Metagame Mega Evolution in Sun & Moon

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Does someone has a list of all the megas used in the Battle Tree that are part of the Unavailable ones ? Ampharos is there, but are there any more ?
Gosh, I REALLY hope they will all come back, I'm so used to mega Manectric, and I really think this gen gives him some potential with all the new mons.
 

Jukain

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In terms of top Megas, I think three in particular really stand out: Venu, Metagross, and Alakazam.


Venu is solid against the wave of Electrics and Tapu Bulu (which is quickly becoming more popular), in addition to dealing with others pretty effectively like a good number of Aegislash variants and Pheromosa, which it only checks due to U-turn but can 1v1 and switch into to take a hit if absolutely necessary. I'm definitely getting shades of XY Venu while using it, especially because Aegi is keeping Psychics in check; however, I still think Venu will continue to be effective if/when Aegislash is banned. One of the main, and perhaps most underrated, reasons that I think Venu is better in this generation has to do with the burn nerf. I feel a lot more comfortable using Venu against Rotom and Waters in general because getting burned by Wisp/Scald isn't nearly as detrimental. It also fits really nicely in cores with some of the great new defensive Pokemon like Toxapex, buffed Mantine, and Celesteela. Venu is especially effective because Latios isn't as common atm with the massive influx of Aegislash and Fairies in general, generally meaning that offensive teams tend to have a harder time forcing it out. Furthermore, with the return of Aegislash and addition of Celesteela, there are more solid Psychic resists to combat the offensive Psychics that may be sent to break it.

I think Knock or at least Leech is pretty much mandatory at the moment for Venu because you can't be giving Aegislash and Landorus-I free opportunities. I've appreciated defensive investment (just using the 248/96+/rest spdef spread) just because there's a lot for Venu to handle in the types of defensive cores I'm referring to. However, offensive is still very solid, particularly for more offensive builds that still want to make use of it.


I'm not exactly too sure why people aren't using Metagross more. EQ is perfectly fine for covering Aegislash if that's really the issue. Mega Metagross is powerful and not prepared for nearly well enough by many teams. It can run priority, which is very valuable in a metagame populated with Pheromosa, Greninja, and Tapu Koko. It can break the Water+Grass defensive cores that people are using. In general, Mega Metagross is all-around very solid. It has great power and coverage, access to priority, and a fantastic defensive typing to check relevant threats like Scarf Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, Mega Alakazam, and Kartana w/o Night Slash. The Mega speed buff applies pretty notably to Metagross, as it didn't necessarily have difficulty before but certainly was inconvenienced by the process of having to Mega to gain its speed. The flexibility and utility that Mega Metagross offers to teams, especially with certain other Mega options off the table, is very valuable in the current metagame.


Probably will be even better in a metagame sans Aegi(/Phero), but it's still very solid atm. Shadow Ball can dent Aegi enough anyways to where it's discouraged to come in and outright beats variants that don't run Shadow Sneak. Mega Alakazam benefits from the Mega speed buff as well, giving it immediate access to the Speed it boasts over Tapu Koko and Greninja. Particularly with Mega Lopunny no longer competing for its slot, Megazam is very effective in the current metagame. It especially enjoys its new partner Tapu Lele, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority revenge kills and makes it absurdly strong. Think of it as Specs-boosted Psychics from a Pokemon with 175 base spatk and 150 base speed to put it into perspective. I think the calcs really illustrate just how strong this is, so I'm just going to list some here.

252 SpA Mega Alakazam Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T in Psychic Terrain: 333-393 (87.1 - 102.8%)
252 SpA Mega Alakazam Psychic vs. 252 HP / 16+ SpD Mantine in Psychic Terrain: 186-220 (49.7 - 58.8%) -- 74.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Mega Alakazam Psychic vs. 252 HP / 72+ SpD Clefable in Psychic Terrain: 255-301 (64.7 - 76.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Mega Alakazam Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-W in Psychic Terrain: 261-307 (85.8 - 100.9%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Mega Alakazam Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Genesect in Psychic Terrain: 144-171 (50.8 - 60.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Mega Alakazam Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele in Psychic Terrain: 123-144 (43.7 - 51.2%) -- 8.2% chance to 2HKO

Psychic is better, but I just wanted to throw this calc in there for the sake of context:
252 SpA Mega Alakazam Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey in Psychic Terrain: 325-384 (46.1 - 54.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

This kind of power is insane...I mean obviously you can't always have Psychic Terrain up, but when you can get it up (I reckon that Tapu Lele will end up being one of the Tapus who is pretty effective with Terrain Extender anyways just due to all the fast frail stuff it supports, which makes this more flexible) or an opponent sets it up (fairly common), Mega Alakazam can wreak havoc. The combination of fantastic speed, power, and coverage with its destructive powers in Psychic Terrain and general benefits from the Mega speed buff make Mega Alakazam one of the top Megas and among the upper echelon of Pokemon in general for this metagame.
 
Aerodactyl-Mega @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Wing Attack/Taunt/Toxic
- Earthquake
- Roost

this is a good mon that puts pressure on lots of common defensive cores and edgequake is solid coverage. It's a good flying resist and offensive check to a crapload of stuff including topkek, toplel, top bull, xurkitree, aegislash, and a ton of other stuff. Its a good mon vs offense and it outspeeds + Atk pheromosa and takes advantage of choice locked mons like chomp and phero, again. good mon use it more
 
With the new weather setter in the OU environment (Torkoal, Pelipper and A-Ninetales) alongside the old ones, I think that should be mentioned (at least) the possibility to run the Venusaurite on the special event Venusaur with Overgrow+ Weather Ball. In this way, you'll replace the regular Venusaur's ability (Chlorophyll is useless outside the Sun and Spe mechanic on the turn you mega evolve now changed) with Thick Fat, but with the addition of a special coverage move usable in Sand, Sun, Rain and Hail to get rid of some checks. Most notably, in Sun, Weather Ball is a better HP Fire.

The Sun itself it is a godsend to the unreliable Synthesis, which will have at least a chance to recharge 2/3 of Venu's HP because now we have a reliable Sun setter.

The Talonflame nerf is also good, but this bird is still a problem with its blazing Spe.
 
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I'm pretty sure the event Venusaur (Bulbasaur?) with Weather Ball has Overgrowth. But it doesn't matter since it's good coverage for Mega Venusaur who doesn't have Chlorophyll anyway.
 
mega gengar is listed as a banned mega in the op.
i will give my two cents on the viable megas(not going to talk about mega venu and metagross cause everybody already talked about it, nor charizard cause i don't really what this thing can do, and is Y viable right now?):


by far my favorite mega right now, use this with A-ninetales and you can get sweep so many things with easy, amoongus, tangrowth and quagsire all disappear from OU at the moment and gyara can break mega venu with easy tnks to aurora veil, wich also helps a lot against a lot of shit(you can survive u-turn from genescect and focus miss from lando-i), pheromosa and genescect are annoying for this, but after 2 setups(really easy to achive) he can destroy everything, not even mimkyu can use disguise to check this, dark type being immune to prankester is really great, no WoW or T-wave will stop you now. aegis, mantine, toxapex, rotom-w are all dead weight/luck reliant against this monster.



this got some nice buffs, the spe mechanic is probably the biggest one, being able to outspeed and KO phemorosa is the biggest selling point here, being able to check toxapex, rain +eletric terrains teams and most of the ubs are huge too. alakazam + tapu lele make a stong psychc spam core, with mega alakzam being able to check a lot of mons that use to rely on priority to beat him, most notably weavile, bisharp, metagross and thundurus. lando-i, mimikyu and the ubs also give trace some new toys to play around. not the best mega, but very viable.


i don't much to say about this, but i faced a lot of them in the ladder and i can theorymon about why it's a very common mon, the speed mechanic helped it a lot, its a nice check to tapu bulu, phemorosa, buzzwole and nonscarf xukitree, and aftera boost it can break almost every defensive mon that is being used at the moment including toxapex, mantine, tapu fini, mandibuzz, aegislash, marowak, and tapu lele(not very defensive, but is something it can break after a boost), genescect is also KOed by +2quick attack after little prior damage. if you hate rotom-w run moldbreaker + EQ nobody realise what is going o happen trust me.


definetly nos as dominant as it was in ORAS because stall is not that good right now, but this thing is still anoying as fuck and get some new friends to play together the stall game, once pheromosa and aegislash get their bans, this is going to rise a lot and become the motherfucker everybody hates.'


another one that is going to rise in the future, mega scizor is actually better than sab at the momment, checks all tapus bar lele with hp fire, wrecks pheromosa and buzzwole, with SD + knock off/brutal swing can check a-marowak and aegislash, and is a nice counter to both mega alaka and mega meta, i would say that mega scizor biggest problems right now is the 4mss and trouble with ev spread, SD+BP+stab bug+knock of/brutal swing +roost is everything you want, but you can't have it all, and you want to go bulky to set up better, but also wants the damage to beat things like tapu lele and a-marowak easier.

edit: i have seen some hype on sharpedo, but i see very little reasons to use it over gyarados, also mega slowbro and mega aerodactyl seems to have lost their niches tnks to the new threats making them underwelming (mega aero can check non boosted pheromosa, but thats all about it).
 
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this got some nice buffs, the spe mechanic is probably the biggest one, being able to outspeed and KO phemorosa is the biggest selling point here, being able to check toxapex, rain +eletric terrains teams and most of the ubs are huge too. alakazam + tapu lele make a stong psychc spam core, with mega alakzam being able to check a lot of mons that use to rely on priority to beat him, most notably weavile, bisharp, metagross and thundurus. lando-i, mimikyu and the ubs also give trace some new toys to play around. not the best mega, but very viable.
Mega Zam can't outspeed Pheromosa because the former has 150 base Spe, while the latter has 151. Still, Zam has to run Timid nature (instead of Modest) in order to outspeed only the slower version of Pheromosa, which run more Atk or SpA in order to achieve a Moxie/Soul Heart boost through Beast Boost.
Despite this, Trace has new good targets in the form of Beast Boost and Soul Heart running around the OU environment.

another one that is going to rise in the future, mega scizor is actually better than sab at the momment, checks all tapus bar lele with hp fire, wrecks pheromosa and buzzwole, with SD + knock off/brutal swing can check a-marowak and aegislash, and is a nice counter to both mega alaka and mega meta, i would say that mega scizor biggest problems right now is the 4mss and trouble with ev spread, SD+BP+stab bug+knock of/brutal swing +roost is everything you want, but you can't have it all, and you want to go bulky to set up better, but also wants the damage to beat things like tapu lele and a-marowak easier.
Agree. I think that Scizor will be played more than M-Venusaur very soon because it has a good typing and Roost (and even Defog if necessary). Mega Venusaur is a great "transition Mega" in the sense that in a newborn metagame it can check a bunch of pokemon only relying on its natural bulk alone + its resistances, but it has trouble when the metagame adaptes to it. Synthesis is nice for recovery, but still inferior to Roost in every possible way between Sand and Rain (and Hail). Giga Drain really needs Grass Terrain to hit neutrally many targets due to Grass' 4x resistances all around.
 
So Gamefreak removed most of the more "balanced" mega evolutions (Tyranitar, Heracross, Ampharos, etc.) but still had the strength of mind to make sure Mega Rayquaza continued to be the most bullshit 'mon in existence. This and the Gengar nerf just seem so out of left field. I assume they'll just be distributed through Mystery Gift or in the 3rd version, but still.

It's really interesting to see the new mega changes, though. This is a pretty substantial buff to Beedrill and Diancie, who will no longer require protect for the speed boost post-evolution.
 
So Gamefreak removed most of the more "balanced" mega evolutions (Tyranitar, Heracross, Ampharos, etc.) but still had the strength of mind to make sure Mega Rayquaza continued to be the most bullshit 'mon in existence. This and the Gengar nerf just seem so out of left field.
Note that every unreleased Mega Stone belongs to a Pokémon not catchable in Alola, and that the Kanto starters are the only unreleased Pokémon with released Meg Stones. They probably (hopefully) plan of distributing them with Global Link or some other means when Pokébank hits, but of course they can't do that with a Dragon Ascent tutor.
 
mega gengar is listed as a banned mega in the op.
i will give my two cents on the viable megas(not going to talk about mega venu and metagross cause everybody already talked about it, nor charizard cause i don't really what this thing can do, and is Y viable right now?):


by far my favorite mega right now, use this with A-ninetales and you can get sweep so many things with easy, amoongus, tangrowth and quagsire all disappear from OU at the moment and gyara can break mega venu with easy tnks to aurora veil, wich also helps a lot against a lot of shit(you can survive u-turn from genescect and focus miss from lando-i), pheromosa and genescect are annoying for this, but after 2 setups(really easy to achive) he can destroy everything, not even mimkyu can use disguise to check this, dark type being immune to prankester is really great, no WoW or T-wave will stop you now. aegis, mantine, toxapex, rotom-w are all dead weight/luck reliant against this monster.
Seconding this one here. I've been using a core of Mega Gyarados and Alolan Ninetales w/U-Turn support (re: Genesect) and it legitimately demolishes teams. There aren't enough things that can threaten a +1 Mega Gyarados in the tier right now, and literally nothing stops it at +2. Nobody's using bulky Grass outside of M-Venu, and Psychic Terrain has caused a lot of people to rethink Mach Punch. Use DD/Waterfall/Crunch/EQ and watch everything that thought it could safely switch in die.

All the aforementioned stuff considered, you stick an Aurora Veil in front of Mega Gyarados and it's gg. It's honestly too easy to safely get this thing in behind an Aurora Veil. I'd watch the meta moving forward, but I think Gyarados could easily shoot up to A or A+ once we start ranking things.

Grab your Chesnaughts everyone, this sea serpent ain't going anywhere.
 
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I predict:
  1. Come January there will be events for Certain Megastones. (and maybe Diancie in general)
  2. Later when the next game comes they will include the missing Megastones (by then the missing Megastones for pokemon that or may not be Diancie would had already been distributed), and maybe add a few new Megas
  3. Come Gen VIII they will rinse and repeat for even more fun.
 
Beedrill got such an amazing buff making is OU (Imho) and then you can't even use it. God I hate you Gamefreak.
Agreed. Protect is no longer a necessary move since the mega mechanics now give it its huge 145 base speed and its Adaptability on the turn it evolves, allowing it to Mega and U-Turn out safely or try out the massively buffed Fell Stinger which is essentially now as strong as a regular Earthquake thanks to 50BP + Adaptability, get a +3 attack boost if it kills and grow to 427 speed and almost 1000 attack in a single turn if it's Jolly.
Of course, priority will still tear it apart, and it's still frail as glass, but it's a huge buff that makes it much harder to deal with.
 
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I hope M-Pidgeot is waiting for the 3rd game to get Focus Blast or a Ground type equivalent... (Sand Tornado? lol)
It still has the same movepool since gen 5, no new egg moves, not even crap ones.
 
I think MegaGross is going to be great at the new meta. Being a Steel-type who doesn't need priority to kill Lele is great, and being able to similarly Check/Counter the new fairies is a big plus.
 
So in Pokemon Showdown Sun and Moon battles, where you just go on OU ladder and Ubers ladder and all of those, you can use Mega Evolution, right?
And it's only in like... VGC that you can't use them.
Is that correct?
 

Halcyon.

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So in Pokemon Showdown Sun and Moon battles, where you just go on OU ladder and Ubers ladder and all of those, you can use Mega Evolution, right?
And it's only in like... VGC that you can't use them.
Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct. The only Mega Pokemon that are banned in OU are the ones that are listed in the Banlist (they're also in the OP of this post under available Mega Evolutions).
 
Seconding this one here. I've been using a core of Mega Gyarados and Alolan Ninetales w/U-Turn support (re: Genesect) and it legitimately demolishes teams. There aren't enough things that can threaten a +1 Mega Gyarados in the tier right now, and literally nothing stops it at +2. Nobody's using bulky Grass outside of M-Venu, and Psychic Terrain has caused a lot of people to rethink Mach Punch. Use DD/Waterfall/Crunch/EQ and watch everything that thought it could safely switch in die.

All the aforementioned stuff considered, you stick an Aurora Veil in front of Mega Gyarados and it's gg. It's honestly too easy to safely get this thing in behind an Aurora Veil. I'd watch the meta moving forward, but I think Gyarados could easily shoot up to A or A+ once we start ranking things.

Grab your Chesnaughts everyone, this sea serpent ain't going anywhere.
Yeah that team you posted is absurdly good. I'll third Mega Gyra and A-Ninetails.
 
Did the speed buff benefit absol at all? Besides beedrill, the second mega that came to mind who would get better was absol who may be able to revenge kill easier without relying on sucker punch, possibly taking pursuit or another coverage move entirely. I don't see any talk about it though.
 
Yeah that team you posted is absurdly good. I'll third Mega Gyra and A-Ninetails.
What makes Gyarados better now than last gen? Are not all of his threats available? Or just the fact that prankster doesn't work on him anymore?

What makes him particularly good with Aurora veil vs another setup sweeper?
 
Still a really really stupid thing for them to do but I guess this is game freak we're talking about here.
It makes no sense to put megastones in a game where those pokemon aren't available. Perhaps they will release them once pokemon bank comes out or the next pokemon game (either a remake or an enhanced port)
 
It makes no sense to put megastones in a game where those pokemon aren't available. Perhaps they will release them once pokemon bank comes out or the next pokemon game (either a remake or an enhanced port)
Sorry for the nitpick, ORAS had a lot of mega stones in-game even though some of their respective Pokémon (e.g. Kanto starters, Mewtwo) weren't available in the game.
 

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Sorry for the nitpick, ORAS had a lot of mega stones in-game even though some of their respective Pokémon (e.g. Kanto starters, Mewtwo) weren't available in the game.
The difference here is that X&Y existed, so those Pokemon were all just a trade away. This is not the case in S&M. Those Pokemon, for all intents and purposes, cannot exist in the game. Unless you hack the game, it is impossible to get any Pokemon who's mega stone is not in the game. Maybe it will stay that way even after they are available. Or maybe they will patch them in. We don't know. But functionally, putting them in at the moment would serve no purpose for actual cartridge play.
 
Considering Parental bond was supposedly nerfed why's M Khan still banned?
Because Kangaskhan still has its Seismic Toss set which deals 200 damage regardless of Intimidates/Screens/burn, and so on.
Something like this:
Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Protect
- Sucker Punch/Foresight
- Wish

Protect+Wish is here for recovery; Seismic Toss for "neutral" 200 damage to each pokemon not being a Ghost type. Sucker Punch is a filler and Foresight nullifies the Ghost problem.
EVs are simple: max HP in order to increase its bulk on both sides of the spectrum, whereas Jolly nature and max Spe is here for a fast Seismic Toss.
 
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