Donphan-Mega
Ground/
Fairy
Ability: Sturdy/Sand Veil->
Water Absorb
Stats
HP: 90
Atk: 150 (+30)
Def: 140 (+20)
SpA: 60
SpD: 90 (+30)
Spe: 70 (+20)
Any Mega Donphan is inherently going to compete with Great Tusk and Iron Treads, and wouldn't you know the ParaDerms share exactly one weakness? Water Absorb grants Donphan a unique defensive role in comparison, with the HP recovery also letting it sustain itself in ways Tusk and Treads sometimes struggle with; it also fits wonderfully flavor wise, between the drinking habits of elephants and their surprising swimming ability. Water Absorb allows Donphan to wall defensive staples like Dozo and Palindrome, slow down rain and ensure stuff like Walking Wake, WaterPon and offensive Quaquaval can't spam their strongest attacks. The added Fairy typing further shores up its match-ups versus Wake and Mega Quaq while giving it quite handy resistances to Dark, Fighting and U-turn. This defensive profile allows Mega Donphan to support its team with
Rapid Spin and
Knock Off and throw off strong STAB
Earthquake or
High Horsepower. Mega Donphan also deals highdamage with its new STAB
Play Rough,
Ice Shard for back-up priority,
Seed Bomb to directly threaten the Water types it comes in on or other options such as
Ice Spinner,
Gunk Shot or
Stone Edge. You even can even circumvent sturdier threats with
Encore or
Endeavor.
Armarouge-Mega
Fire/
Psychic
Ability: Flash Fire/Weak Armor->
Showdown (When the user is on the field, no Pokemon can recover HP. During the effect, healing and draining moves are unusable, and abilities or items that grant healing will not heal the user).
Stats
HP: 85
Atk: 80 (+20)
Def: 120 (+20)
SpA: 155 (+30)
SpD: 90 (+10)
Spe: 95 (+20)
Armarouge's knight-like attitude causes it to challenge other Pokemon to duels, and you don't heal up during a duel. Mega Armarouge uses its ability to perform as a stall-breaker, taking on walls like Clodsire and Toxapex that other special Fire types naturally struggle with between heal blocking and STAB
Psychic or
Psyshock, using
Fire Spin to lock down and 1v1 its intended targets. You can use these opportunities to set up with
Calm Mind, spread burns with
Wisp or just hit up Fire resists with
Energy Ball for Waters or
Dragon Pulse for Dragons; really, Mega Armarouge's moveset can be tailored towards any particular removal your team needs. For Fire STAB, Rouge has
Flamethrower for reliable STAB,
Armor Cannon if you prefer a quicker finishing move or
Mystical Fire to shore up its SpD and score cheeky matchups versus stuff like Volcarona. Pre-Mega Weak Armor can even grant you a one-time patch to the only okay Speed, though its use isn't necessary for the intended role. While Armarouge doesn't lose anything of note from Showdown, its vulnerability to hazards and common weaknesses mean wearing it down isn't too difficult.
Tinkaton-Mega
Fairy/
Steel
Ability: Mold Breaker/Own Tempo/Pickpocket->
Steelbreaker (The user's attacking moves are guaranteed to land a critical hit when hitting Steel types).
Stats
HP: 85
Atk: 95 (+20)
Def: 92 (+15)
SpA: 95 (+25)
SpD: 135 (+30)
Spe: 104 (+10)
+
Incinerate,
Pain Split
Tinkaton's core lore is that it scraps metal with ease and single-handedly ensured Corviknight Taxi couldn't take off in Paldea- and yet both its STABs are resisted by Steel and it has no way to hit Corviknight super-effectively without Tera. Steelbreaker helps compensate for this discrepancy, making resistances more of a joke to
Gigaton Hammer while scaring Gholdengo with
Knock Off or making anti-Steel
Brick Break or
Bulldoze hit actually respectable damage. This boost allows support Tinkaton to threaten OU-level damage without investment or become devastating after
Swords Dance.
Pain Split gives you some limited sustain for either role, with its buffed special bulk letting it use an SD or dip into its support movepool with
Stealth Rocks,
Thunder Wave or
Encore. As for the other new addition,
Incinerate, this does give us a funny way to hit Corv super-effectively which may have some use for utility sets- but more importantly, this move gives Mega Tinkaton more offensive utility in Doubles alongside
Fake Out and Knock, as it allows Tink to hits Steels and burn berries. Alongside Steelbreaker letting it ignore Intimidate on certain targets, this helps give it a limited but niche role in VGC.