Mega Raichu - base Speed: 125 to
120 (-5 Speed -> +5 Special Defense)
- We were considering a couple of different options, like 115, 120, 121 and 123, but 120 was the preferred option because it allowed Mega Raichu to win against Cinderace (a highly threatening
and somewhat controversial pivot) while making it at least slightly easier for a few faster Pokémon to play around it.
- Special Defense was the safest stat to increase because Mega Raichu's mixed sets are its most threatening and its physical frailty is one of its key balancing factors.
Mega Clefable - base Speed: 110 to
104 (-6 Speed -> +6 Attack)
- Once thought to be hard to justify using over its non-Mega form... haha, how wrong we were! Mega Clefable has made a major impact on the tier and is incredibly cool but also incredibly threatening. It can be difficult to handle reliably because it has priority on all of defensive boosting, recovery and occasionally Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave, making it easy to neutralize offensive Pokémon that should threaten it, but we want to add room for faster Pokémon like Blacephalon and Kartana
(especially since Will-o-Wisp isn't used by its most common set and one of its main strengths is its versatility) to threaten it offensively, which they currently cannot.
- 104 was chosen in particular because it adds relevance to the existing Speed tier of 105, used by Pokémon like Mega Sharpedo and Mega Pinsir. This also means we can add more Pokémon to base 105 later and let them threaten Mega Clefable if needed, rather than needing to have even more Pokémon creep 110 to do so.
Mega Parasect - base Speed: 115 to
101 (-14 Speed -> +14 Special Attack)
- Base 115 is a dangerously high Speed tier for accurate sleep like Spore, and Mega Parasect also has a lot going for it as a threatening cleaner considering its ease of setup (coming in on anything faster, Spore into Swords Dance is almost universally safe) and the incredible scarcity of resistances to its moves after Tinted Lens.
- Base 101 was chosen to make it more difficult to find safe matchups to use Spore and to bring it more in line with the base 100 Orbeetle, the other Bug-type Mega with 100%-accurate sleep.
Mega Rapidash - overall revisions: 65 HP /
103 Attack
(-2) /
99 Defense
(+4) /
106 Special Attack
(-14) /
107 Special Defense
(+2) /
120 Speed
(+10)
- A buff all around (and Rapidash is one of the few Pokémon gaining Speed here)! This optimizes its bulk and makes versatility between physical and special sets more possible. 120 was chosen to give Rapidash more freedom to threaten offensive Pokémon, while staying shy of both forms of Greninja to leave room for the obvious offensive counterplay. (120 was preferred over 121 to avoid an unnecessary Speed tie with Tornadus-Therian.)
- Mega Rapidash has some very cool mechanical design, but it was balanced around a particular fear of Swords Dance + Flare Blitz with no recoil
(mostly my own fault for being stricter than I should have with that slate :'D) and has unfortunately suffered for it. This is more in line with what the original submitter, ausma, wanted to accomplish with the sub in the first place, with the help of some incredibly thorough optimization offered by BlueRay.
- Although the changes to its bulk are subtle, base 107 Special Defense was chosen to avoid a one-hit KO from Specs Kyurem, while base 99 Defense was chosen to avoid a two-hit KO from Band Rillaboom
wHY is this a concern for a Fire/Flying-type?? I hate Rillaboom so much.
- In return, 2 points of Attack were dropped because 103 is all it actually needs (notably enough to one-hit KO Calm Heatran with High Horsepower after Stealth Rock), and the rest was taken out of Special Attack, which was not the focus of the submission but was raised as a dump stat for safety reasons.
- The new spread has a lot more versatility and customizability, which will hopefully help Mega Rapidash to shine more often in high-level play!
Mega Starmie - poll to lose
Calm Mind
- Because of its Ability, Rotation, Mega Starmie is one of the bulkiest Pokémon in the metagame and easily adapts to whatever opponent is in front of it, allowing it to force switches easily and in turn making it easy to set up. Its high bulk, especially if it gets a physical Defense boost from Rotation to complement Calm Mind, can make it too difficult for unprepared teams to take down efficiently while it sets up, and it has reliable recovery further easing setup and allowing it to pose a threat many times throughout the match.
- Even without Calm Mind, Mega Starmie will still be viable as a highly threatening pivot that can come in safely on many offensive Pokémon and continually force them out with its blistering Speed, powerful moves and wide coverage.
- Removing Calm Mind will allow Starmie to focus on its prowess as a threatening utility pivot rather than also being a defining offensive presence, which would be appreciated as a way to tone it down, as it is currently one of the most threatening Pokémon in the mod.
Mega Jolteon - overall revisions: 65 HP /
95 Attack
(+30) / 60 Defense /
139 Special Attack
(-21) / 125 Special Defense /
141 Speed
(-9), regain Calm Mind
- By lowering its extreme Special Attack and Speed stats and reallocating the lost points into its largely-unused Attack stat, we hope to tone down Mega Jolteon substantially, as it is currently another of the most difficult Pokémon for unprepared teams to handle. This is especially true since it has come to dominance on rain teams, where Weather Ball entirely undermines its intended lack of coverage, while indirectly boosting its offensive presence as it was balanced more around Thunder and Volt Switch than Thunderbolt.
- Notably, this Special Attack reduction stops a Tempestuous-boosted Thunder from one-hit KOing Rillaboom
(an Electric-resistant Pokémon designed to revenge physically frail Pokémon just like Jolteon) after Stealth Rock, opening a crucial avenue for offensive counterplay, while its less substantial Speed reduction leaves it slower than Zeraora, a relatively niche but physically offensive and Electric-immune Pokémon that is sometimes used as natural Speed control to oppose Pokémon just like Jolteon.
- In turn, Calm Mind is being added back after being removed from the last nerf, because it was considered an integral part of Jolteon's identity and mechanical design. Since the nerf, it has been shown that Jolteon can use Work Up to a similar effect; removing Calm Mind proved not to address the core part of the problem (Jolteon being able to cleave through Pokémon that
weren't among its intended targets) while making it worse in the areas where it was supposed to thrive, especially allowing it to revenge specially offensive attackers more easily. This stat nerf was designed with attention given to making Calm Mind acceptable, so it should no longer be problematic.
Mega Infernape - base Speed: 138 ->
120 (-18 Speed -> +12 Defense, +6 Special Defense)
- 138 is currently faster than any non-Mega in the metagame except the controversial Deoxys-Speed and the niche Regieleki, making it incredibly difficult to handle Mega Infernape offensively. In addition, its access to many mixed boosting options - all of Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Bulk Up and Calm Mind - leaves Mega Infernape unpredictable and hard to answer efficiently. Lowering its Speed from 138 to 120 introduces new counterplay like both forms of Greninja and Tornadus-Therian, which are common Pokémon in the metagame
(note that Infernape still has Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave for Greninja, but Greninja, especially Ash-Greninja, frequently runs Water Shuriken; assuming both use their priority moves of choice, Greninja's Speed still gives it an advantage).
- Adding 12 Defense to Infernape allows it to take hits from Weavile better than if all 18 points were put into Special Defense, as it was decided that Weavile is an expected winning matchup for Infernape and giving it the Speed disadvantage in that matchup was not necessarily intended as part of the nerf.
Mega Staraptor - overall revisions: 85 HP /
150 Attack
(+10) / 85 Defense / 50 Special Attack
(-25) / 80 Special Defense /
135 Speed
(+15)
- Mega Staraptor is fundamentally a highly interesting Pokémon, but it is rarely seen because of its tame stats and the double-edged nature of its Ability. This is one of the other Pokémon that's being buffed rather than nerfed this time around; it currently only has a decent matchup against the most passive of teams and struggles with chip even then, so raising its Speed is intended to improve its offense matchup and make it easier to justify running, while its improved Attack helps it just a bit more to punish passive cores as intended.
- As a clarification, 50 is the same as non-Mega Staraptor's Special Attack; this is not minmaxing because the 25 Special Attack it had in the first place was intentionally made to throw away 25 points, which was more detrimental than intended.
Mega Kricketune - overall revisions: 77 HP /
124 Attack
(-21) /
86 Defense
(+35) / 15 Special Attack / 51 Special Defense /
131 Speed
(-14); add
Mat Block and
Quick Guard, replacing Drain Punch and Dual Wingbeat
- Formerly something of a meme pick and given over-the-top stats that were deliberately balanced around a limited movepool, Mega Kricketune got somewhat out of hand when it was later buffed with highly impactful movepool additions like Close Combat and Triple Axel. These direct stat nerfs are meant to tone it down, especially in a singles environment, while leaning into the design choices that made the original so unique.
- Kricketune was also originally given its high Speed (and Triple Axel) with the intention of punishing Dragon Dance from Dragapult by copying its Speed boosts, a Pokémon that was banned from our metagame very soon after and has not been relevant since. Lowering Kricketune's Speed actually reimagines its relationship to Dragapult in another cool way: since Dragapult isn't present in OU regardless, the place where their dynamic would matter the most is in VGC, and
underspeeding Dragapult benefits Kricketune by allowing it to copy its own partner's Dragon Dance and then use a boosted attack in the same turn.
- It was noted that, while this Speed nerf brings Mega Kricketune below Ash-Greninja, it can still revenge it using First Impression, preserving an intuitive favorable matchup according to type. First Impression has higher priority than Water Shuriken, so Ash-Greninja's priority access is not a concern.
- Rather than completely discarding the points taken out of Attack and Speed, they were put into Defense to help Kricketune switch into Ground-type Pokémon in singles and utilize its unusual defensive type to check Urshifu
(Single-Strike Style) in VGC. Similarly, Mat Block and Quick Guard were discussed as interesting supportive options for VGC, while it was generally agreed that Drain Punch and Dual Wingbeat are not used in singles and there was no need to preserve them.
Mega Krookodile - base Speed: 119 ->
112 (-7 Speed -> +7 Special Attack)
- Lowering Mega Krookodile's Speed is a relatively minor change that gives slightly more of an edge to Mega Dugtrio, which relies on its uniquely high Speed to stand out among Ground-types but currently isn't worth using over Krookodile at all. It only changes a few of Krookodile's matchups, but 119 is definitely higher than it needs, and this leaves room for Cinderace, Hawlucha and Serperior to revenge it reliably if it attempts to sweep using Hone Claws
(Hone Claws doesn't sound obviously threatening, but its Ability affords major utility compression to any Dark-type status move, so it is commonly seen on Krookodile for that reason).
Mega Sawsbuck (Summer) - revise
Summer Days (custom Ability)
- A minor and probably temporary change, but we would like to replace the effect of Summer Days with a clone of Solar Power for the time being. This may be revisited later, but it was a compromise intended to simplify the current effect (which most often functions as Solar Power in practice but offers too much flexibility) without damaging the naming scheme of Sawsbuck's forms.
- For context, the current effect of Summer Days is as follows:
If its Special Attack is greater than its Speed, including stat stage changes, this Pokémon's Ability is Solar Power.
If its Speed is greater than its Special Attack, including stat stage changes, this Pokémon's Ability is Chlorophyll.
The proposed change would remove any variance and directly replace the effect of Summer Days with that of Solar Power.
Mega Bisharp - base Speed: 110 ->
114 (-4 Special Defense -> +4 Speed)
- This one is another buff! Mega Bisharp is somewhat rarely seen but is meant to specialize in revenging, so giving it a higher Speed to improve its matchup against offensive Pokémon is a natural improvement.
- It was noted that a slight edge in Speed would give it a better matchup against a common
Substitute user in Serperior, which is a fun change because Beat Up is a popular (if niche) option to capitalize on Executioner.
Mega Hydreigon - base Speed: 118 ->
114 (-4 Speed -> +4 Attack)
- This one will be polled separately, because we weren't as sure if it was necessary to nerf and would value the input! That said, we are generally in favor because of the way the nerf would benefit other Mega Evolutions more in need.
- The primary benefit of lowering Mega Hydreigon's Speed is that it improves the matchup of some less-seen Ice-type Mega Evolutions against it, helping to diversify the metagame. The primary beneficiaries are Mega Froslass and Mega Sawsbuck-Winter.
- Against non-Megas, almost nothing changes - only Hawlucha changes from a tie to a losing matchup, and Hawlucha rarely runs Jolly and often has an Unburden boost, so the Speed tie is almost a non-factor regardless.
- Another reason this is cool is because it converges with Bisharp, allowing future additions to be made with the Speed tier of multiple Dark-types in mind.
Mega Talonflame - base Speed: 166 ->
129 (-37 Speed -> +37 Attack)
- Mega Talonflame is one of the most dangerous enablers in the metagame right now, as a trapper that targets one of the most crucial types and has an absurdly good offensive matchup against important Pokémon like Corviknight (with Fire STAB) and Landorus and Gliscor (with Ground immunity, high Special Attack and Hidden Power Ice). A particularly devastating core features Mega Talonflame alongside Magnezone and Rillaboom, the former two collectively removing everything even resembling defensive counterplay to Rillaboom.
It also outspeeds even Scarf Landorus, one of the few currently-viable Choice Scarf users in the metagame - and one it already pigeonholes into clicking U-turn just by existing on the opposing team - which is largely excessive.
- As a result, it was decided that Mega Talonflame's 166 Speed is highly excessive and it needs to be more open to offensive counterplay at least from non-Flying-types. Because there's such a wide gap in Speed tiers after the 130s, taking it all the way down to 129 only actually puts it below a very small number of relevant non-Megas, but it includes important matchups against Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko and makes it easier for opposing teams to handle.
- Note that Mega Talonflame prefers to be specially offensive for its advantages against other Flying-type Pokémon it prefers to trap. This takes its Attack from 81 to 118, while its Special Attack is 134. Mixed sets are expected to remain dispreferred.
Mega Meowstic (female) - base Speed: 114 ->
104 (-10 Speed -> +10 Defense / +5 Defense, +5 Attack / +10 Attack)
- Mega Meowstic-F is widely used for being one of the most devastating wallbreakers in the metagame, so lowering its Speed is an attempt to provide more offensive counterplay where defensive counterplay is generally unsatisfactory. Lowering its Speed by
another 10 points
since the last nerf allows it to be threatened by Blacephalon and Kartana, two specially frail offensive Pokémon with obviously favorable type matchups, among other more niche Pokémon. It also neatly matches Clefable in this way, so future Ghost- and Steel-type Mega Evolutions could be designed with their shared Speed tier in mind.
- We will poll where these 10 points should be allocated separately from whether the nerf should take place. Meowstic losing Speed is part of the collective Speed tier fixes and will necessarily pass if everything else does
(it's one of the more pressing nerfs of the bunch, actually), but there are a few choices for the most preferred reallocation and we're interested to see what people would like.
Mega Tyrantrum - overall revisions: 82 HP /
159 Attack
(+8) /
139 Defense
(+20) /
69 Special Attack
(-30) / 89 Special Defense /
83 Speed
(+2)
- +2 to base Speed may look minor, but it allows Mega Tyrantrum to
run Adamant safely and outspeed Tapu Koko, an important Fairy-type it's designed to target, when at +1 Speed (possible from Dragon Dance or Scale Shot). This was a very particular buff and one of the more important changes here.
- Base 159 Attack also gives Adamant Mega Tyrantrum a high chance to KO Corviknight and a guaranteed KO on Rillaboom, both after Stealth Rocks, if it manages to use Head Smash at +1 Attack. (This is high-risk and not always easy, and these calcs are both possible but less likely with its current Attack, so the buff is far from unreasonable; it only helps to reduce variance for a Pokémon that is relatively inconsistent in its current state.)
- Like Staraptor, Mega Tyrantrum originally had +30 Special Attack as a deliberate throwaway because its power level was uncertain. -30 Special Attack is not minmaxing but returning it to the level of non-Mega Tyrantrum now that we can make more informed decisions to buff its other stats.
- Base 139 Defense makes effective use of the rest of the dumped points from Special Attack, allowing a defensively-uninvested Tyrantrum to survive Kartana's Smart Strike consistently after Stealth Rock.
- Is this not the prettiest-looking stat spread what the heck ;-;
Mega Trevenant - base Speed: 91 ->
77 (-14 Speed -> +14 Special Attack)
- Mega Trevenant's Speed nerf was chosen with the Pokémon that resist its priority moves in mind. Taking it down from 91 helps Dragonite and Kommo-o to outspeed and threaten it, and 77 in particular was chosen because it makes sure an Adamant-natured Mega Trevenant always falls short of 254
(it reaches exactly 253), which was discussed as a common Speed tier used by Moltres.
Mega Lycanroc (Midday Form) - base Speed: 137 to
117 (-20 Speed -> +20 Special Attack)
- STAB Extreme Speed is extremely rare (
... yeah that's all of them) and has proven
very powerful as an anti-offense tool. It's often one of Lycanroc's most damaging moves to use whether it needs the priority or not, since it's exactly as strong as non-STAB Close Combat without the drawback and more accurate than Stone Edge; this makes it extremely safe to click on most occasions. With this in mind, Lycanroc definitely doesn't need all of the Speed it has, and it definitely should be given reason to struggle against other fast Pokémon when Extreme Speed
isn't a good option.
- One of the considerations at the forefront of our decision-making process was to give Mega Lycanroc reason to consider running a Jolly nature over an Adamant one, forcing it to make sacrifices between its impressive breaking power and its matchups against specific offensive Pokémon; for example, a Jolly nature is now needed to outspeed Hawlucha (which conventionally runs Adamant) and make the best use of Down-to-Earth in preventing it from activating Unburden. Greninja and Cinderace are other examples of offensive Pokémon that Lycanroc should no longer be able to force out unboosted if they are kept healthy.
- Mega Lycanroc already barely has incentive to run investment in Speed, so lowering its Speed to 137 may indirectly weaken its other stats while still leaving room for customizability depending on its user's priorities. This is preferred over there being relatively little to lose by going borderline uninvested. P:
- Incidentally, a major factor in Mega Lycanroc's original Speed tier was the example of
the original Mega Lycanroc
(Dusk Form), whose Speed was the dramatically over-the-top base 142; most other submissions at the time were even faster than 137, because it was difficult to justify the fastest non-Mega Lycanroc being outdone by Dusk form. With Lycandusk's Speed having been nerfed since, Midday form's Speed tier has become even more excessive by comparison; as Midday form's original submitter, I was one of the firmest advocates for nerfing it myself and regret how fast it was.
Mega Thievul - base Speed: 110 to
107 (-3 Speed -> +3 Special Defense)
- 110 is a very common Speed tier for Mega Evolutions, and we are trying to reduce the importance of Speed ties by diversifying just a little!
- One consideration in lowering Speed to 107 was the Swords of Justice - Cobalion, Terrakion and Keldeo
(less so Virizion; most people are making its Mega faster anyway) - which are meant to answer Dark-types effectively. As Dark is a powerful attacking type that's difficult to resist, allowing more of our relevant Fighting-types to answer Thievul offensively is beneficial.
- Thievul has unique access to special Dark priority, which still allows it to take care of faster specially frail Pokémon and faster Psychic- and Ghost-types (such as Latios, Latias, Gengar and Kartana, as well as Blacephalon which ties with it now). Lowering its Speed a little is actually really cool for getting more value out of its Sleight of Hand-boosted Sucker Punch, which is one of its most unique tools; not needing priority as badly makes this go unnoticed.
- The reduced points could go into any of its other four stats with little consequence, but Special Defense kinda looks nice!
Mega Falinks (Legion) base Speed: 115 to
111 (-4 Speed -> +1 in each of its other four stats)
- 115 is also a relatively crowded Speed tier for Mega Evolutions, so lowering Mega Falinks-Legion's Speed allows other Mega Evolutions to check it more reliably and reduces the importance of Speed ties.
- Splitting the 4 points across its other four stats was a purely aesthetic call that people liked!
Hi! Uh, so this is one I wasn't totally sure how to feel about on account of Articuno's inherent drawbacks, so I conferred with other members of the council to make sure I didn't make an unreasonable judgment, but we agreed it would be unhealthy to allow this - instant 100% and status curing makes it unreasonably hard to break this or make progress against it once it's in, and it seems probable that it would just be degenerate and frustrating to deal with. 
Mega Virizion
Bonzai Mode:
BANZAI Mode (stat changes from Bonsai/from base form):
Mega Slowking 
Mega Mudsdale has seen a lot of recent discussion, but there's not quite a direction that has everyone on board just yet. These two can expect revisions soon once we've come to an agreement on how to handle them.
Deoxys 
Cinderace with higher priority and 
Kyurem and potentially 
Manaphy after those have been addressed, with the same goal of keeping the metagame as friendly as possible to different team styles and reducing the importance of matchup in our format, which has a relatively high power level at the moment.
Tapu Lele the proper suspect process it was never actually given, although we'll try to focus on coming to an agreement on the Pokémon that need to leave the metagame before adding more. 
