ORAS Mega Evolutions Discussion Thread

[Psynergy]

ORAS Megas​

ORAS has been out for a few days now, and with them we've got a sizable amount of cool Megas. We've had time to look at everything the new Megas brought for awhile, and at this point it's enough to have a discussion on these Megas. What Megas have you used and what have you found to work well in OU? UU? Even RU and NU? There's a lot of good stuff to discuss and the return of move tutors opens up more possibilities on Megas both new and old.

Ideally let's keep discussion on what Smogon should ban out of here, we know Mega Salamence is getting banned from OU and that Mega Rayquaza is creating a fuss in Ubers but there's better things to discuss than "this Mega needs to be banned."

 

[KillerDraco]

Both offense and stall in OU got some interesting new toys to play with.

On the offensive side of things, Mega Metagross immediately comes to mind. What was once an underwhelming base 70 speed has been patched up to a great base 110. With a great base 145 attack and Tough Claws to boost the power of Bullet Punch, Meteor Mash, Zen Headbutt, elemental punches, etc., it has no problem putting on the hurt, and 80/150/110 defenses make it pretty bulky as well. So now we've got something that's bulky, strong, and fast. It can rock an all-out attacking set without much duress, run a classic AgiliGross set to outspeed every choice scarf user, or whatever. Definitely an all-around good Mega, although it wishes it still had neutrality to Dark and Ghost. Oh well.

Then there's Mega Gallade, who may very well cause Mega Medicham to fall out of the tier again. While it's not as immediately powerful as Mega Medicham, and of course we all really hoped it had something better than Inner Focus, it boasts better bulk, and a better speed tier with a solid base 110. Plus, despite Mega Medicham having higher attack, base 165 attack is still stupidly good, and with access to SD, it can boost its attack to stupid levels. It's got a solid offensive movepool to abuse all that power as well, with plenty of surprise coverage moves depending on what you wanna chew up. It pretty much entirely outclasses Mega Medicham, who has very little to set itself apart, barring the ability to 2HKO Unaware Clefable.

On the defensive side of things, despite being so heavily criticized about its design and its ability, Mega Slowbro stands supreme. It's true that losing Regenerator for Shell Armor is a rather lame trade-off, but it's still got reliable recovery in the form of Slack Off. Plus, having an insane base 180 defense speaks for itself. It can either run a physically defensive set to make it pretty much impossible to 1HKO with a physical attack, or a specially defensive spread to be a solid mixed wall. Plus, unlike a lot of defensive Pokemon, sporting a base 130 special attack is rather impressive, and we're all familiar with Slowbro's attacking options as well, with Scald for defensive burns and coverage moves including Ice Beam, Psyshock, and even Fire Blast. True, Toxic can be a nuisance to it, but that's not enough to undermine its fantastic defensive potential.

And you know who Toxic isn't a nuisance to? Mega Sableye. This thing is at home both on Stall teams, but also against Stall teams as well. In fact, a lot of things on Stall teams have trouble dealing with this thing. Although a base 50 HP lets it down a bit, base 125 defense and base 115 special defense are both solid, it's got reliable recovery with Recover, and with Magic Bounce to reflect things like Toxic, Will-o-Wisp, Hazards, and Roar/Whirlwind, it can be a major nuisance to stall. Plus, between Calm Mind and Will-o-Wisp, it can make itself even more annoying to kill as well. Still, low HP compromises its bulk, its speed is nonexistent, and it's not immediately threatening without setting up.

 

[Ultimate Champion]

Molgera (Rayquaza) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Air Lock
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed/Flamethrower

Say hello to the single best sweeper in the game, embodiment of ultimate power, and what may as well be known as the New God of Pokémon. Lum Berry allows this Pokémon to set up against even support Arceus without having to fear for Will-O-Wisp, while after a Dragon Dance, Mega Rayquaza simply tears almost everything apart with Dragon Ascent and Earthquake. Extreme Speed allows Mega Rayquaza to escape being revenge-killed by a weakened Arceus-Normal in addition to serving as general revenge-killing utility, while Flamethrower allows Mega Rayquaza to get past Skarmory. Outside of Ditto and a full-health Multiscale Lugia, pretty much nothing can stop this great dragon after it sets up.

 

[Aeon™]

As some of you may know, there is currently a Teambuilding Tournament going on in which each round, a new ORAS Mega is given that must be included on your team. As long as that tour is going on, I figured I'd just try and start a discussion each week about the mega currently being used in that round. This weeks Mega is Mega-Altaria. Personally, I had a bit of trouble building teams for Mega Altaria. Has anyone had any success with Mega Altaria teams or cores, or have any ideas on good team mates / threats to make sure you cover while you team build?

 

[Recon]

Molgera (Rayquaza) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Air Lock
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Ascent
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed/Flamethrower

Say hello to the single best sweeper in the game, embodiment of ultimate power, and what may as well be known as the New God of Pokémon. Lum Berry allows this Pokémon to set up against even support Arceus without having to fear for Will-O-Wisp, while after a Dragon Dance, Mega Rayquaza simply tears almost everything apart with Dragon Ascent and Earthquake. Extreme Speed allows Mega Rayquaza to escape being revenge-killed by a weakened Arceus-Normal in addition to serving as general revenge-killing utility, while Flamethrower allows Mega Rayquaza to get past Skarmory. Outside of Ditto and a full-health Multiscale Lugia, pretty much nothing can stop this great dragon after it sets up.

Too bad this set isn't allowed anywhere except Anything Goes, since Mega Rayquaza was banned from Ubers.

To be fair, I can see why it's such a monster. With a godlike ability, ability to hold any item, amazing stat spread, and great movepool, Mega Rayquaza was gonna go far and be a staple of every single team in Ubers.

 

[Afrodisiac]

I've been very pleased with both Mega Gallade & Mega Lopunny. The former has a monster attack stat, good speed tier, good setup moves, and great physical movepool to work with, also it's decent special bulk comes in handy. The latter hits a bit weaker but much faster, personally i'm enjoying using it alongside Greninja as an offensive core and works greatly <3 Mega Sableye is the new king of stall, it's an amazing defensive mega that can use both it's base & mega ability (Prankster/Magic Bounce) to great effect. It's very annoying to deal with.

Now that Salamencite has been banned in Smogon I expect M-Altaria & Sceptile to shine a lot more, both have great uses. I find M-Altaria's physical-oriented set very effective, with the DD/EQ/Pixilate Return combo. It also can take a defensive approach to great effect given it's increased bulk and amazing defensive typing.

 

[ger9119]

So far i've tried Mega-Beedrill, Mega-Bunny, Mega-Sharpedo, Mega Altaria, Mega-Bird and Mega-Camerupt. First impressions are that all the Megas are pretty damn good, barring Mega Audino which I still plan on using. Most of them speed creep on common overused mons which makes it difficult to beat them once they are mega'ed, the main culprit of this is Mega-Bunny and M-Drill to an extent but thats worn down a lot easier.

 

[Chu Chu Jelly]

Gallade, Sableye, and Sceptile are all I have had the chance to try out so far and they're all pretty solid. As someone pointed out Gallade is actually good in OU now that it has more speed and power. It has a great movepool as well, but that's not a new thing. I found that it really appreciates Thundy-I's T-wave since it still has to deal with several speed ties or outspeeds though. Sceptile stood out to me with its ability to outpace so many other Pokemon and the fact that it can run a mixed set helps a lot to minimize threats. Although, if you aren't using a boosting move it still suffers from a lack of power albeit not as bad as before. Only Sableye set I have tried was a Calm Mind set, which probably performed best out of these three mons. It can set up on so many Pokemon and can be difficult to kill w/o a Fairy (Which of course meant I paired it with Scizor). It can get critted or burned/paralyzed by attacks though which sucks.

Mega Beedrill is another mon that caught my attention. I haven't used it myself, but I have been bopped by it late game a few times. Adaptability+150 Atk and 145 Spe is not something to play around with e_e

 

[Clone™]

So Ive been dabbling with the Based Mega Metagross and I have to say, he is easily the best Mega in OU now that Mence is gone. Tough Claws is literally a godsend for this monster and has turned him from irrelevant to a top tier threat. Aside from that though, he has insane bulk and a great speed tier, and the capability to mash teams late game with a Rock Polish set. Heres the set:


Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Rock Polish
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt

literally just click Rock Polish when you get a free switch on a fairy late game and click the win button. its that good.

 

[Aeon™]

So Ive been dabbling with the Based Mega Metagross and I have to say, he is easily the best Mega in OU now that Mence is gone. Tough Claws is literally a godsend for this monster and has turned him from irrelevant to a top tier threat. Aside from that though, he has insane bulk and a great speed tier, and the capability to mash teams late game with a Rock Polish set. Heres the set:


Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Rock Polish
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt

literally just click Rock Polish when you get a free switch on a fairy late game and click the win button. its that good.

Any particular reason for hammer arm over other coverage moves? I mean, are the pokemon you are hitting that you wouldn't hit otherwise?

 

[Clone™]

Any particular reason for hammer arm over other coverage moves? I mean, are the pokemon you are hitting that you wouldn't hit otherwise?

quoting Jukain from Smogon:

hammer arm is the best option on agiligross for a number of reasons. it provides coverage on ferrothorn, heatran, balloon drill, greninja, bisharp, mega gyarados, and magnezone. it also does the most damage to skarmory out of any move on the set. the speed reduction is less of an issue because of the possibility of an agility boost, but honestly the coverage is so valuable that i'll even run it on just an all-out attacker set.

EQ and Ice Punch are viable options if any of the above dont bother you, though.

 

[Aeon™]

I'll probably need to give that a shot on my next team then lol. I'm still messing around with my basic af ddancing mega altaria team

 

[Eaglehawk]

If anyone's been following UU lately, I recently started a multi-tier trend of building teams of dual screens Klefki or Meowstic + 5 set-up sweepers and am on the way to topping every single ladder.

 

[Psynergy]

Too bad this set isn't allowed anywhere except Anything Goes, since Mega Rayquaza was banned from Ubers.

To be fair, I can see why it's such a monster. With a godlike ability, ability to hold any item, amazing stat spread, and great movepool, Mega Rayquaza was gonna go far and be a staple of every single team in Ubers.

A shame we don't have a tier to use him with the standard clauses in place since I found it fun to try and use obscure things to deal with it (and the more threatening Mega Ray/Primal Groudon/E-killer core as a whole), but I've got no issues with my favorite Pokemon achieving godship in every way possible that even Arceus couldn't achieve [and creating a new tier for it to be used at all] so no "rip Mega Rayquaza" comments from me.

As for actual Megas I've been using, I've been enjoying Mega Gallade in OU the most out of the new Megas. I've yet to use a lot of other Megas including Metagross though so that's subject to change.

Gallade @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance

This is the set I've been using since before Mega Salamence was banned so Ice Punch has a little less utility than it used to but I'm lazy when it comes to changing teams after bans are in place, sorry. Hitting Gliscor, Landorus-T and other dragons is still useful though. Close Combat breaks things with or without Swords Dance boosts too, and Knock Off just has fantastic utility all around. I've considered swapping out Knock Off or Ice Punch with Zen Headbutt but I've enjoyed using this set for now.

Also with what little I've used of it, Healing Wish Mega Lopunny is a lot of fun to use.

 

[jesusfreak94]

Am I the only one that finds what happened to Mega Rayquaza completely hilarious? Not in the sense that I disagree with the ban, just that the circumstances are so funny to me. I mean, the Ubers community has been debating for a while about whether Ubers should just be a playable banlist or if it should be treated as a balanced tier with a banlist of its own, and then Game Freak gives us a Pokemon so disgustingly powerful that it singlehandedly ends the debate and causes the Ubers community to practically redefine the philosophy of what Ubers is just for the sake of getting rid of Mega Rayquaza. Then on top of that is the fact that we just got done with back-to-back suspect tests that were full of controversy and left us with questions about whether or not suspect tests are a good idea in Ubers or even if bans should be implemented at all, and then a few days later Mega Rayquaza is quickbanned by chaos (who overturned the earlier Shadow Tag vote due to the way it was handled) with very little push-back from the community at all.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think it's downright funny how Game Freak made a Pokemon so unbelievably powerful that it basically redefined Ubers and created a whole new banlist all to its own.

 

[Psynergy]

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think it's downright funny how Game Freak made a Pokemon so unbelievably powerful that it basically redefined Ubers and created a whole new banlist all to its own.

Given Mega Rayquaza's portrayal in-universe, I'd go so far to say that Game Freak actually knew exactly what they were doing when they made Mega Rayquaza and let it hold items. It's meant to stand above both Primals and all Megas, and does exactly that even to the point of making Mega Gengar look like a sub-optimal use of your Mega slot. They wanted this thing to be a god, and that's exactly what it is. The whole situation in Ubers is hilariously ironic though, and I'm glad they came to an acceptable solution. The whole debate was painful to read on both sides.

As some of you may know, there is currently a Teambuilding Tournament going on in which each round, a new ORAS Mega is given that must be included on your team. As long as that tour is going on, I figured I'd just try and start a discussion each week about the mega currently being used in that round. This weeks Mega is Mega-Altaria. Personally, I had a bit of trouble building teams for Mega Altaria. Has anyone had any success with Mega Altaria teams or cores, or have any ideas on good team mates / threats to make sure you cover while you team build?

Also going back to this, while making a team around Mega Altaria I found the hardest part to be deciding what Mega Altaria should do. Do I want an offensive set with Hyper Voice, a Dragon Dance set, a Cleric? It's stats don't scream powerhouse but with that typing it works beautifully in all of these roles, and it's hard deciding what to build around. A shame it still only has base 80 speed but it's worked out for Dragonite all these years. Even more so than other Dragons, I feel like Steel types are incredibly important partners for Altaria. And even something to deal with opposing Steels (Altaria's Earthquake and Fire Blast can't handle everything) so Magnezone sounds promising as a partner. I haven't tried this myself though so this is just me theorymonning and might be completely wrong.

 

[Clone™]

As some of you may know, there is currently a Teambuilding Tournament going on in which each round, a new ORAS Mega is given that must be included on your team. As long as that tour is going on, I figured I'd just try and start a discussion each week about the mega currently being used in that round. This weeks Mega is Mega-Altaria. Personally, I had a bit of trouble building teams for Mega Altaria. Has anyone had any success with Mega Altaria teams or cores, or have any ideas on good team mates / threats to make sure you cover while you team build?

A Steel / Dragon / Fairy core works well, as you only need two mons to make it thanks to Altarias great typing. Pairing it up with a FWG core also works well for a balanced build I've been using quite a bit. Basically stick to type synergy when using a defensive set, and the team will play itself (as you know from our battles).

Offensively tho things that remove steels, like Magnezone, is a great partner. Also hazard setters and volt turners work well too, since Altaria doesn't have very many switch in opportunities pre mega. Also stuff that beats tran, venu, and Amoongus are needed so something like Talonflame + sr Garchomp works well.

 

[phanpycross]

If anyone's been following UU lately, I recently started a multi-tier trend of building teams of dual screens Klefki or Meowstic + 5 set-up sweepers and am on the way to topping every single ladder.

Yeah, Ive heard the tales of Dual screen klefki + whatever set-up sweeper UU can offer, **** be crazy LOL.

Kinda sucks since I think klefki would have been fine in XY UU, but the influx of stuff like zygarde and mega gallade pushes him way over the edge :/

still not togekiss/Tornadus-T levels of broken tho

 

[Psynergy]

So I've been playing RU now that it's playable with Mega Gallade and Mega Lopunny banned there, and I'm really liking Mega Sharpedo.

Sharpedo @ Sharpedonite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Protect

Sharpedo was always a good cleaner in RU before, but his +30 defense is actually surprisingly useful since it allows him to take some forms of priority (Fletchinder Acrobatics only does about 70% at best), and he beats a lot of the biggest threats in the tier at +1 Speed including Mega Sceptile. Strong Jaw just gives him some much needed power for Crunch and Ice Fang, and with stuff like Cresselia, Bronzong and Meloetta, having a super powered Crunch is really nice. Being able to know when you should or shouldn't Mega Evolve is a big thing though, since being forced out early after going Mega limits his cleaning potential later. There's definitely some cases where Sharpedo can come in and revenge kill something so it's helpful to not always be so hasty on the Mega Evolution.

I don't know if he's any good in UU and I imagine he's nothing too amazing in OU but at least in RU, I'm finding Mega Sharpedo to be a very impressive.

 

[Sunset Star]

Megapunnies, Megapunnies everywhere in NU. I don't think anything in NU can deal with it; for starters, its speed is at most 400-ish. Has it been sent to a banlist yet?
EDIT: Oh, I just read an above post and realized that Megapunny is in BL2 now. Never see it in UU, and that's the tier I play most, though. Same goes for Megallade.