's not overpowered either considering it has 90% accuracy. For those of you wondering, yes it does more than Blizzard, and to make it better, Crits don't take into account opponent stat boosts when calculating damage. This means that you can be facing a +6 sp.D mon and still do stronger damage than Blizzard without the poor accuracy and weakened attack.
Geez, Diglett's tricky to buff. Its viability is tied to its ability so nothing can change there. Very few typing changes or coverage moves that it doesn't already have would make sense for it to have. And it already has decent support options in Stealth Rock and Memento. What it really wants is a higher BST. Still found something though.
Endeavor brings any target down to 1 HP after Diglett's brought down to its sash. This gives it more general use, and makes it a reliable counter to Barbaracle and non-Aqua Jet Carracosta while hazards aren't up. It can come in on a Shell Smash or come in after sacking something and use Endeavor, then just Sucker Punch to finish and then either set rocks or bring some other mon's HP down to 1 before dying. Even if they predict the switch and attack, Diglett still can bring them down to 1 HP for another priority user to finish the job (except against Aqua Jet Carracosta). Stone Edge is there because Dugtrio gets it and Diglett doesn't for some reason, and that's always bugged me.
Diglett @ Focus Sash
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Hone Claws/Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide/Aerial Ace/Sucker Punch
Ok so you have your opponent trapped. Now it's time for...support? That's it? Encore gives Diglett the ability to trap opponents, force them into some silly move, and then Hone Claws to +6 or whatever suits your mood. Diglett has a pretty decent speed tier too, so it can can actually use the boosts to an extent before dying and can even serve as a wincon. Kind of like Gothitelle in OU in the sense that it's perfect setup and an auto-kill, but only works on grounded pokes...and pokes that are using some form of support move...and even then, revenge killing Diglett is not hard.
As for flavor, I would like to point out that this thing gets Aerial Ace so not even GF keeps flavor in mind. Also, those are some adorable eyes. If Diglett asked nicely, it could get whatever it wants. "Sure Diglett, I'll use Calm Mind again..."
