Other Viable Megas

[Seiterman]

What? It's a good attack to use when almost fainted that's viable with his 105 base speed. If MPin could learn Explosion, that would be work better, but he can't.

If he lives, M-Pinsir gives a free turn of set-up, switching or anything else the opponent wants and you can do nothing about it. Also 2 Returns outdamages Giga Impact, and they both take the same number of turns. Giga Impact is just never a good idea. Ever.

 

[Seiterman]

Sorry, I Just wish that MPin could utilize a flying type Explosion

You're hardly the first person to suggest Giga Impact or Hyper Beam on something. Don't sweat it. Now you know why it isn't a good idea so it's all good.

If you are interested in Explosion Pinsir you could go to the Other Metagames forum and look for Sketchmons XY, where that's actually a thing. But that's getting off-topic here, so head over to that forum if you wanna see how that hypothetical nuke works.

Getting back on track, what Megas aren't viable in today's OU metagame? Most of them have at least niche uses. To my knowledge, Mega Alakazam is good, but falls short of regular Zam so it's a moot point. Aerodactyl doesn't seem to offer anything substantial, as Tough Claws doesn't boost his EdgeQuake combo while his unboosted 135 Attack isn't great and the extra 20 points in Speed don't do anything significant either (aside from let him outrun a few really fast things without investment, I guess.) Mega Ampharos doesn't look like he has enough bulk to offset his speed, while his typing leaves him weak to Ground, Dragon, Ice and Fairy-type attacks.

 

[TKGriffiths]

Mega Heracross is very good this generation. I would honestly venture as far to say that he's one of my favorites. He destroys Rotom-W, and has nice bulk in conjunction with powerful CC's and Pin Missles. I feel like once Mega-Luke gets banned, people are really going to understand just how good of a wallbreaker it is. Just because it requires proper support doesn't mean it's bad.

Talonflame keeps getting mentioned, but honestly it can't switch in on any attacks, and that Stealth Rock weakness sucks.

Rotom outspeeds and burns him. I just think Mega Heracross is a step backwards from normal Heracross in every way, slower and weaker (when considering boosting items) and with a considerably worse ability than Guts and Moxie. It can't absorb status, it can't snowball with Choice Scarf Moxie. If you want a real wallbreaker try Toxic Orb Swords Dance Heracross. The only plus is that he breaks through substitutes (Infiltrator and Sound moves do this better) and sashes (bad item except for Alakazam or dedicated leads) which isn't enough IMO.

 

[Tainic]

Talonflame keeps getting mentioned, but honestly it can't switch in on any attacks, and that Stealth Rock weakness sucks.

Plus the fact that all defogers but Skarm (Gliscor if it learns it, but if it does then it's very rare to see one with it.) are OHKO/2HKOed by Heracross makes almost impossible for em' to come to remove the rocks for a potential revenge killing from Talonflame, enabling a late game sweeper who loves some prior residual damages (Like Terrakion or Dragonite.) to come and clean everything.

Rotom outspeeds and burns him. I just think Mega Heracross is a step backwards from normal Heracross in every way, slower and weaker (when considering boosting items) and with a considerably worse ability than Guts and Moxie. It can't absorb status, it can't snowball with Choice Scarf Moxie. If you want a real wallbreaker try Toxic Orb Swords Dance Heracross. The only plus is that he breaks through substitutes (Infiltrator and Sound moves do this better) and sashes (bad item except for Alakazam or dedicated leads) which isn't enough IMO.

I saw on Heracross' Analysis a CroCross set with Rest/Sleep Talk/Pin Missile/Bulk Up that looked quite good as a finisher, just remove the flying shit and the strong special fire STAB (The only ones commonly used are Heatran and Rotom H.) and it probably can wreck things up. (Did not tried it yet, though.)

 

[Ropeburn]

Rotom outspeeds and burns him. I just think Mega Heracross is a step backwards from normal Heracross in every way, slower and weaker (when considering boosting items) and with a considerably worse ability than Guts and Moxie. It can't absorb status, it can't snowball with Choice Scarf Moxie. If you want a real wallbreaker try Toxic Orb Swords Dance Heracross. The only plus is that he breaks through substitutes (Infiltrator and Sound moves do this better) and sashes (bad item except for Alakazam or dedicated leads) which isn't enough IMO.

What kind of Rotoms are you facing? With a jolly nature and 252 speed evs, Mega-Cross hits 273 speed, which outspeeds rotom-a unless it's running something strange like timid. Even with full investment in speed, Rotom-A still fails to outspeed by 2 points (271).

 

[SergantGold]

Rotom outspeeds and burns him. I just think Mega Heracross is a step backwards from normal Heracross in every way, slower and weaker (when considering boosting items) and with a considerably worse ability than Guts and Moxie. It can't absorb status, it can't snowball with Choice Scarf Moxie. If you want a real wallbreaker try Toxic Orb Swords Dance Heracross. The only plus is that he breaks through substitutes (Infiltrator and Sound moves do this better) and sashes (bad item except for Alakazam or dedicated leads) which isn't enough IMO.

It plays extremely different from Normal Heracross. Losing 10 speed is not much of a problem when you have 185 attack and 85/115/105 bulk and a good ability to abuse (it gets Rock Blast pin missle and Bullet seed which along with EQ gives it 3 moves with 125+ power that break subs and sashes without trouble and gives you perfect coverage) and Toxic Orb SD cross is outclassed by Mega Hera and Flame Orb SD cross(which is also outclassed by mega Hera) as a Wallbreaker and bulky attacker. With its mega it actually has a chance at OU. All the sets you listed are simple outclassed and won't make it

I said exactly that--it's supposed to be a bulky attacker, which is quite a challenge in a metagame filled with Talonflame, fast strong Psychic-types, and Fire-type coverage everywhere.

I thought we have established Mega Hera beats the OU psychics and fire coverage generally doesn't do much to him.

 

[AOPSUser]

I thought we have established Mega Hera beats the OU psychics and fire coverage generally doesn't do much to him.

First, that post was ancient. And second, it doesn't beat the OU Psychics, because slow U-Turns and pivot switches are a thing. What, are you going to Pin Missile an Aegislash just so you don't give Latios a free switch-in? And third, it can't be taking Fire-type coverage moves too much. Most Fire-type coverage happens to 2HKO it (after SR sometimes) anyways.

 

[Machi]

Sorry for double posting, but we should talk about Mega-Pinser. With a movepool filled with good normal type attacks, MegaPin is a viable threat to Fighting types. Return, Giga Impact, Strength, and Thrash are all very good moves, and a Priority move in Quick Attack. Very powerful.

There is not much room for discussion about Mega Pin since well... He's pretty one dimensional in terms of movepool with only some arguing for CC over EQ or Sub VS SD, though the point of these are just to trip up switch ins regardless. Otherwise the only thing that tends to rile up discussions with regard to Mega Pinsir is what ability should he use prior to mega-evolving. On the other hand it does appear from these posts that MegaCross looks like something which needs to be explored better.

 

[sonnytapman]

. On the other hand it does appear from these posts that MegaCross looks like something which needs to be explored better.

If you want to hear about Mega Cross, go to the OU Viability forum. We have a 2 page argument about the thing over there.

 

[SHSL Lucky Crits]

Judging by the viability tiers, this isn't even necessary anymore.

Pinsir, both Charizards, Venusaur, Garchomp, Tyranitar, Mawile.

Done.

/thread

 

[Petrico94]

Just about all megas are worth it except the ones banned to uber. The boosted stats usually make up for life orb w/o the recoil damage and still allow flexibility with attacks unlike choice items. Mega Alakazam gets 30 more base speed, x1.296 worth of special attack and while he does give up Magic Guard he gets the chance to Trace an ability, and it's not like his 55/45/95 defenses were asking to be hit with priority attacks, why bother bleeding him with toxic or the newly nerfed sandstorm. Banette gets 165 making taunt + sucker punch lethal. Absol is also nice for the sole reason of Magic Bounce, also has sucker punch and big attack with good speed.

Things banned to uber like Mega Blaziken, Mewtwo with two forms, Gengar and Kangaskhan are put there not because they'll do good but because they're too good for UU and screw with the OU meta too much. So there's no point in saying Lucario is the best mega because it counters itself when you try to play a balanced smogon game.

 

[midend]

Surprised that mega luke only went now, i felt that he is more threatening than megagar

 

[Fafnir]

Heatran is manhandled by both Zards if predicted as EQ from ZardX OHKOs while EQ/Focus Blast from ZardY is a 2HKO on both variants. Just sayin', but they still get walled by a ton of pokes, though it's a toss up in the air since different mons wall the two Zards.

And this is the real problem with the megazards. It's the same problem we had with Megaluke (although at least these guys don't pack priority). That said, I think only one of them needs to be banned. The fact that both exist makes each of them that much more potent, since you can only ever predict correctly with Megazard counters half the time.
If I were to pick one variant to be banned, I'd go with X. Y actually makes for a really interesting and unique wallbreaker. X is just another DD'er, and while that's not bad, it's not presenting anything incredibly interesting to the meta that's worth preserving (and with Xzard gone, Salamence might become decent again, which would be nice).

 

[mertyville]

Surprised that mega luke only went now, i felt that he is more threatening than megagar

Mega-Gengar was not something that sweeps entire teams. It can allow the user to create perfect match ups with one of his pokemon and was decently bulky to kill opposing pokemon with its perish song set. From the sweeper standpoint, Mega-Khangaskan overshadowed Mega-Luke. You know which set is it using but it doesn't matter because you can't do anything noteworthy about it. I think thats more threatening than unpredictablility, considering it had another powerful set, nobody was able to use before Pokebank.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To the Megazards. The main problem is, team preview doesn't help much but be an indicator to what megazard your opponent might be running (thats even without considering that it might have no mega-stone at all). Those 2 play completely differently and hit from a different attacking side very hard. Even without taking that into account, Y Zard can go mixed as well, punching holes into your blissey. Zard X, though it has great SpA, doesn't need to use that because +1 physical attacks hit almost, if not harder, than special attacks on most noteworthy physical walls. There are 2 main pokemon that resist dragon+fire coverage and those will lose any of those moves boosted. While X can still run a third move like T-Punch, EQ or Brick Break to hit most pokes harder. If Charizard is going to be suspect tested, I think deciding how to bann it will be really hard. Either you will bann both, which people will bitch because each one can be contered or you bann one of them and people will bitch "X can be stopped easiely.", "Y dies to SR and has 4MSS" etc.

Other than those, Mega-Venu might be another annoying Mega. It walls almost the entire metagame and hits back really hard. It is an excellent tank considering it has only barely something noteworthy of an recovery. That is really scary.

The last one is Mega-Pinsir and this thing hits just insanely hard with his flying typ moves. Non-resisted pokemon usually die to a +2 Return from MPinsir and it has priority in Quick Attack. It makes a great substitute/part of a double or trible bird core. With Defog/Spin support, it will be a pain fighting this guy.

Mega-Mawile hits like a truck too...but it relies to much on Sucker Punch and has no reliable recovery to be compared to those beasts above. But it is easy to fight into a team thanks to its great typing, coverage moves and access to Sucke Punch.

 

[midend]

I use sub on megawile as it scares so many things.
From then on itz party time

 

[lordkira]

Surprised that mega luke only went now, i felt that he is more threatening than megagar

Not even close.
Mega Gengar assured two kills if played correctly.
There was no counter play. You just lose pokemons to Mega Gengar.
It was ridiculous because of its ability to support with tremendous offensive prowess.

 

[Deluks917]

Mega Gengar imo is among the strongest and most influential pokemon in ubers right now. It was truly ridiculous in OU.

The vast majority of megas are viable. My personal rankings:

(Very Viable)
0: Pinsir
1: Charizard-Y, Charizard-X, Scizor, Tyranitar, Venusaur
2: Mawhile, Garchomp, Heracross, Gyardaos
(Semi-viable)
3: Medicham, Alakazam, Aggron, Gardevoir
4: Ampharos, Blastoise, Absol, Aerodactyl, Manetric
(Not Viable)
5: Abamasnow, Banette, Houndoom

 

[NotSoClutch]

Mega Gengar imo is among the strongest and most influential pokemon in ubers right now. It was truly ridiculous in OU.

The vast majority of megas are viable. My personal rankings:

(Very Viable)
0: Pinsir
1: Charizard-Y, Charizard-X, Scizor, Tyranitar, Venusaur
2: Mawhile, Garchomp, Heracross, Gyardaos
(Semi-viable)
3: Medicham, Alakazam, Aggron, Gardevoir
4: Ampharos, Blastoise, Absol, Aerodactyl, Manetric
(Not Viable)
5: Abamasnow, Banette, Houndoom

Personally, I don't think bannette gets enough credit for what it can do. Its a great revenge killer and provides exceptional support with things like priority will o wisp or one of its many interesting prankster tactics.

 

[seoulwolf]

How come everyone is so ban happy. It was as stated before, it looks like slowly all of the viable Mega-s are going to be banned. Really, people are going to go after the Zards and Venusaur? The Zards are finally competitive and people want to remove them from the OU game? It's just really annoying. I understand banning Kangaskhan due to his bulk, ability to break down subs, priority, etc, but even the ban of M-Luke wasn't necessarily needed in my opinion. Also, I am still annoyed about quick-banning Blaziken. With the new meta game, there are two priority flying attack users who can OHKO him, regards of his speed as well as Azumarill who could take his attacks at +2 and OHKO him back with Waterfall or OHKO him with a choice-banded aqua jet. I would have understood if Blazikenite was banned, but I think Blaziken was quick-banned before he got a chance to see his counters.

I know people probably won't do anything about it, until all of the useful Mega's have been banned, but please stop taking away all of the Mega's. Gamefreak made them strong, but you can only have one on your team at a time and the rest of the people have the same access to them if they wanted to use them. Anyways, that ends my rant against banning the megas...

 

[SHSL Lucky Crits]

I don't see any more megas being banned, except for maybe Pinsir. Kangaskhan, Lucario, and Gengar did deserve to be banned, but the rest are fine and do have playable weaknesses.

If we're going to ban any more we may as well pull a full sweep and put everything in Viability Tier S into ubers, and really, that isn't unlikely.

...Taking away all the megas? Three are banned. That's miniscule.

The banning of M-Luke was completely justified. He was, without a doubt (Barring maybe Aegis), the best physical sweeper in OU. As long as he was around, other sweepers were unviable. Honestly, he would fit into a theoretical 'uber borderline' (uborderline?) tier, as he's too strong for OU, but outclassed by pokemon in Ubers (HI KANGASKHAN).

 

[TooMuchSugar]

How come everyone is so ban happy. It was as stated before, it looks like slowly all of the viable Mega-s are going to be banned. Really, people are going to go after the Zards and Venusaur? The Zards are finally competitive and people want to remove them from the OU game? It's just really annoying. I understand banning Kangaskhan due to his bulk, ability to break down subs, priority, etc, but even the ban of M-Luke wasn't necessarily needed in my opinion. Also, I am still annoyed about quick-banning Blaziken. With the new meta game, there are two priority flying attack users who can OHKO him, regards of his speed as well as Azumarill who could take his attacks at +2 and OHKO him back with Waterfall or OHKO him with a choice-banded aqua jet. I would have understood if Blazikenite was banned, but I think Blaziken was quick-banned before he got a chance to see his counters.

I know people probably won't do anything about it, until all of the useful Mega's have been banned, but please stop taking away all of the Mega's. Gamefreak made them strong, but you can only have one on your team at a time and the rest of the people have the same access to them if they wanted to use them. Anyways, that ends my rant against banning the megas...

Short answers: Mega Venusaur is never going to be banned, the Zards probably won't be banned although they may be suspected, Mega Lucario was incredibly broken and needed to go, same with Blaziken (revenge killing is not an argument against something being broken if it's too powerful other ways). Very few of the megas are anywhere near broken, the ones that have been banned are just the insanely powerful ones.

EDIT: SHSL Lucky Crits, Lucario was not just the best physical sweeper but also the best special sweeper - even better.

 

[Deluks917]

My opinion is the only remaining mega that have a non-trivial chance to get banned are Pinsir/Char-Y/Char-X/Venusaur. Venusaur iff Pinsir gets banned.

I think the most likely ban is pinsir. All the remaining megas are safe.

Though my guess is eventually pinsir and one of the zards will be banned.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

even the ban of M-Luke wasn't necessarily needed in my opinion.

Lucario was not as unreasonably strong as Kangaskhan was but it was still way too capable of sweeping teams without any effort.

Also, I am still annoyed about quick-banning Blaziken. With the new meta game, there are two priority flying attack users who can OHKO him, regards of his speed as well as Azumarill who could take his attacks at +2 and OHKO him back with Waterfall or OHKO him with a choice-banded aqua jet. I would have understood if Blazikenite was banned, but I think Blaziken was quick-banned before he got a chance to see his counters.

lol. Blaziken is broken beyond reason, a handful of new counters and checks isn't going to fix that. It's #6 in uber usage for a reason.

I know people probably won't do anything about it, until all of the useful Mega's have been banned, but please stop taking away all of the Mega's. Gamefreak made them strong, but you can only have one on your team at a time and the rest of the people have the same access to them if they wanted to use them. Anyways, that ends my rant against banning the megas...

Doesn't matter if they're supposed to be strong, if they're too strong they deserve to be banned, like three have thus far.

At any rate, IMO all the remaining megas are balanced. Pinsir and the Zards are a bit on the strong side but still completely capable of being handled.

 

[midend]

At any rate, IMO all the remaining megas are balanced. Pinsir and the Zards are a bit on the strong side but still completely capable of being handled.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but rocks-

 

[RotomPoison]

Using this as a place to update my 1k please ignore.

Hide

Note these are in alphabetical order so it's easier to find

Klefki in general: GO. AWAY.

-Flygon- You're crazy and stupid. We became friends a long time ago when you thought you messed something up and I told you that you didn't, then I actually realized how stupid you were tbh. No really we are pretty good friends even if I disagree with some of the stuff you do. I never actually agreed to be in RRT (because I didn't want to spoil the game for myself lol) but hey why not? Hopefully we can work as a team to finish all that work. Yes, that was fake too. Getbetter taste in music.

Air Really smart and fun to talk to, and he makes good teams too, even if all of them are stolen. Also I'm Rotom so you're not allowed to be an Air Balloom Rotom-Fan sorry. We'll get suspect reqs next time... if timezones stop being stupid, and we both know that won't happen.

AwesomeFennekin You hate me right now for something I didn't do, and you do it all the time... guess this is goodbye then :(

Bidoofs Crazy Videos Good friend of mine from before I was more active on Smogon. He actually tried my boxlocke idea with me and it went really well. Since then I quit YT and he hit 500 subs, so congrats to you, hope you get thousands more and you don't forget me and Crobat when you do. You also have bad taste in music and your teams don't have the correct Ubers Ledian set smh.

Durant Remember that Golduck guy? It was Flygon. Remember Geno? That was me. 6-0ing you. Right now. REPLAY COMING SOON PEOPLE JUST SAYING. Durant is a really underrated Pokemon, really everywhere. It was really fun going for reqs with you... until I got locked, sorry. There's always next time though. Also make an OU team with Durant in it with me y/y

fleurdyleurse You're really nice, even when we both try to troll Magnemite and get kicked doing it, it's all for fun. I promise to annoy you more and make you GP Nidoking <3

gamer boy Don't worry man, Furret will be back to take his revenge upon OU. You might have made some mistakes a long time ago but you're better now. I hope you can teach me VGC some day, and maybe I can teach you Ubers. We can find a time to stream one day too

Kit Kasai Sometimes I annoy you, but that's my job :) Also just saying I'm Hawlucha n_n

Magnemite You used to have the best custom titles... then you got that teardrop and it all went downhill... I annoy you daily on IRC but you know it's not serious so get over it y/y I'll stop. Tomorrow. I promise. Too bad nothing stops me from saying tomorrow is tomorrow every day :o Get more badges than Minus then I'll stop.

Minus Teardrop :o You would deserve it if you stamped more of my amchecks js. Minus goes in history as the only person to hate me 98% of the time rather than 99% ALSO ADMIT IT WYVERN56 UNUNHEXIUM FOUND YOUR ALT

Mulvone19 Sideways. With a shovel.

Pikachuun We don't talk that much, but you put up with my bad jokes and you're pretty fun to talk to. You're also an Adrian Marin alt and you're the best Showdown voice troll of 2014. Also, STOP USING STALL.

Quickbobhero Infernape is bad

Rohail For not buying stock in Vaporeonite

RotomPoison for existing

Sapphire. Still not sure whether its good luck or bad luck? Sapphire is always nice and always willing to help people until you go on Showdown and annoy her every day, then she starts ignoring you. n_n Seriously I probably do annoy you sometimes, but I don't mean it. Maybe if you found everything we wanted to do fun you would come more, but hey whatever you want I guess. If you ever need anything you know where to find me... somewhere without a Flygon. Or a Sigilyph.

Seismitoad Mike is really fun sometimes, even if he does overreact to the dumbest stuff a lot. We're still friends though because otherwise I won't use that mono Seismitoad team. Even if your reputation has the words "smart" and "not" in it then... well that's about it nice job.

Shaymin :D Normally if I push you out a window you try to fix it not hit your head on the sidewalk genius. Too bad you don't come to the OM room anymore, you're really fun most of the time and Shaymin is bad y/y

The Shellder Smuggler You're only here ao I can say I hate you. So there you go.

Typhlito You wish Typhlosion was a dog but you just say it's your fren :] Maybe next time a tour happens they'll spell your name right. We'll hit page 69 soon.

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Ok I guess here are my top 5 friends, again in alphabetical order because I can't choose it wouldn't be right

Blizzardhail It's really cool you live in Singapore... until you realize the huge timezone difference. You're actually a really fun person and every time you come on IRC I constantly spam just because I know you don't care and it's all for fun. You were probably the 2nd good friend I made here, and I wish you were around more. Get XY and MK8 as soon as you can :) Thanks for everything, even the bad times when people blamed you or me you were always nice about it. Though really you're just some kid who got lucky enougn not to have all his Firebot posts deleted. You're also one of the few people who I can say I would trust with almost anything, so thanks :)

Captain Amurica One of my best friends, even if we didn't get along well at first. Even if I constantly annoy you you can just get back at me in MK8 >_> Definitely one of the most fun people on Smogon and a really fun person to talk to. Thanks for the good times, here's to a lot more!

LightningLuxray One of my best friends here. Laddering with him or just teambuilding is a lot of fun. I know I annoy you sometimes (no really, I'm doing it right now onpurpose) but it doesn't matter. You know it's a joke because we're really good friends. I won't do it anymore, until tomorrow. Even when I was mad at life or just bored we would battle or go for reqs or whatever, or I would just spam on Smogon. As much as I hate laddering, just joining your battles while you got reqs was really fun. Don't believe me? WE SAW BASED CLAYDOL AND HE DOUBTED THE POWER OF FLETCHINDER. Really, thanks for everything LL, you're a really good friend of mine and probably will be for a long time. I need to teach you Ubers and you need to teach me Doubles sometime so we can at least play the same tiers. Now we just need to annoy Magnemite fren :]

regirock She's a really nice person... most of the time. We have a lot in common and it's a lot of fun to do stuff with you, and I hope we can race more with everyone from IRC. I promise you can pick the next game n_n I know you hate some of the people there, but I can just ban them and pretend nothing happened right? I really like how you can trust me and how we can have fun together all the time, especially in hackmons. I just hope you don't leave, because you're one of my best friends and it would be really sad to see you go. Still great that we can talk whenever on Smogon or IRC and we both like speedrunning. It's great to have so much in common... even the bad side, but that's one of the reasons we're such good friends. Also <3

Ununhexium Ununhexium is literally my twin irl. He actually messed up really bad when I first met him and got me mad at him, but hey, I forgave him quick. Turned out we had a lot in common, even the same name, and we ended up becoming really good friends. You just need to work a little more and maybe grow up a little y/n and you'll definitely get on the GP team. You also reserved Jirachi... LOL GOOD LUCK WRITING THAT UP. Nah we help each other out when we can, and I don't mind doing it because we're friends. When you get back from California, you're joining our next race, and you'll be on my team. One of my best friends on Smogon, so once again thanks for everything.