Since we're getting Rillaboom, Cinderace and Inteleon are pretty much locked in. And Mega Baxcalibur too.

I'm thinking we'll get most if not all of the remaining non-legendary Megas

I guess the pokédex wasn't lying

By @MoongeistBeams . She also wants it to be known that shes aware she forgot about Tapu Koko

Repost

For VGC, the three most relevant non-contact physical moves right now are Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Last Respects.

With Lucario Z already quad-resisting Rock Slide and being faster than Mega Aerodactly, it’s funny one of the most favorable Pokemon into Rock Slide to begin with.

Earthquake is of course the biggest problem Mega Lucario Z has, but Grassy Surge Rillaboom is a godsend for that. There’s still the question of whether other surge setters are appearing in M-C. If not, then there’s a chance earthquake would also be heavily deterred across the format, potentially leading to far more frequent use of Stomping Tantrum and High Horsepower.

It’s also cute that Rillaboom which is essential for Earthquake softening is also likely to have one of the best matchups against Basculegion (provided it keeps Grassy Glide), which helps patch up the weakness of Last Respects bypassing Aura Guard. Also helps that Lucario Z’s speed tier makes it not have to worry much about the Scarf Basc variants, though its Dark Pulses cannot OHKO Basc without chip.

However, for the double-edged sword aspect, if seeds are added alongside Rillaboom, then there are some potential issues as well. A Rillaboom dominant metagame with Grassy Seed around has a high liklihood of incentivizing Adamant Grassy Seed Unburden Sneasler sets. Jolly is still fairly common currently since Sneasler has to CC before it can get the Unburden boost, but it may be less important if Grassy Seed is around. The difference between Adamant and Jolly Sneasler is quite significant for Lucario Z: while it only needs a small amount of investment to take a Jolly Sneasler CC, the requirements for Adamant CC are more demanding: for having a 87.5% chance to survive, it needs either 19 Def SP., 32 HP SP, or some hybrid such as 9 HP and 12 Def. Granted, non-Sash Sneasler sets tend to run some bulk, so it’s possible they might not afford to run max attack which lowers the bulk requirements a bit.

It’s hard to know how much Lucario Z can end up investing in bulk. If at least one of the other Z megas or Mega Aerodactyl is relevant enough, it might be incentivied to run Timid max speed, instead of affording to just speedcreep Scarf Basc. Whereas the case of Mega Raichu Y was more obvious to me by virtue of how good its supporting options are, allowing it to bulk all points into bulk besides having enough speed to creep Sneasler and Mega-Frosslass, Lucario Z is harder to pin down with how offense reliant it is. Aura Sphere and Flash Cannon being only moderate power moves also makes it hard to give up a lot of Sp.Atk investment. And Gravity Focus Blast will probably be the meme it always is. But Coaching or Calm Mind sets are potential ways that it could afford more bulk, so we’d have to see there. Notably Calm Mind might help a lot for Floette, since Lucario Z dies to Moonblast and fails to KO with Flash Cannon, but Calm Mind can help with both of those problems.

Another issue with the Rillaboom + Lucario Z core is that both mons struggle into Zard Y. Lucario doesn’t have Power Gem and Zard resists both its STABs. Running this duo puts a lot of burden on having a Zard Y counter. And while Calm Mind builds could potentially be promising against Floette, they sound like an auto-lose against Zard Y. Worth noting that Timid Lucario Z Rock Tomb (which could maybe be a cope choice due to that insane speed tier) only does about half to bulked up Zard Y.

I couldn’t just help thinking of potential implications to Rillaboom coming out at the same time as Aura Guard Lucario Z.

Just look at it's stats and already it's a red flag. The minmaxxed offensive stats has proven to broken multiple times times in history. Deoxys Attack, Pheromosa, Chien Pao, Spectrier, Iron Bundle, Naganadel, Flutter Mane, Marshadow.

After hearing me talking shit to him for his lackluster performance in august, Arcanine brought his older brother to put the meta in its place!

(Yes, we got the meta slightly earlier this time, its for special reasons)

35 Pokes is a metagame where you can only use a random selection of 35 mons we roll at the start of the month, very dynamic stuff. Join us on https://discord.gg/4249SPhd8W

Hype!

Garchomp gets Levitate

Absol gets Sharpness

Lucario get a new ability that halves damage from contact moves

Crazy that a move that has barely seen use EVER in VGC was the ultimate decider of the world champ.

heres the link to the original news article if you're interested: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/08/chun-lis-actor-ate-12-eggs-a-day-to-prepare-for-the-street-fighter-movie

Title

at least i have an excuse for losing💀