Policy Review Mega Evolutions for Past CAPs

nyttyn

From Now On, We'll...
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I'd like a moment to explain what Mega Evolution is and what it is capable of, because there seems to be a lot of talking and arguments about potential brokenness without anyeone even taking a moment to re-iterate what Mega Evoultion is and is not. And frankly, in this type of discussion, that's inexcusable. Right, so without further ado:

Mega Evolution consumes the Item Slot

This is true, and there's no way to get around that. This is a highly flawed way of thinking, however - it isn't that Mega Evolution makes it so you have no item, access to Mega Evolution is your item. It's an item that cannot be hit by knock off, cannot be slammed by trick (and in turn coffers you immunity to that move), and comes with only the drawback of needing to Mega Evolve in order to gain your benefits. This is actually a very good deal for offensive pokemon, as well as pokemon with recovery - offensive pokemon can enjoy not needing to deal with a choice band/spec's move lock or Life Orb's recoil (both huge boons), while pokemon with recovery can enjoy inflated defenses and perhaps a better ability without having to feel the sting of losing leftovers (and indeed, they can't lose the defensive boost item, unlike leftovers). For a few mons, however, namely those that rely on a Choice Scarf, or Leftovers, this can be kind of a bad thing, and in very niche scenarios (Cawmodore), this makes mega evolution unfeasible without min-maxing.

There is ONE exception to this, however, and that is Mega Rayquaza, whom does not need an item to Mega Evolve, only a specific move (which is STAB close combat so rofl he'd run it anyway). However Mega Rayquaza is also so broken that it was banned from ubers as a result, so that should tell you how good of an idea it is to allow that.

Mega Evolution gives +100 BST

This is not entirely true. Mega Evolution does give +100 BST, but there are three caveats to that fact. 1. HP cannot be increased or decreased. While mons usually just increase defense/special defense instead, for mons with high def/spdef this is kind of annoying and makes Mega Evolution a bit of a raw deal, without gaining a better ability or typing. 2. Speed changes do not take place until the end of the turn. More on this later. 3. Every single stat except for HP can be changed in the process. Mega Evolution isn't JUST a +100 BST - it's also capable of entirely shifting a mon's stats. The greatest example of abusing this would be Mega Beedril, whom took 30 points out of Special Attack which were, due to the uselessness of Special Attack on beedrill, basically free stats, while the most dramatic example would be Mega Diancie, whom rips 40 stats out of each defense to throw into her offensive stats, in addition to the +100 mega evolution BST bonus she's already applying to them.

Mega Evolution speed bonuses do not take place until the end of the turn

For some mons, this is actually a good thing. Most prominent example would be Mega Garchomp (even though he's kind of bad), who gets to keep his old speed for the turn he mega evolves, which can potentially allow him to smash a mon he otherwise could not smash, or Mega Sableye, who can abuse prankster to burn a mon or get in a calm mind at priority speed. Usually, however, this is a bad thing - for mons like Mega Beedrill, or Mega Swampert, or Mega Banette, they're somewhat reliant on the speed boost/priority they gain, and as such usually need to either get a free turn or run protect in order to safely Mega Evolve.

Mega Evolution allows changing of the Subtype

In theory, a Mega Evolution could change both types or the primary typing, but as there is no precedence for it ingame, we will assume it is only capable of changing the pokemon's secondary typing, adding one if the mon did not have one, or even removing it (hi Mega Aggron). This can be a dual edged sowrd, as what a mon is capable of switching into before and after mega evolution can dramatically change. This is something that's entirely based on the meta at the time, but the most notable thing is that mons without a SR weak subtype can gain a SR weakness (Mega pinsir, though in his case his weakness is changed to 4x from 2x), and mons with a SR weakness can lose their SR weakness (Mega Gyarados).

Mega Evolution allows for changing of the Ability

While this does not always happen (Mega Scizor), for the most part, Mega Evolution comes with a changing of ability. While usually this is not very interesting and just a flat out power gain/loss, in some instances, pokemon can play interesting shenanigans with this. Pokemon with intimidate (Mega Salamence and Mega Gyarados) are a great example of this, but Mega Sableye is a good example as well (for prior mentioned reasons). Other moves that could add a potentially interesting wrinkle include absorption/immunity abilities (Water Absorb, Levitate), weather inducing abilities (Drought and friends), and Regenerator (hi mega Slowbro), and much more.

Mega Evolution is usually balanced

You'd assume that, with all prior mentioned facts that Mega Evolution is some sort of crazy OP mechanic, but really it's not. There are plenty of perfectly balanced Mega Pokemon, and in fact, a few bad ones too (hi mega audino, you make me sad :( ). There are only a few banned to Ubers, and those are just obviously way too much. With a rational TL putting in reasonable mega stat limits, as well as good leadership on the mega typing and mega ability stages, it shouldn't be too difficult to balance (I mean come on, if Game Freak can do it, so can we). Sure, it's easy to focus on Mega Salamence, Mega Lucario, Mega Blaziken, but those are the exceptions, not the norm (just as 680 BST cover legends are the exception, and a lot of legendaries are actually quite balanced).

Mega Evolution is fuckin awesome

This is a point some people are going to be confused about, but Mega Evolution is fun. It's a mechanic that feels satisfying, even on sims, because your mon becomes TOTALLY RAD and it just feels FANTASTIC. Or, in other words, it has a huge 'fun factor' to it that's been ignored up until now, and is one that could do some serious good not only for our optics, but the enjoyment of CAP project participants as well. Remember, one of the chief goals of the CAP project is still to have fun and have a good time, and if we're not having a good time, why even bother?

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Now that I've gotten all that out of the way, my personal thoughts are that we should definitely designate one cap to be 'The Mega CAP', and we should have a PRC thread devoted to the idea to hash out a process. I'm personally excited about the potential shenanigans we could use Mega Evolution for (Mega Slowbro, Mega Diancie, and Mega Sableye particularly stand out in my eyes), and even if Mega Evolution winds up being just a balancing factor for the mon, so what? We'll still be enjoying and experimenting with what is undoubtedly the funnest and most radically game-changing mechanic that Pokemon has had this generation, and is that really such a bad thing?
 

Bughouse

Like ships in the night, you're passing me by
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The problem is that, when you do a CAP and a mega CAP concurrently, you're essentially creating 2 mons. And I don't see how you can possibly have discussions on the base CAP part of the project that don't heavily involve the entire end product. It's plain unfeasible. It will be a nightmare to moderate and frankly to participate intelligently.
 
A thought occurred to me. Suppose we did do the "The Mega CAP" proposal Doug brought up earlier. What would happen if the proposal didn't get past the Concept Workshop phase of the CAP process? If the Mega CAP idea doesn't get the votes needed on the slating, that's fine, because it gives us more time to think about how we want to answer this problem in the future. The issue arose out of the feeling that Mega evolution was the most important thing not addressed by the CAP process, and losing in the poll would prove that (at least for the time being) it isn't. However, not passing the Workshop Phase can prove bothersome. If we go with that plan, we need to come up with a contingency plan in case it gets shot down before it even begins.
 

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