A lot of us have a favorite Pokemon that tends to...well, suck in competitive. Not all Pokemon need to be good, and it doesn't matter if you Pokemon you love is good or bad in competitive, all that matters is what it means to you. But as someone who plays competitive, I'm constantly thinking about how I'd buff some lesser Pokemon into stardom, none more than my favorites, and I want to see how you'd do it too.
Rules:
1. Keep it realistic. Obviously I could make Bidoof good if I gave it a Fairy/Steel typing and Mew's movepool and Huge Power, etc etc. But I want it to be realistic, something that Gamefreak would do if they were cool and tried to make Bidoof good, legitimately.
2. Try not to go overboard. Try not to give it an obviously busted ability, such as Huge Power or Speed Boost, unless your Pokemon absolutely needs it to not be a shitmon, like Mawile. If you add more base stat points to it, try not to go above 50, but I'd prefer if you try to keep it's BST very close to it's original.
3. There are no rules. The above two are mostly suggestions to keep it interesting, but really you can do whatever you think is fun or cool. What am I going to do? Call the fun police?
Now let's begin! Now, if you know me for some reason, you'll know my favorite Pokemon is never, ever consistent. So I'll only go over two of my favorites that could use a boost, since my other two favorites (Dragonite and Charizard) are already competitively viable, and don't need that big of a change aside from minor stat changes.
First, Infernape
Infernape already has tools to be a very nice OU Pokemon. Good movepool, decent offensive typing, neutrality to Sneaky Pebbles. But he could use a kick. First, I'll give him a +12 increase in his speed. Speed is everything and his Speed tier is not the greatest anymore thanks to power creep. An extra 12 points should make him much better. Next, a movepool addition: Drain Punch. It has Iron Fist, so it could use another good, STAB Punching move besides Mach Punch. It also provides some extra recovery too! I'll also give it Aura Sphere for it's Special attacking sets. Focus Blast is nothing more than a """coverage""" move that gives you the illusion of safety when a Blissey switches into your Kyurem. As a STAB move you'll be using throughout the match, it's quite bad, and feels like it misses more than it hits most of the time. Aura Sphere provides a very nice 80BP Special fighting move, that can never miss, and will hit decently hard after a Nasty Plot Boost. However, there is another buff I have in mind: Technician. Scizor is OU for a multittude of reasons, but Technician Bullet Punch is definitely one of them. Giving Infernape a boosted, stab Priority move would definitely make it much better. This could even be useful for physical and special sets because it has Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave. I don't know if these changes would make it OU viable, if anything I'm scared it won't but it'll make it too good for UU and it'd end up in borderline, but hey, worth a shot.
And now, Sceptile
Oh...my sweet, poor Sceptile. How Gamefreak has wronged you throughout the years. Sceptile is definitely unlike Infernape and needs a lot more to become actually good. I have a few ideas. First I'll give it a Dragon typing to go with it's Grass typing. One of Sceptile's greatest flaws is being mono grass, so the extra Dragon type should help a lot, and it matches with his Mega evolution. For the base form I won't change Unburden cause truth be told I'm terrible with abilities so I have no idea what to change it to. This will focus purely on stats, movepool, and his Mega Evolution. Now that that's done, I have two ways to buff it, based on it's attacking stats.
Special Attacker: Sceptile's greatest flaw is having the stats of a special attacker, but lacking any special attack boosting moves. Why did they do this???? In order to remedy this, I'll give it Calm Mind and Nasty Plot. I really want to give it Tail Glow because it vaguely makes thematical sense and probably would make it much better, but I feel that's a bit overboard, and I'm not sure if the distribution will ever expand past Manaphy, Xurkitree, and...Volbeat? Why was this Volbeat's signature move? My next change would be to give it Draco Meteor. Fun fact: Two Draco Meteors will do more damage than two Dragon Pulses, even factoring in the special attack drop. So yeah, give it the Meteor. My last change will be for it's Mega Evolution: If it stays a Special attacker, give it a better ability than fucking lightning rod. I'm not good with abilities, so while something like Adaptability would be cool and make thematical sense, I feel like that's a bit too strong. I think something like Competitive would be fun and not too strong, so we'll go with that.
Physical Attacker: This one is way easier. Swap Sceptile's physical and special attack stats for both it's base form and Mega form. Now it's actually kinda decent. It already gets Swords Dance for a boosting move, and a reliable, high power STAB move in terms of Leaf Blade. For it's Mega Evolution, give it Tough Claws. Boom, 145 Attack with access to Tough Claws Leaf Blade, Dragon Claw, and Brick Break for coverage. *chefs kiss* beautiful.
Honorable mention: Torterra. I want to buff this Pokemon so bad but I'm lost. It already has good tools. Stealth Rock, reliable recovery, decent coverage. It could use a better ability but like I said, bad with abilities. I have no idea how I'd buff this Pokemon in a way that would make sense for it, so I suppose Torterra is doomed to being untiered with ok/mediocre niches in higher tiers as a Rocks setter. Maybe give it Grassy Surge, that'd be funny.
And that's how I'd buff those two bros. What's your favorite, and how would you make it good? Have fun!
Rules:
1. Keep it realistic. Obviously I could make Bidoof good if I gave it a Fairy/Steel typing and Mew's movepool and Huge Power, etc etc. But I want it to be realistic, something that Gamefreak would do if they were cool and tried to make Bidoof good, legitimately.
2. Try not to go overboard. Try not to give it an obviously busted ability, such as Huge Power or Speed Boost, unless your Pokemon absolutely needs it to not be a shitmon, like Mawile. If you add more base stat points to it, try not to go above 50, but I'd prefer if you try to keep it's BST very close to it's original.
3. There are no rules. The above two are mostly suggestions to keep it interesting, but really you can do whatever you think is fun or cool. What am I going to do? Call the fun police?
Now let's begin! Now, if you know me for some reason, you'll know my favorite Pokemon is never, ever consistent. So I'll only go over two of my favorites that could use a boost, since my other two favorites (Dragonite and Charizard) are already competitively viable, and don't need that big of a change aside from minor stat changes.
First, Infernape
Infernape already has tools to be a very nice OU Pokemon. Good movepool, decent offensive typing, neutrality to Sneaky Pebbles. But he could use a kick. First, I'll give him a +12 increase in his speed. Speed is everything and his Speed tier is not the greatest anymore thanks to power creep. An extra 12 points should make him much better. Next, a movepool addition: Drain Punch. It has Iron Fist, so it could use another good, STAB Punching move besides Mach Punch. It also provides some extra recovery too! I'll also give it Aura Sphere for it's Special attacking sets. Focus Blast is nothing more than a """coverage""" move that gives you the illusion of safety when a Blissey switches into your Kyurem. As a STAB move you'll be using throughout the match, it's quite bad, and feels like it misses more than it hits most of the time. Aura Sphere provides a very nice 80BP Special fighting move, that can never miss, and will hit decently hard after a Nasty Plot Boost. However, there is another buff I have in mind: Technician. Scizor is OU for a multittude of reasons, but Technician Bullet Punch is definitely one of them. Giving Infernape a boosted, stab Priority move would definitely make it much better. This could even be useful for physical and special sets because it has Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave. I don't know if these changes would make it OU viable, if anything I'm scared it won't but it'll make it too good for UU and it'd end up in borderline, but hey, worth a shot.
And now, Sceptile
Oh...my sweet, poor Sceptile. How Gamefreak has wronged you throughout the years. Sceptile is definitely unlike Infernape and needs a lot more to become actually good. I have a few ideas. First I'll give it a Dragon typing to go with it's Grass typing. One of Sceptile's greatest flaws is being mono grass, so the extra Dragon type should help a lot, and it matches with his Mega evolution. For the base form I won't change Unburden cause truth be told I'm terrible with abilities so I have no idea what to change it to. This will focus purely on stats, movepool, and his Mega Evolution. Now that that's done, I have two ways to buff it, based on it's attacking stats.
Special Attacker: Sceptile's greatest flaw is having the stats of a special attacker, but lacking any special attack boosting moves. Why did they do this???? In order to remedy this, I'll give it Calm Mind and Nasty Plot. I really want to give it Tail Glow because it vaguely makes thematical sense and probably would make it much better, but I feel that's a bit overboard, and I'm not sure if the distribution will ever expand past Manaphy, Xurkitree, and...Volbeat? Why was this Volbeat's signature move? My next change would be to give it Draco Meteor. Fun fact: Two Draco Meteors will do more damage than two Dragon Pulses, even factoring in the special attack drop. So yeah, give it the Meteor. My last change will be for it's Mega Evolution: If it stays a Special attacker, give it a better ability than fucking lightning rod. I'm not good with abilities, so while something like Adaptability would be cool and make thematical sense, I feel like that's a bit too strong. I think something like Competitive would be fun and not too strong, so we'll go with that.
Physical Attacker: This one is way easier. Swap Sceptile's physical and special attack stats for both it's base form and Mega form. Now it's actually kinda decent. It already gets Swords Dance for a boosting move, and a reliable, high power STAB move in terms of Leaf Blade. For it's Mega Evolution, give it Tough Claws. Boom, 145 Attack with access to Tough Claws Leaf Blade, Dragon Claw, and Brick Break for coverage. *chefs kiss* beautiful.
Honorable mention: Torterra. I want to buff this Pokemon so bad but I'm lost. It already has good tools. Stealth Rock, reliable recovery, decent coverage. It could use a better ability but like I said, bad with abilities. I have no idea how I'd buff this Pokemon in a way that would make sense for it, so I suppose Torterra is doomed to being untiered with ok/mediocre niches in higher tiers as a Rocks setter. Maybe give it Grassy Surge, that'd be funny.
And that's how I'd buff those two bros. What's your favorite, and how would you make it good? Have fun!
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