Pokemon VGC 2015 Metagame Megathread

[Eckley]

I'm gonna finish my other two teams first, but yeah, I'll let you know :D

[Rogue]

Whenever I see a Mega Salamence, I can't help but laugh at it's design. However that laughter usually results in tears as it KO's everything on my team.



Jokes aside, this thing really is incredibly good. With the right team support this could be the best mega. Not to mention the sheer fear factor it gives off, making your opponent want to double up against it.

Typing: Dragon/Flying
Weaknesses: Rock/Dragon/Fairy (x2) and Ice (x4)
Resistances: Fighting/Bug/Fire/Water (1/2) and Grass (1/4)
Ability: Aerilate (Normal type moves become flying type, and do 1.3x damage.)
Stats: HP: 95 / Attack: 145 / Defense: 130 / Sp. Atk: 120 / Sp.Def: 90 / Speed: 120

Let's jump right into the sets. Please keep in mind that as the meta evolves, these sets will too.

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-Bulky dance/2 STAB-
Salamence-Mega
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 248 HP / 152 Atk / 56 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Return
- Dragon Claw

This set is very scary. All it takes is one dragon dance, and you out speed max speed timid Greninja. While being able to of course, KO it. You have enough bulk to live things like an ice shard from a max attack/adamant/life orb Mamoswine. Which is funny to think about. Pair this up with follow me clefable, and you won't even have to worry about it. Roost is there for obvious reasons. Keep in mind that once you roost, you lose your flying typing for that turn. That means getting hit by an ice type move will only hit you for x2 that turn, as you heal. Return is our flying STAB thanks to aerilate, and it sure does hit hard. Dragon claw is there for things like Garchomp that can potentially threaten us. Have I mentioned that we can also live a life orb dragon claw from Garchomp? Because we can [:

Here are some calcs, under 1 dragon dance.

+1 152+ Atk Salamence Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garchomp: 236-278 (109.7 - 129.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+1 152+ Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 240 HP / 12 Def Cresselia: 160-189 (71.1 - 84%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+1 152+ Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 207-244 (123.9 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

As you can see, this set is somewhat reliant on getting that one dragon dance off. However, all you need is really just one and you can OHKO-2KO almost everything.

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-Fast Physical Attacker-
Salamence-Mega
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Double-Edge
- Outrage

This set is used to abuse Salamence's great attack power and speed. Double egde is stronger than return, but it has recoil. Keep this in mind when using it. Earthquake is to take out those things like steel types. Outrage is risky but it really does get the job done. It's easier to run this thanks to being able to have a steel/poison type partner to take out any fairy types. Not too much to say here, we trade off bulk for attack and speed. But at least taunt wont get in the way this time.

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 152+ Def Cresselia: 100-118 (44 - 51.9%) -- 13.3% chance to 2HKO (Being able to still 2ko cresselia without a dragon dance is really good.)

252 Atk Salamence Outrage vs. 252 HP / 32 Def Mega Charizard X: 200-236 (108.1 - 127.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(rip bulky zard x)

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 160+ Def Amoonguss: 288-338 (130.3 - 152.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Conkeldurr: 236-278 (111.3 - 131.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

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-Special Attacker-
Salamence-Mega
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Protect

This set does offer a good use for hyper voice, along with the ability to switch up moves unlike choice mence. Not too much to say here either, I prefer physical over special. You do gain the double hype voice hit, but i feel like you need to run heavy special investment to make it work, and you have to run the speed to not get hit by those heavy speed investment mons with ice moves.

252 SpA Aerilate Salamence Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 72+ SpD Amoonguss: 144-170 (65.1 - 76.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Aerilate Salamence Hyper Voice vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tornadus: 84-100 (54.5 - 64.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Mawile in Sun: 184-218 (117.1 - 138.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Aerilate Salamence Hyper Voice vs. 232 HP / 4 SpD Mega Venusaur: 120-144 (65.2 - 78.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Hyper Voice spam will work well in VGC, because it honestly 2KO's just about everything.

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Partners: Defensive follow me Clefable. This thing eats up ice moves for breakfast, and allows your mega mence to do what it wants for a few turns.

Prankster Thundurus to shut down trick room users/thunder wave users/will o/etc

Landorus-T- I feel like Mega Salamence needs help to take out those steel types if he's running the 2 stab. Who's better at doing that job than earthquake landorus-T?

Scizor- Scizor works well with stopping ice types from doing too much, he can bullet punch them and usually OHKO them.

Thundurus T/Raikou- They put away Azumarill, which can be a threat.

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The threats-
If you aren't running dragon dance, timid greninja is a threat.
Mamoswine and Azumarill can also be a threat.
Mega Metagross You really do need some support against this thing. It has ice punch and  Your earthquake can hurt it, but can't KO. However, good thing this is doubles and you can have someone like Landorus clean it up.

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Conclusion-
I think the reason why Mega Salamence is gonna be so good is simply because of it being doubles. Through damage calcs he can 2KO just about everything. Through the support of another fast, heavy hitter; they can easily pick up the rest of the damage. Not to mention being able to play with your pre mega and shoot off intimidates to help even more.

On a side note, I feel like Mega Metagross/Mega Salamence will be the most used megas. I did a lot of calcs against mega metagross, and it was really challenging finding ways to OHKO it.

[mike3640]

Thanks so much for the dogs analysis! Im terrible at coming up with my own spreads

[SCf3]

Thank you so much for the analysis! I'm kinda new to VGC and this is really helping me get an idea of the new meta esp with the old legends coming back. :D

[Justin]

OP has been updated to include all current meta-game write ups! If you're currently playing VGC format please let us know what you're seeing in your matches. Cool combos, interesting movesets. Anything =)

thanks!

[BloodySurgicalSteel]

it gets hyper voice? aaallrightt that's so awesome, i know what i'll be doing with mine then :D

[Black117]

I think the early VGC meta will be about either speed control (icy wind, electroweb, trick room, thunder wave, tailwind) as well as counteracting intimidate spam. Currently I am using icy wind Cresselia and it's been working wonders by dropping both pokemon's speed by one third. Essentially this forces the opponent to either switch out or risk being out-sped by the opposing team.  One thing people will need to prepare for is intimidate spam from the likes of Landorus-t, Salamence, Gyarados, Scrafty, and other intimidate pokemon.  What I have seen people do to counteract intimidate spam is run pokemon like Bisharp and Milotic as deterrents. The one that strikes me is Bisharp since using it has the potential to wall-break any defensive team with knock off/iron head or sweep with sucker punch. Milotic is an interesting case since it can immediately get +2 in its special attack almost immediately thanks to its new ability competitive (OMG Game Freak why didn't you released Mega Milotic). Defiant users have to settle for +1 attack but Milotic and other competitive users have the better end of this deal. Other things people have to watch out for is hyper voice spam from Sylveon, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Salamence. All three pokemon have the firepower to clean out both opposing pokemon granted they get helping hand support.

[ChaseInfinity]

(Dec 23, 2014, 08:58 PM)Black117 Wrote: I think the early VGC meta will be about either speed control (icy wind, electroweb, trick room, thunder wave, tailwind) as well as counteracting intimidate spam. Currently I am using icy wind Cresselia and it's been working wonders by dropping both pokemon's speed by one third. Essentially this forces the opponent to either switch out or risk being out-sped by the opposing team.  One thing people will need to prepare for is intimidate spam from the likes of Landorus-t, Salamence, Gyarados, Scrafty, and other intimidate pokemon.  What I have seen people do to counteract intimidate spam is run pokemon like Bisharp and Milotic as deterrents. The one that strikes me is Bisharp since using it has the potential to wall-break any defensive team with knock off/iron head or sweep with sucker punch. Milotic is an interesting case since it can immediately get +2 in its special attack almost immediately thanks to its new ability competitive (OMG Game Freak why didn't you released Mega Milotic). Defiant users have to settle for +1 attack but Milotic and other competitive users have the better end of this deal. Other things people have to watch out for is hyper voice spam from Sylveon, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Salamence. All three pokemon have the firepower to clean out both opposing pokemon granted they get helping hand support.

ive been battling alot and i come to a team i can obviously destroy but the secound they use trick room in the one dead so yeah speed it a huge factor atleast right now

[evilsabre]

trick rooms teams would be dominating imo if not for all the knock off use atm had a few issues with mine simply due to fast sleep power/spore users and all the knock off pokemon admittedly my scizor has been tearing my foes teams to shreds even before the room is set so he's looking like a mon to watch out for.

[Eckley]

Scizor was originally on my team, but then I swapped it for Escavalier, just to be sure I was the fastest should a TR get set up