Hivemind and the Poop Boy

 

 

 

 In Bugmerald, Bug/Psychic is actually one of the rarest types in the game. Only two Pokemon end up getting it in the normal games, Rabsca and Orbeetle, so number three is a newcomer to the typing for this hack. Vespiquen is getting a big rework here, and Psychic helps encapsulate its power of control over its many minions. But before we continue, man, I am super late to the party here. What is up with Rellor's face? Why is he so saucy while he's rolling around his literal poop ball? Mysteries abound.

Anyway, Vespiquen has long struggled with its stats pointing it toward defense but with a Bug/Flying typing that simply cannot take hits. Rabsca looks pretty interesting on paper, but it certainly is not making any waves in VGC with its mediocre defenses and moves holding it back compared to other Trick Room users and setters. Let's make some big strives so that our handful of Bug/Psychic types can really make waves in-game.

1. Stats

Rabsca is in a weird place, stats-wise. It has low speed, but not low enough to out-speed the biggest threats under Trick Room. It has some decent defenses, but nothing spectacular, and its Sp. Att is again, ok, but certainly can't hold a candle to the popular slow Sp. Attackers. So in essence, it has worse defenses than your standard bulky Trick Room users and worse offense than your standard Trick Room attackers. Jack of some trades, awful at them all. Let's start by giving it a firm identity, a slow Trick Room user with good defenses that can lean into either support or offense.

I'm buffing its base stat total up to a decent 505, still lower than a lot of the biggest threats in Trick Room but certainly more than something like Amoonguss. HP is getting a big buff, along with some small buffs to Sp. Att and Defense and some reduction in speed. Now Rabsca will be able to outspeed things like Ursaluna under Trick Room, but the real bottom of the barrel speedsters like Amoonguss and Gastrodon will still outpace it. It's Sp. Attack is still a bit below things like Armarouge, but it gets pretty close and can offer a little more pressure now on the offensive side.

For Vespiquen, we are throwing moderation out the window. This is the Queen mother-flipping BEE and she deserves some frigging respect. Base stat total is jumping from 474 to 555, with big boosts to HP, Def and Sp. Def, and Sp. Att. Finally, 20 points are swapping from its Att over to Speed, which won't really make it outspeed anything at only base 60 but it will make a big difference under moves like Tailwind. If you poke the hive you should be concerned when Vespiquen comes out.

2. Abilities

All the abilities for these two completely fall flat as bottom tier garbage. Since we are focusing on double battles in Bugmerald, I will let Rabsca keep Telepathy but everything else is getting trashed here. Starting with the poop boy, the new spread will be:

• Stench
• Magic Guard
• Telepathy

I think its finally time we acknowledged Rabsca's crap, and Stench lets us do that literally. I don't care if it's egg is now a weird purple amniotic sac. It was literal poop just moments ago as a Rellor. Magic Guard is much more impactful and representative of its mythical psychic nature as a scarab beetle than anything else it was doing, and Telepathy can always be nice if you want to build a team around big damaging moves like Surf or Boomburst. Stench will be your offensive choice to add flinch as a threat to Rabsca's powerful moves, while the other two are great for a more support-oriented role.

Vesipquen is getting a clean slate with the following abilities:

• Queenly Majesty
• Mind's Eye
• Soul Heart

Queenly Majesty, on top of being a perfect fit for a queen bee, stops all priority moves used against your team. I'm buffing it further to give it a Friend Guard like effect that reduces damage taken by allies, though probably not as strong as the full 25% reduction that Friend Guard gives. Mind's Eye I'm also buffing to allow Psychic moves to hit Dark types along with its other effects. And Soul Heart is just a great Moxie-like effect for special attackers but even stronger. All together, it offers Vespiquen some very strong options for support or offense.

 3. Movepool

For support purposes, we are vastly expanding Rabsca's options. Strength Sap, Heal Pulse, Recover, Life Dew, Imprison, Disable, and Cosmic Power supplement its existing options like Dual Screens and Revival Blessing. Speed Swap works even better with its reduced Speed, and it has plenty of coverage options for attacking moves.

Vespiquen will be adding Esper Wing, Expanding Force, Psychic, and Psyshock to take advantage of its new typing. Its signature order moves are also all being buffed. Attack Order is a Special move that hits 5 times with a base power of 20 per hit. Defend Order now sharply raises both defense stats, and Heal Order heals 75% of maximum HP. 

Conclusion

I think Rabsca has a firm strategy to work with now, utilizing support moves and the occasional offense or working with Trick Room to become very threatening. Revival Blessing is also a very cool move idea that I hope players will be able to utilize now that Rabsca isn't completely overshadowed. Obviously, Rellor will not be able to get into Pokemon Go so look out for a new evolution method when you try out Bugmerald.

Vespiquen finally comes into her proper role of Queen with these huge changes. Whether she is leading the charge or blocking enemy attacks, your team will definitely feel her presence on the battlefield. Of course, to even remotely balance these massive improvements I'll be completely reworking the Combee evolution line. No more crap with this 87.5% Male gender ratio, you're going to be catching only Female Combees going forward. But now, Combee doesn't just evolve into Vespiquen at a certain level, there are some requirements to be met.

I've already taken Vespiquen out for a test run in my first beta and it was VERY fun. I hope the player can enjoy the changes to both of these Bug/Psychic types while they make things weird on the battlefield.