Alright, before we move on, I'd like to share some of my own thoughts:
What can we learn from Miasmaw, its concept, and execution?
I think Miasmaw proved to be a very different process. From its concept which could have been interpreted in many different ways, to its suboptimal typing, to its very mechanically unique ability, I think there's a ton of things we can learn from this.
On the typing, I have to admit I was a bit worried when Bug/Dragon was picked, but in the end I think it was a good pick and helped us a lot to maintain a reasonable scope for the concept. I know my decision to veto Electric/Fairy was pretty controversial, but I still stand by it. I believe that the Fairy typing didn't meaningfully relate to the targets we had chosen during concept assessment and risked derailing the whole process into another "counter the meta" CAP, something that I think was worrying given that our concept really lent itself for that kind of rabbit hole. All in all, I think having a typing with more weaknesses really opened up a lot of possibilities later and and while perhaps Bug/Dragon went a bit too far in the opposite direction, I still think it made for a much more interesting project.
Regarding ability, Neutralizing Gas was a fascinating pick and just trying to imagine how it would work on practice was a huge challenge, as the way it disables abilities like Regenerator is pretty much impossible to replicate. In practice I think it proved to be just as strong as it seemed and is probably the single most defining aspect of Miasmaw. That said, given the very offensive nature of Miasmaw, I think at some point in the future it might be worth exploring this ability again while taking a bulkier approach, as the way this ability would act there would be completely different in a very interesting way.
I think on retrospect we could have been a bit more looser on the stats limits. 350 BSR might have already been quite high, but most mixed spreads had to sacrifice Speed or Defense in a way that was unnecessary given the shortcomings of our typing, so while I'm happy with the stats we got, I think we could have pushed for higher stats without too many issues later.
Finally on moves, I think this was a pretty uneventful stage. Out of the many moves we discussed and discarded, I don't think there's anything I would have now preferred to add (at least when talking about the Pre DLC metagame). The preliminary movepool was a cool experiment that I'm glad we got to try, even if in the end I don't think I've ever seen any serious player using moves like Calm Mind, Bulk Up, or elemental fangs. That said, it's important to understand that the main reason why we were so open to moves like these was because Miasmaw looked to be a B-Rank mon, so there was little to no risk of going over the edge by adding some fringe moves. On a project with viability closer to something like Jumbao or Pajantom, we should have been much stricter with these inclusions, so I hope this is something we take into consideration for future projects.
Do you think Miasmaw accomplished its concept?
I think that Miasmaw's concept was a particularly complicated one, but, at least during the Pre DLC metagame, Miasmaw accomplished the goals we set up during Concept Assessment, being able to punish Slowking, Slowbro, and Blissey, while also targeting other bulky Regenerator pivots like Toxapex thanks to Neutralizing Gas, so I think it's safe to say we accomplished what we wanted.
How well do you think Miasmaw performed on the Pre-DLC metagame?
While Miasmaw lasted very little in the Pre-DLC metagame, I was overall pretty happy with its performance. It was certainly not a very splashable mon, as its awkward typing and middling speed meant that in many teams it was much easier to slap other Dragon-types like Kyurem, Hydreigon, or Pajantom; however, in the right build Miasmaw was still able to shine. Kerfluffle in particular was a very effective partner in my experience, as Miasmaw could easily wear down Regenerator pivots like Slowking, Toxapex, and Amoonguss, which would otherwise wall Kerfluffle.
How well do you think Miasmaw performs now?
Right now, I feel like Miasmaw is definitely not in a good place. Thanks to the power of Neutralizing Gas I still think its somewhat usable but it definitely feels more awkward than ever with the influx of new Fairy types like Clefable, Tapu Fini, Magearna, and Tapu Lele, better breakers available like Pheromosa, Spectrier, Nidoking, and Cinderace, and many other mons that give it trouble like Tornadus-T and Melmetal. I think this was inevitable, as there was no way for us to predict how much the Crown Tundra would change the metagame, so any attempt at preparing Miasmaw for it would have been just theorymoning, but this revision should be a good way to fix this, at least to some extent
As for what exactly is holding Miasmaw back, I think that the three mains flaws I see in Miasmaw right now are:
- Four Moveslot syndrome: While Miasmaw has tons of coverage moves, it's really hard to find a coherent moveset for it. Dragon Hammer is Miasmaw's most reliable STAB move, Earthquake is important to hit Toxapex, Thunder/Thunderbolt is necessary to threaten Tomohawk, First Impression is needed to pressure faster threats, Iron Head is the only move that can deal with Clefable, and Taunt shuts down passive mons.
- Awkward speed tier: Currently, it's way too easy to outspeed Miasmaw for its power level, so with some smart pivoting threats like Tapu Lele, Hydreigon, Krilowatt, and Urshifu can deal with it trivially. While there are other successful offensive Pokemon with similar Speed to Miasmaw like Nidoking and Excadrill, but those possess much better typings than Miasmaw.
- Lack of defensive utility: When compared with other similar, Miasmaw really doesn't offer much to its team defensively. Other Dragon-types offer valuable resistance against threats like Heatran, which Miasmaw doesn't resist. Even against the typings it does resist, like Ground, Grass and Electric, Miasmaw's terrible physical bulk and susceptibility to passive damage make it very easy to overwhelm by the most common Pokemon of those typings like Landorus-T, Rillaboom and Krilowatt.
Alright, with that out of the way, I think it's time we move on to the next stage of this discussion
- Does Miasmaw need any changes? Why?
- If changes are needed, which ones would you propose?