ethan06
⋖(☼┆☼)⋗
[OVERVIEW]
With a small, but specialized, movepool and an excellent base 135 Special Attack that is rare for an offensive Flying-type, Mega Pidgeot is capable of breaking through several otherwise impenetrable Pokemon in Battle Spot Singles such as Gliscor and Mega Venusaur. One of Mega Pidgeot's most interesting assets is its ability to answer Minimize Clefable and Drifblim thanks to its ability, No Guard. No Guard also gives Mega Pidgeot a very powerful tool in STAB Hurricane, an otherwise unreliable move thanks to its 70% accuracy. However, its viable offensive movepool is restricted to Hurricane, Heat Wave, Hidden Power, and Hyper Beam, a tiny selection that leaves Mega Pidgeot hard walled by common Pokemon such as Heatran and Rotom-W. It also has similar checks to Talonflame, a well-prepared-for threat. However, with some team support, Pidgeot functions well as a special wallbreaker and sweeper in the Battle Spot Singles metagame.
[SET]
name: Specially Offensive
move 1: Hurricane
move 2: Heat Wave
move 3: Protect / U-turn / Substitute
move 4: Hidden Power Ice
item: Pidgeotite
ability: Big Pecks
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
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Hurricane is Mega Pidgeot's STAB move and its most spammable move; its reasonable 30% chance to inflict confusion on its target is a useful bonus. Heat Wave allows Mega Pidgeot to OHKO Scizor and Ferrothorn, as well as hit a whole slew of other Steel-types super effectively. Pidgeot's base 101 Speed is good but somewhat middling before it Mega Evolves; therefore, Protect is a useful choice for safely acquiring the Speed boost that allows Mega Pidgeot to outpace Pokemon such as non-Choice Scarf Garchomp, Terrakion, Mega Gallade, Mega Metagross, and Raikou. U-turn is another solid scouting option here, as non-Mega Pidgeot's Speed tier is good enough for it to not need Protect against a lot of threats; U-turn allows Pidgeot to scout for counters switching in and answer accordingly, maintaining your team's momentum. Substitute is similar to Protect in that it shields Pidgeot from most offensive attacks and status moves, but it differentiates itself with a potentially longer-lasting effect; it also has good synergy with the confusion from Hurricane's secondary effect. Lastly, Hidden Power Ice is a useful move for exploiting Mega Pidgeot's Speed tier and high Special Attack to heavily damage threats such as Garchomp, Landorus-T, Gliscor, and Mega Salamence. Roost is a useful move that can be used in either the third or fourth slot; however, running Pidgeot without Hidden Power Ice means that it cannot perform its niche of checking Gliscor, Landorus-T, and Mega Salamence quite as effectively, whereas losing Protect can make Pidgeot vulnerable to Pokemon such as Garchomp and Terrakion on the turn it Mega Evolves. Recovery is also not much of a priority for Pidgeot in Battle Spot Singles, where its frailty and the fast-paced nature of the format can limit the opportunities that Pidgeot has to heal itself.
Set Details
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Mega Pidgeot's base 121 Speed is a valuable benchmark to have in a format where most of the relevant threats are base 100 Speed or faster; therefore, a Timid nature and 252 Speed EVs are essential in order to outspeed and KO dangerous threats such as Mega Salamence and Mega Lucario. 252 Special Attack EVs make Pidgeot's attacks as strong as possible, leaving the last 4 EVs to go into Defense or Special Defense.
Usage Tips
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Mega Pidgeot beats a very specific number of threats and needs support for another specific group of threats. No Guard Hurricane and Heat Wave give it a solid matchup against Grass-types and Fighting-types such as Mega Venusaur, Serperior, weakened Conkeldurr, and Mega Lucario, and Hidden Power Ice gives it Dragon-slaying utility with its fantastic Speed tier — on the other hand, these three moves are completely walled by Pokemon such as Chansey, Tyranitar, Rotom-W, and Heatran. No Guard also allows Mega Pidgeot to completely bypass any and all evasion changes, completely nullifying Minimize strategies as a threat to your team. However, it also bestows perfect accuracy upon moves used by the opponent, making users of inaccurate moves such as Thunder and Stone Edge and OHKO moves such as Horn Drill and Sheer Cold very scary to face.
Team Options
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Mega Pidgeot is a powerful attacker, but its shallow movepool makes it very predictable and easy to stop. Hurricane spam helps a lot versus its checks if Mega Pidgeot gets the confusion, but Mega Pidgeot will often find itself being forced out by a Tyranitar, Heatran, or Rotom-W, all of which are very common thanks to the ubiquity of Talonflame. As such, it's highly recommended that you come prepared with answers to these Pokemon to allow Pidgeot to have a much better time. Ground-types and Fighting-types are the best catch-all answers to these three Pokemon: Mold Breaker Excadrill's Earthquake can weaken them sufficiently for them to be picked off by Mega Pidgeot's Hurricane; Assault Vest Conkeldurr can throw out Drain Punches and Mach Punches while being able to absorb Rotom-W and Heatran's status moves with Guts and throw out Guts-boosted attacks in return; Landorus-T and Garchomp exacerbate Pidgeot's Ice weakness considerably but are still worth consideration for their powerful Earthquakes and other utilities; and Dugtrio is a niche, but decent, option for trapping and removing Tyranitar, Heatran, and grounded Electric-types such as Raikou.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
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Roost can be used as a form of recovery, but in a fast-paced format like Battle Spot Singles, staying healthy isn't really a priority for a fast, frail attacker like Mega Pidgeot. Mirror Move is a fun gimmick that synergizes well with Protect or Substitute to catch OHKO move users and Pokemon that use moves that they themselves are weak to (for example, Shadow Ball Gengar or Earth Power Heatran if a switch is predicted) off-guard. However, it's incredibly situational and, once again, Pidgeot can't really afford the moveslot. Hidden Power Grass, Hidden Power Fighting, and Hidden Power Ground are listed solely for the purpose of beating popular checks such as Rotom-W, Tyranitar, and Heatran, respectively. However, they have little utility, as Tyranitar still doesn't take much from any of them and none are capable of OHKOing their targets from full health. Agility can be used with a Modest nature to turn Mega Pidgeot into a boosting sweeper; however, Pidgeot lacks the bulk to boost in most cases and prefers the Speed tier that a Timid nature grants it. The extra power and Speed can however be useful if you find a boosting opportunity, making Agility a niche option. Hyper Beam is an obscenely powerful STAB move that has some utility in Battle Spot Singles where 1v1 situations are quite possible and Hurricane might not be strong enough to pick something off. However, Hyper Beam's side effect alone nullifies the majority of its value and makes it a niche option in most cases. Similarly to Talonflame, Pidgeot can make use of Tailwind to benefit its teammates, especially if it is expected to faint in the turn that Tailwind is used. Lastly, Whirlwind is an option for forcing boosted Pokemon such as Scolipede, Blaziken, and Minimize Chansey off the field before they can do too much damage. However, Pidgeot can't always make use of this thanks to its frailty relative to other users of phazing moves, especially given the extra layer of vulnerability that it gets from No Guard.
Checks and Counters
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**Rotom-W and Rotom-H**: These two Pokemon are commonly seen threats that resist all of Pidgeot's commonly seen attacks and KO back with a super effective Electric-type move.
**Rock-types**: Rock-types such as Tyranitar and Tyrantrum resist both Hurricane and Heat Wave and tend to take little damage from Hidden Power Ice, significantly neutering Pidgeot's main forms of damage output. Meanwhile, they can do significant damage in return with a STAB Stone Edge or Rock Slide.
**Heatran**: Heatran's ability and set of resistances make it a hard stop to almost all forms of Mega Pidgeot; the only move with any chance of breaking through is Hidden Power Ground.
**Electric-types**: Mega Manectric and other Electric-type Pokemon such as Jolteon, Zapdos, and Thundurus-T can switch in on a predicted Hurricane and outspeed and OHKO Mega Pidgeot with a STAB move.
**Greninja**: Greninja's base 122 Speed allows it to consistently outspeed Mega Pidgeot and OHKO it with Life Orb-boosted Ice Beam. However, it is incapable of switching in on Hurricane, Hidden Power Grass, and Hidden Power Fighting.
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