Alright, so I just wanted to give my opinions on a few of the non-slate noms.
Mega Alakazam - A- -> A - Agree - I'm inclined to agree with this. I don't have a lot of experience with it myself, but from what I have seen, it strikes me as something that can absolutely wreck a lot of teams in the current metagame. Sure, Bisharp is as common as ever, but Bisharp is pretty easy to get around, especially since every good team should already be prepared with a counter to it. Its speed is nearly unrivaled. Only Mega Aerodactyl can really match it, but Mega Aerodactyl is pretty frail, especially on the special side. Alakazam also has a fantastic special movepool, which gives it the ability to hit every Pokemon (unless I'm forgetting something) with at least neutral damage. It also has one or two good support moves it can use, like Encore to trap the opponent into something bad, or Taunt, to make it have an easier time against stall. It also has the ability to outspeed much of the metagame even before it Mega Evolves, making it significantly easier for it to go Mega compared to some other Megas like Diancie. Plus, it doesn't have to worry about residual damage before Mega Evolving, and afterwards it gains Trace, which is one of the best abilities in the game if used well. Honestly, despite numerous claims I've seen of it generating major opportunity cost, I really don't see it. MegaKazam's one major downfall is its extreme weakness to priority moves, since it has none itself, most priority moves are physical, and it has terrible bulk. Honestly, though, it's not too hard to take the common priority users into account when creating a MegaKazam team, and its extreme weakness to priority is why people are pushing for it to go into A, not A+.
Mega Glalie - D -> Unranked - Disagree - Alright, I'm not gonna try to say that Mega Glalie is a good Pokemon, because in most respects, it's not. The ONLY reason I think it should be in D is because D-rank is reserved for things that would generally be considered crap, but do have one particular thing going for them that nothing else can do better. In Mega Glalie's case, its niche is that it is one of the only physically based Ice-type Wallbreakers in OU right now. Kyurem-B has no physical ice-type moves. Weavile does, but it's more of a Revenge Killer. Mamoswine does have some decent physical ice-type moves, and with its LO set it has quite a bit of power behind them, but it still can't hit the massive amount of power Glalie can hit thanks to Refrigerate. With Refrigerate and STAB, Return becomes a 199 power 100% accurate move with absolutely no drawbacks, off of a 120 Atk stat (which isn't spectacular, but it's good nonetheless), in one of the best attacking types in the game. Whatever else Glalie fails at, that's pretty significant. And when it's time for Glalie to explode, you're talking about a friggin' 488 power attack! Again, in one of the best attacking types. Sure Glalie faints afterwards, but that's why you save it for the right moment. For reference:
252 Atk Refrigerate Mega Glalie Explosion vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Heatran: 86-102 (22.2 - 26.4%) -- 12.2% chance to 4HKO
This may not seem like much, until you remember that Heatran has a 4x resistance to ice, and is running the most physically bulky set possible (which it would never do in real life, this is just a demonstration). So, Heatran, the Pokemon with the best matchup against Ice, still takes between 22% and 26% from an Explosion. In other words, there's pretty much no way anything you'd realistically use the Explosion against would actually survive it. That's pretty significant too. One last point that often gets forgotten is that Mega Glalie also has access to priority in Ice Shard. It's not great priority, but it's still worth mentioning. Honestly, while Mega Glalie generally sucks, and often will fail to get off the kind of power attacks it should be able to on paper, since its defenses suck, I think the amount of damage it can dish out is still enough to justify it remaining in D-rank
Mega Garchomp - B- -> B - Disagree - Alright, this one's not gonna be as long, since my objection to this is actually fairly straightforward. Garchomp has a lot of things going for it that its Mega form doesn't. The ability to punish physical attackers, more speed, more capabilities as a utility mon, and not taking up a Mega slot. Mega Garchomp, however, is often underrated. It's an excellent mixed attacker, with an excellent offensive movepool, good STABs and typing, and monstrous offensive stats that can get even better for certain moves thanks to Sand Force. The problem is, there's very little call for it outside of Sand teams, since standard Garchomp can also be a great mixed attacker for the reasons mentioned earlier, albeit with lower attacking stats. Mega Garchomp is faced with a lot of opportunity cost, since if you really need a mixed attacker with Garchomp's capabilities, Garchomp does a fine job while not taking up a mega slot. This limits Mega Garchomp's usefulness to being exclusively on Sand teams. Now, sand teams are pretty good at the moment, but I really don't think this one niche puts it at the same level as something like Hydreigon, another good mixed attacker, or Mega Beedrill, something that has a lot of flaws, but still makes for a very effective revenge killer on VoltTurn teams, nor do I think Mega Garchomp is particularly better than Feraligatr or Mega Houndoom that are also currently in B- (in fact I think both of those are actually much better than Mega Garchomp right now). Mega Garchomp can be really good in its niche, but that one niche is not enough to justify it being in anything higher than B-.
In the interest of not getting arrested for saying five lines about a nom that I don't have enough experience with to accurately speak to, which is apparently a felony now, I will not say anything about Zapdos or Torn-T, since I really haven't used either of them, nor can I really say much that hasn't already been said.
Mega Alakazam - A- -> A - Agree - I'm inclined to agree with this. I don't have a lot of experience with it myself, but from what I have seen, it strikes me as something that can absolutely wreck a lot of teams in the current metagame. Sure, Bisharp is as common as ever, but Bisharp is pretty easy to get around, especially since every good team should already be prepared with a counter to it. Its speed is nearly unrivaled. Only Mega Aerodactyl can really match it, but Mega Aerodactyl is pretty frail, especially on the special side. Alakazam also has a fantastic special movepool, which gives it the ability to hit every Pokemon (unless I'm forgetting something) with at least neutral damage. It also has one or two good support moves it can use, like Encore to trap the opponent into something bad, or Taunt, to make it have an easier time against stall. It also has the ability to outspeed much of the metagame even before it Mega Evolves, making it significantly easier for it to go Mega compared to some other Megas like Diancie. Plus, it doesn't have to worry about residual damage before Mega Evolving, and afterwards it gains Trace, which is one of the best abilities in the game if used well. Honestly, despite numerous claims I've seen of it generating major opportunity cost, I really don't see it. MegaKazam's one major downfall is its extreme weakness to priority moves, since it has none itself, most priority moves are physical, and it has terrible bulk. Honestly, though, it's not too hard to take the common priority users into account when creating a MegaKazam team, and its extreme weakness to priority is why people are pushing for it to go into A, not A+.
Mega Glalie - D -> Unranked - Disagree - Alright, I'm not gonna try to say that Mega Glalie is a good Pokemon, because in most respects, it's not. The ONLY reason I think it should be in D is because D-rank is reserved for things that would generally be considered crap, but do have one particular thing going for them that nothing else can do better. In Mega Glalie's case, its niche is that it is one of the only physically based Ice-type Wallbreakers in OU right now. Kyurem-B has no physical ice-type moves. Weavile does, but it's more of a Revenge Killer. Mamoswine does have some decent physical ice-type moves, and with its LO set it has quite a bit of power behind them, but it still can't hit the massive amount of power Glalie can hit thanks to Refrigerate. With Refrigerate and STAB, Return becomes a 199 power 100% accurate move with absolutely no drawbacks, off of a 120 Atk stat (which isn't spectacular, but it's good nonetheless), in one of the best attacking types in the game. Whatever else Glalie fails at, that's pretty significant. And when it's time for Glalie to explode, you're talking about a friggin' 488 power attack! Again, in one of the best attacking types. Sure Glalie faints afterwards, but that's why you save it for the right moment. For reference:
252 Atk Refrigerate Mega Glalie Explosion vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Heatran: 86-102 (22.2 - 26.4%) -- 12.2% chance to 4HKO
This may not seem like much, until you remember that Heatran has a 4x resistance to ice, and is running the most physically bulky set possible (which it would never do in real life, this is just a demonstration). So, Heatran, the Pokemon with the best matchup against Ice, still takes between 22% and 26% from an Explosion. In other words, there's pretty much no way anything you'd realistically use the Explosion against would actually survive it. That's pretty significant too. One last point that often gets forgotten is that Mega Glalie also has access to priority in Ice Shard. It's not great priority, but it's still worth mentioning. Honestly, while Mega Glalie generally sucks, and often will fail to get off the kind of power attacks it should be able to on paper, since its defenses suck, I think the amount of damage it can dish out is still enough to justify it remaining in D-rank
Mega Garchomp - B- -> B - Disagree - Alright, this one's not gonna be as long, since my objection to this is actually fairly straightforward. Garchomp has a lot of things going for it that its Mega form doesn't. The ability to punish physical attackers, more speed, more capabilities as a utility mon, and not taking up a Mega slot. Mega Garchomp, however, is often underrated. It's an excellent mixed attacker, with an excellent offensive movepool, good STABs and typing, and monstrous offensive stats that can get even better for certain moves thanks to Sand Force. The problem is, there's very little call for it outside of Sand teams, since standard Garchomp can also be a great mixed attacker for the reasons mentioned earlier, albeit with lower attacking stats. Mega Garchomp is faced with a lot of opportunity cost, since if you really need a mixed attacker with Garchomp's capabilities, Garchomp does a fine job while not taking up a mega slot. This limits Mega Garchomp's usefulness to being exclusively on Sand teams. Now, sand teams are pretty good at the moment, but I really don't think this one niche puts it at the same level as something like Hydreigon, another good mixed attacker, or Mega Beedrill, something that has a lot of flaws, but still makes for a very effective revenge killer on VoltTurn teams, nor do I think Mega Garchomp is particularly better than Feraligatr or Mega Houndoom that are also currently in B- (in fact I think both of those are actually much better than Mega Garchomp right now). Mega Garchomp can be really good in its niche, but that one niche is not enough to justify it being in anything higher than B-.
In the interest of not getting arrested for saying five lines about a nom that I don't have enough experience with to accurately speak to, which is apparently a felony now, I will not say anything about Zapdos or Torn-T, since I really haven't used either of them, nor can I really say much that hasn't already been said.
