[OVERVIEW]
Mega Slowbro is one of the most consistent setup stall Pokemon in the 1v1 metagame. With naturally monstrous Defense, it can tank neutral attacks from the strongest physical attackers in the tier, such as Mega Charizard X, Flyinium Z-boosted Fly Dragonite, and Mega Lopunny, even without Defense investment. Thanks to this, Mega Slowbro can put as many EVs into Special Defense and HP as possible, which enables it to tank moves from powerful special attackers as well, such as specially offensive Dragonite and Choice Scarf Porygon Z, and follow up with recovery in the form of Slack Off or Rest, or use various setup moves such as Iron Defense, Calm Mind, and Amnesia in order to get out of KO range. Slowbro also has access to two very useful abilities for its role, those being Oblivious and Shell Armor, allowing it to be immune to the move Taunt, which normally shuts down all forms of stall, before Mega Evolving and avoid being hit by a critical hit after, making it more reliable against every Pokemon that can boost its offenses. Mega Slowbro is, unfortunately, one of the slowest Pokemon in the metagame, so it is only able to set up after it has already taken damage, leaving it susceptible to being knocked out by sufficiently powerful super effective attacks. Mega Slowbro is also weak to several common attacking moves, those being Grass-, Electric-, and Dark-type moves, so you'll need to watch out for moves such as Giga Drain, Thunderbolt, Dark Pulse, and their respective Z-Moves from Pokemon such as Mega Venusaur, Magnezone, and Hoopa-U.
[SET]
name: Semistall Setup
move 1: Scald
move 2: Iron Defense
move 3: Calm Mind / Amnesia
move 4: Slack Off / Rest
item: Slowbronite
ability: Oblivious
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Scald serves as Mega Slowbro's trusty attacking option, allowing it to slowly whittle down the opposing Pokemon, combined with a 30% chance to burn. A burn can provide extra security against physical attackers that can boost their Attack, such as Mega Gyarados, Dragonite, and Zygarde-C. Iron Defense boosts Mega Slowbro's already insane natural physical bulk to impenetrable levels in order to lessen the damage dealt by the aforementioned physical attackers as well. Calm Mind allows Mega Slowbro to boost its somewhat lacking Special Defense while also boosting the damage dealt by each of its Scalds. This is essential in effectively breaking through Pokemon that can recover from the damage dealt from unboosted Scalds and the following burn chip damage or boost their own Special Defense stat, such as bulky Magearna, Zygarde-C, Mega Altaria, Mega Sableye, and Mew. Amnesia can also be run if Mega Slowbro needs to boost its Special Defense faster than Calm Mind and if the Special Attack boost brought by Calm Mind is unnecessary. This can come in handy against particularly scary matchups, like Mega Gardevoir, Meloetta, and Choice Specs Deoxys-S. Slack Off recovers Mega Slowbro's HP. Use this to heal off damage taken before Mega Slowbro boosts its defensive stats. Rest is another recovery option that fully restores Mega Slowbro's health and removes any status condition such as poison or burn. This can be particularly useful when facing off against other stall Pokemon, such as Jumpluff, Whimsicott, and non-Sleep Powder Mega Venusaur. However, the three turns of immobility can leave Mega Slowbro wide open for more offensive Pokemon like Mega Gyarados and Mega Gardevoir to set up and attack while Mega Slowbro is unable to match them defensively.
Set Details
========
As Mega Slowbro already has excess physical bulk uninvested, all the EVs are instead invested into HP and Special Defense in order to make sure that it can have the highest possible Special Defense. The leftover EVs are invested into Defense. Mega Slowbro runs 0 Speed IVs to make sure it can underspeed Pokemon such as Metal Burst Mega Aggron and Mega Mawile. This also ensures that you don't automically lose the Mega Slowbro mirror, which will end in Struggle being used on both sides and the slowest Pokemon winning. Before Mega Evolving, Slowbro has access to Oblivious, which prevents Taunt shutting it down, unlike most other stall Pokemon. Oblivious even blocks Taunt from Mold Breaker Pokemon like Mega Gyarados and Haxorus, allowing Mega Slowbro to continue setting up its defenses. Thanks to Shell Armor, Mega Slowbro can set up without worrying about critical hits, which similar Pokemon such as stall Deoxys-S and Necrozma worry about and often fall prey to.
Usage Tips
========
Mega Slowbro is designed to tank hits while setting up its defenses in order to make sure it can comfortably attack with Scald without ever getting in range of being knocked out. Against any type of offensive Pokemon, Mega Evolve turn one and boost either Mega Slowbro's Defense with Iron Defense or its Special Defense with Calm Mind or Amnesia. The goal of Mega Slowbro in the early stage of the battle is to make sure it can get out of range from any fatal blow before attempting to attack. Not doing so could make it lose to otherwise easy matchups such as against Zygarde-C, which can eventually set up and overwhelm Mega Slowbro's defenses if you don't bother boosting Mega Slowbro's Defense in return. Shell Armor affords Mega Slowbro to not have to waste recovery to get out of range from a critical hit. Therefore, feel free to set up in ranges that might be a little bit more dangerous to other Pokemon as long as Mega Slowbro can recover from the damage dealt the next turn. Oblivious means you can send Mega Slowbro out against traditional Taunt users, such as Tapu Lele, Tapu Fini, Stall Deoxys-S, and bulky Kommo-o, and not have to worry about it being shut down as long as you do not Mega Evolve. One particularly important foe, Mega Gyarados, can only consistently beat Mega Slowbro if it has both Taunt and Crunch, as Slowbro must not Mega Evolve to avoid being Taunted, but Crunch will do too much to regular Slowbro. If Mega Gyarados only has Taunt, never Mega Evolve and instead set up Iron Defense in Mega Slowbro's regular form, getting to maximum Defense before chipping at it with Scald. If Mega Gyarados only has Crunch, you should Mega Evolve and set up to avoid fatal Crunch damage. Additionally, while Mega Gyarados's access to Mold Breaker won't matter against Oblivious, it can bypass Shell Armor. Dragonite can run both a viable physical set and a viable special set, so if you do not know the opponent's Dragonite set, you should boost Mega Slowbro's Special Defense immediately with either Amnesia or Calm Mind, as Mega Slowbro has enough natural bulk to tank a Supersonic Skystrike followed by Outrage, but not a Dragonium Z-boosted Draco Meteor or Flyinium Z-boosted Hurricane followed by Draco Meteor without a Special Defense buff. After determining whether or not Dragonite is physical or special, boost the appropriate defensive stat from then on and heal whenever necessary. Also, Mega Slowbro is heavier than regular Slowbro, so if you find yourself up against Grass Knot users such as Choice Scarf Greninja, do not Mega Evolve. Avoid sending Mega Slowbro out against hyper offensive super effective attackers such as Kartana, Zeraora, and Aegislash.
Team Options
========
Pokemon that can tank attacks that would be super effective against Mega Slowbro, namely Grass-, Electric-, Dark-, Bug-, and Ghost-type moves, naturally are its best teammate option. Pokemon such as Kommo-o and specially defensive Mega Charizard X can deal with Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y, Choice Specs Greninja, Aegislash, and Tapu Bulu that give Mega Slowbro a hard time and appreciate the positive matchups Mega Slowbro has against Psychic- and Rock-types, respectively. Specially defensive tanks are also a great option for teammates, as Mega Slowbro's biggest threats are usually special attackers. Pokemon like Meloetta, Chansey, Mega Tyranitar, and Blissey all work well with Mega Slowbro and appreciate the Fighting-type resistance that Mega Slowbro offers. As a Water-type, Mega Slowbro can fit well on a standard Fire / Water / Grass core team, especially appreciating the work put in by Pokemon from Fire-types like Incineroar, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Blaziken and from Grass-types like Mega Venusaur, Ferrothorn, xand Tapu Bulu. The Fire- and Grass-types can effectively deal with Pokemon that threaten Mega Slowbro such as Z-Conversion Porygon-Z, Magnezone, Mega Charizard Y, and other Mega Slowbro. As Mega Slowbro is naturally slow, it is also susceptible to Pokemon such as Vivillon and Smeargle, whose strategies are only successful if they go first. Be sure to pair Mega Slowbro with at least sufficiently fast Pokemon, like Pheromosa, Mega Lopunny, and Porygon-Z. Mega Slowbro can beat the common speed trap Pokemon Jumpluff, as it is able to recover back the damage leeched from its health and PP stall Jumpluff.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Foul Play is an interesting niche choice that beats a notable anti-Mega Slowbro set in Belly Drum Mega Charizard X. Considering the popularity of Mega Charizard X, this may be an interesting choice to have more of a guaranteed matchup against every variant of Mega Charizard X. However, in every other regard, Foul Play is severely inferior to Scald.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Super Effective Attackers**: As Mega Slowbro is such an excellent stall Pokemon in the context of 1v1, with answers to Taunt, status conditions, most forms of stall, and critical hits, the most common threat against Mega Slowbro will be super effective attackers, and it will struggle against those that can exploit its Water / Psychic typing. These include prevalent Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y, Magnezone, Z-Conversion Porygon-Z, Choice Specs Greninja, Aegislash, Choice Specs Genesect, Tapu Bulu, Gigavolt Havoc Zeraora, Bloom Doom Heatran, Kartana, and Hoopa-U. The only real relevant exception to this in 1v1 is the aforementioned Mega Gyarados, which, unfortunately, only has Crunch, which Mega Slowbro can tank using Iron Defense.
**Very Powerful Attackers**: There are a select few Pokemon in the metagame that are simply so powerful that they can overwhelm Mega Slowbro with neutral damage. These include Choice Specs or Normalium Z Porygon-Z, which can OHKO even a fully invested Mega Slowbro using Hyper Beam or Breakneck Blitz, or Belly Drum Mega Charizard X, which can very impressively 2HKO a +2 Defense Mega Slowbro with Outrage after a Belly Drum, unless Mega Slowbro runs Foul Play.
**Encore Users**: The cousin of Taunt, Encore, is, unfortunately, not blocked by Oblivious and will pose a serious problem to Mega Slowbro, as it will not be able to use anything except the move it has been locked into for the remainder of the battle. Some popular Encore users include Primarina, Mega Gardevoir, Mega Alakazam, and Whimsicott.
**Other Rest Stallers**: While Mega Slowbro can usually outlast other forms of stall by using the move Rest, retaining more PP while it is asleep, if its opponent also has Rest, Mega Slowbro may be in trouble. If the opposing Pokemon can Rest off the damage Mega Slowbro deals and has more PP, you have essentially lost. Beware of Pokemon such as Meowstic-M, Type: Null, Pyukumuku, and Suicune.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[TDA, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[dom, 280380], [Freddy Kyogre, 321529], [yogi, 252106]]
- Grammar checked by: [[The Dutch Plumberjack, 232216], [JockeMS, 53214]]
Mega Slowbro is one of the most consistent setup stall Pokemon in the 1v1 metagame. With naturally monstrous Defense, it can tank neutral attacks from the strongest physical attackers in the tier, such as Mega Charizard X, Flyinium Z-boosted Fly Dragonite, and Mega Lopunny, even without Defense investment. Thanks to this, Mega Slowbro can put as many EVs into Special Defense and HP as possible, which enables it to tank moves from powerful special attackers as well, such as specially offensive Dragonite and Choice Scarf Porygon Z, and follow up with recovery in the form of Slack Off or Rest, or use various setup moves such as Iron Defense, Calm Mind, and Amnesia in order to get out of KO range. Slowbro also has access to two very useful abilities for its role, those being Oblivious and Shell Armor, allowing it to be immune to the move Taunt, which normally shuts down all forms of stall, before Mega Evolving and avoid being hit by a critical hit after, making it more reliable against every Pokemon that can boost its offenses. Mega Slowbro is, unfortunately, one of the slowest Pokemon in the metagame, so it is only able to set up after it has already taken damage, leaving it susceptible to being knocked out by sufficiently powerful super effective attacks. Mega Slowbro is also weak to several common attacking moves, those being Grass-, Electric-, and Dark-type moves, so you'll need to watch out for moves such as Giga Drain, Thunderbolt, Dark Pulse, and their respective Z-Moves from Pokemon such as Mega Venusaur, Magnezone, and Hoopa-U.
[SET]
name: Semistall Setup
move 1: Scald
move 2: Iron Defense
move 3: Calm Mind / Amnesia
move 4: Slack Off / Rest
item: Slowbronite
ability: Oblivious
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Scald serves as Mega Slowbro's trusty attacking option, allowing it to slowly whittle down the opposing Pokemon, combined with a 30% chance to burn. A burn can provide extra security against physical attackers that can boost their Attack, such as Mega Gyarados, Dragonite, and Zygarde-C. Iron Defense boosts Mega Slowbro's already insane natural physical bulk to impenetrable levels in order to lessen the damage dealt by the aforementioned physical attackers as well. Calm Mind allows Mega Slowbro to boost its somewhat lacking Special Defense while also boosting the damage dealt by each of its Scalds. This is essential in effectively breaking through Pokemon that can recover from the damage dealt from unboosted Scalds and the following burn chip damage or boost their own Special Defense stat, such as bulky Magearna, Zygarde-C, Mega Altaria, Mega Sableye, and Mew. Amnesia can also be run if Mega Slowbro needs to boost its Special Defense faster than Calm Mind and if the Special Attack boost brought by Calm Mind is unnecessary. This can come in handy against particularly scary matchups, like Mega Gardevoir, Meloetta, and Choice Specs Deoxys-S. Slack Off recovers Mega Slowbro's HP. Use this to heal off damage taken before Mega Slowbro boosts its defensive stats. Rest is another recovery option that fully restores Mega Slowbro's health and removes any status condition such as poison or burn. This can be particularly useful when facing off against other stall Pokemon, such as Jumpluff, Whimsicott, and non-Sleep Powder Mega Venusaur. However, the three turns of immobility can leave Mega Slowbro wide open for more offensive Pokemon like Mega Gyarados and Mega Gardevoir to set up and attack while Mega Slowbro is unable to match them defensively.
Set Details
========
As Mega Slowbro already has excess physical bulk uninvested, all the EVs are instead invested into HP and Special Defense in order to make sure that it can have the highest possible Special Defense. The leftover EVs are invested into Defense. Mega Slowbro runs 0 Speed IVs to make sure it can underspeed Pokemon such as Metal Burst Mega Aggron and Mega Mawile. This also ensures that you don't automically lose the Mega Slowbro mirror, which will end in Struggle being used on both sides and the slowest Pokemon winning. Before Mega Evolving, Slowbro has access to Oblivious, which prevents Taunt shutting it down, unlike most other stall Pokemon. Oblivious even blocks Taunt from Mold Breaker Pokemon like Mega Gyarados and Haxorus, allowing Mega Slowbro to continue setting up its defenses. Thanks to Shell Armor, Mega Slowbro can set up without worrying about critical hits, which similar Pokemon such as stall Deoxys-S and Necrozma worry about and often fall prey to.
Usage Tips
========
Mega Slowbro is designed to tank hits while setting up its defenses in order to make sure it can comfortably attack with Scald without ever getting in range of being knocked out. Against any type of offensive Pokemon, Mega Evolve turn one and boost either Mega Slowbro's Defense with Iron Defense or its Special Defense with Calm Mind or Amnesia. The goal of Mega Slowbro in the early stage of the battle is to make sure it can get out of range from any fatal blow before attempting to attack. Not doing so could make it lose to otherwise easy matchups such as against Zygarde-C, which can eventually set up and overwhelm Mega Slowbro's defenses if you don't bother boosting Mega Slowbro's Defense in return. Shell Armor affords Mega Slowbro to not have to waste recovery to get out of range from a critical hit. Therefore, feel free to set up in ranges that might be a little bit more dangerous to other Pokemon as long as Mega Slowbro can recover from the damage dealt the next turn. Oblivious means you can send Mega Slowbro out against traditional Taunt users, such as Tapu Lele, Tapu Fini, Stall Deoxys-S, and bulky Kommo-o, and not have to worry about it being shut down as long as you do not Mega Evolve. One particularly important foe, Mega Gyarados, can only consistently beat Mega Slowbro if it has both Taunt and Crunch, as Slowbro must not Mega Evolve to avoid being Taunted, but Crunch will do too much to regular Slowbro. If Mega Gyarados only has Taunt, never Mega Evolve and instead set up Iron Defense in Mega Slowbro's regular form, getting to maximum Defense before chipping at it with Scald. If Mega Gyarados only has Crunch, you should Mega Evolve and set up to avoid fatal Crunch damage. Additionally, while Mega Gyarados's access to Mold Breaker won't matter against Oblivious, it can bypass Shell Armor. Dragonite can run both a viable physical set and a viable special set, so if you do not know the opponent's Dragonite set, you should boost Mega Slowbro's Special Defense immediately with either Amnesia or Calm Mind, as Mega Slowbro has enough natural bulk to tank a Supersonic Skystrike followed by Outrage, but not a Dragonium Z-boosted Draco Meteor or Flyinium Z-boosted Hurricane followed by Draco Meteor without a Special Defense buff. After determining whether or not Dragonite is physical or special, boost the appropriate defensive stat from then on and heal whenever necessary. Also, Mega Slowbro is heavier than regular Slowbro, so if you find yourself up against Grass Knot users such as Choice Scarf Greninja, do not Mega Evolve. Avoid sending Mega Slowbro out against hyper offensive super effective attackers such as Kartana, Zeraora, and Aegislash.
Team Options
========
Pokemon that can tank attacks that would be super effective against Mega Slowbro, namely Grass-, Electric-, Dark-, Bug-, and Ghost-type moves, naturally are its best teammate option. Pokemon such as Kommo-o and specially defensive Mega Charizard X can deal with Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y, Choice Specs Greninja, Aegislash, and Tapu Bulu that give Mega Slowbro a hard time and appreciate the positive matchups Mega Slowbro has against Psychic- and Rock-types, respectively. Specially defensive tanks are also a great option for teammates, as Mega Slowbro's biggest threats are usually special attackers. Pokemon like Meloetta, Chansey, Mega Tyranitar, and Blissey all work well with Mega Slowbro and appreciate the Fighting-type resistance that Mega Slowbro offers. As a Water-type, Mega Slowbro can fit well on a standard Fire / Water / Grass core team, especially appreciating the work put in by Pokemon from Fire-types like Incineroar, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Blaziken and from Grass-types like Mega Venusaur, Ferrothorn, xand Tapu Bulu. The Fire- and Grass-types can effectively deal with Pokemon that threaten Mega Slowbro such as Z-Conversion Porygon-Z, Magnezone, Mega Charizard Y, and other Mega Slowbro. As Mega Slowbro is naturally slow, it is also susceptible to Pokemon such as Vivillon and Smeargle, whose strategies are only successful if they go first. Be sure to pair Mega Slowbro with at least sufficiently fast Pokemon, like Pheromosa, Mega Lopunny, and Porygon-Z. Mega Slowbro can beat the common speed trap Pokemon Jumpluff, as it is able to recover back the damage leeched from its health and PP stall Jumpluff.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Foul Play is an interesting niche choice that beats a notable anti-Mega Slowbro set in Belly Drum Mega Charizard X. Considering the popularity of Mega Charizard X, this may be an interesting choice to have more of a guaranteed matchup against every variant of Mega Charizard X. However, in every other regard, Foul Play is severely inferior to Scald.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Super Effective Attackers**: As Mega Slowbro is such an excellent stall Pokemon in the context of 1v1, with answers to Taunt, status conditions, most forms of stall, and critical hits, the most common threat against Mega Slowbro will be super effective attackers, and it will struggle against those that can exploit its Water / Psychic typing. These include prevalent Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y, Magnezone, Z-Conversion Porygon-Z, Choice Specs Greninja, Aegislash, Choice Specs Genesect, Tapu Bulu, Gigavolt Havoc Zeraora, Bloom Doom Heatran, Kartana, and Hoopa-U. The only real relevant exception to this in 1v1 is the aforementioned Mega Gyarados, which, unfortunately, only has Crunch, which Mega Slowbro can tank using Iron Defense.
**Very Powerful Attackers**: There are a select few Pokemon in the metagame that are simply so powerful that they can overwhelm Mega Slowbro with neutral damage. These include Choice Specs or Normalium Z Porygon-Z, which can OHKO even a fully invested Mega Slowbro using Hyper Beam or Breakneck Blitz, or Belly Drum Mega Charizard X, which can very impressively 2HKO a +2 Defense Mega Slowbro with Outrage after a Belly Drum, unless Mega Slowbro runs Foul Play.
**Encore Users**: The cousin of Taunt, Encore, is, unfortunately, not blocked by Oblivious and will pose a serious problem to Mega Slowbro, as it will not be able to use anything except the move it has been locked into for the remainder of the battle. Some popular Encore users include Primarina, Mega Gardevoir, Mega Alakazam, and Whimsicott.
**Other Rest Stallers**: While Mega Slowbro can usually outlast other forms of stall by using the move Rest, retaining more PP while it is asleep, if its opponent also has Rest, Mega Slowbro may be in trouble. If the opposing Pokemon can Rest off the damage Mega Slowbro deals and has more PP, you have essentially lost. Beware of Pokemon such as Meowstic-M, Type: Null, Pyukumuku, and Suicune.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[TDA, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[dom, 280380], [Freddy Kyogre, 321529], [yogi, 252106]]
- Grammar checked by: [[The Dutch Plumberjack, 232216], [JockeMS, 53214]]
Last edited:
