- Bee loves STAB U-Turn in a tier typically lacking many pivoting moves; however it also absolutely hates Stealth Rock.. Mega Beedrill is an exercise in risk and reward, with its extreme frailty counteracted by monstrous Attack and Speed. While it has a horrific matchup into Mega Aerodactyl due to the latter’s better Speed its ability to bounce off of the rest of the tier makes it a momentum machine, especially if it can find its way safely into Mew. The bee is held back from excelling by its aforementioned struggles against Aerodactyl, extreme frailty that means it only typically comes in off of sacrifices, and a rocks weakness that can force it to risk a Roost to try and survive longer. It also struggles into tier king Melmetal, with Drill Run not even 3hkoing it. Beedrill requires careful building and precise play to succeed, but can create pressure like little else in the tier.
- I've always loved Xard as a Pokemon, so when I found out that it was still viable here, I wanted to use it fairly early on. Unfortunately, Xard has one huge issue it has to surpass before it can truly come online; it must mega evolve. Due to a quadruple weakness to Stealth Rock, Xard is often forced to lead, which can easily be abused with Toxic from the likes of Mew and Zapdos or strong attacks from specially offensive foes like Blastoise. Once it's online, though, Xard has some very powerful qualities that make it extremely powerful; it absolutely
dominates Melmetal, absolutely torching it with Fire Blast and even being able to take advantage of it for recovery with the assistance of Will-O-Wisp, and it trades evenly with most Mew sets as well. Its STAB Dragon Pulse isn't resisted by the rest of the tier barring Dugtrio-Alola (who also fears Fire Blast), thus allowing for clean two move coverage that scares the living daylights out of almost anything that would consider switching in. The main factor holding Xard back once its online is its Stealth Rock weakness, meaning it must at times step off the gas to recover and give the opponent breathing room; something it'd really prefer not to give.
- Nidoqueen has tons of coverage, but tends to be relegated to either Stealth Rock duty or acting as an Electric-type switchin; its access to an offensive phasing move in Dragon Tail is quite appealing, though, and it tends to be one of the best punishers of Zapdos opting to stay in and Thunderbolt rather than pivoting out. Also, Super Fang can be a pretty good move for generic progress making in a tier where Gengar's the only ghost-type.
- Perhaps it's an odd comparson to make, but Rhydon typically plays as a better Nidoking. It's far stronger than Nidoking and the 4x weakness to Grass and Water isn't very relevant in the situations where you'd use them, while the better Attack, STAB Rock Slide, and access to Megahorn are absolute game changers in the department of reckless offense. I love Substitute 3 Attacks sets the most, but Stealth Rock 3 Attacks sets are more than serviceable as well.
- I was initially a Kingler doubter, but my team recommended it in a prior week and it ended up being one of the best mons that I found to pair with Mega Beedrill. Crabhammer is a stupendously powerful move, surpassing Mega Gyarados Waterfall levels of damage, and its decent physical bulk makes it a decent Ground-type switchin and general abuser of Stealth Rock; it also switches into Mega Aerodactyl once and puts on immense pressure when it does so, which is something Mega Beedrill teams greatly appreciate. Lastly, it has access to Agility to potentially act as a late-game cleaner, outpacing the entire tier at +2 Speed even with an Adamant nature. Maybe I'm overrating the crab a bit, but I've been pleasantly surprised by it.
- It's possible Muk deserves a bump up to Top Tier, but I don't really have enough experience with it to say, so I feel that Mid Tier is the most comfortable placing I can have for it. Here's what I do know; Muk is one of the better Mew switchins that the tier has, though it doesn't like Will-O-Wisp much, and it's probably one of tier's best general specially-defensive mons. It also does pretty well into Mega Venusaur since it resists both of its STABs, though of course Leech Seed is still problematic.
- Vaporeon's defining trait over other Water-types is being the best specially defensive wall of them all. Yawn is extremely annoying, but other than that it's the usual pair of Scald and Ice Beam, typically alongside a screen of choice.
:vensuaur: - Base Venusaur, baby. I think that in spite of the significant stat dropoff from Mega form to base form, Venusaur's ability to dominate every other Grass-types, spread sleep with Sleep Powder, and annoy the living daylights out of everything with Leech Seed allows it to remain ridiculously good. This is one of the main reasons why it's an effective Pokemon in double megas teams, alongside...
- Yup, base Aero comes in here as well. While base Aerodactyl doesn't pack nearly the level of power its Mega form does, it's still a fast Stealth Rocker that hits decently hard and pressures opposing Rock- and Ground-weak foes well.
- First off, I want to just mention a Dragonite set that I don't think had been seen before I used it week 2of the tournament; Substitute, Toxic, Fire Blast, and Roost. The goal of this set was to beat Melmetal and Mew, kind of like a scuffed Mega Charizard X, and it certainly did well enough into Melmetal to count in the game! More standard Agility sets are probably best on Dragonite, and Outrage is a peerlessly powerful move, but the fact that it duds completely into Melmetal is
rough for your endgame sweeper and makes the more standard sweeper set's use cases extremely specific. It can be quite potent if used well, though, and I think that Dragonite's one of the Pokemon that has a lot more room for innovation for the enterprising trainer.
- Eggy Alola is on the verge of being low tier for me due to its quad weakness to ice and the fact that it's
so slow, but Eggy has some factors going in its favor that make me end up placing it in the mid tier anyway. It's this tier's best user of Teleport since the move doesn't have dropped priority, and it's another Dragon-type that can threaten decent damage to Melmetal, meaning it can use Dragon Pulse fairly risk-free versus the rest of the tier, and having phasing in Dragon Tail means it can mess with its switch-ins as well. All in all, it's another decent mon at getting momentum for its team and switches well enough into Dugtrio and Electric-types.
- I don't know much about Clefable, so I'm just going to call it mid tier since it has Fire Blast to torch Melmetal and its special bulk is decent; its special bulk and offenses can also get boosted further by Calm Mind, making for solid two move coverage with Moonblast and Fire Blast. Just be careful around Muk and physical attackers, and you probably do well otherwise.
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- Mainly mentioning Yard here since you have the option mid battle to Mega Y as well. It's worth considering if you can prevent rocks from going up, since its Fire Blast is by far the strongest special attack in the tier, but in the vast majority of cases Xard is just going to be better; even if rocks aren't up, Xard's better typing into foes like Zapdos and Jolteon can often make it the better pick anyway. Worth considering in