Shining Like a Diamond: Mega Diancie in OU

By Millionsunz. Art by the_basic_gamer.
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Mega Diancie by the_basic_gamer

Introduction

Diancie was introduced as a "hidden" Mythical Pokémon in XY, only discovered in the game via datamining. Players all around were crestfallen when they saw what was supposed to be the 6th generation's Manaphy or Jirachi; a slow, bulky Pokémon with a useless ability and a defensive typing with easily exploitable weaknesses. While its great defenses surely allowed it to take a hit, heavy HP investment was needed to avoid knockouts, and even that didn't increase its longevity that much. Players, both in-game and competitive, were disappointed in what was expected to be an awesome Mythical Pokémon. Diancie was relegated to the lower tiers, seemingly to never rise up to the top of the OU metagame. Fortunately for Diancie, ORAS rolled around and gave it a great Mega Evolution, allowing it to rise in the eyes of players of all fields.

Mega Diancie was the only Generation VI Mega Evolution introduced in ORAS, and it was no doubt an awesome one. With a great offensive typing in Rock / Fairy, amazing offensive stats, and decent defensive stats for an offensive Pokémon, Mega Diancie seems like a premier offensive Pokémon. Unfortunately, there is less to Mega Diancie than meets the eye. An abysmal HP stat weighs down its regular, more defensive form, and it also prevents Mega Diancie from taking almost any type of super effective attack. Having to start off as regular Diancie is also a downside, almost forcing Mega Diancie to run Protect to safely get its Speed boost. While it has an effective movepool, it is rather limited in its coverage attacks, relying on Hidden Power to diversify its sets. However, Mega Diancie is currently one of the tier's top threats, partially due to its awesome ability, Magic Bounce, and its great offenses combined with its blazing Speed tier. Being able to outspeed all base 100s and Speed tie with base 110s is fantastic in the OU metagame, where base 100 Speed is considered slow. Its four weaknesses are also easy to work around, and because it provides such great offensive pressure, Mega Diancie is able to fit onto almost any team. Pressuring common Pokémon like Talonflame, Garchomp, and Heatran, Mega Diancie provides a necessary balance to the current OU metagame, and it will continue to pressure common threats for as long as the current metagame lasts, and most likely past that.

Mega Diancie's Role in The Current Metagame

Mega Diancie plays a very important role in the current ORAS OU metagame, both providing a balance to certain Pokémon that run the metagame and acting as both a check and a counter to some of the bulkiest Pokémon in the tier. The current OU metagame is arguably held together by a few solid Pokémon, including but not limited to Latios and Keldeo, both of which Mega Diancie is able to OHKO with a strong STAB super effective attack, Speed tying with the former, but being immune to Draco Meteor, and outspeeding the latter. However, Mega Diancie is always outsped by Latios should it choose to carry Hidden Power Fire, so it must be wary of that. Mega Diancie is also able to aid its team in breaking through certain bulky Pokémon, specifically Mega Sableye, as it can demolish Mega Sableye with a STAB Moonblast and is able to bounce back any status move that Mega Sableye may want to throw at it, like Will-O-Wisp or Toxic. Mega Diancie can find numerous opportunities to switch in on Mega Sableye and throw out a powerful attack.

Mega Diancie is not only a solid Mega Evolution in the OU metagame because of its metagame balancing and team breaking abilities. One of Mega Diancie's main niches is its incredible ability in Magic Bounce. Being able to bounce back both Stealth Rock (and other entry hazards) and status moves is a great ability to have, and Mega Diancie makes great use of it. With Magic Bounce, Mega Diancie is able to function as a better offensive Pokémon, being immune to the ever-present Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp, which would hinder both its great Speed stat and its decent Attack stat. Mega Diancie's ability to reflect hazards back allows it to fill a supporting role for Pokémon weak to hazards, like Talonflame, Kyurem-B, Thundurus, and Volcarona. In a metagame where almost all teams run some form of hazard setting and status moves, Mega Diancie is able to solidify its role as an offensively biased yet supportive Pokémon, and its ability to consistently break through common Pokémon allows it to be one of the most useful Mega Evolutions in the OU tier.

Mega Diancie Cores and Threats

Cores

Magnezone: Probably one of the most common Pokémon paired with Mega Diancie is Magnezone. Magnezone's usefulness comes in its stellar ability Magnet Pull, which prevents Steel-type Pokémon from switching out against it. With Magnet Pull in hand, Magnezone is able to demolish most of the Steel-types in the tier, like Mega Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory, hitting them hard with either a Hidden Power Fire or a STAB Thunderbolt. It is also able to get rid of the bulky Water-type Pokémon that Mega Diancie doesn't appreciate facing, like Manaphy, and can even deal with some of the Fairy-type Pokémon that Mega Diancie can struggle to break through.

Talonflame / Volcarona: Talonflame or Volcarona and Mega Diancie make a very scary and threatening offensive core. Both Pokémon are able to rid of the Steel-types that Mega Diancie despises, and they can even break through the bulky Steel- and Grass-types that can tank hits from Mega Diancie. Talonflame acts as the ultimate revenge killer, utilizing both Gale Wings Brave Bird and its insanely fast Flare Blitz to KO threats and weaken bulkier Pokémon. Volcarona is a frightening sweeper that can run a variety of coverage moves, allowing it to beat most Pokémon in the OU tier. However, both Pokémon are weak to the ever-popular Stealth Rock, which Mega Diancie can bounce back and prevent from getting set up on your side of the field.

Keldeo: Keldeo forms a nice core with Mega Diancie, as both are able to handle each other's checks, with Mega Diancie being able to take on Thundurus and Talonflame while Keldeo can pressure Pokémon like Mega Scizor, which loves to switch in on Mega Diancie. Keldeo is also able to pressure Steel-types like Skarmory and Excadrill, Pokémon that Mega Diancie can struggle to break through, with its strong STAB moves in Hydro Pump, Secret Sword, and Scald. In return, Mega Diancie is able to hit Pokémon like Zapdos, of which defensive variants can easily switch into Keldeo on a predicted move, and Mega Pinsir, which can demolish Keldeo with Aerilate Return or Quick Attack, hitting them with a STAB Diamond Storm.

Threats

Excadrill: Whether it be in the sand or holding a Choice Scarf, nothing scares Mega Diancie more than Excadrill. Excadrill is able to OHKO Mega Diancie with either of its STAB attacks, Earthquake and Iron Head. In the sand, Excadrill is able to easily outspeed Mega Diancie and OHKO it, and the same goes for the Choice Scarf variant. Excadrill must be careful switching into Mega Diancie, though, as it has a small chance to be OHKOed by an Earth Power from the Queen of Diamonds. Specially defensive variants are also able to set up entry hazards against Mega Diancie, using Mold Breaker to ignore Magic Bounce.

Jirachi: Jirachi is also one of the best Mega Diancie counters, being able to run both a bulky specially defensive set that eats up hits from Mega Diancie and a faster, more offensive Choice Scarf set. Mega Diancie is at best able to 4HKO specially defensive Jirachi and is OHKOed by Iron Head, even with no Attack investment on Jirachi. Specially defensive Jirachi is also able to stall out Mega Diancie with Wish. Choice Scarf Jirachi can easily revenge kill Mega Diancie with a faster STAB Iron Head.

Mega Metagross / Mega Scizor: Mega Metagross and Mega Scizor are two of the most threatening Pokémon in the tier, and they are able to handle Mega Diancie extremely well. While Mega Metagross Speed ties with Mega Diancie and Mega Scizor is slower than it, both Pokémon are able to run Bullet Punch, a priority STAB attack that can easily OHKO any variant of Mega Diancie. With a lack of priority attacks, Mega Diancie can find it hard to work around these Pokémon, but it can deal large amounts of damage with either an Earth Power or a Hidden Power Fire to both of them on the switch in

Mega Venusaur / Amoonguss: Amoonguss and Mega Venusaur are two of the best checks to Mega Diancie. Thanks to their Poison typing, both are able to completely eat up Moonblast from Mega Diancie, and their great physical bulk allows them to easily stomach Diamond Storm too. Mega Venusaur in particular can be a handful for Mega Diancie, as it is not weak to Hidden Power Fire thanks to its ability, Thick Fat, and Amoonguss has access to Regenerator, allowing it to pivot into Mega Diancie multiple times without being worn down easily. Both Pokémon hit Mega Diancie hard with STAB Giga Drain as well.

Sets with Mega Diancie

Mega Diancie

This is the most common Mega Diancie set you will encounter. Due to the sad fact that Mega Diancie has to start off as regular Diancie and doesn't received its godly Speed boost until after the turn it Mega Evolves, Diancie will usually run Protect. Protect also comes in handy when scouting for an opposing Pokémon's moveset and can be used to identify Choiced Pokémon and exploit their single move plight. Diamond Storm is the Rock-type STAB move that Mega Diancie will utilize, hitting Pokémon like Talonflame, both Mega Charizard formes, Tornadus-T, and Zapdos for a strong, super effective hit. Likewise, Moonblast is the Fairy-type STAB move, hitting common Pokémon like Garchomp, Latios, Latias, and Keldeo for large amounts of damage, even OHKOing some threats. The last moveslot usually goes to Hidden Power Fire, which allows Mega Diancie to hit the likes of Ferrothorn and Skarmory for a strong super effective hit, or Earth Power, which allows it to smack the likes of Heatran and Excadrill. 8 Attack EVs allow Mega Diancie to guarantee an OHKO on regular Dragon Dance Mega Charizard X. 252 Speed EVs in tandem with a Naive nature allow Mega Diancie to hit its great Speed tier of 350 maximum Speed, Speed tying with other base 110s like Latios, Latias, and Gengar. The remaining 248 EVs are dumped into Special Attack to maximize the damage output of Moonblast, Earth Power, and Hidden Power Fire. A Naive nature is run in contrast to a Hasty one to allow Mega Diancie to take hits better from Pokémon like Talonflame and Mega Lopunny, which does not OHKO with High Jump Kick.

Mega Diancie

Besides a primarily specially offensive set, Mega Diancie is also able to run a primarily physically offensive set to lure in and hit its supposed checks hard. Pokémon like Clefable, Chansey, Zapdos, and specially defensive Mew are startled when they are hit and 2HKOed, except Chansey, which needs some prior damage, by Mega Diancie's Diamond Storm, thinking that they could switch in safely. Using the same moves as groundwork on the Protect set, Mega Diancie has the ability to run supportive moves like Stealth Rock and Heal Bell as well. Mega Diancie can threaten out other Magic Bounce users like Mega Sableye, allowing it to have an easier time setting up entry hazards. While a Naughty or a Lonely nature may seem more appealing to increase Mega Diancie's Attack to an even higher level, Mega Diancie's reliance on its crucial Speed tier mandates that a positive Speed nature be run.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Mega Diancie is a formidable force in the OU tier and ORAS metagame, being a popular countermeasure to Pokémon like Latios, Keldeo, and Mega Sableye. Being able to hit them with super effective STAB attacks while providing valuable team support in hazard control allows Mega Diancie to overcome its lacking HP stat, limited movepool, and even its regular forme's drawbacks to become one of the most dangerous Pokémon in the OU tier. While it is restricted in the type of sets it can run, Mega Diance is very effective at its specific role of being an offensive Pokémon and will continue to be a top-tier threat for a long time.

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