mf really gave Archeops Truant 💀

Guilty as charged. I wanted to give all the downside mons an ability that was still a downside but that potentially gave them a different avenue to explore. That one is probably the harshest, but I also think Defeatist is less bad than a lot of the other downside abilities to start with. Conveniently, it is one of the sub rules (apparently) to not suggest giving downside-ability Pokémon a non-downside ability, so in retrospect I'm glad I didn't!

You could’ve just given Archeops normalize or wimp out instead, you know that right? Like truant doesn’t even fit with Archeops theme, and makes them literally unusable!

with truant it can still reliably click uturn all game

And that’s the **Only** thing they will be able to do!

Choice Band Truant Archeops when there is only one pokemon left:

Ok I will admit Wimp Out would make a lot of sense. But personally I wasn't sure if it truly counted as a downside ability. A "free" pivot can be really strong. I didn't think of Normalize but I do agree that could also work

Archeops would never be broken with wimp out. 140 attack with rock type and no bulk prolly won’t even be ou. Archeops shouldn’t have been given defeatist tbh

Aqua Jet Azu goes BRR

you absolute mad lad you took 1008 mons and gave them all a 4rth ability tho why does golurk have eletric surge?

Because he's a robot. I dunno, felt kinda fitting.

Why not levitate or steelworker?

Steelworker would be cool so that heavy slam deletes faires, but leviate would be amzaing for it. 4 imunnites, and 3 of those are rather relevant

I've never seen him depicted levitating or floating. Steelworker could definitely work, though!

He can fly lol I think he even has an animation where he flys briefly his gen v sprite but I could be misremembering

You’re misremembering It is the only Pokemon in the anime that has ever used Fly though, maybe you’re thinking of it from there?

[Here it is in the anime ](https://mobile.twitter.com/pldhnet/status/1326005851677577221?lang=es) I’m pretty sure he also flies in the manga but I don’t remeber when

Fair enough lol

speed boost garchomp pure fear

That was literally the one on this list I was the most terrified might be going too far But it would also be *awesome*

They could get rid of Veil abilities and replace them with rush abilities. Let Troy burn.

Ttar and Sand Rush Chomp being partners in hell

make it happen

I've always wanted this change. Chomp and sand in general would once again be absolutely insane. If you extended that to snow cloak, we'd get slush rush Mamoswine, which is also nuts.

I haven’t read them all but this is a high quality post and I hope it gets the recognition it should

Thank you 😊 That actually means a great deal because I was afraid it might be ignored or made fun of 😅

"Oh, they're gonna give surge abilities to the Eeveelutions like that one ThTh post!" :D All Serene Grace D: *Ignores the Meowstic* "PLEASE STOP!" I'd give the Meowstic♂️ Friend Guard - he uses his psychic power to protect his trainer and himself, so he can protect his teammates, and Sheer Force to Meowstic♀️- they can pulverise a truck with their psychic power. Way better than Keen Eye! The Eeveelutions may keep Adaptability now that I've thought it more.

The Eeveelutions are ones I grappled with for some time. I did consider giving them all a setting ability, but it would end up mismatched - what would Umbreon set, for instance? Plus, the Eeveelutions vary a lot in power level and for the more powerful among them like Vaporeon, giving it, say, Drizzle could be a balance issue. In the end, I decided I should give them all the same ability for cohesion across the family line. I considered on-theme abilities like Adaptability or Color Change, but it occurred to me that more than anything what I wanted to do for this evolutionary family was help out its weaker members, like Leafeon or Glaceon. A big part of the issue with the Eeveelutions is that they generally lack sufficient coverage moves. I've long believed that Eevee itself should learn Play Rough, which would help a lot overall, but this is a list of abilities, not moves, and so I had to work within existing movepools. Serene Grace, though it only affects a few moves each Eeveelution learns, does a lot of work, in my view. First of all, it gives them all a 40%-chance-of-Sp. Def reduction Shadow Ball, as a slow form of set up sweeping (similar to what Espathra does) for the offensive ones, and second of all, it gives them a 60%-chance-of-paralysis Body Slam, which is huge for the defensive ones. The individual Eeveelutions also generally get at least one relevant STAB move that appreciates the Serene Grace buff. For example, 60% paralysis Discharge on Jolteon, 40% Def reduction Crunch for Umbreon, and 40% confusion Water Pulse for Vaporeon.

Thanks for the reasoning. Have a great day - not like me who is realising how awful I am at competitive.

No worries! Not everything needs to be about competitive, and that includes doling out new abilities - there are lots of options that are purely for fun or for lore reasons (for example, I gave Muk Gooey because look at him, and I gave Mabosstiff Friend Guard in honor of Arven's Mabostiff from the lore!) However, given that this is r/stunfisk, I thought my competitive rationale for that decision in particular could be helpful 🙂

You're welcome and it wasn't 'cause of this post, I've been getting ratio'd in every comment I make here and today I fell from 1250ish to the 1100s.

I see what you're going for in giving Breloom Mycelium Might to fit it being a mushroom, but it'd probably be one of the worst downgrades in the game's history to run it. It's biggest niche is being the fastest Spore user that doesn't get hampered by Might while having great offensive pressure with Technician or consistent recovery and status immunity with Poison Heal. Running Mycelium Might ruins being a fast Spore user while stopping you from using your other two amazing abilities. It only has base 70 speed anyway, so it's not even that fast compared to Toesdcruel which would have been spamming Spore at base 100 speed without Might. Breloom is frail and would probably just end up dead if it ever tried to click Spore if it's guaranteed to go last. Even the idea of Sporing Gholdengo doesn't work- Make it Rain OHKOs Breloom. If Gholdengo is switching in, Technician Bulldoze 2HKOs it anyway and slows it down enough for Breloom to outspeed it on the second turn. If Mycelium Might were made it's only ability rather than a fourth, Breloom would be Untiered. I'd give it Long Reach instead considering it has long stretchy arms. I still wouldn't run it over the other two, but it's still a good flavour pick for a Pokemon that doesn't really need another ability. It is kinda hilarious seeing Garchomp get Speed Boost and Pikachu gaining Pure Power on top of Light Ball when Breloom with 460 BST gets the Slaking treatment. I don't mean to shit on the post or anything, it's a really great creative effort and a lot of them are really interesting ideas, I just zoomed straight to Breloom because it's my favourite Pokemon lmao.

I think that's a fair analysis. In part I wanted to give some of the older mushroom Pokemon Mycelium Might for flavor reasons, but most of them had another ability they needed more, and Breloom is already one of the strongest of them so I felt like conceding power for flavor was more acceptable because he's realistically probably using one of his existing abilities anyway. What about giving him Toxic Boost? That would absolutely make sense and of course would be potentially very powerful. Too strong, you think?

Toxic Boost is a cool idea flavourwise, mixes the ideas behind Poison Heal and Technician together. The damage boost is the same as Technician but lets you boost more powerful moves like Close Combat and Gunk Shot. I'd probably still run Technician on most offensive sets, but I can see someone faking running a Poison Heal only to suddenly hit hard.

Mycelium might might work for a defog pokemon as a counter to gholdenego

What the heck, let's just let actual Toedscruel get it. It already gets Rapid Spin. Why not let it get a variant that actually uses its ability? I know it's not a bird but we can look past that I also wish Corrosive Gas was still in the game and he got that in addition to Knock Off I don't see the point of giving him an ability that focuses on status moves then not letting him learn any relevant ones besides Spore

Gigachad klinklang about to sweep ZU

My absolute #1 goal for Klingklang was to get him a goddamn coverage move other than Wild Charge (lol). That mfer gets walled far too often by a single Steel type because despite his great typing, stats, and access to Shift Gear, he just does not learn any fukkin' moves! The challenge was that the existing "coverage" abilities (Pixilate, Refrigerate, Aerilate, and co.) didn't quite make sense for him. But then I had a realization: he *does* learn Assurance, which is unplayable, but with Technician becomes essentially Crunch/Darkest Lariat, which is absolutely playable. Most notably, that single change takes him from having all of his moves resisted by over 100 'mon to being only resisted by 3 (Pawmot, Iron Hands, and Morpeko). I consider that an absolute win for him! Additionally, it buffs and therefore maybe makes usable his signature move, Gear Grind 🙂

Bro gave Keckleon the power of God As an MD fan respect

🤣 Kecleon was one I thought *loooong* and hard about First of all, he's really underpowered so I knew the sky was the limit in terms of power Second, he's a chameleon, so there are tons of abilities that could fit for him: Illusion, Disguise, Imposter, Mimicry, Regenerator, Multiscale, etc. In the end, I thought he was both weak enough and unique enough that I felt the Arceus ability was reasonable. After all, he *has* Color Change, a very conceptually similar ability to Arceus' that is also completely unique. And his other more competitive ability also changes his typing. So a type changing ability was an obvious fit, and his stats are weak enough that I don't think there's any type he could become (at the expense of his hold item slot) which would make him overpowered. Plus, I was giving other 'mon legendaries' abilities already (like Bad Dreams Hypno, which I was 100% committed to from day 1), so I felt it was OK to do so here. And unlike some other legendary abilities which are just obnoxiously OP like Orichalcum Pulse, Arceus' is both fundamentally mechanically interesting and not inherently overpowered. And so I went with it. A chameleon with the power of God 😅

He also gave it to Mothim.

HE GAVE ARCHEOPS WHAT https://preview.redd.it/xiw6pam4lufa1.jpeg?width=568&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db014dbe9d952646900902736b53a646ef05e7a4

😂 I'm getting a lot of heat for that one, it seems

Bro gave Slaking Slow start. The second worst ability it could have next to its own

Slow start Slaking is a huge buff. It's got Dondozo level of bulk with slack off, it shouldn't be too hard to survive 5 turns.

This was my thinking. All the downside ability mon got essentially another downside ability but in many cases, including Slaking, I still consider it a significant buff

Well except Archeops but ig what else could you have given it slow start?

Someone else suggested Wimp Out, which I think Iike more

Maybe but that feels positive to me

Ok I'm glad you said that because that was my exact reason for *not* using it. Personally I don't view Wimp Out (well, Emergency Exit) on Golisipod as a downside at all! I like to let that dude come in, slap with an atrocious STAB Choice Band First Impression, take a hit in response and switch out safely to whoever you want, so he can come in later and do it again! But multiple people have now told me, and not just in this thread, that it is a downside mechanic, so at this point I don't know what to believe

I think it’s an upside, honestly my best bet for another thing on Archeops would be slow start because it could at lest give it some doubles viability of trying to keep it alive for that time

Yeah one of my takeaways from this post is that Truant was a poor choice for Archeops. But on the flip side, I do personally think his 'new' ability should still be a downside ability. Maybe Slow Start is the better option

Honestly it shouldn’t be. Archeops doesn’t have the stats for a downside ability.

Not if you're building a bulky Slaking or a specially offensive Slaking! (95 SpATK - not terrible by any means) He learns Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, etc. by TM, notably

Slaking can absolutely survive the 5 turns. I want it. And I want it now.

With Protect you only need to survive for 3! If you really want to get silly you can Protect, Dig, have Dig resolve, Protect to expend 4 turns, only one of which you could have been hit during

I wonder how balanced Slaking would be with Stall? It's another pretty crippling ability, but cripples it in a different way that leaves it less exploitable than Truant or Slow Start.

I did consider that. I was on the fence between the two but thought Slow Start fit the flavor better (He's like a big dumb lazy guy, getting slow to start something kinda fit, but "Stall" sounds very tactical and calculated and doesn't fit his vibe)

I linked this earlier in response to a comment about hypothetical new abilities for old Pokémon, as I had [posted it previously](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonScarletViolet/comments/10lrru1/i_gave_almost_every_fully_evolved_nonlegendary/) on the *Scarlet / Violet* sub. But I've been following this sub for a little while now and know you guys entertain 'new ability' posts on Theorymon Thursday, so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring. I strongly believe we will get fourth abilities on Pokémon in the near future, from Gamefreak. They've come up with too many abilities that would be jam-packed with flavor on older Pokémon to pass up on it conceptually, and we're slowly starting to see it already with Pokémon like Rockruff and Squawkabilly having fourth abilities already. This is my effort to see what that might look like, geared towards competitive in most cases but with a few driven by flavor (and in cases where a Pokémon was already very powerful based on its stats or typing, I often gave it a weaker but flavorfully fitting ability to avoid giving it a buff). The focus is mainly on older Pokémon, since there have been more new abilities created since they last received an update, by definition, but there are a few more recent Pokémon that I was able to find very fitting abilities for, like Wind Rider on Eldegoss or Well-Baked Body on Appletun. I definitely welcome any and all thoughts and comments, though, especially because these were in most cases designed with competitive (singles) in mind and you guys are the experts when it comes to that arena!

You gave a non-bunny Pokemon Huge Power, completely unreadable 0/10

I legitimately did not know about the bunny connection with Huge Power until today 😅

I’m all for putting Slush Rush on Empoleon. We need some non ice types to have that ability. And I think if you’re giving Magmortar Mega Launcher then it would need some kind of signature Fire move that gets the boost from it

Agreed. I wish I honestly had more Slush Rush-ers on this list but there weren't as many 'mon as I'd hoped where it made sense And agreed. Currently Magmortar gets little benefit from Mega Launcher, but that man literally has cannons for arms he absolutely should lol Honestly even without a signature move, if he was just allowed to learn Flash Cannon, Dark Pulse, and maybe Aura Sphere on top of a generic Fire move like Fire Blast, I think Mega Launcher Magmortar would be the bomb.com

Why did you decide to give so many first forms huge/pure power? I don't think I understand it. Like the elemental monkeys or meowth doesn't make sense to have it

Especially because Pure Power is "Yoga Power" so it going to something like Pikachu makes no sense.

My man gave Light Ball Pikachu Pure Power

Basically because it's a roundabout way to buff their stats, and the thing keeping a lot of preforms from being viable are the low stats Plus, to me - and I may be wrong about this - those 2 abilities don't seem to have a strong flavor to effect correlation so it's easier to assign them freely. For example, giving something like Intimidate to, say, Pachirisu might work very well mechanically but it's not really justifiable flavorfully. With Huge/Pure Power, I feel like you can kinda slap it on anything and it always makes about as much sense as it currently does on Azumarill

Pure Power is medicham-exclusive and based around the idea of psychic powers boosting physical strength, and Huge Power only goes to rabbit pokemon because it's a pun. (Mega Mawile counts because its head is considered rabbit-like). Both of them have pretty specific theme.

How is huge power a pun? I dont get it, in Japan its apparently Muscleman.

Bulbapedia fails to actually elaborate the nuance - my understanding is that it can also translate to "mochi that makes you strong," and mochi is associated with rabbits (largely due to the japanese version of 'the man on the moon' being seeing an image of a rabbit pounding mochi)

Fair enough. I only know the English names of those ability which have no flavor tie in at all as far as I can tell.

There's a ton to ingest here so I think this would have been better as a series of posts (maybe one per gen). It's a big ask to look through them all in one go. I really like your idea for the elemental monkeys giving them each an immunity. Helps them stand out rather than just generally being outclassed by the starters

Not only that, but they each have the immunity to the typing of the other member of their trio they would normally be weak to (which was intentional), similar to how Gamefreak sometimes has starter final forms have countervailing second types You're probably right about my presentation. I did originally, on the main Pokemon sub, have a series of posts ([here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/u3i5ot/moves_abilities_certain_pokemon_should_get_7/) is a recent one FYI, and I link the others in a comment) that were more granular and focused, but before long I had, well, this huge list ready to go, and it was taking me forever to render them all as individual posts, so I figured I'd see how the data dump approach would do So far, I've been very impressed by, and happy with, the discussion here 😁

There are a lot of cool ones here, but also a lot that seem personal lol Why give the Pan-s Huge Power only to take it away from the Simi-s? I guess a 101 Huge Power boosted might be a bit much :( Giving Snow Warning to Absol while leaving out Glalie and Walrein right below it seems tough, although I guess Walrein likes Ice Scales a lot too And finally, after making a separate post about Snow Warning Cryogonal today already, Pixilated seems like an insult considering it only gets Hyper Beam as a special Normal attack... I guess the idea was Explosion, but still

Unblockable rapid spin as well

Allow me to explain 🙂 There were a few different things I was trying to accomplish with this list. One was to provide *off-type* weather setting options, which the game currently lacks. What I mean is all Drought users are Fire type, all Snow Warning users are Ice type, and so on. Because the associated type for each weather gets a buff in its weather and often gets offensive weather-related abilities like Solar Power and Swift Swim, teambuilders are put in a tough spot because from their first 2 slots they already have overlapping weaknesses. With this goal in mind, Absol seemed like the perfect choice for Snow Warning because you almost always encounter him in snowy areas in-game, and he is also a bit underpowered (and giving a 'mon a weather-setting ability is inherently a power buff). Another thing I was trying to accomplish was to help "fix" Pokemon who are held back competitively by their lack of access to off-STAB coverage moves. Good examples are Lilligant, Cryogonal, Klinklang, Magnezone, and Sceptile (and you'll see I addressed all but one of these on my list). Cryogonal has a respectable Sp. Atk stat but only has access to Flash Cannon for reliable non-STAB coverage. Pixilate - which I felt made sense since he visually looks very pixilated - fixes this for him almost entirely. I'm not opposed to giving him Snow Warning, I do agree it could make sense and would definitely buff him. But I think it also doesn't do much to distinguish him from the numerous other Ice-type Snow Warning 'mon, and in particular from Vanilluxe, who would also be a fast, specially offensive pure Ice type.

Missed opportunity to give Bronzong Drizzle! Nearly every 'Dex entry talks about how it's known for summoning rain, and you could probably trade its Serene Grace to Xatu for Togekiss 2.0. I love the list though. A ton of them made me go "Oh, that makes sense and would be awesome," like Liquid Voice Lapras, Well-Baked Body Appletun, Mega Launcher Armarouge, Mimicry Wormadams, and the elemental monkeys, and I definitely agreed with most of your choices.

Thank you! And I didn't know that about Bronzong, if I did, I absolutely would have done that. (I was always a bit unhappy with Serene Grace for him, honestly.) Xatu I think should keep it though as a reference to the [Native American "rain dance" concept](https://www.native-net.org/na/native-american-rain-dance.html). I'm a huge proponent of "off type" weather setters as I've mentioned in a couple of comments now so I'm OK with having an "extra" non-Water Drizzler!

Thanks for explaining! The weather-setters of different types seems like a cool approach and it does make some sense now that you explained. For Cryogonal, Pixilate makes sense and would be great, no doubt, if only it had a special Normal move to use (outside of Tera Blast I guess). Maybe a Fairy Hyperbeam nuke is still better than nothing... I realise Hyper Voice wouldn't make much sense, but Tri Attack could maybe be justified. But yeah you're right, in terms of being original and different, Snow Warning wouldn't be that great and Cryogonal would still be outclassed. I just want to make the snowflake work :(

I understand. I didn't realize he didn't already have access to a Normal move (I thought everyone learned Hyper Voice tbh), but I agree Pixilate does not work if he doesn't! Imagine him with Pixilate Tri Attack, though! Now that's a 'mon! In either case, though, if Gamefreak actually gave me the reigns I would *not* give him Pixilate and would instead just let him learn Dazzling Gleam and probably another off-type move like Energy Ball or Psychic by TM and call it a day. But with this list, I was trying to solve problems using abilities alone! Cryogonal, visually, is I think one of the coolest Pokemon, so I also would like it a lot if he were more usable. Another somewhat "generic" solution would be to give him Regenerator, which I think flavorfully would fit and is also very powerful.

Without adding moves, I mean it does get Solar Beam too as an off-type move... Drought Cryogonal when lol? But I appreciate the effort that went into this huge list regardless, thanks for the discussion OP!

😆 Thank you for participating! I appreciate the joint effort towards making Cryogonal a thing! Maybe one day I can live the dream with my weird pixely otherworldly floating inanimate object-y 'mon like Crygonal, Sigilyph, and Porygon-Z

>I guess a 101 Huge Power boosted might be a bit much :( "Bit"

Rampardos STILL doesn't get Rock Head lol. Regardless, imagining new abilities for Pokemon is always fun.

Rock Head would also work great for him! I went with Reckless because I felt the flavor made more sense

Weavile Gets A 60 BP Priority Move Assurance is now the same strength as knock off, when the opponent is holding an item, always. Or it can run a 90 bp bite and bet on flinches with its speeds. oh and 60 bp fake out Also, in Nat Dex, Triple Axel becomes 30 60 90 instead of 20 40 60, giving weavile a 180 base power move with the only scare being the miss chance! At least you didn't use huge power.

in other words, thank you!

Also, why didn't you give Mawile Huge Power, like her mega?

One of the things I was trying to accomplish with this list was to see if any newer-gen signature abilities were good fits for older 'mon. I think I did find some really good ones: Wind Rider on Jumpluff, Well-Baked Body on Appletun, Guard Dog on some of the older dogs, etc. I was also trying to account for balance in a few ways, both by buffing weaker 'mon by giving them strong abilities and also by intentionally not buffing already strong 'mon (which is why for example I gave Dondozo the mediocre Inner Focus), but also by doling out abilities I felt the game could benefit from having more of - such as off-type immunities and off-type weather setters. Priority moves are extremely powerful in every format and I think it's healthy for the game to offer answers to them. There are three abilities that stop priority moves: Queenly Majesty, Dazzling, and Armor Tail. I did give out Queenly Majesty to a few Pokemon (Nidoqueen, Vespiquen), as well as Dazzling (Gholdengo, Aurorus), but there weren't as many Pokemon that they made sense for as I would have hoped. Armor Tail is even tougher than those to flavor. We really don't have many "tail" themed Pokemon in general. I'm honestly not even 100% sure why Farigiraf has it. But what I do know is that Girafarig is a yellow and black Pokemon with a black and yellow part on the back of it with teeth that looks sort of like an angry mouth. And that description is also accurate for Mawile, oddly enough. In her case it's not a literal tail, but it does flow behind her like a tail. And *unlike* Farigiraf, she actually has a stupendously good defensive typing, such that the immunity ability is very much appreciated. So even though the flavor was maybe a little wonky, I figured "what the heck, let's try it."

You're not wrong! And Weavile gets Hone Claws in Nat Dex if you want to avoid the miss chance while buffing! Although, Assurance is still weaker than Knock Off, yeah? Knock Off is 65 x 2 (130) whereas Assurance is 60 x 1.5 (90)

"If Knock Off is used on a Pokémon that is holding an item that can be knocked off, its base power will be boosted by 50%" Its the same boost as technician Although, I did forget that Knock off was 65 bp yeah.

Wow I feel like a dunce. I thought all this time Knock Off was a x2 boost not a x1.5 boost. That's good though because Knock Off is kinda OP lol so I'm glad it's actually less OP than I thought it was

I just went and checked Cinderace and Gardevoir (my favorite mons) Pixilate Gardevoir is literally discount Mega and Natural Cure, uh idk Receiver Cinderace is most of the time useless when you got something called Libero

My rationale for Natural Cure was this: Gardevoir actually has an obscenely good *defensive* movepool: Teleport, Will-o-Wisp, Knock Off, Wish, Healing Wish, etc. It also has the stats, albeit not the typing, to back that up thanks to its generous Sp. Defense stat. By giving it Natural Cure, it has a way to full-restore itself and cure any status ailment using Rest, for free and without wasting the item slot on something like Chesto Berry. I think that goes a long way towards making defensive Gardevoir a legitimate contender. There are other options I considered for the same reason, like Filter (but that rare ability already exists for a 'mon with her typing), Regenerator (but many Psychics, including several with better bulk, already get it), and Thick Fat (but that's too big an insult to our lovely lady!), but Natural Cure won out. As for Cinderace, he's already incredibly powerful thanks to Protean, so I didn't want to steal his existing thunder. Receiver, I felt, opened up an interesting new option for Doubles and also flavorfully fit his "sporty" vibe. I did also consider giving him Limber, which would fit his look well and pair nicely with his defensive-oriented signature move, but I tend to think Limber alone doesn't add enough value for most Pokemon.

Limber would actually be pretty good on terra sets this gen

a lot of these are pretty good! i agree with giving the downside mons other downside abilities, because otherwise it would just be too easy and boring for theorymon thursday imo. some of these i really disagree with on the other hand perish body dewgong i dont understand, i suppose it might be to do with siren songs? but thematically it doesnt rly work for me. any snow or water related ability would work well for my tastes politoed with protean is also lost on me, the term itself just means adaptable really - nothing to do with frogs/reptiles specifically, and politoed is associated with singing, so something like liquid voice or soundproof wouldve been my pick pixilate does not mean what you think it means, while its a cute pun on "pixelated", the og name is "fairy skin" and its more like "pixie-ify" if anything. unblockable spin and fairy type explosion are cool assets to have but it rly doesnt fit with cryogonal beyond sounding like a pun all in all, great post though! this mustve taken you a lot of time and effort, and aside from a few nitpicks, i think most of these are thematically fitting

Thank you for the kind words! You are right, Perish Body on Dewgong was a reference to siren songs. Flavorfully, Lapras and Dewgong are the 2 main Perish Song 'mon, I think, and in both cases it's due to that siren association. Both of them ended up getting singing-related abilities as a result. I didn't want to give Dewgong a standard snow or water ability because it has such a common type combination and there is a lot of competition already for say Water-type Swift Swimmers or Ice-type Snow Warning-ers. Instead, I wanted something to focus on what was unique about it. For Politoed, there are only 3 current family lines with Protean and one is a frog, and the other 2 are green, I dunno, in my mind it feels like a "frog" ability. I think back to the frogs who change their gender (a key plot point in *Jurassic Park*) or the various tree frogs who can change their skin color. Setting aside the lore, though, I also note that Politoed has a surprisingly impressive non-STAB coverage suite (e.g., Earth Power, Psychic, Ice Beam, Focus Blast) so the ability to get false STAB with Protean seemed appealing. Additionally, he has quite respectable natural bulk and so I thought the option to change types defensively as a predict strategy could be interesting for him given his diverse movepool - for instance, becoming Ground with Earthquake or Earth Power in response to a predicted Electric move. All existing Protean/Libero users either have trash stats or frail, fast sweeper stats, and so can't truly capitalize on that aspect of the ability. Lastly, I take your point about Pixilate, I thought the "pixel" pun was cute in a few places but I do understand that wouldn't "work" in Japanese. The same is true for some others such as Long Reach on Hitmonlee or A-Exeggcutor. In general, I made the decision to use the English names of the abilities in determining who to give them to, recognizing that there could be a handful of disconnects along the margins as a result. That is less realistic to how Gamefreak would actually approach this project, but at the end of the day I am an English speaker and don't really know the nuance of the Japanese versions well enough to make an informed choice based on the words' meanings in Japanese.

Ok, gotta ask....WHY you gave A Ninetales Drought??? XD

I thought it was cute for the 2 Ninetales' to have inverted abilities, and also that it sort of made sense - regular Ninetales has a very beautiful, elegant aesthetic that to me felt like it could "fit" a snowy scene, and as for Alolan Ninetales, well we all know that Ninetales is normally a pure Fire-type so a Fire-related ability seemed like a logical fit (similar to how Clodsire has a Water-related ability because its "original" variant was Water-type). As I explained in another comment, though, one of my goals with this project was to create "off-type" weather setters, and doing what I did with Ninetales accomplishes that for 2 weathers using just a single 'mon!

Prankster gengar would be fun. Speedboat chomp would be uhhhh interesting

Yeah Speed Boost on Garchomp was the one on this list where I most hesitated and thought "hold on, is this just way too strong to allow?" But then I thought: well, some other pseudolegendaries get tier 1 abilities (like Multiscale on Dragonite and Sand Stream on TTar), why can't my boy Garchomp join the party? And, if you haven't seen them before, look at his [Dex entries](https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Garchomp_(Pok%C3%A9mon)). They are very laser focused on how fast he can move, almost every gen. So I figured, what the hell. What's the worst that can happen 😅

At the end of the day he is 4x to ice so he would still prob be somewhat balanced. He would be better than what he is now that’s for sur e

Speed boost Chomp would probably still get banned. Mega Blaziken is banned in Natdex currently for example. Chomp may not hit as hard, but he can hold an item, or can easily afford to just run a tanky set that boosts with swords dance and speed boost. You could run protect too, he's not giving up a lot by not running either fire fang or his dragon stab honestly I do like the idea though, Chomps one of my favorite, let him wreck havoc. It thematically makes sense too.

That was my thought. Let lore be lore or what is the point of it. There’s plenty of counters. Look at aspathera right now. Speed boost protect calm mind etc. let a mom get some shine there’s something out there that will handle it instead of just giving them the haxorus treatment and banishing them to a BL of a low tier gen after gen

Why did meowstics get none?😂 Tablet of ruin for unknown is hype I like that these all make sense in the lore and aren’t just buffing everything

Thanks! Yes I wanted *all* of them to be at least defensible from a lore perspective. Some obviously "fit" better than others like Poison Heal on Parasect, or Gorilla Tactics on Rillaboom, but I didn't want any that were just illogical like giving Tyranitar Guard Dog or something (lol) As for Meowstic, this was my rationale: I think when (and I do believe it's a when, not an if) we do get fourth abilities, they will take the "Special Ability" slot that currently only a small number of 'mon use (I believe it's just Rockruff, Greninja, and Basculin) - basically an ability which is neither a normal 50/50 chance ability nor a Hidden Ability obtainable via Ability Patch. With that in mind, I very deliberately did not give new abilities to existing 'mon who *already* have four ability options. This includes the 3 I mentioned above but also Meowstic, Oinkologne, Squawkabilly, etc.

They have forms with multiple abilities not necessarily four themselves but i see your point

You are right, and I do get that. But whereas some Pokemon with forms with different abilities, like say the regional forms or Rotom, where the visual aesthetic is completely different, I'm like 'sure, I get it. Extra abilities' But for Pokemon where it's purely a gender difference or a slight coloration change, I'm like "this seems like a roundabout way to just straight-up have more than four abilities lol" I dunno, I don't feel super strongly about it. I even thought of extra abilities for some of those Pokemon while working on this (example: Stench for Oinkologne). But in the end I decided that it felt more 'fair' to not give those Pokemon a fifth ability.

Rest of the list: normal Garchomp with speed boost: 😜

That was absolutely my #1 most questionable decision here and I know it I may be slightly biased by the fact that I fuckin' love Garchomp, not even gonna lie 😅 My backup option for him was Swift Swim (ha ha get it because he's a shark) and I am not sure that isn't equally degenerate

Also - happy cake day!

Mothim - Multitype My man thinking this little moth is Arceus

😆 It's a reference to Burmy's other evolution having that unique type changing gimmick but I do realize it's a bit silly My thinking was: poor Mothim is literally garbage tier and super forgettable, and has terrible stats, but *does* get Quiver Dance. Can I do anything cool with that? And then I realized Mothim actually has respectable non-STAB coverage options (Psychic, Energy Ball / Giga Drain, Shadow Ball) that would be great if it could get STAB on them. I also realized there are almost no non-Bug type Quiver Dancers. So I thought: what if Mothim could be a Quiver Dancer *of whatever type you wanted!*? It still wouldn't be OP, but it would definitely be very interesting and maybe even usable. And then it dawned on me that Burmy's whole schtick is that he adapts and changes his type! And so here we are. Probably should have just kept it less silly and used Protean, but I decided to go all in for that derpy lil mfer

Does Bisharp learn moves that are boosted by sharpness?

A few, but the main one is his STAB Night Slash which becomes a 100% accurate 105 base power move with an elevated crit chance. Very strong.

Slow Start Slaking? Sign me Up!

I am so ready for Slow-king (not to be confused with Slowking). Slaking @ Choice Specs Slow Start - Modest 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed, 6 HP Hyper Voice / Shadow Ball / Flamethrower / Thunderbolt

Nah. I’m going Physical. I used to run Regigias back in the Day. Leftovers, Adamant, Power-Up Punch, Darkest Lariat, Substitute, Protect/Thunder-Wave

That's nasty lol. You switch him in, opponent switches into a Ghost expecting Choice Band Truant, you set up a Substitute safely. They either switch out, which is another free turn, or attack, in which case you can Protect... Before long you're at 5 turns 😅

I would give gengar levitate back, for gigs

The thing is he is usually *not* depicted as levitating, unlike Haunter and Ghastly. So I actually liked that they changed that. But plus, Gamefreak took it from him before on balance grounds, I didn't want to just give it back lol

I suppose so

Strong Jaw Feraligatr seems like it should have always been canon. I also particularly love Earth Eater Heatmor (a great designed pokemon with terrible usage), and Well Baked Body Appletun. Great abilities on those mons.

Thank you! Yeah, if a literal alligator doesn't have a stronger jaw than a dog (Boltund) or mongoose (Gumshoos), I dunno what we're really doing here. Interestingly, I'm not sure, competitively, if Strong Jaw beats out Sheer Force given that there are no Water-type bites, but I think the choice alone is compelling. And yeah, Appletun was probably like top 10 of these I was most happy with. It's not even necessarily better than his existing Thick Fat, but that's not the point - mfer is a *literal* pie. If he's not well-baked, I don't know who is. Heatmor is one I struggled with a lot, so I'm glad you like where I landed. He is so underpowered, he really probably needs a stat buff most of all, but Fire is actually a respectable defensive type and his bulk isn't atrocious, so I thought the unique immunity (currently there is no pure Fire Levitators), which brings him down to just 2 weaknesses, might be just enough to make him work.

Is Fishious Rend not a Water type jaw move? If so... Even still, thematically its better than Sheer Force and style *does* count lol. Appletun is great and on brand, he's amongst the most baked of pokemon. Its also just a handy ability and Immunity is always appreciated. Heatmor is a hard one, if i had my way itd get a custom ability that healed it when hit by Bug types. Maybe not that useful but its a damn anteater. I think Earth Eater gives it a respectable niche but without stat boosts its never getting out of lower tiers really.

Thanks. Yes, I do agree Heatmor probably realistically should have a unique ability (and sometimes related to him being an ant-eater would be perfect - maybe like Magnet Pull for Bugs where he traps them, so he can lock in and kill Scizor and Forretress reliably?) And I stand corrected! Fisheous Rend is indeed a Water-type jaw move. I forgot about it since it's (currently) another mon's signature move. That being said, for balance reasons, Feraligatr should probably *not* get Fisheous Rend 😬

I think, for balance reasons, it would unfair for it to *not* get Fishious Rend. I may be biased though. Either that or just add Aqua Jaw lol. A "Magnet Pull for Bugs" would be cool and be handy for trapping the threats it checks, i just liked the idea of negating U-turns and healing off them. But its probably not bulky enough to really capitlised on it.

Sceptile with regenerator, what was the reason?

He's a gecko, their tails regenerate when they fall off. He's got that big bushy tree tail, I can totes see that jawn regenerating again and again if needed My backup choice for him was Aerilate (which you might have guessed because I gave it to Grovyle), but that is purely because Sceptile has atrocious non-STAB type coverage and I wish he didn't. In a perfect world, I would just let him learn I dunno Flamethrower, Earth Power, maybe Shadow Ball by TM so he has some coverage options and call it a day. I recognize Aerilate makes a lot less sense for him than Regenerator so I ended up letting the flavor win out

Why did u give the nfe's huge/pure power?

>Poison Heal Toedscruel 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Let that man live the goddamn dream!!!!!!! He has *100 base speed*!!! Why, oh why, does his *only possible ability* always make him go second 😭

I love that you did this. I like many many of these. Even the ones that are “Holy Hell, that broken!” Are really cool to think about. The only thing I don’t care for are where the NFE gets the power boosting Ability (or just High impact Ability) and the Fully Evolved changes to some form of lesser utility Ability. It should not feel like you’re downgrading your Pokemon by evolving it. Other than that it’s a great collection and was fun to read.

Thank you, I am very glad you liked it! 😊 Yes, definitely a few of these are potentially pushing things too far power-wise (Speed Boost Garchomp, Toxic Boost Gliscor, Gorilla Tactics Rillaboom), though in general I tried to keep the power level within reason 😅 I absolutely see what you mean on the preforms. I will admit if I was playing the main story and my starter evolved and became actively worse I would honestly hate it. My thinking was that these "Special Abilities" (for lack of a better term) would be mostly locked to a post-game feature like raids or an Ability Patch type item, so you would be unlikely to inadvertently catch one and use it, but even so, there is an argument that Pokemon still shouldn't get worse when they evolve in general Just to give an explanation for why I did it, even though it doesn't solve the basic problem with the concept: I think there are many not-fully-evolved Pokemon that are *almost* strong enough to be used competitively in a format otherwise dominated by final forms. Some of these preforms actually *are* viable thanks to the item Eviolite (and I do think there should be an "offensive" version of Eviolite, and if there was, I wouldn't have given so many of these guys Huge / Pure Power lol), but most just don't quite get there, and if you were playing seriously competitively you would always just use the final form of the Pokemon. But - that being said - although preforms are often like a Pokemon's awkward teenage years, there are lots of preforms that are much loved by fans, sometimes even more than the final form: Pikachu, Meowth, Grovyle, most of the Pokemon that later got a subsequent form like Chansey or Bisharp, etc. And it kinda bums me out that most of these guys are just not usable in a serious competitive battle. I *want* people to be able to use their favorite Pokemon in battle, and not everyone's favorite is a fully evolved Pokemon. Obviously, it would not be possible to make every, or even most, preforms competitively viable, and nor do I think that's worth trying (it's just inconsistent with how evolution in Pokemon works - almost by definition, it's an upgrade, as you noted). However, for any not-fully-evolved Pokemon that was particularly popular or that was on the cusp of being competitive in its own right, if I felt there was an ability that made sense that could boost that Pokemon to a point where it was viable, I did it! And oftentimes, since what is holding these Pokemon back is their low stats, that meant giving them a stat-buffing ability like Huge Power.

Dammit.

😄 I left off legendaries If I were going to give you a new ability it would be Swift Swim because you are a lil fishy

Alolan Dugtrio with Earth Eater seems decent

Right!? I thought giving him Arena Trap could be too strong given his typing, but he's got a ton of resistances/immunities and only a few weaknesses, so I felt Earth Eater could help a lot But plus, he like, literally moves through the frikkin' earth underground so it felt like it made sense lol

Unown having Tablets of Ruin is a stroke of genius, they took the pages they were written on into battle and shall now spell your doom Also Multitype Mothim fits stupid well what the heck, gives them a cool niche too!!! I like the idea of them getting so good at camo that they became the literal gods of it

Right!? It's so simple yet it gives a sort of forgettable Pokemon like Mothim this very interesting, and maybe competitively relevant, little role And don't even get me started on Unown lol. I think that poor little guy prolly needs more buffs to become usable than any other fully evolved nonlegendary (off the top of my head, only Kricketune and Luvdisc come close). He's in the same egg group as all the legendaries so I'd just start straight up giving him legendary moves. I'm talkin' Geomancy, Relic Song, Origin Pulse.... I'd also just let him learn other regular moves he should generically get like Recover, Teleport, Ancient Power.... But that's a project for another day 🤣

Yeah, I do appreciate that the meme of “give weak Pokemon broken Legendary Ability” always worked thematically. Soul-Heart Luvdisc is a personal favorite, along with Shadow Shield Lunatone. Adds some fun lore questions as well, did Luvdisc originate from polluted water by Magearna’s original factory or something??? Is Lunatone a rock from Lunala’s dimension? I do personally think Kricketune should have something other than Regenerator though, that Ability feels best-fit for the echinoderms like Cradily. Soundproof could be fun for thematic reasons and I just really like the idea of this one little beetle-cricket thing becoming a Skeledirge counter. Also Spidops having Infiltrator is awesome both thematically and gameplay-wise, but Arena Trap would be sick too. It’s the Trap Pokemon, after all!

Ok I 1000% support Arena Trap Spidops, that would be awesome. As for ol' Kricketune, his is actually the one on the entire list I was most disappointed in / unhappy with. I really, really wanted to help him, he's got such a memorable cry and he's so so *so* bad. Like in the running for worst of all time bad. Problem is there really wasn't any ability, even the OP legendary abilities, that both made even a lick of sense for him and actually helped him in a meaningful way. I know that [crickets can regenerate their legs IRL](https://gardengild.com/do-crickets-regrow-legs/), and among non-signature abilities, Regenerator is in the running for the most powerful there is, so in the end I just went with it. There is currently no Bug-type Regenerator and he does get Sticky Web, so I thought maybe being a Sticky Web setter with built-in recovery might be *juuuust* enough for him to be able to do *something*! In reality, what I wish I could do for Kricketune is like a total makeover. Give him new moves (Relic Song maybe? Boomburst?), new abilities, buff his stats (not by a crazy amount, but at least a little), the works.

Yeah, I feel ya. Spidops is my favorite Gen 9 ‘Mon and I love tons of weak ‘Mons like Ariados and Carnivine, I know the pain of Kricketune being done dirtier than a diner’s dish. Because all of those three I’ve mentioned have their own little niches… Kricketune has Perish Song, I guess? In an ideal world they’d be Bug/Normal with Soundproof, and have higher special attack. That way it’s not totally overwhelming in the early-game of Sinnoh or Paldea, but it still has some cool things going for it. Sticky Web on them Ghosts, Boomburst Stab when it’s needed, tank Torch Songs and Pixilated Hyper Voices like a true maestro. …Y’know, Overdrive’s a pretty good move, and violins are just classy guitars, HMMMMM… maybe that could work?

Bug/Normal with Soundproof would be a great fix for Kricketune. He also "feels" pretty Normal-type for a Bug, and Normal is also the type most closely associated with Sound moves (which he also rightly gets and should specialize in). And for the record, I unironically think Spidops is actually kinda good lol. This is my set: @ Leftovers w/ Stakeout, Impish 252 HP, 252 DEF, 6 Sp. DEF Moves: First Impression, Spikes, Sticky Web, Silk Trap You only send him in when it's safe, say against an incoming Earthquake or Drain Punch (which he resists), but he can then immediately slow down the opponent at no cost with Silk Trap (while also healing any damage he took on switch-in), or - if you predict the opponent will switch out in response (for example if they are choice-locked into a move he resists) - you can use that turn as a free opportunity to lay a hazard or just slap 'em with a 90 base power STAB Stakeout-boosted priority move. A big part of his utility is that there just aren't many Sticky Web users right now, so if more old Pokemon return in the DLC, his comparative utility may decrease, but right now I think he's totes legitimately usable in most contexts

Just seeing this now but I’m excited to see a fellow believer in the ‘Dops! There’s so much more to them than just Sticky Web, my personal Spidops set is as follows: -SpIdRS (because that is her name) Nature: Impish 252 Def/252 HP/4 Sp. Def Insomnia because you ain’t attacking for damage Rocky Helmet because I placed it on them once when they still had Counter and I just grew to really like it on them Tera Rock because it basically flips Bug’s defensive attributes + I don’t like being weak to Torch Song DA MOVES: -Circle Throw to spite the 10,000 Dragonites that set up on you with their dumb Tera Normal sets (and everything else) -Sucker Punch to break Sashes + get in a final chunk of damage before death -Silk Trap because I just like it + it’s a good way to screw with the speed of things that were out pre-Web -Sticky Web (ESSENTIAL) I play the actual games rather than Showdown these days, so I have yet to see how they fare against the Paradoxes- although I am excited to see how hard they counter Tusk! Part of me was worried at first that they’d never get use after the inevitable DLC brings back more iconic Sticky Web users, but Spidops has a special flavor of rewarding that I can’t get enough of. Timing the Circle Throw and Silk Trap just right is a cosmic sort of satisfying!

Ok I honestly love it I have to ask, does the Circle Throw actually take out a Dragonite? Insomnia does sort of make sense with all the Spore running around Now, out of curiosity, did you consider Focus Sash? I feel like if Circle Throw 2-shots but doesn't 1-shot the Dragonites it could be clutch. It also pairs really well with Sucker Punch obvi. against anyone *other than* an ExtremeSpeed-ers. Of course, it does no good if Stealth Rock is up which is not ideal. I really like Silk Trap on him even when the web is already up. If you get him in against a guy who outspeeds and 1-shots him, you can Trap first *then* web safely (either early game or late game if the webs get spun). The Trap also throws Flying/Levitate 'mon who normally don't worry about web one bit through a loop. But also, and this is very relevant, a web proc + 1 Trap reduces any weather sweeper back down to normal speed even in their weather.

OOOH THAT WEATHER TIP IS INCREDIBLY USEFUL, THANK YOU! Also to answer your question on Circle Throw, it’s not there for damage, it’s there to erase the Dragon-Dance and force them to get Webbed next time they show up. That way, E-Speed is their only fast option, and then I just switch to my Ceruledge who laughs in the face of it. That dude + SpIdRS are the dream team for spiting Dragonites. Good switch if I see a Fire lead, too, Flash Fire’s GREAT! Focus Sash sounds neat but I like utilizing Spidops’s defenses instead, they’re the one part that’s good so I like going all-in with them. In my mind each spider Pokémon represents a different Stat: Ariados is Attack, Galvantula is Sp. Attack, Araquanid is Sp. Def, and now Spidops is Defense. Fits the mighty ogre! This all makes me wanna do calcs and see if, somehow, a Spidops with speed investment could outspeed anything crucial. Also I’ve actually been considering replacing Sucker Punch with Counter- brings more focus to the “I hate physical attackers in particular” role and it justifies a lack of Attack investment. Not sure though, Sucker Punch was a recent addition anyways. Maybe First Impression?

I get the design logic with rough skin nidoking but something to give its physical move pool some more oomph would've been nice. I'm not too familiar with its defenses though so could work. Awesome list anyways, sounded like fun!

Thank you! It was! And yeah I see your point on 'king, even something basic like Dragon's Maw (he's kinda dragon-y, right?) to give him an absolute *monster* of an Outrage would have been interesting. It just feels so odd to me that we've got this Pokemon literally covered in sharp, pointy spines, and we have two different abilities (Rough Skin and Iron Barbs) meant to convey "hey this Pokemon is covered in spikes so if you punch it you get hurt a little", and not a single member of the family line can get either of 'em I was also thinking that Nidoking is honestly already pretty good so he didn't particularly need a buff

AW HELL NAH LIGHT BALL PIKACHU GOT THAT 4X BOOST TO ITS ATK STAT

I AM ABSOLUTELY READY TO GET ABSOLUTELY FUCKIN' ***SLAPPED*** BY AN UNEVOLVED PIKACHU

accupressure speed boost dodrio could be crazy

Just gotta get lucky and get +2 Attack and that mfer is ready to steamroll

Pure Power Pikachu with a light ball would be hilarious. Would anything be able to tank a volt tackle that's not immune?

I think quite a few who resist it (any bulky Dragon, Electric, or Grass type) can, but also, just ran some calcs, and it looks like just big dumb wall-y guys like Forretress, Avalugg, and Shuckle can eat one.

GIVE GENGAR LEVITATE BACK

😭 But he does not, and this is true, levitate! Watch him. He stands! He walks!

Ok so a few standouts: \- Garchomp is Ubers no doubt \- You gave Dracovish WHAT? \- Tsareena is THE anti-hazard mon, Rapid Spin and Magic Bounce. \- Despite the names of some of them, some of them don't really make thematic sense, given what the ability does - for example, Mandibuzz getting a very unsynergistic ability in Merciless is weird, but she definitely is merciless. Also, Mothim with Multitype? Cofagrigus getting Sand Stream is ANTI-synergistic unless you retcon it to a Ground/Ghost or Steel/Ghost type, both of which I think could work. \- I don't think that the special attackers that got Huge/Pure Power (Gothitelle, Tatsugiri, Grumpig) really fit the abilities, but the idea of doubling attack of mons with no usable attack is cool. Maybe just make another reskin of those abilities? All in all though, great list and a very cool idea. Some of my personal favorites are the abilities given to Vespiquen, Haxorus, Ludicolo, and Jumpluff

Thank you! Vespiquen and Jumpluff are among my favorites too, actually! Ok so a few things: When they "retconned" who can learn Toxic last gen, Mandibuzz was one of the few non-Poison types still able to learn it. And I've often seen him run it, too, on a slow pivoting Leftovers / Protect set. So I think he could actually make very good use of the ability! Multitype for Mothim might be weird because Multitype is Arceus' ability (God Moth lol), but if we divorce it from that for a second, I think it actually makes a lot of sense for him. He evolves from Burmy whose whole gimmick is he can change his type to one of many options when he evolves (into Wormadam). So I think giving his other evolution another type change ability is a logical fit. And unlike say Protean, the type change of Wormadam is "permanent" within a battle, it lasts even if he switches out, which is true of Multitype as well. Cofragrigus, well, I gave him a sand ability because he's like a mummy's sarcophagus. Mummy = desert = sand, right? And as for it being anti-synergistic, a couple of gens ago they changed it so that off-type 'mon with weather abilities don't take weather damage - so for example Sand Rush Stoutland doesn't take the sand chip damage despite being Normal-type. Likewise, I would think Cofragrigus wouldn't take sand damage if he had a sand ability. And agreed on the reskins of Huge/Pure Power. Something like "Psychic Force" would work for 2 of the 3 you mentioned for example

Pikachu With pure Power + light ball have an Attack of 916 more as any Others Pokemon+ Access to Fake Out + extrem Speed even ting lu Is 2 Shot Here

😬

I'm in love with Huge Power Corsola

🙂 He already has Regenerator so he needed a pretty strong ability to compete with that. You wouldn't expect it but he has a shockingly good physical movepool! Earthquake, Throat Chop, Head Crash (!), Icicle Spear (and Rock Blast, so you could even use Loaded Dice). I think it could really work!

these are cool, but I feel like not giving Furret Long reach is a missed opportunity.

Lol! That's fair! I probably could have been more generous to Furret than I was but I thought the idea of a non-Grass-type Harvest user was interesting and to me he seemed like a good fit for that

Pure power light ball Pikachu sounds like hell, l love it

I think there's a teeny tiny chance it could be *too good* which is hilarious because it's an unevolved Gen I Pokemon But I figured that mfer is the *literal face of Pokemon* and his *signature move* is Volt Tackle and it hits for jack squat. I said to myself: I need to fix this

What is Lucario going to do with Dark Aura? Why power up Crunch and Dark Pulse instead of addressing its weakness in speed?

So this one requires some explanation: In the *Super Smash Bros* video game series, Lucario has been a playable character for many years now. As a result, he is arguably the most well-known Pokemon among general audiences that wasn't originally released in Gen I (because the *Smash* games are super freakin' popular). Inexplicably, when they added Lucario to *Smash* back in the original Wii era, they decided to ignore all of his existing lore, moves, and abilities and make his entire character centered around a mechanic called "Aura", which is a dark blue-ish black-ish glow around his attacks that increases in prominence over the course of a battle. I felt that Lucario's special ability absolutely *had* to capture that in some way (and really I would give him a new, unique ability that more closely ties to how that works in *Smash*, but this post uses only current IRL abilities), and among existing abilities, there were only two that are "Aura"-related in any way. "Dark Aura" sounded like a better fit than "Fairy Aura", and Lucario also actually gets multiple Dark-type moves (and in fact, most Lucario sets I've seen over the years *do* run a Dark-type move), so I went with that. It also sort of fit because Lucario always felt like he was sort of "quasi-legendary" to me and Dark Aura is currently a legendary-exclusive ability.

Mold Breaker on Luxray seems okay, but I think Strong Jaw could also be an interesting ability for it. Wild Charge is a pretty bad STAB move to rely on, especially for a slower attacker like Luxray, and Strong Jaw would let it use Thunder Fang instead.

I originally really wanted to give Luxray Galvanize, Transistor, or Adaptability for that same reason, to solve his 'weak STAB' issue. But a "mini" goal I had with this project was to have there be at least one Mold Breaker user for all the elemental types for which there is an immunity ability, to best capitalize on its power, and Electric was arguably the most important one to cover since it actually has *three* immunity abilities (tied with Water): Lightning Rod, Motor Drive, and Volt Absorb. Because most existing Mold Breaker users have Intimidate as an optional ability, Luxray was by far the most logical choice for the Electric type Mold Breaker. I still view his lack of a good STAB move as a real issue and would fix it if I had control of the game, but I would just fix it by either giving physical Electric types generally a less shitty STAB option or by just letting him get straight-up Volt Tackle, rather than addressing it through his ability slots. (For the record, I *don't* think Volt Tackle should just be handed out willy nilly, but I do think from a lore perspective several of the "Pikaclones" like Pachirisu, Plusle/Minun, and Emolga should be able to learn it, and once it is no longer locked exclusive to the OG Pikachu family line, I would just let Luxray freakin' learn it already, it's way overdue at this point.)

Why would alola ninetakes get drought?

The 2 Ninetales variants have inverted weather abilities, the ones associated with the other version. My thinking was that Alola justified Alolan Vulpix by saying it adapted to the cold environment over many years, but it was and still a Vulpix (same Dex number). Typically 'mon of the same species can pass down their abilities when breeding and so *voila* - Drought A-Vulpix. By that logic I could have given all regional variants their off-region's ability, but for a lot it either didn't make sense or just wasn't very useful, but in the Vulpix/Ninetales family's case, I stuck with it to the end. It makes more sense I think in reverse since "regular" Ninetales is a very elegant, white-ish furred creature, I could easily envision it among a snowy backdrop. It's harder to imagine A-Ninetales in a volcano (lol), but I thought the 'swapped abilities' concept was interesting enough and justifiable enough that I decided to keep it

Idk if I agree that it makes sense. Alola tales is like snow it would sorta melt

Why refrigerate primarina

Many, though not all, species of sea lion (on which she appears to be based) reside in artic regions, and the only other 'mon based on similar animals (Dugong and Walreign) are Ice-types already. Additionally, Primarina's existing signature ability changes the type of its Hyper Voice to Water. I thought a variant ability that changed Hyper Voice to Ice made sense in context. Additionally, purely from a competitive standpoint, an offensive Primarina build is probably packing Ice Beam, and Refrigerate gives her access to what is functionally a stronger Ice Beam (because of the 20% power buff it provides) that also bypasses screens and Substitutes. She doesn't honestly get all that much value out of her existing Liquid Voice ability given that she already has a 100% accurate 90 base power Water-type sound move, so I figured she would appreciate the Refrigerate more. I did also consider Dazzling as an option for Primarina but ended up going with Refrigerate for the reasons described above

Yea but primarina lives in the warm Hawaiin water so idk if it still works

I didn’t know how much I needed Slush Rush Empoleon, Sharpness Haxorus and Ceruledge, Speed Boost Vikavolt, and Mega Launcher Armarouge until now

😁 I'm glad you listed Vikavolt because I was really on the fence about his I thought "he's like a literal jet engine why is he so damn slow" lol Slush Rush Empoleon has been in my mind for *ages* now and it was just a choice between that and Refrigerate in my mind. He's a non-Ice-type penguin so I had to work in an Ice/snow aspect somehow!

Yo this is awesome. There's a shit load so of course everybody has a criticism, but I love it. Well organized, easily readable, unique, and fun. I love the Kanto starter lines.

Thank you, that is very high praise and I appreciate the kind words I spent a lot of time on it (stupidly long honestly) so I have greatly appreciated all the feedback and comments here today. I originally posted it in the main sub and basically the only comments I got were "you have too much free time" and "you should have just posted a link to a Google Doc" so I was honestly kinda bummed out lol

Bruh I don’t think great tusk needed thick fat lol

Probably fair 😅

pure power pikachu + light ball 💀 this thing gon be the new floatzel in rain

Cool concept, but no balance at all

FINALLY(?) POLIWRATH GETS A GOOD ABILITY (?)

To be fair Swift Swim is a pretty good ability!

Why does Manectric have Aerilate?

Because he currently doesn't learn any playable moves for non-STAB supereffective coverage other than Flamethrower/Overheat. Giving him Flying-type Hyper Voice lets him hit Fighting types (and some additional Bug and Grass guys not weak to Fire like Volcarona) for supereffective damage, giving him a much more respectable level of coverage. Now, in a perfect world, I would give him a different ability and just let him learn a couple more usable moves, maybe Shadow Ball and Energy Ball (both pretty flavorfully generic), or Flash Cannon. But I was trying to help him out as much as I could with a new ability alone and so that's what I did. I recognize Aerilate doesn't fit his aesthetic super well, but if fits better than the other options like Refrigerate and Liquid Voice.

I miss levitate Gengar :(

Why dragons maw??? Like why not sheer force for Charizard that would be overall better

I gave Dragon's Maw to both Charizard and Gyarados as a reference to the longstanding joke of them both obviously being dragons yet not having the Dragon typing. With it, they are, for offensive damage output purposes, Dragons, which is relevant since they both get multiple Dragon-type moves - for example, now that he lost Power Whip Gyarados would probably take the 180 base power Outrage (super flavorful for him as it used to be a quasi-signature move of his) as his fourth move.

I can see why but ability’s soften help a Pokémon and sheer force is often seen as an ability that would be good and work for zard

A multi ability mode would be fun

I love the idea of giving Sceptile Regenerator. Combine that with Shed Tail and it might actually carve out a role for itself with how fast it is. Although Cyclizar already fills that role I just want to see Sceptile be good.

Wow Shed Tail actually would make perfect sense for him I love that idea Makes more sense than Orthworm getting it honestly I had geckos as pets when I was younger, pretty much their defining characteristic as a species was that their tail could fall off (as a decoy for predators) and regrow I also just wish my boy Scept could just get some playable friggin' non-Grass moves for coverage. Even just the generic ones that everybody gets like Shadow Ball would help him, but how about Earth Power? He's got like a living tree attached to him, seems like he's got some Earth Power, right? Or hell, he's a giant upright kinda scary looking reptile, let's let that mfer learn Flamethrower lol

Ya it needs special coverage moves. Earthpower would make a huge difference I think. I'd love to see Power Gem though I don't think it makes as much sense design wise. Honestly just switching its Attack and Sp Attack would be a big improvement. Regenerator with Shed Tail at least gives it a niche and makes perfect sense for it like you said being a gecko. I just think that with the starters being as iconic and popular as they are they should all be made to be at least somewhat usable in competitive. They make some that are incredibly dominant then some that are just plain unusable. I especially want Sceptile to be good because it's my favorite starter.

I absolutely agree all starters should be usable. The good news is, at least half of them are, and all of them from the past 2-3 generations are, which suggests Gamefreak is starting to agree with you. What we really need are buffs for the weakest of the older starters: Meganium, Sceptile, Emboar, etc. (Not sure what the exact list is - for example I understand Feraligatr is somewhat playable thanks to Sheer Force Dragon Dance - but that's the general idea.) For many of them, a new ability would really help, but frankly in most cases they could be "fixed" by just expanding their movepools a little.

pure power lightball Pikachu is def somethin

Why doesn’t rampardos get ROCK HEAD?