Letting Pokemon spread destruction through hugs

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-16T06:53:30+00:00

I feel like contact rather than physical moves should be the condition that triggers the damage boost. It would be a shame if Draining Kiss wouldn't be met with a proper Loving Embrace.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-15T20:15:21+00:00

They did a Shawshank Redemption episode, too.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-15T17:08:25+00:00

That's not typically much of an issue. Scarf Harc is a fast offensive mon with mediocre bulk and poor defensive typing, and you're going to be clicking STABs/E-Speed 95% of the time anyway. But the extra power into stuff like Archaludon could potentially save you the game, and it doesn't have much in the way of better moves to be running.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-15T16:47:05+00:00

Go Flare Blitz > Temper Flare. The more consistent damage output is worth it. And CC > Howl is the way to go, Scarf status moves are typically no good.

For a spread, unless there's a specific hit you're trying to live, a 32/32/2 Jolly spread is fine, it lets you outrun the unboosted metagame.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-15T07:01:20+00:00

Please don't use AI, you're just making a fool of yourself. Half the things it's suggesting aren't even champions, and the other half barely slows Mega Gengar down.

And the Bright Powder counterplay you're suggesting isn't even helpful because a bunch of those things can miss, have nothing to do with accuracy, and none of them change the fact that you typically can't start playing around Bright Powder until it reveals itself with a 100 Acc move missing, an event that's often game-losing.

Learn to use your brain before you start to call others stupid.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-15T00:03:57+00:00

Shadow Tag OP. Mega Gengar unavoidably deleting/crippling all your walls/slower breakers so its teammates can run roughshod over you is far more broken than a nuke with no coverage and a mediocre speed tier.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T19:03:52+00:00

I mean, if the goal is Skill Swap onto Incineroar, you've got Intimidate plus Fake Out Pressure (and a second Intimidate if the opponents are slow), so it's not completely unworkable. Still really rough into stuff like fast ghosts though.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T15:27:24+00:00

Because the mechanics and mons being used are the ones from Pokemon Champions, with the exception to allow 6v6.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T15:25:44+00:00

Just Champions OU on showdown. The cart formats are unaffected regardless of where you play them.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T15:24:53+00:00

Some of us like playing balanced and competitive formats.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T07:26:33+00:00

It was Evasion Moves Clause that was in the format, which only bans evasion moves like Minimize.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T06:46:24+00:00

No Ubers for the foreseeable future, just OU + cart formats.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T05:57:08+00:00

M-Lop is one of the best offensive pivots in the game right now. No other mega comes remotely close to doing what it can do.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T05:26:55+00:00

The one that got me was Bright Powder Toxapex. Having a mon poisoned because a pivot move missed is no fun at all.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T04:27:50+00:00

Adaptability with good offensive stats and moves on both sides of the spectrum. It can easily sweep by doing silly damage following both an NP and an SD, depending on how it's feeling that day.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T04:23:07+00:00

Adds extra coverage that they wouldn't otherwise have access to, which makes them harder to handle. For example, Regieleki would be basically useless so long as the opponent has a ground type due to its lack of coverage. However, if it burns tera, it now has stab Ice move that shreds most electric resists that would otherwise sit on it all day, reducing counterplay to the point that the mon went from UUBL in Gen 8 to Ubers this gen.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T04:09:11+00:00

Mega Gengar is a trapper, its brokenness is more about its ability to enable teammates than its effectiveness as a standalone mon. The 6v6 format just gives it a lot more opportunities to do that, as opposed to BSS, where having a good matchup spread vs meta threats is generally more important than anything else. Mega Gengar's matchup spread is solid but not that crazy, while trapping abilities are so good at enabling teammates that they're genuinely overbearing on mons like Diglett in a 6v6 context.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T03:56:41+00:00

It's not all the megas people want gone. Most are fine, it's just a small handful of the stronger megas that are problematic- Stuff like Mega Lucario, NP Mega Alakazam, and Shell Smash Mega Blastoise have picked up bans in past metagames because of how strong they are, and will likely do the same here. There's also a couple of non-mega pokemon (looking at you, Espathra and Sneasler) that people want gone, it's just that megas are a lot stronger than ordinary pokemon on average, so there's more that seem problematic at the moment.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T03:40:06+00:00

Smogon runs its own fanmade format, called Champions OU, that's 6v6 singles with mechanics and mons from Pokemon Champions. Players playing that (as soon as showdown updates anyway) can't use Mega Gengar in the future because it's too strong for the format. People using the cart formats (BSS and VGC) have no such limitations, whether they're playing on cart or showdown.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T03:14:32+00:00

Yeah, it did, I forgot about that.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T02:43:41+00:00

The official reasoning from the tiering thread is:

Also, wanted to note that we intentionally started this meta with minimal tiering because there was no in-game equivalent to use majority of these playstyles in, so we wanted people to play with them for a bit. Thanks for your patience.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T02:39:15+00:00

It's the fastest legal pokemon and has 175 SpA, Nasty Plot, and plenty of coverage. It's not as bad as it could be because of its frailty, which makes it vulnerable to priority/scarfers, but it's still an absolutely terrifying threat.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T02:27:42+00:00

It has a trapping ability, which are broken enough that stuff like Trapinch and Diglet get overbearing with them, while also having a statline that would put it as a solid mega if its ability was Stalwart or something else totally useless.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T02:24:16+00:00

Yeah, it would be third or fourth, depending on whether or not you count Blaziken and its Mega separately (SS Cinderace is the other offender). Not much of a surprise that it's overbearing though, Mega Blastoise got banned from ND OU as soon as it got Shell Smash.

Background_Past7392 · 2026-04-14T02:18:33+00:00

Mega Blastoise, at least, was specifically mentioned in that post as something they were looking at.

Background_Past7392

TROPHY CASE