Competitive Pokemon Mega Evolutions

[Fox_Master51]

Sup guys. I'm sure by now, a lot of people may or may not have a competitive team (or at least still testing). And I'm sure some if not all teams have at least one Mega Evolving Pokemon in their midst. I certainly do. I wanted to make a thread about what others have to say about Megas from a competitive standpoint. We all know Mewtwo is arguably the strongest lol , but let's be real and talk about the majority.

Just so it's out of the way, I'll write short statements on certain Megas that I have my eye on:

Mega Mawile: Mawile went from one of the most forgettable Pokemon to a tiny but mighty competitive Pokemon. Mega Evolution gives it much needed stat boosts and Huge Power is just sweet candy with a good physical movepool.

Mega Kangaskhan: This one is worth mentioning; mainly because of it's Ability. Parental Bond allows certain attacks to hit twice, the second attack to my understanding deals less damage than the first. I also came to realize moves like Rock Tomb and Power-Up Punch also dish double the stat changes; Power-up Punch essentially giving a built-in SDance, etc. etc. Not sure if it'll mean much competitively, but it's something I'm keeping an eye on.

Mega Manectric: Yet another underwhelming Pokemon made better. While it's design is a bit umm... punkish, its Speed and SpAtk skyrocket to a hefty 135 each. It also gains Intimidate which, in some cases, comes in handy. It's a good special attacker in many ways. it's movepool is shallow but it only need a few moves to wreck shop. Moves like Volt Switch, Thunder, HP Ice, and Flamethrower are part of it's repertoire and of course the standard Thunderbolt.

Now enough about my perspective. Let's hear what you guys have to say.

 

[Normal guy]

May I add ways to counter the mega threat or this about how to use the megas on your team?

 

[vaporeon]

I think Mega Pokemon need to be banned from competitive play because they tend to be overpowered. Reasons. Mega Evolving does not cost anything to use or has no recharge or cool down time. Just Mega Evolve and attack. The changes in their stats also change how the turn counter works if there is a decrease or increase in the speed base stat and Pokemon losing bad typing is what kept most of them from being broken. On top of that, most Pokemon that have Mega Stones dont need to hold items to begin with and benefit from the Mega Stone, gaining more power and losing bad typing. They are cool and all but for competitve play, then need to be banned for the same reason the Lati Twins cant hold Soul Dew and rumor has it that even the Lati Twins will be getting Mega forms.

 

[Chompy]

Mega Ampharos has improved imo for several reasons

-Mold Breaker cancels several useful abilities, which contains Protean, Sturdy, Natural Cure, Technician, Harvest, Magic Guard, Speed Boost, Huge Power, Contrary, Parental Bond, Shadow Tag, etc.
-Electric/Dragon has gained more resistance, which happens to be 4x Electric, Fire, Grass, and Water.
-Buffed Satk along with better Def and Sdef
-Can be thrown in a Trick Room Team

The only negatives are

-He gained some weaknesses too Ice, Dragon, and Fairy
-Slow
-Requires some Pokemon to support Ampharos to make him effective.
-Shallow movepool


Overall, Ampharos is one of those Pokemon that has tons of unique properties. Because of how impractical he can be in several situations (in terms of the Pokemon your going up against and his natural base stats), you won't see him often because there are better Mega Pokemon out there, and once you use a Mega Stone, you can't use a second one for the remainder of the battle. However, if a player does encounter Ampharos, you can use some of the elements of surprise to your advantage if you play your cards right.

 

[Fox_Master51]

I think Mega Pokemon need to be banned from competitive play because they tend to be overpowered. Reasons. Mega Evolving does not cost anything to use or has no recharge or cool down time. Just Mega Evolve and attack. The changes in their stats also change how the turn counter works if there is a decrease or increase in the speed base stat and Pokemon losing bad typing is what kept most of them from being broken. On top of that, most Pokemon that have Mega Stones dont need to hold items to begin with and benefit from the Mega Stone, gaining more power and losing bad typing. They are cool and all but for competitve play, then need to be banned for the same reason the Lati Twins cant hold Soul Dew and rumor has it that even the Lati Twins will be getting Mega forms.

I do agree, many are overpowered. But to be honest, some of them needed the boost. Manectric, Houndoom, Mawile, Medicham, a lot of these Pokémon seem weak compared to other Pokémon labeled as overpowered, such as Garchomp or Gengar, even before X&Y. I think a lot of the Pokémon that received Megas needed them to have some competitive merit. Plus there ain't much of a chance Mega Evos will be banned. I mean yeah they're strong, but not so to be banned. And since you can only trigger one Mega per battle this would hold anyone back from using too many, and isn't auto-win just because you use one.

 

[Regis_Neo]

I think their relative strength is a bit misleading...let's consider Mega Heracross for example; that big 185 Atk is scary, but in reality, a Guts-boosted Heracross will actually hit harder than it, not to mention it's mega form slower. It also gains a completely different ability in Skill Link, forcing you to run completely different moves if you really want to take advantage of it. Garchomp again loses speed as well when you Mega evolve, and Garchomp's speed tier of 102 is extremely useful in outspeeding other base 100s, now he turns into a bit of a sitting duck against Pokemon like Hydreigon to KO with Draco Meteor that he would otherwise have outsped. Mega Gyarados gains Dark, but loses Flying type and can now be smacked around easily by all those Fighting attacks it used to laugh at. Manetric...well Manetric is still pretty useless, making him a faster and harder hitting Jolteon with Intimidate doesn't really do much.

I guess my bottom line is, you give up something to use a mega form in most cases, only a few like Mega Mawile or Kangeshkan are clearly superior and really gain a lot from mega evolving compared to their normal forms. Otherwise in most cases it's basically akin to putting a Life Orb for more damage with no recoil, maybe a speed boost, or adding some bulkiness at the cost of speed. Consider also that they have to hold their mega stone, losing out on other potentially valuable items like Leftovers, Choice Scarf, Sitrus Berry, type-reducing berry, etc. So while powerful when used right, I don't really see them as gamebreaking really.

 

[P_A]

Yeah, I noticed that the mega Ampharos isn't all that good. Perhaps it might have just been the one I have, but I'm not impressed with that compared to ones I had on other games. I'm looking forward to being able to port all my pokemon over near the end of the year. Maybe then I can make a better competitive pokemon with previous versions.

 

[Normal guy]

so I have a quick question should I use mawile or scizor on my team and if I do should I attach a mega stone to them?

 

[Regis_Neo]

so I have a quick question should I use mawile or scizor on my team and if I do should I attach a mega stone to them?

Kinda depends on what your team is really. As a very basic "in general" statement, Mawile prefers TR-oriented teams, while Scizor can usually function well out of them thanks to typing and Bullet Punch, all it needs usually is a SD under its belt to start wrecking things with BP and Bug Bite.

 

[P_A]

Kinda depends on what your team is really. As a very basic "in general" statement, Mawile prefers TR-oriented teams, while Scizor can usually function well out of them thanks to typing and Bullet Punch, all it needs usually is a SD under its belt to start wrecking things with BP and Bug Bite.

Ummm, yeah, I realize I'm a little slow, but could you please repeat that in english? LOL.

Please define the following: "TR-oriented teams," "a SD under its belt," and "BP"

Thanks.

 

[Regis_Neo]

Ummm, yeah, I realize I'm a little slow, but could you please repeat that in english? LOL.

Please define the following: "TR-oriented teams," "a SD under its belt," and "BP"

Thanks.

Lol no problem:

BP = Bullet Punch
TR = Trick Room
SD = Swords Dance

So basically, Mawile works best in Trick Room since it's speed is bad and it lacks priority moves. Trick Room reverses speed so it becomes one of the faster Pokemon for 5 turns. Scizor, despite only having ok Speed, doesn't need Trick Room since it has a strong priority move in Bullet Punch, which lets it attack first regardless. Combined with Swords Dance to boost its attack, it wrecks havoc on Pokemon that don't resist its moves.

 

[vaporeon]

Lol no problem:

BP = Bullet Punch
TR = Trick Room
SD = Swords Dance

So basically, Mawile works best in Trick Room since it's speed is bad and it lacks priority moves. Trick Room reverses speed so it becomes one of the faster Pokemon for 5 turns. Scizor, despite only having ok Speed, doesn't need Trick Room since it has a strong priority move in Bullet Punch, which lets it attack first regardless. Combined with Swords Dance to boost its attack, it wrecks havoc on Pokemon that don't resist its moves.

Mawile gets Sucker Punch. I learned that the hard way. It Took down my Floatzel and Zangoose in one hit and did over 50 percent to my Zapdos.

 

[Benzo]

Well, wit Mega's around now- I hope the format does not become stale and repetitious to the meta- with Mega's now, I think there should be no problems with heavily considering that all Pokemon can be playable, with of course a restriction system.

Say for a team of 6, bring 6 pick 4-

no duplicate hold items
no duplicate Pokémon
1 legendry
1 mega stone hold item only


just a thought............

 

[P_A]

Alright next question .... (slightly off topic but not really) what's the best way to raise Scyther for a great Scizor (for use with the mega stone - or not if you think it might be better off without it)? I'm also thinking of natures, characteristics, movesets and if you happen to know it - where to find the best pokemon to raise the effort values for it? I also have access to Pokemon Black and Black 2 if that will help.

I've always liked Scizor and Volcarona as inclusions in my teams. Hopefully one of these will be really useful with this format.

 

[Regis_Neo]

Mawile gets Sucker Punch. I learned that the hard way. It Took down my Floatzel and Zangoose in one hit and did over 50 percent to my Zapdos.

Duh good point, how did I forget about that...for some reason given its large flytrap, Crunch comes to mind beforehand lol.

Alright next question .... (slightly off topic but not really) what's the best way to raise Scyther for a great Scizor (for use with the mega stone - or not if you think it might be better off without it)? I'm also thinking of natures, characteristics, movesets and if you happen to know it - where to find the best pokemon to raise the effort values for it? I also have access to Pokemon Black and Black 2 if that will help.

I've always liked Scizor and Volcarona as inclusions in my teams. Hopefully one of these will be really useful with this format.

Honest answer? Breed and raise a Scizor in one of the Black/White 2 carts, so you can get Bug Bite off the Move Tutor. Without it, you're stuck with X-Scissor, which isn't boosted by Technician. Adamant is the way to go for a Nature, probably looking at something like Swords Dance/Bullet Punch/Bug Bite/Protect for a moveset (at least in doubles, for singles you can drop Protect for something like Pursuit or another utility attack). Then whenever Pokebank comes out next month, you can transfer it up. Volcarona should still be pretty useful, with Quiver Dance and its typing, it should still be a powerhouse (just watch out for Rock attacks).

 

[P_A]

Since speed won't really be an issue ... Macho Brace while training Scizor?

 

[Regis_Neo]

Since speed won't really be an issue ... Macho Brace while training Scizor?

A Power item would give you a lot more EVs faster.

 

[Normal guy]

Since speed won't really be an issue ... Macho Brace while training Scizor?

assuming you have X or Y (maybe both) you have super training so if you have a reset bag (I think that is what it's called) you don't have to worry about the EVs until latter and get them perfect

 

[TheRolesWePlay]

Alright next question .... (slightly off topic but not really) what's the best way to raise Scyther for a great Scizor (for use with the mega stone - or not if you think it might be better off without it)? I'm also thinking of natures, characteristics, movesets and if you happen to know it - where to find the best pokemon to raise the effort values for it? I also have access to Pokemon Black and Black 2 if that will help.

I've always liked Scizor and Volcarona as inclusions in my teams. Hopefully one of these will be really useful with this format.

IMO Scizor is plenty fine without his Mega and you're probably better off using another Mega over it. Not saying Mega Scizor is bad, just that Scizor is already good, so might as well invest the Mega into something which can really change a game.

 

[P_A]

Ok, good comment. I feel your opinion is a valid one. So which mega in your opinion is worth it to change up the game?