What Mega Beedrill has taught me...

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...is that the reduction of a single offensive stat is an excellent way of making something previously poor very viable or something previously solid extremely menacing. The general rule for Mega mons is that they get 100 BST added in places, and occasionally they get more at the expense of one specific stat - the one that drops the most is the speed stat (Garchomp, Ampharos, Abomasnow...). Since it's not all about the stats, the new ability (one is generally added) and possibly a different typing (which depends largely on the design) further contribute to changing the Pokemon we're so used to into something completely new. What this can do to the metagame was very vividly experienced when Mawile's status changed from unusable to Uber in a fortnight.

Mega Beedrill took the scene by surprise, too, and there was one detail I focused my attention on - the special attack dropping to give Beedrill more BST to work with, which naturally went into the offence. Coupled with Adaptability, who would've thought Beedrill would be worth something several years back?

Now let's take Farfetch'd for example; here's what we have so far:


52 / 65 / 55 / 58 / 62 / 60

352 total - hey, it's only 28 less than Sableye and Mawile!

Now, none of these look too promising yet even before we attempt to distribute 100 BST across the board with the accent put into specific stats of note. So how about we extract those special attack bases? Let's go all the way and, since Shuckle a base speed stat of 5, reduce FFd's special attack from 58 all the way down to 5. That's 53 BST we're saving up, so why not go ahead and dump it into physical attack! 65 + 53 makes 118, which is already quite respectable. We still have a good deal of customisation to do, but what do we do with the other stats?

Why not look at FFd's typing first? Stealth Rock weakness + weaknesses to 3 other common attacking types. Surely the typing would be dictated by the direction of the design, so what could possibly happen to FFd? It's a bird standing on the ground, so this idea could be developed into a fighting/flying bird, but that's a bit too many weaknesses - ground/flying is Gliscor's typing and it's proved to be a useful one by now. If it's mean-looking enough, giving Farfetch'd Earthquake could be justified (though the regular FFd would need to be able to use it as well). One can never go wrong with Skarmory's typing either, of course, but the design would require more imagination, too. After Mega Slowbro though, anything can be done, can it not?

Now, moving on to the ability... Keen Eye/Inner Focus/Defiant won't really do, and we need to settle on something peculiar. A new ability entirely perhaps, or a rare existing one - something that we can find on another bird maybe? How about Talonflame's Gale Wings? It's used by a bird with a better defensive typing now, with access to Brave Bird who already has more attack than Talonflame itself.

Right, those other 100 BST. We could drop some more into attack, making priority Brave Bird heavier, but we're probably not aiming for Mega Heracross-level physical attack, so some 41 BST could be thrown into speed and 30-ish or so into the defences so that it doesn't die to a single neutral hit. That's 29 + 118 = 147 physical attack?

And now let's take a look at it again:

(picture something cool and scary here instead)
Ground/Flying
Gale Wings
52 / 147 / 70 / 5 / 77 / 101
Brave Bird
Earthquake
Swords Dance / Bulk Up
U-Turn or Roost or something else here

The attack (or even speed?) might really be too much so some of these points could be allocated to fix the defences further, but with 52 the bulk doesn't look very promising still and it won't be a Gliscor defensively anytime soon.

So the point I was trying to make? Get rid of the useless offensive type to make something being converted into Mega more menacing. Mega Mawile got some additional special attack for example, but imagine what it would be like if its second attack stat got sharply reduced akin to Mega Beedrill or this imaginary Farfetch'd I just developed on the spot.
 

Codraroll

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I'm honestly not sure what this thread is meant to be. What are we supposed to discuss? M-Beedrill in general, or remixing older Pokémon? Either way, I feel it's dangerously close to breaking OI's rule #2:
Rules said:
  1. Smogon's general rules still apply.
  2. Only discuss released or announced aspects of games, anime, and manga.
    • Do not post "wishlist" threads (e.g. "What abilities do YOU want to see in Gen 7?")
    • Do not post PC++ threads like "What is your favorite/least favorite _____?"
    • When discussing games during pre-release, only discuss information confirmed by trustworthy sources.
    • Rumors may be discussed once they have been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Basically, a "let's remix a Pokémon!" thread would be breaking point 2.2. However, the first paragraph of the post could be a valid subject of discussion, but it'd fit better as a post in the already-existing Mega Evolution thread. If you want to make Megas of your own, I think that discussion has a thread somewhere in Other Metagames. I'm going to lock this for now.
 
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