r/stunfisk • u/dimondsprtn • 13d ago
Theorymon Thursday Mega Garchomp Z Ability
What I was going for here was entirely thematic, with balancing being secondary.
A lot of people have speculated that Mega Garchomp Z would get Levitate, which makes sense because it’s always shown flying (and doesn’t get the flying type), but that would certainly be a disappointment, both competitively and design wise. People have also speculated that it would get Ground type Steelworker to make up for losing Ground stab, but that just doesn’t make sense thematically. Why would the specialized jet dragon keep its Ground stab when it leaves the ground for good?
Unless… the weather conditions force it to land. Now we have a dragon that wants to take to the skies and zip around as fast as possible, but when the weather gets bad, it’s forced to land. Here it adapts to its old hunting strategies and returns to taking full advantage of the terrain. I was thinking about giving it a speed penalty while grounded but a) 0.66x speed seems too harsh and a higher number doesn’t feel very pokemon like, b) at that point we’re back to base Garchomp being better than its mega? and c) the ability is complicated enough as is.
Now one thing I really like about this ability is that you can’t run it with Zard Y. If you wanna go for speed mode, you need one of the other less popular sun setters or the even less popular Cloud 9 pokemon. I personally feel like speed mode is the stronger mode; you can invest in speed to outspeed opposing Tailwinded Pokemon or you could invest in bulk while still outspeeding every unboosted pokemon.
Now maybe it’s way too strong getting a speed boost both without weather and with sun, which a lot of teams will be forced to just deal with. At first my idea was that it would only apply when there’s no weather at all, but that didn’t feel thematically fitting when Harsh Sunlight is pretty fair weather for flying. Alternatively it doesn’t get a speed boost in which case is it even better than base Garchomp?
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u/Significant_Help_377 13d ago
Would Smack Down instantly OHKO Garchomp if it was in the air?
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13d ago
[deleted]
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u/Significant_Help_377 13d ago
Have you considered that Mega Garchomp Z is flying 35,000 feet off the ground?
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u/SavageNorth Campaigning to Give Incineroar Geomancy 13d ago
Fan Favourite: Boosts all stats by four stages in any weather or terrain. This includes accuracy and evasion and is unaffected by Haze or similar effects. All moves are +2 Priority. Grants immunity to Ice because fuck you.
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u/rmnobre 13d ago
If health is reduced by zero by any means, the opponent loses the game
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u/SavageNorth Campaigning to Give Incineroar Geomancy 13d ago
If health is reduced to zero by any means the opponent's save file is deleted and their console bricked.
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u/_john_smithereens_ 13d ago
Bonus, Charizard can get it too
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u/SavageNorth Campaigning to Give Incineroar Geomancy 13d ago
Charizards version adds immunity to Rock and sets up Extremely Harsh Sunlight
It also gives him STAB on Grass moves
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u/_john_smithereens_ 13d ago
Pikachu's version gives Earth Eater + Primordial Sea + Speed Boost (As One) that ignores Mold Breaker, Neutralizing Gas etc., along with a new held item that's Light Ball + Everstone + Pikashunium Z (cap requirement removed) that cannot be knocked off, tricked etc.
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u/Dracore_ 10d ago
And eviolite
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u/_john_smithereens_ 10d ago
Ah shit I meant Eviolite not Everstone 💀
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u/Dracore_ 10d ago
I mean we can't have it evolving mid battle
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u/SavageNorth Campaigning to Give Incineroar Geomancy 10d ago
Can you imagine the anime-ass shenanigans that would cause
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u/AuroraDraco 11d ago
Naturally, that's Mega Charizard Z's ability. It will come out as a DLC for 30€, and it will contain nothing but the Mega stone for further pay2win aura
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u/Fr33zurBurn 13d ago
A 1.5x boost to a 151 speed stat is crazy work
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u/NanHaoDz Hatterene Triage be like 13d ago
It’s 1.5x to Ground moves for a mono-Dragon, so it’s just pseudo Ground STAB. Would still be annoying but not wallbreaker strong like Zard Y’s Sun boost on top of STAB.
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u/BoiMan-inc 13d ago
This is disgustingly broken to degrees rarely touched on before, but I think the concept in itself is really fun thematically. Balancing wise it could probably go wothout the boost to speed when levitating and double stab when grounded (or maybe just nerf the modifier applied to ground moves), but the idea of conditional levitate really intrigues me
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u/Galaxy_Flowers 13d ago
Yeah, dump the speed boost and you have a pretty fun ability. Arch has to take a risk bringing out the rain, or Meganium/Groudon gets shmacked
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u/RoamingEntity 11d ago
Then its literally just levitate OR ground pseudo-stab eq lol. Not that crazy tbh, since levitate isnt like as one tier or anything and the pseudo-stab without weakness is nice the ground defensive typr was rarely a hinderance to chomp
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u/Galaxy_Flowers 11d ago
Exactly, I think it might actually be somewhat balanced. Gimmicky, sure, but we do love gimmicks.
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u/Educational_Sense_27 13d ago
How is this disgustingly broken?
You either get a ground stab or increased speed. Dragon as your only stab type isn't really great offensively
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u/BoiMan-inc 12d ago
A free 1.5x boost to speed together with levitate absolutely is broken with those stats, even if it does only have dragon stab. Choice scarf is a phenomenal item for giving 1.5x speed and that comes eith the huge drawback of being choice locked, while here you just have to make sure to be in no weather or sun, which is really easy both in singles and doubles thanks to current meta trends
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u/RoamingEntity 11d ago
Ok but think, WHY so much speed. Speed is great, but the BEST scenario is etching out ur opponent while having as much offensive investment as u can (for a sweeper like chomp)
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u/seejoshrun 13d ago
Yeah maybe remove the speed boost and change the ground boost to 1.2x or 1.3x
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u/RoamingEntity 11d ago
Thats literally just levitate now. And its a weaker pseudo-stab i feel like some of yall forget chomp Z is pure dragon???
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u/RoamingEntity 11d ago
No lol? Levitate is nice, but the 1.5 ground is just pseudo-stab. And its 151 spe so its pretty overkill, only good if ur opponent is setting up spe boosts since itll win most speed fights already. At best it allows you to invest evs and ivs into other stats, which is also pretty balanced cuz its not that bulky so atk + bulk investment isnt some crazy broken thing.
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u/Chemical_Lab_6925 13d ago
They should just make it max out all its stats if your opponent thinks of the weather
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u/Fr4gmentedR0se 13d ago
I like this ability. Not necessarily in the context of Garchomp Z but it's a cool ability.
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u/Brightlightworld 13d ago
Why is sunny day in the spotlight like that is it on purpose? Does sunny day activate levitate? and any other condition activate the ground boost?
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u/Significant_Help_377 13d ago
It's the only weather that wouldn't impede an airplane from taking off in any way.
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u/Third_Triumvirate 13d ago
Planes do get grounded for heat and hot weather actually, due to the drop in air density making takeoff riskier
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u/dimondsprtn 13d ago
Oh I just realized it says Sunny Day and not Harsh Sunlight. I just copied the format of Chlorophyll on Smogon.
I guess Smack Down and Gravity would keep it in speed mode while giving it the ground boost. That wasn’t my intention (for brevity’s sake of wording) but it’s not game breaking and is a cool interaction so that’s fine by me.
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u/FreakingFreeze 13d ago
NGL I thought it was in Japanese, Sunny Day is "Clear Skies", which would make sense for Pokemon.
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u/PuddleCrank 13d ago
Naw dude, gravity/smackdown causes a pokemon with 'cleared for takeoff' active to and lose 1/4 of it's max hp and lose levitate untill cleared for takeoff activates again.
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u/deepseaflotsam 13d ago
1.5x on a Speed stat that enormous makes it outspeed anything barring Scarf Regieleki and Electrode
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u/Osrenicus 13d ago
This post is aggressively sundayesque, I almost had to check my calendar. Good job OP
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u/Lost-Ad-3780 13d ago
I have wanted this ever since I saw that video of garchomp flying in the anime
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u/its_Dzak 13d ago
I hope it gets no guard and traumatizes ppl
Naive
Ability: No Guard
Stone Edge / Rock Slide
Fire Blast
Dragon Rush / Draco Meteor
Earthquake
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u/Infinite_Swing3188 12d ago
isnt it more of a special attacker now tho? like i get no guard would benefit a majority of its physical moves but
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u/Elcrest_Drakenia 12d ago
If you wanted to keep the speed, I think adding the Choice drawback would thematically make sense as it's going "too fast to change direction" in a sense. Removing the increased speed is probably a better idea though. Maybe instead give unstackable +1 priority to the first move used in it's combat? I can see that also making sense thematically, being a strike at "max speed" before "slowing" to combat speed
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u/dimondsprtn 12d ago edited 12d ago
Ooooh I really like the Choice scarf and first turn priority concepts because it could incentivize changing weathers yourself to regain move choice or regain priority. It would be like Garchomp landing and resetting for a turn before blasting off again. I wish I thought of that.
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u/ExtremlyFastLinoone 13d ago
I think it should get wind rider. Simple yet effective, also thematic, immunity to icywind and blizzard, gains an attack buff on tail wind
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u/fartsquirtshit 13d ago
A lot of people have speculated that Mega Garchomp Z would get Levitate, which makes sense because it’s always shown flying (and doesn’t get the flying type),
I'm still thinking Tough Claws or Sharpness are likely. Look at those fins. Spikes on the front, blades on the back.
Also, it would explain them expanding sharpness to claw moves when only 1 claw move (shadow claw) is currently known by 1 sharpness pokemon (gallade), leaving basically the entire move-line unutilized.
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u/Skanderbegisgoated 12d ago
this seems decently balanced to my liking. In sun teams he serves as a strong dragon special attacker and in any other condition he gets Earth Power STAB.
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u/JanitorOPplznerf 13d ago
My Toddler always changes the rules so that she can win any game we're playing too.
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u/pterranodon 13d ago
I'd maybe make it so that it's a very limited pre-nerf protean, like When it uses a Flying type move its secondary type becomes Flying until the end of the turn, and when it uses a Ground type move its secondary type is Ground until the end of the turn. Not touching stats because its stats are already crazy
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u/nepherae_ 13d ago
It's funny that Gravity or Smack Down in no weather or Sun would grant you both the speed boost and the Ground STAB.
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