Am I the only one that thinks she needs to run Wish to increase her longevity? Especially if she has to switch into SR/Spikes. Sure, her Wishes aren't as good as Sylveon's, they've both got the same bad defense but Mega-Gardevoir is in a nicer speed tier. Gard also has Will-O-Wisp which helps regulate her defense, a better Sp.Atk and movepool for coverage and only really trades off from Sylveon for its Ghost weakness.
The spread I've been using (252 hp, 48 sp. def i believe) can even survive a Modest Mega Gengar's sludge wave and have enough power to OHKO with psychic or psyshock with 0 investment in sp. atk. Gardevoir is seriously good, but you can't play it to roles where it doesn't belong.
Are you sure? Putting that spread into the damage calculator still says it'd be a 43.75% chance to KO with Gard running a Bold nature. That means Gard also can't afford to switch into SR/Spikes.
The minimum Mega-Gard can run is 152 Sp.Def, not including switching into SR/Spikes:
252+ SpA Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 152 SpD (custom): 288-338 (84.7 - 99.41%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Gard is basically hanging on for dear life of itself but the fact that it can hit back with Psyshock is nice.
252+ SpA Gengar Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD (custom): 270-318 (79.41 - 93.52%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
Even at Max Sp.Def Gard still can die to Modest Mega-Gengar + SR, so running it at the minimum Sp.Def looks possible worth it to put EVs elsewhere.
Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Trace | Pixilate
EVs: 252 HP / 152 SpD / 104 Spe
Calm Nature
- Moonblast/Hyper Voice (PB)/Substitute
- Wish
- Psyshock
- Will-O-Wisp
With 104 Speed IVs, reaching 262 - Mega-Gard can out-speed Jolly Max Scizor and cripple it with Will-O-Wisp, the same with Politoed/Breloom and can hit them with Psyshock on their defense. Other than Speed I wouldn't know where to put the extra IVs, putting them into Def to try and survive Scizor doesn't really work, even if it's not running Choice/LO.
252+ Atk Technician Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 252 HP / 104 Def (custom): 266-314 (78.23 - 92.35%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Outspeeding it and burning it (as long as it's not scarfed), Gard brings it down to a 3HKO, meaning even SR only brings it down to a 83.98% of a 2HKO.
252+ Atk Technician burned Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 252 HP / 104+ Def (custom): 121-144 (35.58 - 42.35%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
The best a burned Scizor can do to Mega-Gard, is a Flying Gem Acrobatics, which even that only goes down slightly better than Bullet Punch.
Other than running Moonblast, Hyper Voice (once PB becomes available), another option that would work well with Wish + Will-O-Wisp is running Substitute. Wish, set up a Substitute and your health comes right back. Limited to Psyshock isn't great coverage because it's no longer punishing the Dark/Dragons it could be but I imagine no one would throw Dragons into Gard's field. Possibly Dark types like T-Tar wouldn't mind come in, which it can't do too much about then other than Will-O-Wisp, at least denting its Attack.
It's also no longer vulnerable to Pursuit trapping either, yay.