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Pokémon Shuffle Mega Viability Rankings

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Psynergy

Strong Winds
Staff member
Super Mod
Pokémon Shuffle Mega Viability Rankings

~Mega Viability Rankings~

Say hello to the Pokémon Shuffle Mega Viability Rankings. Shuffle is not a hardcore or competitive game by any means, but as in any Pokémon game some naturally stand out more than others, and like other recent games Mega Evolution is a key feature in Shuffle. Here we will organize a list ranking the different Mega Evolutions for their general usefulness in this mess of a game to provide a reference for what Megas are most effective. For those familiar with Smogon viability rankings, this will function similarly to their tier rankings. Remember that this is a group effort so if you disagree with where something is placed feel free to suggest a change.

Resources

Mega Evolution Rates and Speedup Tables
Benefits of Mega Speedups in terms of combos needed to Mega Evolve

A rank
These are among the most effective Megas currently in the game. While they aren't always the first to be used in a stage, these are the Megas that will generally be the most effective due to their ability to set up combos, quick Mega Evolution and/or efficiency with clearing the board of unwanted disruptions.

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B rank
While they don't stand out as prominently, B rank Megas are still effective in many situations and will generally pull their weight in stages. They might lack the ability to set up combos efficiently or may take longer to Mega Evolve, but these Megas will often perform well in their given role.

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C rank
Megas in this rank have notable flaws that keep them from being stronger outside of specific cases or type advantage. These Megas aren't necessarily ineffective and are often incredibly useful, but they tend to be less reliable than A or B rank Megas.

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D rank
Megas in this rank are only useful for a very specific niche and tend to perform poorly outside of it. They might have notable flaws that keep them from being usable outside of their niche or they may be generally outperformed by another similar Mega. There are stages where these Megas stand out but they should not be relied upon for most stages.

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E rank
E rank Megas are those that may have utility in the earlier stages of the game but quickly become outclassed as other Megas become available. Many of these Megas suffer greatly from being the first Megas received. Whether it's due to low power or facing competition with a Mega of the same ability, these Megas have little use once other options become available.

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Secundum

Lord Of Order
Hmm...I'd swap Buneary and Blastoise round myself.
 
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R_N

Well-Known Member
I'd still put Aerodactyl in a lower tier than the rest of C-tier. Without proper disruptions it simply does nothing at all and can no longer do double combos so even as a SE mega it can be useless. Mawile's & Sableye's effects are at least consistent and deal additional damage in SE situations (though sableye will only really be used in the niche of "I dont have gengar or banette""

I also absolutely do not agree with Ampharos. His ability is far too random and he can swing from useful to liability on a whim. If there had been some sinister power-esque non-megas for grass or electric Ig uarantee no one would have used him.
 

komedy27u

Well-Known Member
I also absolutely do not agree with Ampharos. His ability is far too random and he can swing from useful to liability on a whim. If there had been some sinister power-esque non-megas for grass or electric Ig uarantee no one would have used him.

Leaving fun aside, I believe Ampharos is good, not consistent but deserving of B-Rank. When I was agains MewTwo (no items) 3 of 4 times it took me to the smoke, when Sableye did't. Even so, it's an special case, if a stage were to have limited tries (aka Pinsir) I would NOT use him.
 

R_N

Well-Known Member
Leaving fun aside, I believe Ampharos is good, not consistent but deserving of B-Rank. When I was agains MewTwo (no items) 3 of 4 times it took me to the smoke, when Sableye did't. Even so, it's an special case, if a stage were to have limited tries (aka Pinsir) I would NOT use him.

On the other hand, milotic took me ages to beat. My scores in the blastoise competition would range wildly depending on how the lightning hit. This is what I mean by swining hard, he's totalyl luck based in a game already based around getting lucky. You can't compound luck!
I wouldn't put him on the same level as Sableye & Mawile, who while consistent do unfortunately not have good base power or that good a clearing ability, but I also definitely wouldnt put him on the same level as Lopunny & Lucario & such who have much better consistency, damage output and board clearing ability
 

Secundum

Lord Of Order
Maybe we should have a 'special' tier for Ampharos and any future Megas that are too luck-based?
 

R_N

Well-Known Member
Maybe we should have a 'special' tier for Ampharos and any future Megas that are too luck-based?

A B- tier would be acceptable if we dont want to bump C down to a D. Anything based on luck can go there. I'm guessing the eventual mega manectric will have the same ability
 

Secundum

Lord Of Order
Eh, I'm not so sure. I think it's more likely that it WOULDN'T have the same ability myself.
 

Psynergy

Strong Winds
Staff member
Super Mod
Ampharos is weird to place because of how random the lightning is and I was too lazy to move it down. It definitely isn't as consistent as the other B rank Megas though so moving it down is fair. I'm not quite sure about splitting things into respective +/- just yet though, considering we only have 15 Megas at the moment. Also a fair point on Mega Aerodactyl, made a D rank to put it there. I'm sure we'll get more Megas with oddly specific uses but for now he's got D rank to himself.

So yeah, stuff to discuss:

- Does Ampharos warrant being in B rank at all? Meaning should we split ranks into +/- now and put Ampharos in B- or should we just move it down to C? And if we do split the ranks is there anything else unique enough warrant a split into +/-?
- Also going off the first response, not too sure about swapping Blastoise and Lopunny and separating them from Altaria and Lucario who are basically the same thing respectively but with a different type (and 20 more base power in Lucario's case). I am a little biased though and not a huge fan of Blastoise/Altaria so any more arguments in favor of them is appreciated. The base power might be something of note with Lopunny though, maybe that could be something to warrant splitting B rank?
 

komedy27u

Well-Known Member
I don't think there are enough megas to split +/- I also believe Ampharos doesn't completely fit B or C. (Ampharos Rank? xD)

Since Lucario, I never use lopunny, there would have to be some extreme case were a vertical line HAS to be removed and the pokemon is resistant to fighting. And in my case Lucario is so overleveled there isn't much diference between the two.
 

R_N

Well-Known Member
Eh, I'm not so sure. I think it's more likely that it WOULDN'T have the same ability myself.

The reason I think so is because it's about the only mega that could have that same ability. All the other abilities are either completely generic (patterns, bombs) or more "tricky" (psychics, ghosts). It's possible he could get a new ability but manetric could just as easily be a competition mon to give you another option with the ability.
 

HylianGlaceon

Hyrulean Resident
I feel Lopunny and Kangaskhan are too high. They don't really combo, their attack power is pretty meh, being Normal they hit nothing Super Effectively and are only really good for clearing disruptions in the end. C Rank makes more sense for them.

I'd split Lucario and Lopunny as well. Lucario hits way harder, Fighting is super effective on lots of things and should easily be a rank above Lopunny at a minimum. Lucario even Mega Evolves faster I believe.

With Altaria and Blastoise, Blastoise evolves slightly faster and Water hits more types super effectively than Dragon so it could warrant a higher rank than Altaria. On the otherhand they aren't THAT different..

Not sure on Ampharos. I always felt it fit better in with Mawile and Sableye as a possible comboer. It's pretty slow at Mega Evolving if I'm recalling correctly as well. C Rank?
 

R_N

Well-Known Member
I feel Lopunny and Kangaskhan are too high. They don't really combo, their attack power is pretty meh, being Normal they hit nothing Super Effectively and are only really good for clearing disruptions in the end. C Rank makes more sense for them.

I'd split Lucario and Lopunny as well. Lucario hits way harder, Fighting is super effective on lots of things and should easily be a rank above Lopunny at a minimum. Lucario even Mega Evolves faster I believe.

With Altaria and Blastoise, Blastoise evolves slightly faster and Water hits more types super effectively than Dragon so it could warrant a higher rank than Altaria. On the otherhand they aren't THAT different..

Not sure on Ampharos. I always felt it fit better in with Mawile and Sableye as a possible comboer. It's pretty slow at Mega Evolving if I'm recalling correctly as well. C Rank?

Thinking on it, I agree about splitting Lopunny & Lucario. Lop still has utility, especially if you dont have Lucarioite, so despite the normal typing I wouldn't put it in D Tier, but Lucario is just straight up better. C sounds good for both it & Kanga; the normal typing just means they'll never get used super often but their mega effects, availability and time-to-mega keep them useful.
 
My first Shuffle-related post and it's about viability wow

If Kangaskhan and Lopunny are gonna drop to C-Rank, I think Ampharos should drop with them. It fits in with the description of C-Rank, in that its only notable advantage over the Megas in A and B rank are a good base power and a unique type. Compared to Lucario and Glalie who have both of these traits, they at least have a more reliable Mega Power and a more exploitable pre-Mega ability. It's easier to Mega Evolve either, too.

Since these three drops would mean C-Rank would be very inflated, I suggest dropping Altaria and Sableye to D-Rank with Aerodactyl. The only reason you'd use Altaria over Blastoise is against a Dragon, but you'd still have to justify using it over Glalie. Water-resists are covered by Ampharos and Glalie. Sableye has the same coverage as two A-Rank Megas but has a worse ability and base power. They both fit D-Rank's description of only fulfilling a specific niche, as they still have a unique typing and, for Sableye, a (bad) unique ability.
 
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Tsukuyomi56

Sky High Knight
Can see Sableye possibly dropping to D rank, Risk Taker is a lacklustre pre-Mega ability and takes a long time to Mega Evolve. Its only niche is that it is your only super effective option against Ghost and Psychic types until you gain access to Gengar and Banette. Not sure whether we are going to rank based on the difficulty of clearing the required stage to get the Mega Stone into account however.
 
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HylianGlaceon

Hyrulean Resident
Since these three drops would mean C-Rank would be very inflated, I suggest dropping Altaria and Sableye to D-Rank with Aerodactyl. The only reason you'd use Altaria over Blastoise is against a Dragon, but you'd still have to justify using it over Glalie. Water-resists are covered by Ampharos and Glalie. Sableye has the same coverage as two A-Rank Megas but has a worse ability and base power. They both fit D-Rank's description of only fulfilling a specific niche, as they still have a unique typing and, for Sableye, a (bad) unique ability.

It shouldn't matter how inflated C is. We should evaluate these without trying to make the ranks equal.

Anyway, I can understand Sableye somewhat, but it does combo nicely once it's going. It was better than Mega Lucario on Ampharos' stage when I was training it even. C makes the most sense for it to me, but I can see it in D as well.

Altaria doesn't belong in D. It outdamages Mega Lopunny and Kangaskhan for starters and has a decent non-mega ability in Eject. If we're judging on its clearing pattern, it's about on-par with the other those two as well.
 

Psynergy

Strong Winds
Staff member
Super Mod
Not sure whether we are going to rank based on the difficulty of clearing the required stage to get the Mega Stone into account however.

Maybe not stage itself since then Mewtwo Y would be much lower and the event exclusives would be very awkward to rank since not everyone has them. I don't think we should use the difficulty of a stage or availability against a Mega's ranking since we want to rank the effectiveness of the Mega's abilities. That said, in the case of something like Sableye where the other better options are harder to get it's a fair point in favor of them having a niche.

Meanwhile Lopunny, Kangaskhan and Ampharos have been moved down to C rank since everyone seems to agree they should move down. Ampharos does take a bit too long to Mega Evolve and the random nature of the lightning makes it inconsistent, while Lopunny and Kangaskhan have their Normal typing and very low base power holding them back (and then Lucario is stronger Fighting type Lopunny). Nobody appears to think we should split ranks just yet so we'll avoid doing that unless the amount of Megas in the future calls for it. Blastoise and Altaria still unchanged unless someone wants to argue otherwise.

I'm not against moving Sableye down to D either since even when you don't have much else, Risk Taker is kind of bad and starts to struggle in terms of power later on. That said it still has some decent combo potential until you start getting the bigger combo setters like Gengar so I can see it staying in C. More discussion on that would be great.
 
It shouldn't matter how inflated C is. We should evaluate these without trying to make the ranks equal.

Anyway, I can understand Sableye somewhat, but it does combo nicely once it's going. It was better than Mega Lucario on Ampharos' stage when I was training it even. C makes the most sense for it to me, but I can see it in D as well.

Altaria doesn't belong in D. It outdamages Mega Lopunny and Kangaskhan for starters and has a decent non-mega ability in Eject. If we're judging on its clearing pattern, it's about on-par with the other those two as well.

I'm just saying that IMO all of the Megas in C-Rank right now aren't really equal in terms of viability. Out of all of them, I would think Sableye and Altaria aren't in the same league as Ampharos and Lopunny, as the latter two still see usage with their abilities. I can understand where you're coming from with Altaria since it does have a good pre-Mega ability and a respectable base power but I feel more strongly about Sableye dropping down. After you get Gengar and/or Banette there is no reason to use it unless you somehow Max-leveled Sableye at that point. Its pre-Mega ability, Risk-Taker, has the same unreliability as Ampharos's Mega Power and the latter has 20 more base power.

EDIT: I understand the points about it being a reliable Mega pre-Gengar but that begs the question of what the bases of these rankings will be. If it's gonna take into account how the Megas are obtained then there has to be some discussion about the placement of the event Megas (i.e., Banette when compared to Mewtwo and Gengar). If it's gonna stick only to factors that affect how you use it in a puzzle then whether or not you obtain it before a better Mega shouldn't matter.
 
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Secundum

Lord Of Order
I'd agree with moving Sableye down, because of it's Gimmick ability, and due to the randomness that is risk-taker. From experience, I've found that while I've never used Mega Altaria (because it's ability isn't good enough to warrant dropping an SE Mega), Mega Blastoise has helped quite a lot. I'd also agree with Serebii about putting Mawile in B-rank. It has good typing, and most importantly-you can predict it's ability, which means you can see exactly which combos will happen.
 
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