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Great to see you again, everyone. In this penultimate part of the Mega Evolution Candidates, I will be picking twelve potential candidates for a Mega Evolution that I will like to see. There are times when I want to see what I could do with certain Pokémon, so this part will be dedicated to what I would like to see. My choices could even contain some unexpected additions, or at least, Pokémon that might not seem like a popular choice for a Mega Evolution. Maybe what I chose might even be some of your favourites as well! If you want to know what I picked, please read on.
Clefable
[B]Type:[/B] Fairy
[B]Ability:[/B] [I]Magic Veil[/I]*
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +10, Def +40, SpAtk +20, SpDef +30
*[I]The Pokémon and allies only takes damage from attacks.[/I]
After Mega Evolution, Clefable’s wings become more fully-fledged. In addition, its forehead has a crystal, while its curl becomes more hair-like. There is nothing much I could add to Clefable’s Mega Evolution, because its design is really simple. Its type, having recently received a change, will remain as a pure Fairy-type.
I decided to do something different with Clefable’s Mega Evolution. Instead of abilities that focus only on singles, this one is affected in Doubles or Triples, in which its teammates benefit from Magic Guard’s perks, similar to Slurpuff’s and Aromatisse’s “Veil” abilities. This would certainly help Shedinja a lot, cutting down on ways it could perish.
Stat increases are partly straightforward. Their increases are all-around, with a bit more emphasis on Defence because that is the stat that needs the bigger boost. The all-around boost would help Clefable function as a team player, with its wonderful movepool that contains offence, defence and support.
Octillery
[B]Type:[/B] Water
[B]Ability:[/B] Protean
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +10, Def +10, SpAtk +20, SpDef +10, Speed +50
Once Octillery takes in the power of its Mega Stone, it adapted the powers of being able to handle its various shooting powers well. Inspired by the mimic octopus, Octillery would do well in changing its type before turning its attacks into STAB. A Mega Octillery could have a bigger and longer mouth like a howitzer. Its tentacles will become more slender for faster movement.
Octillery has one of the most diverse range of attacks, so it is only right to take advantage of this. Fortunately, Protean is the best idea for a Pokémon like this, since it not only complements Octillery’s various attacks, but there are octopi that is able to perform camouflage through skin change.
The next thing are the stats. Speed undergoes the most drastic improvement in order to make the most out of what Octillery learns, while the other stats increases are spread out. The Special Attack got an edge, because that is where most of Octillery’s attacks are. With the ability to get STAB on every attack, coupled with reasonably high offences, Mega Octillery will be a threat to watch out for.
Shuckle
[B]Type:[/B] Poison/Rock
[B]Ability:[/B] [I]Juice Extractor[/I]*
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +190, Def -200, SpAtk +120, SpDef -200, Speed +190
*[I]Heals 1/8 HP per turn.[/I]
Once Shuckle unleashes its power from the Mega Stone, it converts the energy it stores and go all out with it. That means that its shell, now smaller, function like a generator in which it takes energy from. Not only that, its tentacles are more spread out, with six of them like an insect for mobility. Due to the excess containment of energy, it changed type from Bug to Poison. Shuckle essentially becomes hyperactive with the juice it stores.
Shuckle’s low HP meant that turning it into a more defensive Pokémon isn’t going to quite work out, since its defences are close to being maxed out. It could have been greater with some extra moves, such as Power Swap and Leech Seed. Unfortunately, access to those moves are not a reality, so Shuckle has to make use of what it has.
Since Shuckle’s defensive ability is difficult to make use of, let’s do something drastically different with Shuckle. Shuckle has always been a Pokémon with opposites, so its Mega Evolution will be the opposite of what Shuckle is now: slow and low offensive power. Now, it is faster than Deoxy-S and really powerful! If you managed to use Shell Smash, Mega Shuckle could prove to be quite deadly!
I also changed the type to Poison because Shuckle doesn’t gain much from being a Bug-type, besides the Ground neutrality. The Poison-type gives Shuckle a new STAB, since it has Sludge Bomb and Sludge Wave. It also gives Shuckle a poison immunity, which is very much welcomed for any Pokémon.
You don’t need to use the offensive power, since support is possible too, with that high Speed. You are able to set up fast Substitutes and stall due to its ability’s healing speed. It’s important to remember that you keep your old Speed the turn you Mega Evolve, so Shuckle will be mega-vulnerable and mega-slow on the first turn. There is a huge risk with Shuckle’s Mega Evolution, so it’s important to choose the right time to unleash that power.
Slaking
[B]Type:[/B] Normal
[B]Ability:[/B] [I]Determinator[/I]*
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +30, Def +30, SpAtk +10, SpDef +30
*[I]Only one move can be used. An attack will be powered up by 10% after each turn (until 100%).[/I]
Once Mega Evolved, Slaking lost its urge to get lazy and become more determined. Perhaps it got too determined that it could only use one move at the time. The basic design with Mega Slaking, which I saw from somewhere else, would take some aspects of Vigoroth such as its sloth claws and a furry mane on its heads and shoulders.
Slaking had always been a powerful Pokémon held back by its ability, so let’s make a more useful ability that has some drawback (that isn’t as bad). The idea is inspired by the Choice items, which is known as the Determination items in Japanese. Just so that it doesn’t cause too much of a drawback, the ability works like Metronome (item) where it gradually powers up a move as long as you use the same one.
This would certainly help a lot late-game when not much could even stand up against Slaking, so if you keep using Return, the opponent will eventually succumb to the power. Note that I mentioned “each turn” in the description, meaning that the opponent using Protect would be delaying the inevitable since it doesn’t reset the power of the current attack. Remember it affects Special attacks too, so if you need to use a Special attack, then that’s not a bad idea.
Torkoal
[B]Type:[/B] Fire/Ground
[B]Ability:[/B] [I]Evaporate[/I]*
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +10, Def +20, SpAtk +40, SpDef +30
*[I]Turns Water attacks into an evasion boost.[/I]
When Torkoal received a power boost, it gained the ability to turn water into steam more easily. In addition to this, its shell becomes more like a claypot oven, turning it into a partially Ground-type.
The idea came from finding out which Fire-type is ideal to have a Water immunity. It’s pretty obvious that having a Water immunity on a Fire-type is a big deal. While there aren’t many candidates to have this privilege (I considered Magcargo at one point), it’s a difficult pick. Torkoal seems like a cool Pokémon since it has a huge Defence. In order to help it deal with a Rock weakness, it gained a Ground-type, turning it into a good defensive Fire-type.
I gave Mega Torkoal a more Specially-inclined boost because its Special Defence could use an improvement. Its main moves are also on the Special side. The defensive side received somewhat less boosts, but you can count on a burn to help Torkoal survive better.
As mentioned before, Evaporate’s main purpose is to give Torkoal a Water immunity, and its evasion-increasing bonus will discourage the opponent from continuously using Water attacks without a care in the world, since walls with extra evasion is worse than those without them. It will ideally helps Torkoal survive other Special attacks, which is a handy benefit to have.
Roserade
[B]Type:[/B] Grass/Poison
[B]Ability:[/B] Tinted Lens
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Def +20, SpAtk +45, SpDef +20, Speed +15
When Roserade unleashed its power, its head flower becomes even more open, much like the Battle Chatelaine girls’ hats. It would also have glasses-like shades on its eyes. It would have the appearance of wearing a tuxedo (that means the darker green extends to its arms). The flowers on each of its hands becomes more blossomed.
Roserade’s great offensive power would lend itself to being an ideal Tinted Lens user, because of the amount of types that resist Grass and Poison. We need more viable and powerful Grass-types, because Grass is often an underappreciated offensive type. With this, your Leaf Storm will hurt a lot of things, making it a great move. Sometimes, Sludge Bomb is the better option if for the poison chance.
Roserade’s stat increases are easy to understand. Its Special Attack got the biggest boost to take advantage of its powerful Grass-type attacks, while its Defences got a slight boost for more survivability. Its Speed puts it above all the other Tinted Lens attackers, turning it into a more potent offensive threat.
Drifblim
[B]Type:[/B] Ghost/Flying
[B]Ability:[/B] Download
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +20, Def +10, SpAtk +20, SpDef +10, Speed +40
When Drifblim’s Mega Stone gives it power, it becomes lighter and faster, as well as having a few sensory organs near the bottom of its body to be able to read the surroundings and the target. The idea is based on how weather balloons are used to read the sky’s atmosphere, with the help of tools attached to it.
It’s probably an odd choice to choose Download as the Mega ability of choice, instead of something that fits its flavour like Cloud Nine or Flare Boost. Some of those ability don’t feel as reliable, such as the latter (since you need Flame Orb to have any chance of it working reliably). With Download, you have some interesting possibilities. The basic function is to have the stat of choice increased, so that you can attack with more force. However, Drifblim has Baton Pass as well, so you could pass that slight boost to something else.
In order to make full use of Download’s potential, the stat raise focuses on both attacks and Speed, allowing Drifblim a chance to sweep if the time is right. I would have loved to take advantage of its high HP to increase its defences further, but the stat boosts should work well with that ability.
Carnivine
[B]Type:[/B] Grass/Steel
[B]Ability:[/B] [I]Trigger Trap[/I]*
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +20, Def +40, SpAtk +20, SpDef +40, Speed -20
*[I]Contact moves trap the attacker for 5 turns. The target cannot be missed, but they always hit the user too. U-turn has no effect on this ability.[/I]
When Carnivine Mega Evolves, its mouth become much easier to trap anything since it becomes stronger. The inside of its mouth has spikes to hurt its prey. Its body becomes wider, in order to support its bigger trap mouth. It lost its levitation, so it is grounded, but in the process, it has more vines underneath its body.
The idea with Carnivine is to cross a bear trap with a venus fly trap, emphasising on the trapping part. Instead of automatic trapping, Mega Carnivine rewards you for trapping the right targets. Not only do they stay with Carnivine for a while, they get damaged in the process (1/8 Max HP per turn, like any trapping move).
Two things to note about this ability: Immunities are affected, so Poison Jab will activate it. Another thing is, U-turn isn’t immune to the trapping, making the user trapped as if U-turn is a regular attack. Before I forget, anything trapped will always be hit (since Mega Carnivine got the target to where it wanted). The thing is, only one Pokémon can be trapped.
In order to take full advantage of this ability, Carnivine needs to have extra defences. Not only that, but it needs power to take on anything it traps, so some Speed is sacrified in order to provide the power, which is similar to the boost Abomasnow received (except Abomasnow’s is offensive-inclined).
Gigalith
[B]Type:[/B] Rock/Steel
[B]Ability:[/B] [I]Diamond Armour[/I]*
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +10, Def +30, SpAtk +10, SpDef +50
*[I]Increases Defence and Special Defence (50% each).[/I]
Once Gigalith Mega Evolves, its compressing state turns its rock body into solid diamond, whose hard exterior give it an exterior that is hard to break. The diamond’s toughness and metallic limbs give Gigalith a new Steel-type.
When deciding on the direction Mega Gigalith should go, there were two options: offence and defence. The offensive version would convert Normal attacks to Rock attacks, which has the neat aspect of the most powerful Explosion in the game, as well as really reliable Rock STABs in the form of Return/Frustration. The next tricky thing to do is whether to add a new type or not. Ultimately, I decided to add a new type because its defences (in conjunction with its ability) might be too much for the average joe to deal with.
Having such sturdy defences make Mega Gigalith very difficult to break through, because not only does its defence stats increase, it has an ability that further strengthen them. In Sandstorm, it’s especially difficult to break with Special attacks. That way, it works well with Sand Stream. It could even be really difficult to take down when it sets up with Curse, because its huge Special Defence gives you more survival.
To give you some perspective on how much the defences increase, its Special Defence is the rough equivalent of base 220 (if maxed), around base 354 if Sandstorm is up (if maxed), while its Defence would be the rough equivalent of base 265 (if maxed). That’s probably too much, but its double weaknesses would keep it at bay.
Krookodile
[B]Type:[/B] Ground/Dark
[B]Ability:[/B] Arena Trap
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +40, Def +20, SpAtk +10, SpDef +10, Speed +20
Once Krookodile Mega Evolves, its powers of pursuit becomes better. It gains a dorsal fin on its head like a shark to allow for better mobility, especially in the ground. Its wrists could also have some black bands, and its legs would likely be longer and thinner to enable it to run faster. Its eyeshade become sharper, just to reinforce that Krookodile is a cool croc.
Mega Krookodile is an alternative trapper. Mega Gengar’s really good, don’t get me wrong, but another options wouldn’t hurt. It just happens that Krookodile and Arena Trap are very much compatible with each other. After all, Krookodile is known to never allow their prey to escape. It’s true that Ghost-types can switch out too, but remember that Krookodile is a Dark-type with Pursuit, so it will give Krookodile some use.
When it comes to stats, its Attack got the biggest boost to take full advantage of Arena Trap’s trapping ability to defeat opponents. The extra Speed definitely helps, allowing one to overcome the majority of Pokémon through first strikes. The rest go to its other stats, especially Defence, since its type defence is more Physically-inclined.
Cryogonal
[B]Type:[/B] Ice/Steel
[B]Ability:[/B] [I]Quick Freeze[/I]*
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Def +40, SpAtk +30, SpDef +10, Speed +20
*[I]Gives priority to Ice-type moves.[/I]
When Cryogonal Mega Evolves, its snow crystal body becomes hardened, becoming more grey. Its six pointed sides become sharper and it has more ice chains to help its mobility on the ground. Since it doesn’t always float anymore, it either rolls around the field quickly or use its ice chains to crawl around.
While Mega Cryogonal lost its Ground immunity and gets two double weaknesses, it gains some great resistances in return! It would still be viable as a special wall since it keeps its recovery. I put more emphasis on its Physical Defence because that one needs to be patched up. The other stats go to its other vital ones, especially Special Attack and Speed. Those two are important because of its new ability.
Basically, Cryogonal got an Ice version of Gale Wings, which would help it be a viable Ice-type, with all the moves it learns. You would, of course, use it as a priority Ice attacker because of how great Ice is as an offensive type. Ice Beam is what you would likely use because of its overall power, but you also have Freeze Dry for any troublesome Water-types that would try to resist your STABs. While not important, Ice Shard is a +2 priority move since it is already a priority move.
The most exciting addition, however, is priority Haze. In case you let a setup sweeper get too much boosts, you could case Haze as a last-ditch effort to remove their boosts. Mist is another move that gets the boost, though it isn’t as useful. To a lesser extent, it gets Sheer Cold, which is usually a prohibited skill because OHKO moves are generally discouraged.
Bisharp
[B]Type:[/B] Dark/Steel
[B]Ability:[/B] Infiltrator
[B]Stat Boosts:[/B] Atk +20, Def +20, SpDef +25, Speed +35
Bisharp’s blades become sharper and longer after Mega Evolution that it is able to . Its head now have a mask to cover its face, like Pawniard. Its blade horn also becomes similar to a crown to match the king or queen’s crown, being partly based on a chess piece.
Bisharp is another Pokémon whose ability of choice is tricky, because there are several great candidates. Justified is one becuase of its Dark resistance, Hyper Cutter is so its Attack isn’t reduced and a new ability that transforms slashes into priority attacks. I decided for Infiltrator because the plight of every Sucker Punch attacker is for the opponent to use it as an opportunity to set up a Substitute. With this ability, setting up a Substitute is just delaying the inevitable, especially if Bisharp decides to attack through their shield.
The stats are essentially to make the most out of Infiltrator’s utility. Attack is increased for extra power (more if Swords Dance is used), and Speed is to out-speed some important targets, including Garchomp. It still underspeeds the musketeers and Infernape, so that Mega Bisharp isn’t too hard to handle. The rest go to its defences to make it tougher, much like Steel-types are known for.
That’s all for this one! Did your favourites make it here? I hope the ideas I suggest go well with you! There are actually more Pokémon that I would like to see as a Mega Evolution, but sometimes there should be limits so that each choice could be carefully thought of.
Finally, the last article will be about [B]Generation 6 Pokémon[/B]. I should warn you that there will be less than 12 candidates for the next one, due to the smaller pool of new Pokémon introduced. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I have writing it.
[CENTER][I]Thanks for reading.[/I][/CENTER]
