wraith89 Posted March 12, 2014 Posted March 12, 2014 (edited) Pokemon Mega Evolutions I'm surprised nobody else even made a topic about something so highly featured in this game One of Pokemon X/Y's new quirks are Mega-Evolutions, which can evolve specific Pokemon carrying a Mega Stone that correlates to their species and give them a tremendous boost in stats, and some even gaining new typing or abilities. However, there are some restrictions when using a Mega Pokemon. These are (and not limited to): Only one Pokemon can Mega Evolve per team. Even if you have more than one Pokemon carrying Mega Stones, if one activated theirs, the others shall be unable to Mega Evolve. This also means each Pokemon that can Mega evolve has to compete with each other for that slot in your team. The question is, are they worth it? Mega Pokemon cannot de-evolve back to their original stage, but will revert back once the battle finishes Since Mega Pokemon are carrying a Mega Stone, they cannot carry any other items, which means they may lose vital leftovers recovery or will sorely miss the extra damage Life Orb or the likes may provide Mega Stones cannot be Knocked Off, Embargoed, Tricked, Switcheroo'd, Stolen, etc... Although stats are altered, the HP stat will never be altered and never will be. Also all of these Pokemon seem to have a total net change of + 100 base stats when they mega evolve. How they're distributed depends on Gamefreak's tastes / colour of your shirt / etc. It is NOT mandatory to run a Mega Pokemon: in fact, you can make a good team without a Mega at all. The only difference these Mega Pokemon gives are stat changes and possible type/ability change. Whether one uses a Mega Pokemon or not is entirely up to their trainers, and unfortunately, so far, the number of Pokemon that can Mega evolve are rather scarce. I hope next game will add even more exciting Mega Evolutions to utilise, as the current list is rather disappointing and reeks of favouritism and/or obscure Pokemon, which I do not deny there are fanbases for, but highly unexpected. However, I think I'll start analysing some of the current Mega Evolutions and what it may mean for the metagame and such. So in the wake of the rise of the Mega Evolution Pokemon, which Mega Pokemon do you / will you choose for your team? Which new Mega evolutions would you like to see? [icon]010[/icon]Format [sprite]010[/sprite] <-- Pokemon Sprite Caterpie <-- Pokemon Name Type: Bug / Uber <-- Pokemon Type Ability: Wonder Guard <-- Pokemon Ability Original Stats: HP / Atk / Def / SpAtk / SpDef / Speed <-- Base Form Stats Stats: HP/ Atk / Def / SpAtk / SpDef / Speed <-- Mega Form Stats Description and Set and Possibly Battle Videos [icon]003[/icon]List of Megas Mega Venusaur Type: Grass/Poison Ability: Thick Fat Original Stats: 80/82/83/100/100/80 Stats: 80/100/123/122/120/80 Here we have Mega Venusaur. What's the difference between him and regular Venusaur? They just added a patch of flower on his head. Mega Venusaur is a very underrated, yet very effective Mega. People need to stop having an offensive bias, as being viable doesn't mean to become like the grossly overpowered Mega Lucario or Mega Kangaskhan. Anyhow, Mega Venusaur makes an interesting offensive pivot, as it is very effective thanks to its great defensive typing, access to recovery moves such as Synthesis, and even losing two of its greatest weaknesses to Fire and Ice thanks to its newfound ability Thick Fat! Mega Venusaur is a great threat to prepare for, as it is only weak to Psychic and Flying moves, and with the bulk he possesses, he can generally soak up some of those moves. Mega Venusaur is very hard to OHKO and can take down an unprepared team unexpectedly if you are not prepared. If trained properly, he can even take one or even two Fire attacks from the likes of Mega Blaziken or Mega Charizard and retaliate back with high powered Sludge Bomb, Earthquake, or can disable them with Sleep Powder. In fact, some Blazikens I see in Battle Spot run Brave Bird JUST to hit Mega Venusaur super effectively (and even that will not OHKO). Underestimate at your own peril. Mega Venusaur's shortcoming is just like any other Mega Pokemon, he cannot hold any other item except its respective Mega Stone, and therefore, he really misses Leftovers recovery that any other defensive Pokemon uses otherwise. Still, having access to Synthesis, Leech Seed, or the hereditary move Giga Drain can help it a lot and there are not a lot of Pokemon that enjoys Mega Venusaur as an adversary. As a teammate, you may really like the utility of Mega Venusaur: he can take stray Toxics, Pink Stuff (what I call Fairy attacks), and can shrug off weak Ice Beams off defensive Water Pokemon. This is a Water Pokemon's worst nightmare. Do remember though while Mega Venusaur is a very capable defensive Pokemon, he is not invincible and will always require support as one Pokemon in itself cannot take everything by itself. Offensive options include its STAB attacks such as Energy Ball and the dreaded Sludge Bomb, along with Earthquake to strike unsuspecting Fire Pokemon expecting to KO Venusaur. They will be quite surprised to know that their flame just cannot cut it. Overall, Mega Venusaur is a solid Mega Pokemon and it will surely do well on one's team. Don't doubt the plant: in-game or competitively, this is my go-to Pokemon for a nice bulky Grass Pokemon for a Fire-Water-Grass core. Should you use? If you have nobody in mind and a Grass type tank is needed, Mega Venusaur is always available. Mega Venusaur @ Venusaurite Nature: Relaxed EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpDef Ability: Thick Fat - Sleep Powder / Roar - Giga Drain / Power Whip - Earthquake / Sludge Bomb - Synthesis You are free to move some Defence EVs to SpDef and suit the Venusaur however you want. Change his nature accordingly if you wish as well. Basically, this is how you play Mega Venusaur, as a defensive pivot. Synthesis is a must for recovering lost HP, make sure you max it with Point Ups or Point MAX, as 8 PP is bad enough, 5 PP is a lot worse. Also beware of adverse weather nerfing Synthesis's recovery. Mega Charizard X Type: Fire/Dragon Ability: Tough Claws Original Stats: 78/84/78/109/85/100 Stats: 78/130/111/130/85/100 One advantage Charizard's mega forms provides over the other Megas is that it keeps the other person guessing which Mega Charizard it will become. If they make the wrong guess, they can be up for an unpleasant surprise! So which one will you pick? As many fanboys of Charizard would scream in joy that Charizard has finally become a dragon, they will also scream in horror when they realise he can be hit by Earthquake super effectively now. But at least one can hope that somebody forgets and the wings means he must be flying... until somebody misclicks and demonstrates that Mega Charizard X can be one shotted by very powerful Earthquakes coming off of Rhyperior and the likes. You do not fight those anyways, but Mega Charizard X has a lot going to offer. Dragon + Fire STAB combination is what made Reshiram quite scary in the previous generation. If that was not enough, Mega Charizard X's ability Tough Claws allows his contact moves (which it gets a lot of) to become more powerful. And one can even breed Dragon Dance and Outrage into Mega Charizard X so he can take advantage of his new Dragon typing! He has the same Attack and Special Attack stat so he can pulverise any walls from either side of the spectrum depending on your moveset. This Pokemon is truly an offensive threat and is fully capable of terrorising an entire unprepared team by himself. Although Azumarill has become retconned to resist both (being immune to one actually), Mega Charizard X also has something new off his sleeves (claws or whatever): he is no longer weak to Water attacks! Thanks to his Fire typing, he is not weak to Pink Stuff and can actually set up in the face of bulky Waters that love to run Scald! The joke is on them, and defensively, Mega Charizard X is no slouch either. For one, that Dragon typing gives him valuable resistance to Electric moves at last, which hit normal Charizard quite hard if one did not know what they were doing. Mega Charizard X also gains a whole lot of Defence making him bulkier than regular Blastoise, which makes you wonder what kind of scales Mega Charizard X possesses. Even better, this Pokemon does not take 50% damage from Stealth Rock switching any longer and only takes 25%! Okay, 25% is still a lot, but it is a lot better than instaKO on two switches. All this comes at the price of being weak to Earthquake and Dragon attacks, but I am sure the package is surely worth it! Mega Charizard, in essence, is a much better version of Salamence, although Salamence can possess conventional items, run Draco Meteor, and has a different typing to differentiate himself. However, Mega Charizard X is a great wallbreaker, a team player, and can do a great job and is sure to please anybody who likes their favourite Fire Pokemon starter to become the dragon it wished to be at last. That fanboyism is also a big turn off to me because they decided Charizard should be the only one of the Kanto starter to get two Mega forms. But I am off tangent here. Mega Charizard X is one of the greatest things to happen to Charizard (along with his Y form), and now he is a very legitimate threat. Mega Charizard X @ Charizardite X Nature: Adamant / Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Tough Claws - Dragon Dance - Dragon Claw / Outrage - Flare Blitz / Fire Punch - Roost / Earthquake / Thunderpunch Here is a very simple way to play Mega Charizard X. It is certainly not the only way, as there are defensive sets involving Will-o-Wisp and Roost, but here is a simple set that just involves using Dragon Dance and setting up to sweep. Mega Charizard Y Type: Fire/Flying Ability: Drought Original Stats: 78/84/78/109/85/100 Stats: 78/104/78/159/115/100 One advantage Charizard's mega forms provides over the other Megas is that it keeps the other person guessing which Mega Charizard it will become. If they make the wrong guess, they can be up for an unpleasant surprise! So which one will you pick? Mega Charizard Y is the more used version of the two Charizard Mega Evolutions seemingly, but both play a different role and have different playstyle altogether. Mega Charizard Y plays more similar to his regular form than the avant garde form X is and is a very dangerous Pokemon in his own right. For one, he brings automatic sunlight thanks to his ability Drought (previously exclusive to a titular legendary Pokemon named Groudon, and later a Dream World ability to Vulpix and Ninetales), which consequently weakens Water type attacks aimed at him, while giving him instant Solarbeams to vaporise his Water type foes instantly. Mega Charizard Y's power is obscene, and his ability to bring sunlight instantly also allows mindgames for the other person who likes to switch in their Tyranitar to tank their Charizard, but you may instantly transform to Mega Charizard Y to hit Tyranitar for super effective damage and negate the sand. Granted, the Tyranitar in question needs to be weakened significantly beforehand, as the bulkiest of the Tyranitars take pittance from even Mega Charizard Y's attacks. He seems to be more geared in destroying Water Pokemon due to his increases special bulk, making him more bulkier specially than regular Blastoise! The great thing about Charizard getting two forms is that nobody knows which form he will become until he transforms, which may work to your advantage. Mega Charizard Y has a lot of tools to offer, and will not disappoint. Mega Charizard Y also makes a great team player thanks to the sun he brings. Fellow starter Chlorophyll Venusaur is also an amazing Pokemon to be paired with, as he really appreciates the sun doubling his speed and allowing him to sweep. Other Pokemon who do not like Water moves will appreciate the sun nerfing it to the point of irrelevance. However, Mega Charizard Y may face competition for this role with another Drought Pokemon, Ninetales, who can instantaneously set up the sun immediately and does not require a Mega stone. Mega Charizard Y, you must Mega Evolve on the turn you wish to bring the sun, so make that turn count as it will be very vital to your success (or downfall). Some people strangely run Flare Blitz on Mega Charizard Y, as even without any investment, the sunlight and his increased attack lets him do significant damage to Pokemon thinking they can come in and sponge his special attacks (notably Blissey and friends). This can OHKO Mega Gardevoirs with no HP investment and other physically frail Pokemon as well, which is nice considering a Thunderbolt from Mega Gardevoir can do critical damage to Mega Charizard Y. As always, beware of Rock Pokemon such as Tyranitar, or sneaky weather changing Pokemon such as Abomasnow or Politoed (the former can be dealt with easily with Charizard but the latter will be much tougher), and you will do fine with Mega Charizard Y. And as usual, because this is fundamentally Charizard, he will also despise Stealth Rocks shaving off half of his HP as he switches in. Overall, Mega Charizard Y is a very worthy Pokemon to have and this is what Charizard deserved after multiple generations of being belittled by competitive players and being overused with the wrong movesets by your 5 year old cousins and friends. His newfound popularity amongst competitive players are quite high, you will need to prepare facing him anytime. Mega Charizard Y @ Charizardite Y Nature: Modest / Timid EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Drought - Fire Blast / Flamethrower - Solarbeam - Focus Blast / Earthquake / Dragon Pulse - Roost / Flare Blitz You can run a minus Defence or SpDef nature instead if you are running a physical attack just to hit the likes of Heatran. This is a simple yet effective set on running Mega Charizard Y: don't spam Solarbeam liberally lest you want to encounter a Politoed or Tyranitar running your streak. Mega Charizard Y is also another versatile Pokemon: he can run other sets if you need him to. Ancientpower beats Talonflame. Mega Blastoise Type: Water Ability: Mega Launcher Original Stats: 79/83/100/85/105/78 Stats: 79/103/120/135/115/78 With his new cannons, Blastoise is no longer a pushover but will push over anyone who gets in his way. Now Mega Blastoise here is absolutely incredible. He is everything your team could ask for if you require decent support, especially for rapid spinning away entry hazards. Regular Blastoise is a very tanky Pokemon that takes hits and just does what he does, but was relatively harmless if he went that route. Only scary Blastoise sets that were hard hitting were surprise Water Spout Choice sets. However, Mega Blastoise takes this to the next level thanks to his new ability, Mega Launcher, which buffs up Pulse moves by 1.5x. That means moves such as Water Pulse will gain a boost enough so that it matches the power of Surf. This is wonderful beause Water Pulse not only has more PP to abuse, but it also has the nice chance to land confusion, making it superior in the singles battlefield. Blastoise is also able to learn Dark Pulse by TM, which is very important, because the #1 switch-in to Blastoise are usually Ghost types to block spin. Oops, hello Dark Pulse. Dark Pulse gains Mega Launcher boost, which is essentially STAB, so Blastoise does not have to worry about most Ghosts coming in to block the spin, as he will generally KO them and be able to spin safely. In addition to that, if you breed a Blastoise with a Clawitzer, your offspring Blastoise can carry Aura Sphere and Dragon Pulse as well, which also gains a boost from Mega Launcher. Mega Blastoise hits incredibly hard with this ability and his newfound pulse attacks. Aura Sphere rounds up great coverage with Dark Pulse, while Water STAB move (Water Pulse or Hydro Pump) rounds off the great coverage it provides. Dragon Pulse has its niche in hitting things like Mega Charizard X super effectively, but generally, it does not provide the best coverage with anything, despite Mega Launcher boost. He still hits things neutrally, but Mega Blastoise has a lot of options to OHKO most foes coming in. If you require some nice coverage move without needing Rapid Spin, Ice Beam rounds off great coverage to hit Grass Pokemon and Dragons. Mega Blastoise is amazingly tanky and can take a hit while dishing back incredible damage. He can fit in nearly any team very well, and will surely not disappoint. Keep in mind, however, that Mega Blastoise is NOT a wall due to his lack of reliable recovery options. He is no Mega Venusaur with Synthesis, but somebody to take a hit and dish back heavy damage to anything that switches in or is foolish enough to stay in on this brute. One can, however, cater him to be defensive and run Scald as STAB option instead of Water Pulse or Hydro Pump. After all, it is only 10 BP lower than Water Pulse boosted with Mega Launcher. One thing flavour-wise that bothers me is that he launches these moves out of his mouth and not his multiple cannons. Gamefreak, how did you mess that one up? Overall, if one needs a spinner or some Water Pokemon that they would love to place on their team, he is one of the better Mega Evolutions to place in a team. Make no mistake: this guy will take down at least one of the opponent's Pokemon if played right, but needs support from the likes of bulky Grass Pokemon to tank Electric and Grass moves while he provides decent support for the team spinning away Stealth Rocks and actually hitting hard. He does not care about any priority moves either, as Aegislash is hard pressed to even 2HKO Mega Blastoise with Shadow Sneak, even with Swords Dance boosts! A spinner, a tank, and a wrecking ball in one? Yes please! My only regret is because I have used Mega Venusaur too much, I could not find room for Mega Blastoise, which is a shame, considering those two would be amazing together. Perhaps in some other team, but the times I have used him, he has never disappointed me. Mega Blastoise @ Blastoisite Nature: Modest EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpAtk Ability: Mega Launcher - Water Pulse / Scald / Hydro Pump - Dark Pulse - Aura Sphere / Ice Beam - Rapid Spin / Ice Beam / Protect I actually run a bulkier version and I do not have as much Special Attack invested, but this is generally how to play a Mega Blastoise. Water Pulse is best STAB, but Scald is for being bulky and burning things, and it is not much off from Water Pulse in terms of BP (80 vs 90), while Hydro Pump misses too much but still hits harder. Dark Pulse nails Ghosts so Blastoise can actually do its job uninterrupted. It also gets a buff from Mega Launcher and has nice coverage. Aura Sphere rounds off a nice Dark + Fighting combo that works well, but Ice Beam hits Grass and Dragon types. Use Dragon Pulse if you specifically want to tear own Mega Charizard X, though. If you are not running Spinning Megastoise, you can just run 4 attacks. It is just as effective, or you can run Haze to troll on Dragon Dancing things or Belly Drum Azumarill thinking it can set up on Mega Blastoise. Mega Alakazam Type: Psychic Ability: Trace Original Stats: 55/50/45/135/95/120 Stats: 55/50/65/175/95/150 Vanillite mob? It's chow time! Fun Fact: Holding an Everstone does NOT prevent a Kadabra from evolving in trade. This only seems to apply to Kadabra, and though most people think it is a bug, it has been quite the persistent FEATURE since Generation IV, making me think it is actually DELIBERATE. Gamefreak's blatant favouritism for Alakazam has backfired on them as the net BST change for Mega Alakazam is + 90 and not + 100, as they buffed Alakazam's SpDef to + 10 on his base form, and didn't do anything about his Mega form. It probably came late into development, but I don't think Alakazam deserved the + 10 to his base stats as something like Ariados would have (which they did not even touch). What a shame. Anyways, what is he supposed to be? An Eastern mystic sage? Somehow he reminds me of Baphomet. There is something uncanny about him and I do not even want to know what kind of trance-like state he is in. An ascended master with... 5 spoons floating just so he can eat a horde of Vanillite? How mean. Mega Alakazam gained an incredible increase in his Speed and Special Attack. Some of his Defence even rose up by + 20 points, meaning he might be able to take a physical hit. Yeah right. He even gained the ability Trace, which would be useful for switching in and out for different niche. Heatran using Fire Blast? Not with Flash Fire. This was how I used to play my Gardevoir. With insane stats that are higher than those of Mewtwo's, you would think this guy is uncounterable, right? Even Blissey folds to two of his Psycho Shocks. However, contrary to what people would think, he is actually WEAKER than his regular form. Why is that? The answer lies in the fact he is a Mega form: he does NOT have the ability to possess any other item but his Mega evolution stone. A Magic Guard Alakazam holding Life Orb will deal more damage than his Mega form would. The regular one can even hold a Focus Sash so he will never be OHKOd in an instant by anything that isn't a Pin Missile. This is why if you would use his Mega form, take advantage of the two aspects he has gained (not the buffed Defence: don't switch into a Tyranitar's Crunch please): Trace and the boosted Speed. With that crazy 150 Speed, he is unable to be revenged by non-Choice Scarf Weavile and the likes. With Trace, he gains a lot of switch-in opportunities, such as Tracing the likes of Lightningrod or even a Parental Bond off Kangaskhan. Sucker Punch? I have Substitute. Now eat both of my STAB Psycho Shocks. Another thing to note is that a positive Special Attack natured Mega Alakazam DOES outdamage a Life Orb bearing neutral Special Attack natured regular Alakazam, while still having enough speed to outpace a majority of foes. Do keep in mind that Mega Alakazam is NOT a Pokemon you can just slap into nearly any team like Mega Blastoise or Mega Venusaur. He has a specific role and if you can cater to his role properly, he will do all right and will certainly wreak havoc. If you use him over a regular Alakazam, make sure you use the traits that he has gained or else you are better off using a regular Alakazam over his Mega form. Mega Alakazam @ Alakazite Nature: Modest / Timid EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Trace - Substitute - Psychic / Psyshock - Focus Blast / Dazzling Gleam - Encore / Shadow Ball / Signal Beam I think this is probably the only way you can really use Mega Alakazam: Substitute + 3 Attacks. Or Substitute + 2 Attacks + Calm Mind or Utility move... or something. Just use Trace properly and you should do fine. Mega Gengar Type: Ghost/Poison Ability: Shadow Tag Original Stats: 60/65/60/130/75/110 Stats: 60/65/80/170/95/130 Mega Gengar has gained an all-seeing eye on his head. Illuminati mate. Mega Gengar is a weird one and has been a controversial Pokemon since his release. Asides from his eye and whatever, this thing is really mean. Yes, he lost Levitate, and yes, he is now weak to Earthquake, but what he has gained has become a gamebreaker. Mega Gengar has gained Shadow Tag (I suppose that is what the eye is for), which is a gamebreaking ability that traps ANY Pokemon that does not carry a Shed Shell nor if they're Ghost types themselves. Even regular Gengar was a pain to defeat, but what Mega Gengar brings to the table would mean the end to any Pokemon foolish enough to tackle it by themselves, as Mega Gengar has gained some defensive boosts along with some nice speed and Special Attack. The defensive boosts allow him to survive certain attacks that regular Gengar could not when invested into slightly. Yes, he is weaker than his regular counterpart carrying Life Orb, but Mega Gengar is far too powerful for that ability alone, which was what the greatly speculated Shadow Tag Chandelure was feared for. Thankfully, that was never released. Mega Gengar can come in and trap and KO whoever he chooses to, making him the ultimate revenge killer. Unlike Chandelure, who required a Choice Scarf to even reach higher speed, Mega Gengar is already blazing fast and is more powerful than Chandelure. Like any other Pokemon, Mega Gengar needs to be played properly and not recklessly in order to work well. For example, on the turn one uses the Mega Stone, Gengar's speed is still counter as if it is base 110 for that turn only. Therefore, one would be wise to run Protect if using Mega Gengar. One destructive aspect about Mega Gengar is that he can put a complete stopper to a stall team with a set involving Perish Song. Perish Song is an egg move that is only obtainable through Pokebank Pokemon, however, and so one would not see this as widespread. Shadow Ball is a nice STAB to use and will hit Steel types hard now due to their lack of resistance to it. Sludge Bomb is another great STAB to hit pink stuff (Fairies). Focus Blast rounds off the coverage nicely. During the early stages of the game, a lot of people have used the Pokemon all wrong and people have wondered if he was really worth using or if he really was that dangerous, even with Shadow Tag. No Pokemon is invincible, as we know. As the game went along, a lot of the competitive battlers (particularly Smogon players) have deemed Mega Gengar to be broken and unhealthy for a flourishing metagame, and so he was banned from Smogon simulators. I do agree with that sentiment however: Mega Gengar is ridiculous. However, one may still encounter Mega Gengar from Battle Spot off Wifi or passerby battles, as not everybody plays fair. Anything goes in Wifi battles! What would one do then? Good luck: try to attack him with something that is faster, but a smart player running Mega Gengar will be saving him for the right moment and attack your team under the cold moonlight with no remorse. Tyranitar and the likes with Pursuit can catch them off guard when they switch out (beware of Focus Blast). Even better, a Chesnaught with Bulletproof is immune to Gengar's most common moves, including Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, and Focus Blast. Unless that Gengar happens to run Magical Shine or Psychic, a Chesnaught can safely laugh at Mega Gengar (though it will not be doing much back without the appropriate moves). If you are running your own Mega Gengar (I would advise against this in actual competitive settings but is okay with two parties that agree with each other), make sure he is used in a team which can benefit from his trapping abilities, along with a nice Fighting Pokemon to take down Dark Pokemon Gengar despises. Overall, Mega Gengar is a frightful customer and is certainly a gamebreaking Pokemon under the right hands. Mega Gengar @ Gengarite Nature: Timid EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Shadow Tag - Substitute - Protect / Disable - Shadow Ball - Focus Blast / Dazzling Gleam / Sludge Bomb / Perish Song You can get Perish Song from breeding with Misdreavus. If you use Perish Song, I guarantee you people will hate you forever for it. Anyways, this thing is broken. Moving on. Mega Kangaskhan Type: Normal Ability: Parental Bond Original Stats: 105/95/80/40/80/90 Stats: 105/125/100/60/100/100 Auntie Kangaskhan was always a loving and caring Pokemon. But all that has changed when the Talonflame nation attacked. Note: To all those competitive players who only take notice of numerical stats and not the actual Pokemon: STOP CALLING KANGASKHAN A HE! She is 100% female species! Mega Kangaskhan, or Mega Mom, as one would affectionately call her, is a very great Pokemon. Too great, in fact, that she is another source of controversy. I have no idea how her battling prowess slipped under the radar, and I knew she would be too powerful as soon as I heard about her ability Parental Bond, which basically makes single hitting moves into two hits (the second hit will only do half the damage as the original hit as her baby is the one attacking). This ability has no effect on already multiple hitting moves like Double Hit (I tried), nor does it work in horde battles or when using a spread move (like Earthquake) in double battles (I believe?), but this is yet another gamebreaking ability that most people seemed to have underestimated from the start. I cannot believe people downplayed the ability and it is getting recognition right now. Mega evolutions do not change their HP stat, as messing with the HP stat, a static stat, would mess up the game, but thankfully, Mega Kangaskhan is one of the few Pokemon blessed with a high HP. She gains some extra bulk, jumps up a speed tier to base 100, and gains + 30 in Attack and the unnecessary + 20 Special Attack (which can be used for surprise Fire Blasts however). However, as tame as her stats appear, this beast is completely different from her normal form, which is decent, but not entirely gamebreaking. Mega Kangaskhan, however, is very much a gamebreaker with her ability. Normal STAB is very dangerous, as it has great coverage alongside other moves she can learn to handle the Rock and Steel types that resist it, such as Fighting and Ground moves (notable Earthquake). Double Fake Out is very annoying as well, while Glow Punch can hit a target TWICE, which makes it an untauntable damaging attack that gives Mega Kangaskhan + 2 into her Attack power. If there is a threatening speedy Pokemon coming in, Sucker Punch comes in and handles them very easily. Crunch allows her to hit through Ghost Pokemon as well. She may not be able to fit all this into one moveset, but she has the options to make her dangerous. Worst of all, these moves hit twice, meaning Focus Sash or Sturdy does not work, and a lot of Pokemon are guarantee to be either OHKOd or 2HKOd from her. She is not a slouch defensively either: 105/100/100 defences uninvested can still take a lot of hits quite well. Once Pokebank comes out, we may also see a rise of Seismic Toss Kangaskhan, who invest in her bulk but sacrifice her attack prowess. This will not matter, as Seismic Toss will deal a total of 100 damage at level 50 battles (200 damage at level 100 battles). Because there is little effort into just placing her into the team and letting her wreak havoc, people discourage the use of Mega Kangaskhan almost universally. Unfortunately, many Battle Spot players do not seem to get the message (mostly Japanese players) and will not hesitate to use her just to make their battles easier. I do like Kangaskhan as a Pokemon and I always have, but unfortunately, her overusage has really embittered most people and made people resent her a lot, which is a shame. I do wish people would stop using her, because 9/10 battlers I see on Battle Spot use her every time. You can almost guarantee any Kangaskhan in the Team Preview holds a Mega Stone. She makes battles much too easy, I'm afraid, and unfortunately, less fun. If you plan on using her in regular battles, try to have the opposing party agree to it as well. Mega Kangaskhan even has the power to contend with the big boys like Rayquaza or Mewtwo, just to show you how powerful she is. Her counters are very particular, mostly Ghost type Pokemon such as Cofagrigus (who can Mummify her Parental Bond making the baby cry) or Prankster Sableye who is able to burn her and Foul Play for massive damage. They are even immune to her STAB and Glow Punch, making them particularly helpful. Mega Kangaskhan is very helpful in Battle Maison as well, and can be helpful for winning you lots of Battle Points. Overall, she is another controversial Pokemon, but you can see how zealous a motherly love can be... well, that is, if she doesn't send her out to fight alongside her as well. Mega Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite Nature: Adamant / Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Parental Bond - Glow Punch / Fake Out - Return - Sucker Punch / Crunch - Earthquake / Crunch This is a very simple yet effective set. Also if you have Seismic Toss, use it and invest in her bulk and speed instead. Something like Substitute/Seismic Toss/Crunch/Sucker Punch or something of that sort. Mega Pinsir Type: Bug/Flying Ability: Aerilate Original Stats: 65/125/100/55/70/85 Stats: 65/155/120/65/90/105 Pinsir is an average bug, but no one understands. Now here we come to an interesting Mega evolution, often overlooked, but very interesting. Nobody ever thought a beetle that seemed to have a powerful fighting stamina would Mega Evolve into yet another Bug/Flying type instead of Bug/Fighting to contend with his cousin Heracross. However, it seems this new Mega Pinsir is very frenzied. Look at his eyes! He will not stop until he rends and tears something into pieces! Mega Pinsir gained an incredibly attack boost, some defences, and most importantly, a Speed Boost. No, not the ability Speed Boost, but that 105 Speed is enough to outpace a lot of Pokemon bordering the 90s to 102 (I'm staring at you Garchomp). Not only that, but his new ability Aerilate is a very interesting ability exclusive (so far) to Pinsir. There are other abilities like it, such as Pixilate and Refigerate, and this one converts Normal attacks into Flying types, which allows for some interesting Normal moves to convert into Flying moves. Not only that, but these moves gain a + 33% damage boost (and this it not even counting the STAB boost Mega Pinsir would get!). Take Thrash, for example, and you have a Flying type Outrage for sweeping late game. He gains some interesting egg moves, such as Quick Attack, allowing for some beastly high damaging STAB priority Attack. He can also run Close Combat (an egg move swiped from his cousin Heracross) for some nice coverage, or run Earthquake to take down a certain royal shield. Stone Edge will hurt other Fliers, though Flying moves do just fine at it mostly. X-Scissor? Who needs that? A lot of people do forgo his Bug STAB move because his newfound Flying STAB does just enough. Mega Pinsir is a greatly appreciated offensive threat that can keep his foes at bay, especially with those new moves. However, keep in mind those plethora of Normal moves are not as useful in his base form than in his Mega form. Although he would generally want to transform into his Mega form ASAP, he may wish to stay at his base form for a while to strike Levitating Pokemon with his Mold Breaker Earthquake, for example. Or run Hyper Cutter to prevent Intimidate switch-ins from lowering his Attack. Or perhaps Moxie to gain a + 1 Attack as he KOs a weakened foe. He also will not be AS weak to Stealth Rocks as he would when he transforms (goodness gracious look at all the HP taken away from sneaky pebbles... 50% of HP lost to one switch in!). The limitation to Mega Pinsir is that like many other Megas, he cannot hold items and he works best as Mega form. You may even utilise Swords Dance to help him sweep once his counters are down. Use Mega Pinsir however you would like, be it a revenge killer or a late game sweeper, but Mega Pinsir surely will not disappoint. In fact, he is quite superior to his regular form thanks to that amazing new ability of his, and can finally defeat his cousin Heracross on a 1v1. Pinsir, an "ordinary" bug that people tended to neglect, has finally got a chance to shine, and this new Mega ability proves that Pinsir can also be deadly too, but just not in the way Heracross is. He is, indeed, one of the better Mega Pokemon out there. Mega Pinsir @ Pinsirite Nature: Adamant / Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Aerilate - Swords Dance / Substitute - Return / Thrash - Earthquake / Close Combat - Quick Attack / Feint I haven't found much better set than this really... you can fit X-Scissor someplace I suppose, but it doesn't offer much coverage wise. The likes of Return or Thrash get buffed up by Aerilate so much, it is ridiculous. Feint outprioritises Talonflame's Brave Bird if you think want to beat it, but Quick Attack is generally better. Stone Edge is also another option. Mega Gyarados Type: Water/Dark Ability: Mold Breaker Original Stats: 95/125/79/60/100/81 Stats: 95/155/109/70/130/81 The atrocious Pokemon turned out to be a... mega ultra shrimp! At first, when I saw Team Flare's boss Mega Evolve his Gyarados into Mega Gyarados, I thought he was part Dragon because he used Iron Head to faint my Fairy Pokemon, meaning he had something to fear from pink stuff. However, I was sorely disappointed seeing my Grass moves from Venusaur was super effective against the blue monster. Just what? What could Gyarados possibly gain from losing his Flying typing? I became even more disappointed when I learned he became something completely trolling and disappointing: Dark. Water/Dark. This means all of a sudden, Gyarados is weak to Bug, Grass, and Fighting (!) attacks, when he used to be resistant or neutral to it. He even takes damage from Earthquakes now (despite the fact he floats and is allowed in Sky Battles)! And even more scathing: Gyarados has no secondary STAB to abuse from it asides from Bite (seriously?) and Dark Pulse (not with that Special Attack!). There's no way to get Crunch even, which is ridiculous. Just what was Gamefreak thinking? Is this how you make a Mega Pokemon? It looks like a downgrade, no less! However, I found an interesting way to play Mega Gyarados. In fact, it is by not playing his Mega form at all! It's ridiculous, serves no advantages, and you're better off using regular Gyarados instead. He should have been part Dragon. But apparently, it made too much sense for Gamefreak. Find another Mega. The end. Or is it? I have stated multiple times that there is no need to Digivolve Mega evolve immediately. The type change, may, in fact, be a great boon rather than a disadvantage if you know when to use it. He also does gain Ghost and Dark resistances, which is helpful when some Gengar starts spamming that attack, or if the ever so dangerous Adaptability Crawdaunt comes in to ruin the day, Mega Gyarados resists both of his STABs (beware of Superpower).Also, he gains some extra defences, particularly in the physical and special defences. This allows him to tank moves that he normally shouldn't. If you are fighting a Fighting type Pokemon, stay with regular Gyarados with Intimidate and Dragon Dance, or take him out first. Mega Gyarados also gains an amazing new ability: Mold Breaker. Mold Breaker turns regular Gyarados's usual counters (such as Storm Drain Gastrodon) into set up baits, and grants Mega Gyarados the ability to strike Levitating Rotoms or Gengars with Earthquake! Not only that, but with his added defences, he is able to take a couple of electric moves (especially without STAB) as he is no longer completely allergic to electricity. Do note he is still weak to it and therefore still does not like taking them, but is able to take them. There is also another fun quirk with the fact he gained some Special Attack, allowing him to deal a bit more more damage from the likes of Fire Blast or Hydro Pump, but it isn't generally worth it. With Mega Gyarados, he offers a unique play experience with the fact that he is like playing two different Pokemon. Be warned: once you Mega Evolve, there is no turning back, so be sure you Mega Evolve him when you absolutely have to. Mega Gyarados prefers to be an offensive Pokemon, and either ability (Intimidate or Moxie) works, but Intimidate is more helpful in my opinion to soften physical blows and stray Mach Punches. Any defensive sets are generally left better with regular Gyarados. Mega Gyarados is fun, so before you dismiss him as a terrible Pokemon for his unnecessary change of typing, do try him out, as under the right hands, he is capable of playing mind games with the foe. Mega Gyarados @ Gyaradosite Nature: Adamant EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Mold Breaker - Dragon Dance - Waterfall - Earthquake - Ice Fang / Stone Edge / Bite I never use Bite, despite STAB. Really no point in it. Why doesn't Crunch exist? I am also working on a bulkier set as I don't like 252/252 spreads really. Mega Aerodactyl Type: Rock/Flying Ability: Tough Claws Original Stats: 80/105/65/60/75/130 Stats: 80/135/85/70/95/150 I know they were keen to try out the newer abilities, but did they have to give Tough Claws to everybody and their mother? Mega Aerodactyl is a nice Pokemon that can take down any Charizards that you may despise the fanboyism of. Tough Claws is a very nice ability that Mega Charizard X also had, and it powers up his contact moves. Unfortunately, Mega Aerodactyl does not have access to much contact moves, asides from elemental fangs and Crunch. There is not enough for him to take advantage of. Nevertheless, Mega Aerodactyl has some nice stat boosts in the form of extra Attack, Defences and Speed. A lot of his good moves, unfortunately, comes from Pokebank, such as Stealth Rocks and coverage moves such as Aqua Tail. The fact that none of his STAB Rock attacks are powered up by Tough Claws is really disappointing. Also the fact that many of his moves are of lower BP with the exception of Earthquake and Stone Edge also seems disappointing. With those low base power moves, it does not seem that Mega Aerodactyl has much to offer against harder hitting Megas like Charizard or Gyarados. Then what is his purpose? Mega Aerodactyl offers a great role with his blazing speed as a stallbreaker with a crucial move: Taunt. With Taunt, anything with a recovery move will be hard pressed to attempt to stall out Mega Aerodactyl (Gliscor with only Earthquake will fail against this), and he is not as fragile anymore with his higher defences. After that, Mega Aerodactyl can use his variety of moves in the form of elemental fangs or Edgequake combo, and can even Roost to heal off his health. He also serves as a great counter against those overused Gale Wings Talonflame spamming Brave Birds, while a well placed Stone Edge or Rock Slide will put an end to the flaming bird. His wide diverse range of useful attacks actually allows him to be one dangerous foe: you will be hard pressed to switch anything in as it can hit nearly any of his foes super effectively. However, Mega Aerodactyl still retains his old enemies in the form of bulky grounds with access to Rock or Ice moves. Even so, those Pokemon hate the use of Taunt, because it prevents them (particularly Hippowdon) from setting up. One may then switch in a bulky Grass to cover them and take their pitiful Earthquakes. He may be able to set up his own sneaky pebbles, but he also hates switching into that as well. If Aerodactyl had access to Brave Bird or Head Smash, it would have been nice to be able to use it as his regular form with Rock Head, but Gamefreak probably knew that would be too strong. Generally, useful or not, Mega Aerodactyl has his role for your team and thanks to his large speed (it is the fastest Mega Evolution tied with Mega Alakazam... ick), so use that and his additional bulk to your advantage. If you find stallish Pokemon to be annoying, this is your Pokemon to go to. Even with low powered moves, he still hits hard enough to make a noticeable dent. Mega Aerodactyl @ Aerodactylite Nature: Adamant / Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Tough Claws - Hone Claws / Taunt - Stone Edge - Fire Fang / Earthquake - Ice Fang / Aerial Ace / Crunch / Iron Head / Roost I'm having a hard time deciding what kind of set I should run on this guy. I also don't think max speed is even necessary on him: the 160 speed is quite frankly, overkill. Hone Claws raises attack and accuracy on things like the infamous Stone Edge and the likes, so why not? All other moves are dependent on your need for team. Stealth Rocks/Defog are also other options, if you can access the moves, that is. Mega Mewtwo X Type: Psychic/Fighting Ability: Steadfast Original Stats: 106/110/90/154/90/130 Stats: 106/190/100/154/100/130 While the new Mewtwo in the new film is clearly not Team Rocket's Mewtwo, could Mega Mewtwo X be the one we were looking for? Yes, an already overpowered Pokemon gained not one Mega form, but two Mega forms. Although many people do not like Mega Mewtwo X because of his physically inclined stats, Mega Mewtwo X is arguably the better Mega form for Mewtwo, but what I dislike about this Mega form is that he deviates from his fundamental playstyle from the regular Mewtwo that it does not really feel as fun to play with. However, I believe this form was made so people who ended up with a physically inclined nature for Mewtwo (such as Adamant or Jolly) can take advantage of it. That 190 base attack is the highest attack power any Mega forms have (not counting Mega Mawile's Huge Power). He also gained some extra Defences, as 80 of those 100 points went into Attack and 10 went to each of the defences. Otherwise, this Mewtwo is similar to the regular Mewtwo in terms of stats. The biggest draw to Mega Mewtwo X is that he gains a Fighting type, which means Aura Sphere gains STAB, and he loses his weakness to Dark and Bug, which is a big thing. Unfortunately, he gains a weakness to Flying moves from the likes of Yveltal and Ho-oh, but there is always a weakness to count for. Unfortunately, Mega Mewtwo X does have some flaws, as a lot of his best moves cannot be accessed without move tutors. These great moves include Drain Punch (for recovery), Low Kick (almost consistently base 120 STAB move against heavy legendary Pokemon), and elemental punches. No, do NOT use Giga Impact as the promotion suggested you to. For now, if one wants to go physical, this means Mega Mewtwo X should run Brick Break and Psycho Cut for STAB. Earthquake is helpful against Aegislash and Rock Slide or Stone Edge can deal with Yveltal and Ho-oh, 2HKOing and OHKOing them, respectively. For even more fun, Bulk Up pumps up Mega Mewtwo X's attack and defence, allowing him to take physical hits better, but this should be used with Drain Punch for recovery. For people without access to Pokebank, one can use a Special Mewtwo with MMX stone. Why's that you ask? This is basically regular Mewtwo with higher defences and too much extra Attack allowing for stronger Foul Plays against it, but the typing change is huge because not only does Aura Sphere gain STAB, but Dark and Bug moves are no longer pressing issues as they were against regular Mewtwo. Anyone trying to use Fake Out will get surprised by Steadfast activating, raising his speed in the process. Unfortunately, his Special Attack would not be as powerful without an item, but it will certainly surprise people, and Mega Mewtwo X running a special set certainly has his advantages over the regular Mewtwo. Generally, Mega Mewtwo X has a lot going for him. Do not scorn him just because he has a higher attack than Special Attack. Although one may not be able to use his physical moves at this moment, he is incredibly useful and is certainly a useful gift for any users who wanted to use their physically inclined Mewtwo for a better cause. My question is why does he not learn High Jump Kick when his animation suggests he kicks? However, like regular Mewtwo, this Pokemon is considered too powerful for standard play (would you look at that? 190 Attack!) and is generally banned. People will frown on you for using it, unless both parties have consented for use or it is a legendary battle or something. Mega Mewtwo X @ Mewtwonite X Nature: Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Steadfast - Bulk Up / Taunt - Stone Edge - Earthquake - Brick Break / Psycho Cut / Drain Punch I'm sure there are other ways to use him. In fact, Psystrike is also useful because it is not affected by Attack cuts and the likes. Psycho Cut is a STAB you MIGHT want to consider, and Recover is also useful, but Drain Punch does its job. But these moves should be good enough generally to take down threats on its own. After all, nobody expects a physical Mewtwo, now do they? I'd run Adamant but I cannot afford to get outpaced by Darkrai and the likes. Unfortunately, Drain Punch is a transfer only move: if you don't have that run the less appealing Brick Break and the likes. Mega Mewtwo Y Type: Psychic Ability: Insomnia Original Stats: 106/110/90/154/90/130 Stats: 106/150/70/194/120/140 Remember when we first saw this and thought she was Majin Buutwo? Yeah... We all wanted our old Team Rocket Mewtwo back, but we got some Magical Girl Newtwo? Some people complained that X version got the cool ninja looking Mewtwo while Y version got this weird one that looks like a fetus. I do like this form better just because this is the form that plays more similarly to the regular Mewtwo than Mega Mewtwo X does. I hate to say this, but this form is severely lacking. Now, I do not know what Gamefreak was thinking, but they did everything possible to make Mewtwo not too broken, but they really messed up so much that you are better off using regular Mewtwo over this one. What? How are you slower than Mega Alakazam if you are indeed the ULTIMATE Pokemon? And what's this about that unnecessary + 40 Attack and that 20 Defence reduction? That + 40 Attack guarantees an OHKO from an opposing Foul Play, especially with STAB. Life Orb Mewtwo does more than this version of Mewtwo, unfortunately, and generally looking at this, she seems pretty lackluster. She should have retained her 90 Defence and have 160 Speed. If they would boost her Attack, it would have been fine being left at 130 or something. Even better, reduce the attack to 100, and buff that Special Attack to 204. That would be a lot better and more beneficial for Mega Mewtwo Y. With all these crippling traits, just what exactly is Mega Mewtwo Y's advantages over regular Mewtwo? Some people tried hard to find a way to salvage Mega Mewtwo Y due to her apparent weakness. The ability Insomnia is not all that helpful, but useful nonetheless, as she cannot be put to sleep by the likes of Darkrai and can proceed to OHKO him with Aura Sphere. Someone even tried to raise her bulk as base Mewtwo form, bait in statuses (as Mewtwo hates status effects just as anything else) and have her set up Calm Mind, use Rest, and wake up immediately after Mega evolving with a fully healthy Mewtwo with some boosts accumulated. However, her usefulness is rather subtle and it comes from that extra 120 SpDef, actually. That extra bulk allows her to live some special attacks normal Mewtwo could not survive and still hit back hard enough or fully KO. She would not survive the likes of Shadow Sneak from Aegislash or + 1 U-turn from Genesect and the likes, but then again, neither does regular Mewtwo. Mega Mewtwo Y is arguably the better late game sweeper than regular Mewtwo due to that additional bulk she possesses on the special side. One would be hard pressed to fight her through the special side while she continually abuses her powerful Psystrike to destroy her specially inclined foes. A Mega Mewtwo Y's special attacks are roughly the same as an Expert Belt Mewtwo, only without needing the condition for being super-effective! Do not get me wrong: Mega Mewtwo Y is still a very dangerous Pokemon in her own right and can basically sweep an entire team by herself (I have tried that in practice battles), but until those stats are realigned or something, she will not be as impressive as the other Mewtwo forms. She is still no less dangerous then regular Mewtwo or Mega Mewtwo Y, however, and is generally frowned upon in competitive play as broken and would normally be banned under standard play (of course you will inevitably find unscrupulous passerbys using a team of 5 Xerneas and 1 Mewtwo). She is only for use for big boys (and girls) battles and legendary battles, theme battles, friend battles, free battles, or as a keychain. I cannot wait until a Z form with tankish build is made: Mewtwo has the moves for going supportive and it would be very interesting, particularly with Prankster. Overall, do not provoke her wrath, or you will be very sorry you ever did. Mega Mewtwo Y @ Mewtwonite Y Nature: Timid EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Insomnia - Calm Mind / Taunt - Psystrike - Aura Sphere / Fire Blast - Ice Beam With 80 Def EVs, you can catch up to regular Mewtwo's defence. I can't believe their stat alignment for Mega Mewtwo Y, really. It's such wasted potential. Nonetheless, this is powerful and is effective at late game sweeping once things with priority and the likes are gone. Mega Ampharos Type: Electric/Dragon Ability: Mold Breaker Original Stats: 90/75/85/115/90/55 Stats: 90/95/105/165/110/45 With all this glamour and all, why does Mega Ampharos not learn Magical Shine? Mega Ampharos is definitely an improvement over regular Ampharos. The funny thing is, unlike Alakazam, I think they intended her to gain extra Defence, because she still gains + 100 BST unlike Alakazam, while that + 10 SpDef on Alakazam was added in the last minute, apparently. Although Mega Ampharos loses some of her speed, that is fine because she was not really meant to be quick to begin with. She works amazingly in double battles, but is also useful for single battles for destroying the Talonflame + Washing Machine Rotom combo singlehandedly, which most people seem to spam nowadays (stop using a Talonflame!) while having Mold Breaker, meaning a Discharge will go through Lightningrod Seakings (heh heh) and fry them for super-effective damage. This is like a mini Zekrom, except she attacks specially and not physically like her master. Why did she gain a Dragon typing you ask? Her Japanese/Korean names literally just mean "Electric Dragon": they've been intending for her to become a dragon for a long time. She finally gained a dragon typing. Is that extra Dragon typing a blessing or a boon? Actually, it comes with a lot of good things. For one: having STAB Dragon Pulse means a lot of things will get hit hard by that base 165 Special Attack, even being able to 2HKO bulky Hippowdons. She gains resistances to Fire, Grass and Water moves, which are very handy key resistances to have. Electric moves are completely wasted on her due to her 4x resistance to it. However, she has gained an extra weakness to Ice type attacks (which can be harmful), Dragon attacks (beware of conventional physical dragons), and unfortunately, to pink stuff. Her additional bulk may mean she may be able to take one or two of each hits (but don't count on it), but this can only be mitigated by wise switch-ins. Unfortunately, her base form is not part Dragon, meaning she cannot learn Draco Meteor. She counts on Wish support to keep her healthy, from the likes of Florges or somebody with great typing synergy with her, or can utilise Rest + Sleep Talk along with two STAB attacks to become a defensive pivot. Focus Blast takes care of many things that are problematic to her, such as Ferrothorn. She shines well in a Trick Room environment, able to hit hard with the likes of Thunderbolt, or even using Discharge in double battles. Overall, play Mega Ampharos for her strengths, as she is not easy to fit into a team. However, her rare and nearly unique typing can be useful for many situations, and she can be a valuable asset in defeating the conventional Pokemon that most people carry. No, I do not suggest switching her into a Salamence spamming Outrages: that's not smart. She is a very powerful Mega, and deserves more attention than she generally gets. Mega Ampharos @ Ampharosite Nature: Modest EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef Ability: Mold Breaker - Thunderbolt / Discharge - Dragon Pulse - Focus Blast - Volt Switch 20 speed investment outpaces Hippowdon with 0 speed investment (which is usually the case), so feel free to move some from HP or SpA to Speed. There are many ways to play Mega Ampharos, such as investing in more bulk because even without investment, Mega Ampharos has plenty of Special Attack to spare. I personally run Discharge/Dragon Pulse + Rest/Sleep Talk because she is amazing at beating Talonflame and Washing Machine Rotom combo. Mega Scizor Type: Bug/Steel Ability: Technician Original Stats: 70/130/100/55/80/65 Stats: 70/150/140/65/100/75 You look at regular insects like Pinsir or Heracross, and you'd see they are clearly strands of insects. But Scizor, he is a different one. He is not insect at all: just a cold metallic insectoid that yearns to be what he once was. How he got into that crimson blood plating, nobody knows. One must wonder what would happen if Pinsir and Heracross had a metallic counterpart: what would they become? The crimson flash strikes again, along with Gamefreak's favouritism for him, by giving him a form that's generally identical to his regular form except for base stats increases. There really is not much to say about him, except for people who have not encountered Scizor in online battles. Everybody and their mother uses Scizor. Well, I do not see it as much anymore, to be honest, but in the past generations, he was pretty much the epitome of overused, once he got his shiny new toy in Bullet Punch. If you do not know, Technician is an ability that raises moves with base power lower than 60 by 1.5x, meaning Bullet Punch, being a 40 base power move, becomes a 60 base power move... with STAB, effectively making it a 90 base power move that bypasses his ordinarily low speed. That, with his natural bulk, and STAB U-turn for scouting, made him a very deadly revenge killer, possibly one of the best revenge killers in the game. Now what would happen if we took his bulk to the next level? That would make him even more deadly than before, and we would get Mega Scizor as a result. If you want to go the usual Choice Banded Scizor route with Bullet Punch + U-turn, you are mostly better off using regular Scizor, because of the obvious item limitation. Mega Scizor prefers to take advantage of his newfound bulk and become a late game sweeper. Stray Fighting, Ghost, Electric, or Water moves are of no concern to him because he lives nearly any assaults while he is able to set up safely. Most importantly, he has access to Roost, which is a reliable recovery move most other Megas would die for. With that, he can take advantage of setting up Swords Dance, though he does lose some coverage in the process due to his lack of moveslots. His two other moves will generally consist of his Steel type STAB Bullet Punch and perhaps STAB X-Scissor (Bug Bite once Pokebank comes out). Some people suggested Thief over Bug Bite due to the coverage it provided and being boosted by Technician (Thief is now 60 base power now). Thief also comes with the advantage of no longer being resisted by Steel types, making it an excellent addition and the two are only resisted by the likes of the rare Bisharp. I find Pursuit to be fun as well, but it is generally very weak without STAB and although Scizor does cause switches, Thief or X-Scissor are generally better. Brick Break could be also used, but no Technician boost and lack of STAB makes it not as appealing, but the coverage it provides is better. When using Mega Scizor, take advantage of his higher bulk, and more importantly, his extra speed. He has now 75 speed as opposed to 65, allowing him to outpace certain threats he was not able to as regular Scizor. Scizor may fit into nearly any teams, but thanks to a new option being opened, would you prefer to use him as a revenge killer or a standalone sweeper? This new form of Scizor may indeed be the answer you are looking for if you wanted to clean up late game. He can weather any storms and will face off any challenges until the end. My only gripe is that I prefer regular Scizor's aesthetically because Mega Scizor looks a little silly with those pod legs in my opinion. As usual, beware of Fire attacks, as they will end Scizor's sweep prematurely, Mega or not. Mega Scizor @ Scizorite Nature: Adamant / Careful EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpDef Ability: Technician - Swords Dance - Bullet Punch - X-Scissor / Thief - Roost / Brick Break Mega Scizor is excellent in being a bulky Swords Dance user. Choose your moves accordingly and Mega Scizor will surely not disappoint. You may also run Defog if you have access to it as Mega Scizor is an excellent user of it. EVs may be allocated differently an more Attack points can be placed. Mega Scizor generally invests heavily into his bulk while some Attack is placed in due to his already high base Attack. Mega Heracross Type: Bug/Fighting Ability: Skill Link Original Stats: 80/125/75/40/95/85 Stats: 80/185/115/40/105/75 Skill Link? SKILL LINK? I guess they really want us to use Fury Attack. The big blue beetle that once had dubious merits became even more dubious once he Mega evolved. People always constantly harped on Heracross for being weak to too many things, did not have enough speed, yadda yadda yadda. This is the problem for anything, but in reality, the problem was with what Pokemon was the most popular, and not exactly on Heracross's potential. Heracross does have a lot of potential, but the metagame at that point was filled with Pokemon able to handle Heracross easily. Heracross is still a powerful Pokemon in his own right, but what about this hideous beetleborg Mega evolution of his? Why do people harp on him so? This can easily be answered by the whole offensive bias, as everybody thinks a Mega Pokemon should be just like Mega Blaziken or Mega Lucario, and everything else is irrelevant (aka high attack and high speed). However, that is far from the truth. Mega Heracross is an often underrated threat that can really pull his weight. The most atrocious part about Mega Heracross is that he did NOT gain speed but actually lost it, to put him on par with Mega Scizor. However, one ought to look at his high defences and realise he ought to be played as a tank, and not exactly as a sweeper. That typing allows him to resist a lot of types, such as Fighting, Dark, Bug and Grass moves. Unfortunately, being weak to pink stuff and eating Talonbreakyourface's Brave Birds is not exactly what he had in mind. Also, this is a Pokemon with base 185 Attack. Yes, 185 Attack, which is actually just 5 points lower than Mega Mewtwo X's attack! This may mean all one needs to do is Baton Pass some Speed Boosts from the likes from Blaziken or Scolipede to make him work, right? Yes, but there is one other interesting quirk about Mega Heracross. As a regular Heracross, he was able to abuse Guts and turn a burn into an advantage by raising his already colossal attack and destroying his foes. However, he loses that as a Mega Heracross and gains the strange Skill Link. It seemed so strange that Heracross learned the newly buffed Pin Missile and Bullet Seed all of a sudden in this generation, and only now we realise why it is there for. No, do not worry, you do NOT have to use Fury Attack. There is Arm Thrust as well, but unfortunately, unlike Pin Missile, Arm Thrust was not buffed and remains at 15 base power. What I do not like about this proposition is that Megahorn was Heracross's signature move, and this Mega form says one should forgo that for Pin Missile of all things. If you breed Heracross with a Crustle, you are able to get Rock Blast as an egg move, which is at least more powerful and accurate than Stone Miss. Close Combat and Earthquake are still helpful moves that are able to break through certain Pokemon, even if it does not take advantage of Skill Link. Heracross is also able to take advantage of Bulk Up with his souped up defences and is able to inflict a lot of pain against his foes with a selection of 5 times hitting moves that breaks Substitutes and Sturdy and Focus Sashes. His attack is so absurdly high that you do not even have to invest in it to lay a world of pain: he is that powerful. Keep in mind, however, this Skill Link type of set is only for use for MegaHeracross. For the off chance you may not Mega Evolve Heracross immediately, do use Megahorn or Stone Edge and the likes: Megahorn is only slightly weaker than Pin Missile, but the accuracy problems may be offputting but at least it can be used in both forms. Otherwise, you will have to Mega Evolve him immediately. MegaHeracross is not a Pokemon you can just throw into any kind of team: he can be a great wallbreaker, but he needs the adequate support to do his job. Take advantage of his increased bulk and have him tank hits that he can (such as Choiced Fighting moves and the likes). He is a very powerful and usable Pokemon and anyone underestimating him does not know how good he can be. Mega Heracross @ Heracrossite Nature: Adamant EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpDef Ability: Skill Link - Pin Missile - Close Combat - Rock Blast - Earthquake / Swords Dance I personally don't see the need to max out Mega Heracross's Attack, but his bulk may need more investment. Invest accordingly. I wouldn't use Arm Thrust: it's terrible and Close Combat does the job better. Mega Houndoom Type: Dark/Fire Ability: Solar Power Original Stats: 75/90/50/110/80/95 Stats: 75/90/90/140/90/115 Unleash the power of the sun! No seriously, do it or you will find this rather lackluster. I know nobody expected Houndoom of all things to get a Mega evolution (nor did anyone expect Manectric, but this is Gamefreak), but here is a fan favourite that got a Mega form nonetheless. However, I am not sure how one would be able to use this one over a regular Houndoom. Regular Houndoom can make a fantastic mixed attacker and even does more damage with Life Orb and the likes, so what exactly does Mega Houndoom have to offer over regular Houndoom? I suppose, though, with the liberal use of Will-o-Wisp nowadays, one can bait in a Will-o-Wisp into Houndoom's Flash Fire, gain a boost, and start Mega Evolving and punish your foes with incredibly powerful STAB Fire attacks. This is even better with sun support, as you can see, because his new ability is Solar Power. Solar Power eats up 10% of your HP, but boosts up your damage when the sun is up, which would make this thing a very deadly sweeper in the sun. This also plays right into his hands (um, paws) very well because most Will-o-Wisp users tend to be frail Psychics and Ghosts, which Houndoom has no problem taking down. From what I am seeing, this guy can be used most effectively in the sun, otherwise you are better off using a regular Houndoom, as he has a more powerful Sucker Punch and Pursuit and the likes. However, Mega Houndoom has some other interesting things over regular Houndoom. The extra speed he has gained is good enough to get the jump on things like Gengar and no longer have to rely on the faulty Sucker Punch to get across faster threats. Granted, there are things faster than the devil dog, but that speed jump is good enough to merit as a benefit. Also, if you have noticed, there is also the defence boost, up to 90. That is very significant, as that metal collar of his states, he may actually survive stray Aqua Jets and Mach Punches from priority abusers. With Megas, one would generally have to take advantage of the increased stats and new abilities to utilise them well. Overall, this is a hit and miss, as it seems, but he does have his place in sun teams using Ninetales or a Prankster user with Sunny Day or something. Houndoom may pull his weight if you do use him right, but he will not work in a general balanced team as much as you would want him to. If he is your favourite Pokemon or something, try to take advantage of his strengths and don't just throw him into a random team. Mega Houndoom @ Houndoomite Nature: Timid / Naive EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Solar Power - Sunny Day / Nasty Plot - Fire Blast / Flamethrower - Dark Pulse - Solarbeam / Sucker Punch Perhaps Sludge Bomb has its uses, so that might be able to fit. Will-o-Wisp? Fun too. There's not much you can do really, but I find this to be the most effective. Mega Tyranitar Type: Rock/Dark Ability: Sand Stream Original Stats: 100/134/110/95/100/61 Stats: 100/164/150/95/120/71 It looks like Godzilla has terrorised Japan once more. If you want to talk about a Mega Evolution, you have one huge one right here. Mega Tyranitar right here has 700 BST right here. That's right, he has 700 Base Stat Total, and none of them (maybe except speed) are lackluster at all. As if his regular form was not good enough, the Mega form is even scarier with very improved defences, higher attack, and even some slight speed improvement. His bulk is so high that he is able to stand up to stray Mach Punches and some Focus Blasts! Now how would one utilise Mega Tyranitar if he cannot hold an item unlike his base form? Do you remember back in the 4th Gen, people would stick a Babiri Berry on Tyranitar to eat up a Bullet Punch from Scizor while Dragon Dancing + Fire Punching his crimson nemesis and continue the sweep? It is a lot like that, except with that extra speed, he is able to outpace Alakazam now after a Dragon Dance, and with those increased bloated defences, he is able to tank almost any hits that isn't a STAB Close Combat, and start sweeping. Yes, this may as well be a sweeping monster. For any other purposes, you may be better off using a regular Tyranitar. This one right here seems to be begging for setting up against a hapless foe and start ravaging through the opponent's team like knife through butter. It does not help that even Skarmory can take significant damage from a STAB Crunch now thanks Dark attacks being neutral to Steel now. Although the Special Attack was not boosted, the 95 SpA is still high enough to run surprise special attacks such as Fire Blast or Ice Beam. Ice Beam is probably more useful because Gliscor and other bulky Grounds are greater threats and Earthquake hits Steel types hard anyways. However, a Dragon Dancing Tyranitar (or Rock Polish, whichever one you are running) still prefers using physical attacks. Generally, it is useful if you run dual STAB (preferably Stone Edge + Crunch), and a tertiary attack for coverage, such as Earthquake or something of that sort. Unfortunately, Fighting Pokemon will still manhandle Tyranitar, and so it is better to have teammates who are able to handle them, such as Fairies or Ghosts. Overall, Mega Tyranitar is an amazing Mega Pokemon, and he will provide you your sand support, and go provide an offensive presence with his beefed up attack. My question is how come Tyranitar gained a Mega form but not the first pseudolegendary Dragonite? Also, how is it they could get away with saying Aggron is Tyranitar's counterpart and not Dragonite? Their stats do not even match! Whatever the case, it is very strange, but Mega Tyranitar is a very good Mega Pokemon to fit into your team and will surely be an amazing team player. Only thing he wishes for is a reliable form of recovery. Mega Tyranitar @ Tyranitarite Nature: Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Sand Stream - Dragon Dance - Stone Edge - Crunch - Earthquake The slot for Earthquake can go for anything else that may be necessary. The EVs may also be tweaked to be more bulkier. As usual I don't like 252/252 spreads. Other options include elemental punches or even some ranom special attacks, like Ice Beam to dent Gliscor. Mega Blaziken Type: Fire/Fighting Ability: Speed Boost Original Stats: 80/120/70/110/70/80 Stats: 80/160/80/130/80/100 The three Egyptian god cards are: Obelisk the Tormentor, Slipher the Executive Producer, and Mega Ultra Chicken! [Note: The event for Mega Blaziken's Mega stone has expired at 15 January 2014. You may be hard pressed to find his Mega Stone, unless a friend has saved one for you] Oh, wrong universe. First, it was two forms of Mega Charizard with the other two Kanto starters receiving one Mega forms, and now only Blaziken seems to have received a Mega evolution while the other two, Sceptile and Swampert, are left in the dark. What is with the blatant favouritism for the Fire starters? I do know that Blaziken has a lot of fans, much like Charizard, but this is rather inexcusable. Anyways, I am sure the other two starters, along with the other generation starters, will receive a Mega evolution one day. Current list is disappointing as it is. Mega Blaziken is, in effect, just a souped up version of Dream World Blaziken. Dream World Blaziken had a gamebreaking ability Speed Boost, and although Sharpedo had higher speed stat and the same ability, it turns out Blaziken was deemed too powerful by a lot of competitive battlers because he had two really powerful STABs and nothing could reliably switch into his attacks (maybe except Unaware Quagsire, Slowbro, or some really powerful legendaries like Giratina). Mega Blaziken just takes this to the next level, by powering up his offences, raising his defences ever so slightly, and providing him with extra speed so that he can reliably revenge other Pokemon when gaining speed boosts. That is the thing: like Mega Scizor, Mega Blaziken is much too similar to regular Blaziken that if you have some other Mega in mind, you may forego Mega Blaziken for something else. Otherwise, it is nice to have. It is also nice if you have a favourite Blaze Blaziken and wish to give it Speed Boost, you can use a Mega Stone on it so his ability can become the ever so useful Speed Boost. The extra defences in Blaziken can be helpful for taking some specific hits that regular Blaziken could not, but it is not incredibly noticeable enough. Yes, regular Blaziken does hit harder with Life Orb, but recoil is not always something you want to take. Mega Blaziken can now learn Baton Pass along with Speed Boost, which can make him even scarier by passing his Swords Dance and Speed Boost to a teammate. Whether you choose to attack physically or specially is your choice, but physically he does have a larger movepool to abuse. Going mixed is also fine. A useful tip is that whenever you run Mega Blaziken, try to fit Protect into the moveset so that he can Protect as the enemy attacks so that he can gain the Speed Boost as the opponent attacks in vain. Unfortunately, in the Smogon community, Blaziken (and by extent Mega Blaziken) is banned in standard gameplay because it is not only "uncounterable" but can also Baton Pass all his boosts to any teammates if the opportunity calls. However, you will still encounter some in the Battle Spot, no doubt. They are easily taken down by Azumarill (who resists both STAB attacks) or Gale Wings Talonflame who can bypass all the speed boosts and hit him hard with super-effective priority Brave Bird. There are ways to beat Mega Blaziken, but if you use him yourself, be sure to know that there are communities and people who generally find playing a Speed Boost Blaziken unfavourable for the metagame. I honestly found Mega Blaziken a bit boring because he's the same thing as regular Blaziken. I suppose he was one of the first concepts for Mega evolution (because of their blatant favouritism), and was one of the first who was revealed, and hence this is why others had more developed changes while Mega Blaziken remained too similar to his original. He isn't bad, and that speed gain is actually very helpful, but I do not hope that the other future Mega starters will be as similar to their original like this one. Or of course, favouritism will strike again, and when Sceptile and Swampert get their respective Mega Stones (if they do), Blaziken will get a Blazikenite R and Blazikenite S. When Venusaur and Blastoise gets Venusaurnite Z and Blastoisenite Z, Charizard will get Charizardnite ZX and Charizardnite ZY. Oh don't pay attention to me, I'm just thinking out loud. Mega Blaziken @ Blazikenite Nature: Adamant EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Speed Boost - Swords Dance - Flare Blitz - High Jump Kick - Baton Pass / Stone Edge / Brave Bird Totally broken. You can just go one man sweep an replace Baton Pass with some other attacking move like Brave Bird or Stone Edge. Though... this approach is very recoil happy, and that is not happy. Don't use High Jump Kick in Doubles where Protect is everywhere: use Sky Uppercut instead. Mega Gardevoir Type: Psychic/Fairy Ability: Pixilate Original Stats: 68/65/65/125/115/80 Stats: 68/85/65/165/135/100 Great, a Pokemon waifu for the crazies. Frailty, thy name is Gardevoir! Here is one of my favourite Mega Pokemon of all times, but why did the Kalos Champion have to get it? Who in Gamefreak thought it was a good idea to place 20 extra points into her ATTACK and not her Defence, and above all else, where is Mega Gallade? Eh, even so, I do like how the elegant Gardevoir gained a beautiful ballroom dress and her red horn looking thing now looks like an open heart. She's a fan favourite for sure, but will generally end up disappointing if you send her out to fight her battles all alone. Regular Gardevoir on her own is a generally better than she was before thanks to her new Fairy subtype. She is no longer weak to Dark or Bug moves, but still folds way too easily from physical attacks. And unfortunately, her Mega form's base stats even suggest a lazy max Special Attack and max Speed set. And that means some doofus Scizor will come in and shoot a single Bullet Punch to assassinate the newly awakened queen of the fairies. So how exactly do we run Mega Gardevoir? One would suggest a defensive set with max HP and some defences is nice, but unfortunately, regular Gardevoir does this better because of her ability to hold items (such as Leftovers). Gardevoir does not possess reliable recovery on her own asides from maybe Wish (but do you really want to restore HP with that?). Her Defence is a huge problem, but it really is her unchangeable HP: she folds to even a couple of Flash Cannons from Klefkis. Mega Gardevoir's stats suggest special sweeper. Use her incredibly high Special Attack to hit opponents really hard, and with Moonblast, she has the possession of one of the best offensive STAB typing in the game. Asides from her Psychic STAB, she also has a plethora of other coverage special attacks, such as Shadow Ball, Focus Blast, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, and more. Calm Mind is a really nice setup move and if you know your opponent cannot muscle through Mega Gardevoir's intensive Special Defence, she can shine as a late game sweeper. I normally run Will-o-Wisp to catch opponent physicals like Metagross or Scizor that tend to switch in off guard. Unfortunately for Mega Gardevoir, she foregos the highly useful Trace for the mostly useless Pixilate, which transforms Normal attacks into Fairy types (and adds + 33% damage boost to them). Trace gives an incentive for Gardevoir to stay as regular Gardevoir until she has the right opportunity to Mega Evolve. So far, I guess they want you to run something like Return for that "boosted" Attack. Ha, yeah right. Maybe Echoed Voice? A little situational but may become powerful after a couple of turns... the turns that would get Mega Gardevoir destroyed. However, after Pokebank, you may be able to import a Mega Gardevoir utilising Hyper Voice. Hyper Voice is an amazing special Normal attack that not only gets a Pixilate boost raising it to a very high base power, but it also hits behind Substitute, and also hits multiple targets in Double battles. Unfortunately, this does require Pokebank, and of course, only Mega Gardevoir can abuse this, and not the regular Gardevoir. If you are afraid that you will keep Gardevoir in her normal form more than you think, Moonblast is the safer option. Mega Gardevoir can also invest fully into HP and Special Attack with a Baton Passing friend, such as Scolipede or Vaporeon, the former passing Iron Defence and Speed Boost, while the latter can Acid Armor and pass Wish. Overall, Mega Gardevoir is another hit and miss Pokemon, because they messed up with the stat distribution, but is still effective nonetheless. Yes, amongst the frail Psychic/Ghost type Pokemon like Gengar and Alakazam, it seems Gardevoir was the only one to get an Attack boost instead of a Defence boost (the other two got a Defence boost). However, being Psychic/Fairy and possessing a large movepool and some unique traits helps her distinguish herself from others that are similar to her. She is a favourite of many, and a lot of people like to try and use her, but this guardian angel requires a lot of support in order to cope with an otherwise unforgiving metagame. Mega Gardevoir @ Guardianite Nature: Timid EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Pixilate - Will-o-Wisp / Calm Mind - Moonblast / Hyper Voice - Psyshock / Psychic - Focus Blast / Shadow Ball You can move all Speed to HP if you would like, especially if you have Scolipede support or the likes. Moonblast should definitely be replaced with Hyper Voice if you have access to Pokebank, but Echoed Voice is also a fun alternative to play with if you want to abuse Pixilate. I'd really use Hyper Voice. Psyshock is much more useful than Psychic from my experience, but whatever works for you should be used. Running both is not optimal but it isn't unheard of. Will-o-Wisp + 3 Attacks is the best approach in my opinion and she has been doing really great for me. Mega Mawile Type: Steel/Fairy Ability: Huge Power Original Stats: 50/85/85/55/55/50 Stats: 50/105/125/55/95/50 What's scarier than a yokai with a mouth behind her head? A yokai with two mouths behind her head! Some Korean site I went to put Mega Mawile at Level S while ranking everybody else below her. Even Mega Kangaskhan was put at Level B. That to me was unbelievable, because I know Mega Mawile is powerful and dangerous, but she is not necessarily the best just because her attack power is the highest attack power in the game. Yes, with 105 Attack power and Huge Power, Mega Mawile has effectively broken the stat limit by reaching a 268 base Attack, which makes her hit very hard physically. Just what were they thinking? Did they think that was actually balanced? However, Mawile without Huge Power would be pretty lackluster, but 268 Attack is kind of too scary. This can be beaten though. I remember a random Japanese passerby challenging me to a 3v3 while I was in-game, I thought "okay", and he sent out a Mawile first. I somewhat knew he would use a Megastone that, but fortunately, I started out with my in-game Pidgeot, who had Featherdance and Roost with Air Slash. You can pretty much guess what I did to make the guy forfeit. Also, Mega Mawile may have the highest attack score, but her attacks' base powers are not incredibly high. Mega Lucario's Adaptability Close Combat hits harder. But just because one hits harder doesn't necessarily mean one is more useful. Mega Mawile would have otherwise been very mediocre without Huge Power, however, due to her originally low base stats. She does gain a lot of defences, but that low HP does offset it. Her Steel/Fairy typing is very great defensively, with only two weaknesses (albeit common Fire and Ground), and those are nice STAB to deal with a plethora of Pokemon with Play Rough along with dealing with other pink stuff with Iron Head. Yes, her base speed is incredibly low, but she has access to priority attack Sucker Punch. Also, if you thought that 105 Huge Power boosted Attack was scary, wait until she uses her high defences to find a great opportunity to DOUBLE that with Swords Dance, because potentially 678 Attack isn't enough, why not have 1356? Mega Mawile is a very scary customer and is certainly a threat with a nice defensive typing and very high attack power. Maxing her HP and Attack is generally enough for regular offensive sets, but there are some people who rely on her to tank hits and invest in Defence instead of Attack. Mawile does learn Foul Play, and even though it takes the opponent's Attack into calculation, do note that Huge Power does in fact boost Foul Play's damage as well! Generally, if you want to play Mega Mawile, you would have to know that this is a huge improvement over the regular Mawile. You generally have no reason to use the regular Mawile over her Mega form if you plan on including her in your team (unless you feel like it or need to run some Baton Passing chain, which in that case the regular one may be better). She is a very scary threat and a lot of people do fear fighting her, and although she is one of the better Mega Pokemon out there, she cannot be played properly without support. Low HP really offsets her otherwise incredibly defences, and she is very slow. With the proper support, she will shine, but she cannot be played recklessly, like any other Pokemon. Mega Mawile @ Mawilenite Nature: Adamant EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpDef Ability: Huge Power - Swords Dance - Play Rough - Sucker Punch - Iron Head / Rock Slide / Fire Fang She has a lot of attacks to use, and Swords Dance isn't the only thing she can do. There are also other elemental fangs usable as well. With bank, there's also Knock Off and Foul Play. Mega Aggron Type: Steel Ability: Filter Original Stats: 70/110/180/60/60/50 Stats: 70/140/230/60/80/50 Meet Godzilla's rival, Bulgasari! Fun fact: Bulgasari means Starfish in Korean: I don't know how my northern cousins decided to name a ginormous monster in a totally non-propagandistic film as "Starfish". I honestly would have thought Aggron would be Rhyperior's counterpart, not Tyranitar's. Honestly, Tyranitar vs Aggron? Is that really a comparable? I mean both are useful in many ways, but I didn't like how this particular series tries to sell Aggron and Tyranitar as counterparts when Tyranitar is the pseudolegendary Pokemon. I guess nobody would have even guessed Goodra would be this generation's pseudolegendary for being so common. Anyhow, I am digressing. Mega Aggron is one of the better Pokemon to use in this game, but he should not be played like his original form. We all knew Aggron to be a highly defensive Pokemon with that nice base 180 Defence, great Rock and Steel typing, right? Actually, that typing actually became a huge problem because it was easily exploitable with very common weakness to high reward low risk moves like Close Combat and Earthquake (which pretty much guarantees Aggron would not get to do anything meaningful). People decided to then take advantage of his 110 base attack, Rock Head, and use Head Smash. Or go gimmicky with Sturdy + Metal Burst, which, if played right, guarantees one KO. But Aggron, for being a ginormous threatening beast that eats iron for breakfast, was not all that threatening as he was supposed to be. This is where Mega Aggron changes things. Why could they not just give Solid Rock to Aggron? It is the same thing as Filter, but at least it makes sense. This ability is what weakens super effective moves hitting Aggron by 25%. Whatever, Mega Aggron gained some nice Attack and even a huge Defence boost to 230, making him incredibly tanky. He is nearly impossible KO in one hit, regardless of what you use. Not even Adaptability Mega Lucario's Close Combat nor Pure Power Mega Medicham's High Jump Kick can OHKO this beast. How is that possible? Funny thing about Mega Aggron is that he loses his Rock typing and in consequence, gains a better defensive typing. Unfortunately, he no longer gains Special Defence boost from sandstorm, but that is a small price to pay. He goes a long way in supportive movepool with access to Stealth Rocks, Roar, Dragon Tail, while he does not falter offensively either with Heavy Slam, Earthquake, Stone Edge, and a plethora of useful moves. You may be hard pressed to find room to fit the appropriate moves in one moveset, but if you can find one that fits your team perfectly, you have a very nice Mega Aggron to use. Overall, Mega Aggron is an amazing Pokemon and it certainly took Gamefreak a while to realise Rock/Steel typing, despite its implications, is not the best defensive typing. In consequence, Mega Aggron is an amazing Pokemon to run in Battle Spot 3v3 singles, though he has to be careful of Mega Charizard Y's dominance. Mega Aggron may be an awe inspiring fortress, but he does require support because he does not have any reliable recovery moves. Keep that in mind and surely Mega Aggron will not disappoint you! Mega Aggron @ Aggronite Nature: Impish / Careful EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpDef Ability: Filter - Stealth Rock - Roar / Dragon Tail - Heavy Slam / Iron Head - Earthquake / Stone Edge I think Special Defence investment is better than the physical Defence investment because he is already too physically defensive. Heavy Slam is nice, but I realised a lot of huge Pokemon like Mamoswine or Tyranitar do not take a lot of damage from it. Mega Medicham Type: Fighting/Psychic Ability: Pure Power Original Stats: 60/60/75/60/75/80 Stats: 60/100/85/80/85/100 While Fairies are THE pink stuff to fear, here's another pink thing to fear, Pure Power from a base attack of 100! Funny that Mega Medicham's stone is also found in Laverre Town, the town where the Fairy gym resides. Now remember how Medicham hit like a nuclear missile? This is taking that to a whole other level: that base 60 Attack became base 100! However, I'm not certain if Choice Banded versions hit harder, they probably do. Mega Medicham also patches up another big problem normal Medicham faced: that lackluster 80 base speed. Sure, she gave out + 2 Speed EVs, but that's because Speed is her highest base stat, which is not even that high to begin with. Like Mega Gardevoir and Mega Blaziken, they just raised that 80 speed to 100. 100 is not incredible in this generation's standards, but it is still passable nonetheless. She also gained some slight defence boost, which may help, but she is not exactly bulky. Then there is that troll + 20 Special Attack. Okay, fine, let's use that wide special movepool of hers... but it will not leave enough of an impact and that does not seem to be her role at all. Yes, Mega Mawile has slightly higher Attack and the typing and stats to tank at least one hit, but Mega Medicham has the advantage of being a straight out sweeper with usable speed and still high enough Attack to deal with foes, or is it? Yes, Mega Medicham plays too similar with the regular Medicham: you just come in and hit things hard. At least she is not locked into one move like those Choice sets. With STAB High Jump Kick, which is base 130 attack power, a lot of non-resisting foes would be hard pressed to come in to take that hit. She also learns Zen Headbutt or the hereditary Psycho Cut for her secondary STAB attack, but one may be more tempted to choose among her choices of the three elemental punches. Need a priority attack? She can inherit the priority attack Bullet Punch. Fake Out can also be a fun utility skill, and if one needs recovery, one can always settle with Recover... off 60/85/85 defences. How about no? If you want to play safely and want to recover health, the hereditary Drain Punch is always available. However, it does nowhere near the obscene damage Hi Jump Kick deals. High Jump Kick may just be her trump card, but unfortunately, all it takes is one miss from that unreliable 90% accuracy or the opponent to predict this and switch in a Ghost type Pokemon for Medicham to cost you your game (believe me, things with less than 100% accuracy tend to miss at the worst times). High Jump Kick causes recoil damage to the user if it misses. One can try to Baton Pass a Hone Claws or something to help her with this problem. Scolipede pairs wonderfully, except they are both weak to the same Flying moves, and a certain flaming bird of death that every Wifi players seem to use can prey on the two. Also, most Aegislashes do very well against Medicham as he can prey on her weakness to his STAB Ghost attacks and is immune to her primary STAB while taking pittance to her secondary STAB. The threat of Fire Punch can also be weakened with King's Shield. Also, while Mega Medicham hurts a lot, she cannot OHKO specifically tanky Pokemon that invest on their defensive stats, such as Hippowdon or Skarmory. Do pack Pokemon who can deal with such threats and Mega Medicham should do well. Overall, this is just a buffed up version of regular Medicham and at least allows her to be quite a force to deal with. Although she seemingly has the power of a meteor, be wary of her flaws and have her rather smash foes hard enough so that her pure power can actually be of purpose for your team. If played right, she is very potent, but being reckless will cost you the game. Mega Medicham @ Medichamite Nature: Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Huge Power - High Jump Kick / Drain Punch - Bullet Punch - Zen Headbutt / Psycho Cut - Fire Punch / Ice Punch She also gets Fake Out but I don't think it's worth it. Drain Punch is a much safer yet much weaker alternative: do as you'd like. Mega Manectric Type: Electric Ability: Intimidate Original Stats: 70/75/60/105/60/105 Stats: 70/75/80/135/80/135 Mega Manectric's body is shaped like a lightningbolt. Mega Manectric seems like a very underwhelming Mega on first glance. I'm sure nobody expected a Mega Manectric of all things. I know I sure haven't. They pass this thing off as a counterpart to Houndoom, though their base stats do not resemble each others' and do not exactly correlate too well. It works better than Tyranitar/Aggron though, that's for sure. His stat gains were not too large: they were quite modest, gaining slight defences on both sides and buffing his Special Attack and Speed to an amazing rating of 135 each. He also has another trait added on to him: Intimidate. Though it doesn't have very high defences, this trait allows him to pivot certain physical threats while preserving momentum thanks to his large speed and access to STAB Volt Switch. However, I see some problems with this Pokemon's inherent design. Like many Electric Pokemon, Manectric is lacking a lot in his movepool department. It is very interesting that unlike most other Electrics, he does gain access to Fire moves such as Flamethrower and Overheat (note that this was added in Gen IV and he had no access to any in Gen III where he debuted), so he is able to break down popular common Pokemon such as Scizor or any Ferrothorn. Add that to his STAB Electric moves and you have something that can potentially hurt a lot of Pokemon. However, other than those moves, I do not really see much other attacks he can use. There is Signal Beam, though that requires transfer from older generations until move tutors are introduced. I wanted to see Switcheroo get some usage, but unfortunately, as a Mega, he is unable to switch items with anything else. His lack of movepool and lack of new typing like Ampharos really hurts his versatility, but he is essentially a faster Jolteon with the ability to burn things down with Fire techniques. Intimidate also works in his favour by being able to survive things that a physical threat might throw in (like Gyarados) and hurt back (or in Gyarados's case, OHKO) with the appropriate moves. Even so, he doesn't have to and can just Volt Switch back to an appropriate counter if needed. Unfortunately, Jolteon with an item such as Life Orb or Choice Specs (both of which they carry quite often) makes him hit harder than Manectric, but the extra speed and the "bulk" via Intimidate and access to Fire moves do give Mega Manectric a nice niche. This one is an unexpected Mega Pokemon, but he has potential. Play him as a quick pivot that comes in, scares foes, and strike back with great vengeance or disappear with the sound of lightning. Mega Manectric @ Manectrite Nature: Modest / Timid EVs: 252 SpAtk / 4 SpDef / 252 Speed Ability: Intimidate - Thunderbolt - Overheat / Flamethrower - Volt Switch - Protect / filler If you have anything like Signal Beam or an appropriate Hidden Power for the last slot, by all means use it! Mega Banette Type: Ghost Ability: Prankster Original Stats: 64/115/65/83/63/65 Stats: 64/165/75/93/83/75 Mega Banette looks like a copout from giving her a proper evolution unlike her cousin Dusclops. This.. is one interesting customer, and I do not believe many of us expected THIS one out of all things to gain a Mega. Not to mention, this is a very particular Mega evolution with a very particular playstyle. Unfortunately, this one suffers the opposite problem of the aforementioned Mega Manectric as she does not suffer from having not enough moves, but she is full of toys that can be (ab)used but unfortunately is unable to fit all of them into one moveset. This is a pity, as her ability becomes the terribly annoying Prankster, which gives priority to status moves (attacks that do not deal damage and have effects), making her a very annoying Pokemon to fight against. Unfortunately, because a Pokemon's speed is calculated BEFORE anybody actually moves, Prankster will not take effect during the turn of Mega morphing, which usually ends up with the Banette user having to dedicate one moveslot to PROTECT to mitigate this problem, furthering the already aggravating four moveslot syndrome she possesses. Her stats do not scream bulky either, as it usually means maxing out her pitiful HP to tank at least one neutral hit and get beaten down by another. Does she actually have a use then? First off, there are a lot of options for Mega Banette to utilise. Prankster Taunt may be a very efficient tool that should be used so the other Pokemon may not cast some annoying status moves or be able to set up. Will-o-Wisp is a frequently used techniques by ghosts to sabotage a physically offensive opponent and will usually find a moveslot on Banette. Substitute helps if she needs an "extra life" to hang on. One of the greatest selling point for Mega Banette is that she is the only known user of Destiny Bond with Prankster, making her able to take down at least one opponent if played properly (Talonflame still rips her into shreds unfortunately because Gamefreak knows how to balance their game properly apparently). Many people are reluctant to even attack Mega Banette in fear of her priority Destiny Bond, and that in itself is a mindgame she can employ. Also, one must not forget about that delicious base 165 Attack, which is a very high rating. One wouldn't expect her to hit so hard, but with access to STAB Shadow Claw, she can shred somebody into bits if they are too careful with their encounter with Mega Banette. She also has priority Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch to hang on by if some faster threat tries to attack her (why isn't she Dark typed again?). Some special attacks like Thunderbolt or Psychic or Magical Shine can also be of some use if you ever felt like it. There's a decent Calm Mind set you can run, but I don't believe she's too efficient that way. Finally, there is Knock Off, which has been substantially buffed this generation and allows her to knock off her foes' items and dealing extra damage if they do indeed possess an item. Trick is not an option with Mega Pokemon by now and you should know why. With all these delicious options, the one thing holding her back is that she just simply cannot fit all of them into one moveset. There are many other ways to play her, and frankly I don't think there is a set way of playing her. I found the most fun running a Infestation/Will-o-Wisp/Substitute/Protect set, but that's just me. A lot of people underrate Mega Banette and say she isn't viable at all. It's all because you are playing her wrong and all want to just play like Mega Blaziken or Mega Lucario and KO everything in sight. Then go ahead and use them. Mega Banette is a more subtle and a more tactical way of playing the game, making it more fun than seeing everybody using the same overpowered Mega Pokemon to KO everything in sight. Say what you want, but a game is more interesting if there are more options of winning or playing than just to win with a Talonflame/Rotom-W/Aegislash/Mega Lucario/whatever team, isn't it? See if Mega Banette can be helpful in your team if you wish to try her, but she isn't an easy Pokemon to use not to play against. I honestly don't think she was meant to be. Mega Banette @ Banettite Nature: Impish / Careful / Adamant EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def Ability: Prankster - Shadow Claw / Shadow Sneak / Sucker Punch - Taunt / Will-o-Wisp / Substitute - Destiny Bond - Protect / Knock Off There are way too many options, but I suggest maxing HP at least. Destiny Bond is her main selling point, so you might as well use that. Mega Absol Type: Dark Ability: Magic Bounce Original Stats: 65/130/60/75/60/75 Stats: 65/150/60/115/60/115 Mega Stones makes you grow wings! Well, this one is interesting, and certainly a lot of people expected a fan favourite such as Absol to gain a Mega. He did indeed grow wings, but unfortunately is not a Flying Pokemon. He's great at playing mindgames with others if you mix him with other potential Mega Pokemon in your team, can Magic Bounce things like Stealth Rocks and Toxic right back at the foe, and I'm incredibly certain this was the base stats Absol was meant to have. Lol hereditary Magic Coat. Regular Absol had a hard time abusing that high attack of his because of that middling speed. Sure, there is that STAB Sucker Punch, one of the most powerful priority moves in the game (usurped by Talonjerk's Gale Wings Brave Bird), but that is unreliable and requires prediction. Now once he Mega Evolves, he gains a blistering fast 115 Speed, an outstanding 150 Attack, and even a substantial boost to his Special Attack to 115! However, his defences are still rather low, as they are still the same as his base form, an hence he should tread cautiously because even a neutral hit will severely injure him, if not OHKO him. Remember how Absol had that incredibly large special movepool but was running off that average 75 SpA? With 115 SpA, he is going to have a fun time fitting the likes of Thunderbolt, Ice Beam or Flamethrower in his moveslot, if needed. However, his physical attack is still larger, and without STAB nor a boosting item, special moves should only be used as coverage. I do like Flamethrower or Fire Blast for nailing Steel Pokemon hard though. Having Magic Mirror is a blessing because he is essentially immune to direct status attacks (take that Mega Banette!) while being able to set up Swords Dance in impunity and hitting back with STAB Night Slash or something. Night Slash may be useful and is essentially useful for the base form with Super Luck thanks to improved critical hit chance, but still is a bit underwhelming. Sucker Punch is useful for revenge killing things and being able to outpace most Talonflames that generally do not run positive speed natures and the likes. He has a plethora of coverage moves from the physical side, such as Psycho Cut, Megahorn and even the risky Superpower. However, Absol also gained a new toy in this generation in the form of Play Rough, allowing him to critically maim Fighting Pokemon and Dark Pokemon that likes to switch into his Dark STAB attacks and is generally great coverage move. Absol has plenty of options to use, but which ones would you choose? Generally, to play Mega Absol to his potential, find a stallish Pokemon that likes to inflict status like Toxic and such, start setting up Swords Dance and such and watch the opponent rip. You do not even have to run Swords Dance and just attack with appropriate coverage attacks. Even a + 4 Mega Absol failed to OHKO my Dragonite at one point (choose your opponents carefully) and does require more prediction than you think. Overall, he is a cool Mega Pokemon and does deserve a lot of respect: he can pull games through with one of the more powerful priority in this game and is generally unpredictable. Mega Absol @ Absolite Nature: Naive EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpAtk / 252 Speed Ability: Magic Bounce - Swords Dance / Night Slash - Sucker Punch / Night Slash - Play Rough - Fire Blast / Ice Beam If you have access to Knock Off, I think that might be better. If you are not running Special Attacks, you can just run Jolly. You can run Timid and Calm Mind + 3 Attacks, but that is weird. I'd rather lower one of the defences because they're hopeless while any of the attacks may be utilised. Either way, I would not lower any of the attacks and always raise speed. Mega Garchomp Type: Dragon/Ground Ability: Sand Force Original Stats: 108/130/95/80/85/102 Stats: 108/170/115/120/95/92 Funny thing: Mega Garchomp has the same Attack and Special Attack rating as Black Kyurem. First Mega Tyranitar, now this? Garchomp is already an overpowered monster, and Gamefreak felt they'd better power him up some more. First news was he gained Attack and Special Attack, then we heard he gained Sand Force of all overpowered abilities, then finally we all sighed in relief as we have heard his speed drops a bit. "A bit" was quite vague. I jokingly predicted his speed would drop from 102 to 101, which would STILL troll over 100s. I was of the opinion a metagame dominated by Dragons would be inane because it is basically whoever has the most speed and a decent enough attack would be the most dominant dragon because it is all about who uses Outrage or Draco Meteor first. That kind of game is empty honestly and did not help that Garchomp outpaced most LEGENDARY dragons, which made using Rayquaza or Kyurem moot in many ways. Of course, this is Gamefreak we are talking about, who thought that special, NOT physical types, were the broken ones and started nerfing Special Attack powers, making Assault Vest (and without a counterpart), moves specifically catering to raising Special Defence, and monstrosities such as Goodra. And Faeries were supposed to counter Dragons, but the majority of them are specially defensive and lack physical defence that tanking Dragons would be hard when they already run alternative attacks anyways. That's very balanced Gamefreak, but we were all relieved when that speed turned out to be a base 92 and he would not be as broken as we thought he would be. Actually, most people thought Mega Garchomp was worse than regular Garchomp just because of the drop in speed. And it shows: Garchomp is the #1 most used Pokemon in Battle Spot Rated Singles: and we do not see his Mega form that often. So what use is this Mega form? Actually, this was just a shift of role changing. Do we really need another Mega Blaziken? That would be boring. Here we have a Pokemon that gains ridiculous bulk and attack at some slight cost of speed, which is still okayish and can outpaced things like base Lucario and the likes. What's so bad about that? Just because it loses out to faster Dragons doesn't mean he is useless. He just has another playstyle: which is employing both his Attack and buffed Special Attack and can now actually puncture the likes of bulky physical walls with high powered Draco Meteors and the likes. Surprise physically bulky switch ins by Mega transforming on the switch and using a high powered Draco Meteor to blast them. It will definitely grab them by surprise, I guarantee you. 120 Special Attack is very powerful and one can run Draco Meteor along with Swords Dance along with physical attacks such as STAB Earthquake and the likes to effectively dismantle the opponent's team accordingly. A teammate that provides a long lasting sandstorm, such as Hippowdon or Tyranitar, will be very useful so that Mega Garchomp's Rock/Ground/Steel attacks can deal more damage. Yes, Iron Head does more damage in the sand and can severely cripple Faeries if you want to use it. I found mixed sets to be useful, but Mega Garchomp can go fully physical if he wanted to, but I feel the regular one with his higher speed may be better for revenge killing and the likes, especially because he can utilise items that isn't a Mega Stone. Overall, this is a specifically tailored Pokemon, but still has a lot of uses if played properly. No people, he is NOT an inferior form of the normal version: he is merely different. The stat changes do count a lot in many ways, particularly because he is one of the better wallbreaking Pokemon in this game. Play him by his strengths and he won't disappoint. A convenient tip: speed is calculated BEFORE Mega evolution takes place, and so he retains his original 102 base speed during the first turn as his Mega form. Afterwards, his base speed will be counted as if it is 92. Mega Garchomp @ Garchompite Nature: Naive EVs: 16 Atk / 252 SpAtk / 240 Speed Ability: Sand Force - Draco Meteor - Swords Dance / Dragon Claw - Earthquake - Stone Edge / Iron Head / Fire Blast There isn't anything noteworthy you can outpace except base 90s as Mega Garchomp, so might as well stop at 240. Then max out SpAtk for the surprise Draco Meteor, and place the rest into Attack. This is how you can break walls. I'd actually prefer Poison Jab if you want to slay Faeries, because Azumarill is neutral to Iron Head and Stone Miss hurts Togekiss. + 2 Sand Boosted Earthquake destroys the rest. Mega Lucario Type: Fighting/Steel Ability: Adaptability Original Stats: 70/110/70/115/70/90 Stats: 70/145/88/140/70/112 This ought to be Lucario's Final Smash in the new Super Smash Bros! All right, Lucario. You have one of the most broken, if NOT the MOST broken Mega form of the bunch. Mewtwo, Blaziken and Kangaskhan aside, this has to be one of the greatest gains for any Megas there are. That ability Adaptability transforms STAB attacks into a 2x modifier, providing an insanely overpowered Close Combat and the likes. High reward low risk move. And I find Mega Lucario to be interesting as he is the only Mega Pokemon I see that has some stats raised by an increment that isn't a multiple of 5. I'm sure that would be possible for anything else as well, so why did they not go farther with that and apply it to other Pokemon? It would have been an interesting thing to see, which is a shame. Anyhow Mega Lucario has very usable offensive stats in 145/140/112, and even gained a strange + 18 Defence boost. That still isn't surviving a STAB super effective move from anything by the way. What does Mega Lucario have to offer then? As we already know, regular Lucario was quite a nice threat, although quite hard to use and was becoming irrelevant by the end of the day when a lot of things outpaced that 90 base speed while it got massacred by everything that hit with strong enough attacks, despite that Steel typing. Popular fandom saved the day and gave it a Mega form, making him a worthy threat. Some circles of fandom are considering banning him due to his overwhelming power. Regular Lucario was already versatile, but what happens when you give him a more powerful ability and greater stats while patching up his somewhat lacking speed? This becomes a killing machine. Physically, he is able to buff his Attack with Swords Dance and abuse that 240 base power (yes, 240!) Close Combat and has the choice of priority in the form of Extremespeed or STAB Bullet Punch. Coverage moves such as Earthquake or Crunch and the likes are also helpful. However, I see a lot more specially based Lucarios running Nasty Plot and Adaptability powered Aura Sphere or Vaccuum Wave and coverage moves. STAB Flash Cannon is also VERY scary and pink stuff would especially dread that. A mixed set may be feasible as well if you desire to use it, as it is a lot harder to counter. The dangerous thing about Lucario is you do not know what he will do when he is first out. He becomes more manageable once you know his set, but usually one wrong switch can cause a lot of problems. This makes Mega Lucario a very scary contender and if played right, he is able to dismantle a whole team singlehandedly. There's no underestimating this monster. If you wish to use Mega Lucario and harness the power of his aura, make sure there are still teammates that can help him set up. If you can outmanuever your opponents, you will find it surprisingly easy to set up Mega Lucario and cause heavy damage to your opponents. Just because he hits incredibly hard does not mean he is invincible, however. You must beware of other hard hitters or Fighters in general, but Mega Lucario will surely not disappoint. Mega Lucario @ Lucarionite Nature: Adamant / Jolly EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Speed Ability: Adaptability - Swords Dance - Close Combat - Extremespeed / Bullet Punch - Crunch / Earthquake Mega Lucario @ Lucarionite Nature: Modest / Timid EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed Ability: Adaptability - Nasty Plot - Vaccuum Wave / Shadow Ball - Aura Sphere / Shadow Ball - Flash Cannon I'm listing two sets here, as both of them are equally viable. Shadow Ball or Dark Pulse can be placed in the Special set. Also both priority + Close Combat can be use in physical set if you wish. Mega Abomasnow Type: Grass/Ice Ability: Snow Warning Original Stats: 90/92/75/92/85/60 Stats: 90/132/105/132/105/30 Mega Abomasnow's base stats total STILL does not compare to REGULAR Tyranitar's base stat total. Balanced much? This one is an interesting Mega. This is a Pokemon with a total of 7 weaknesses, with one 4x weakness included, and is only used due to his unique ability Snow Warning for summoning hail, but even then that is very niche and is still not used enough. However, this ginormous Yeti has gained a lot in his new Mega form, gaining base 132 offences and very high defensive stats to go along his base 90 HP, at the cost of his already middling speed going down to an abysmal 30. Worth it? Totally. In fact, that is a straight upgrade from his regular form and also plays in doubles very nicely, especially in a Trick Room environment. He is very useful if played correctly and requires key strategies to pull him off. The low speed also works in his favour, as it allows Hail to be set up last against another weather set up Pokemon. This is a useful trait in many circumstances, so do use it wisely. If only Blizzard was 120 base power still, what terror would it hold? Anyways, a perfectly accurate STAB Blizzard while Abomasnow is in the field is very good. It deals enough damage to most targets and even hits both targets on Singles. Foes will all mercilessly be blasted by incredibly powerful Blizzards. Ice is an amazing offensive type and is complemented well with other coverage moves, such as Earthquake and the likes. Grass STAB can come in the form of Wood Hammer, dealing a lot of damage to bulky waters or Energy Ball from the special side. Giga Drain unfortunately requires Pokebank transfer to be used. The great thing about Mega Abomasnow is that he can attack on both sides of the spectrum, either physically or specially. Ice Shard is also a very useful move to have because priority attacks can revenge anything thinking they can set up and KO while laughing at his slow speed. Abomasnow can also run a defensive set using Leech Seed and Substitute while using its automatic Hail to its advantage. Abomasnow, despite his many weaknesses, is much bulkier than one would give credit for. He also has nice resistances in Water, Electric, Grass and Ground attacks. Use these traits to your advantage: that is your key to successfully use Mega Abomasnow. I've found an interesting workaround to his weakness to Bug Buzz by running a Soundproof Abomasnow to take one from Yanmega or a Boomburst from Exploud and transform him when those threats are dealt with to bring in hail. However, this is very specific and is generally not worth doing: it is fun, however. Overall, Mega Abomasnow is a very interesting Pokemon and is certainly useful in dealing with the many foes of the oppressive battlefield of Pokemon. He is a serious contender: just because he is an Ice Pokemon it doesn't mean he is useless. Far from it: his usage requires both brains and brawns: do not just send him out against a Charizard: you are just asking for it. Being bulky and very powerful, Mega Abomasnow will be able to net at least a KO if played properly. 2 KOs is also very likely. The only thing holding him back are those nasty weaknesses and that speed. Mega Abomasnow @ Abomasite Nature: Quiet EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpAtk Ability: Snow Warning - Blizzard - Earthquake / Focus Blast - Ice Shard - Wood Hammer / Energy Ball / Giga Drain Use Giga Drain over any Grass STAB listed here if you have access, you will not regret it. Also, the EVs are far from optimal: I'm pretty sure this can be tailored to be bulky and hit hard on both sides of the spectrum. Attack may need more investment because the nature is + SpAtk to accomodate for Blizzard. I will find a way after experimenting. [icon]201[/icon]Secret Stuff (Warning: Possible spoilers) There are two hidden Mega Pokemon within Game Data, and it is Mega Latios and Latias. They both have a Mega Stone that transforms them: Latisite or something (separate for both), but their inclusion in the game data and their models suggest unused data that should get patched. One can hope... but if that is not the case, these are the only Megas available as after their stones it cuts directly to Roseli Berry in the game data. Yes, that means no hidden Mega Sceptile or Mega Swampert... which is a shame. I hope somehow it is possible for them to add more Mega Pokemon data, because it is a crying shame these are the only Mega Pokemon that are available. Mega Latios Type: Dragon/Psychic Ability: Levitate Stats: 80/130/100/160/120/110 I'm hoping the Latios and Latias are just unused data... because they look too dumb to be Mega forms and have one of the most disappointing base stat changes ever. Shame about that lack of Speed Boost and no Adaptability like rumours said he would have. If Mega Latios is real, I'm going to assume that he would be either used as a physical sweeper with Dragon Dance or a mixed attacker, or just used over regular Latios for the extra defences, which allows him to live stuff he was not able to as regular Latios, such as the prevalent Knock Off. In any case, he does not have a lot of physical attacks (my Life Orb + 2 Latios failed to OHKO a Lanturn with Earthquake, by the way) and will generally be a mixed bag. A Soul Dew Latios will do much better... and that should NOT be the case for a Mega form. At the very least give him the ability Adaptability or something, that would have been great. And better yet, please change his model if you are going to release him, Gamefreak, or change Latias so they would be much more differentiated other than the size and eyes. Mega Latias Type: Dragon/Psychic Ability: Levitate Stats: 80/100/120/140/150/110 In terms of Mega forms, Latias is the one who won over her brother. For one, the defensive buff allows her to tank so many things while hitting her foes back quite har with her impressive offensive stats. The 100 Attack was unnecessary, however, but Gamefreak being Gamefreak, they are the ones who gave the + 40 Attack to Mega Mewtwo Y and a lot of Pokemon who did not really need the Attack buff. It is a shame she does not have Multiscale, unlike what rumours implied she would gain. Her biggest loss is that ugly filler sprite model (I really hope this is filler)... but other than that, this one looks like she may have a use over just holding a Soul Dew. Edited March 13, 2014 by wraith89
Lorshinator Posted March 13, 2014 Posted March 13, 2014 Fun Comments So far this is a nice list! I like the format too, reminiscent of Know Your Pokemon (which needs updating... but that's another thing)... Looking at this list really shows how few megas there are. Lots of wasted potential on others... Why is it my favourites are always so peculiar? Houndoom has an awesome design (wish it was normal evo, not mega... lame), but REQUIRES sun... X_X and Aerodactyl is more suited to a team player than an offensive threat, though it can be one... I wish there were more megas, ones that catered a little more to either forgotten Pokemon or Pokemon that could use an update. I'd love to see Mega Rampardos with speed boost. Actually, I'd like to see mega starters more. Emboar and Sceptile in particular. if Serperior or Sceptile became Grass/Dragon, that'd be cool, but I actually think Sceptile is more suited to become a Grass/Dark, though it can learn a few dragon moves, that's for sure. Perhaps if a Grass Dragon was made, it'd give them an excuse not to make an actual species... Some thoughts/opinions Would it be wrong to make some suggestions? You can take em as you will. if this thread became popular or whatnot each mega could have it's list of opinons from various players who share their thoughts on how they play megas. The problem with this is that some megas have a very particular use and would only work for surprise value. Or you could have a fun section talking for each mega talking about an overall opinion. I don't know. The Moment I respond to the thread's questions I'd choose anything but Blastoise (personal reasons), Scizor (bland style), Gengar (broken), Alakazam (meh), and the likes. I think I'd run some of the less obviously overpowered ones, such as Houndoom for personal reasons. I've never been too crazy about it's normal design, though it has grown on me in the competitive scene, and it suits me perfectly considering how ridiculously scrawny and twiggy I am. It just looks like a legit evolution to me, and Dobermans are cool. I'm well aware it's a hellhound. methinks Houndoom would pair decently with fighters, of course, but one must be careful and probably arrange a team that can actually support Houndoom, and vice versa... And not be too predictable about it. Though I'm stating the obvious. Solarbeam may be kind of required, but Houndoom is scared of special defenders. Reversal is an option, as is Crunch. It's attack is strangely not buffed at all, but I think the main seller of Houndoom is his increased bulk and speed, and to an extent the ability. I would've personally liked something with a different ability, perhaps Sheer Force or Infiltrator. nah that'd be ridiculous. Sludge Bomb is also very particular, and I honestly think it'd mainly be used to deal with Azumarill or... Florge/Sylveon, which would not likely OHKO him, and his fire attacks would probably leave large dents in him anyway. Actually, it'd be awesome if Houndoom's Mega had an ability that actually followed the flavour text, and could induce poison with a 30% chance, even if it's a ranged fire attack. Or his fire type attacks could be more likely to burn, or he could just keep Flash Fire. I remember Cofagrigus and Houndoom being great teammates in Gen 5, at least for me. In Doble Battles he'd love the other player to have Mega Zard Y, obviously. Mega Aggron is quite useful, though if you run a "lazy" set of full HP/ Def, he won't be hitting very hard at all. With max 31 evs he technically hits something like has fully invested 95 attack... lol I noticed that. Megas I'd like to see are Mega Emboar, who I think would be best with increased bulk over speed and special. He could probably get rock head as his ability. If it existed that would make Emobar monstrous and clearly have an advantage of normal Emboar. I'd love to see mega Rampardos, and mainly invest in it's speed and attack, and a bit into bulk. It could be given Rock Head as well. Mega Rhyperior would be a lot of fun, but to differentiate it from Aggron it could be more into attack power as opposed to defence. It could keep solid rock, or it could get adaptability, and be like a specialized tank... Because apparently bulbapedia says it's design is inspired by a tank. Mega Braviary would be cool, and turn it into a Fighting/Flying, because that makes more sense and isn't as bland. It could get fighterate, where it's normal type moves become fighting type. More investment into speed and attack power, like mega pinsir. But the mega I want most... Is mega Durant. I started to lose whatever train of thought I had.
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