Following the release of Pokémon X & Y, the Pokémon franchise introduced a brand-new feature that revolutionized Pokémon battles. Although the popularity of Mega Evolution has diminished since the introduction of Z-Moves in Pokémon Sun & Moon, it still remains an important aspect of the series.
Thanks to Mega Evolution, several already powerful Pokémon received a well needed boost to their stats and even underwent type changes to give them a much-needed edge in battle.
Sadly, not all Pokémon benefit from these advantages. In fact, some fans argue that certain Mega Evolutions are not beneficial and only serve to waste their one opportunity for Mega Evolution during each battle.
In some cases, the abilities, and stat increases that a Mega Evolution provides, can easily be replaced with the right items such as a Life Orb or a Choice Band. Other times, Mega Evolution fails to provide a new ability worthy or beneficial of a Pokémon's new form, which ends up wasting their potential.
However, by no means does a weak Mega Evolution classify a Pokémon as broken. Rather, the weakness of one Mega Evolution can refer to a terrible ability or the flaw that a Mega Evolution causes in a Pokémon.
Here is a list featuring some of the Weakest and Strongest Pokémon Mega Evolutions!
16. Weakest: Mega Diancie
As a mythical Pokémon, Diancie is pretty powerful. Once news was released that Diancie would receive a Mega Evolution, expectations were high. Sure enough, in terms of design, Diancie’s Mega Evolution is nothing short of a masterpiece. It also possesses both the attack and special attack to back up its power.
However, while its power is impressive, it comes at a heavy price.
In this case, upon evolving into Mega Diancie, it ends up transforming into a metaphorical glass cannon. In return for its increased attack, Diancie’s formerly high defensive stats are reduced. Coupled with its low HP stat, Diancie can be vulnerable to powerful attacks, especially from Steel-types.
This factor is a major reason why Diancie makes it onto the weakest part of the list. Although, when compared to the other weakest entries, Mega Diancie is by far the strongest.
15. Strongest: Mega Venasaur
Thanks to Mega Evolution, all the Gen I starters benefited from a much-needed power boost. While both Charizard and Blastoise receive an increase in firepower, Venasaur receives a major boost in its defensive abilities.
By Mega Evolving, Mega Venasaur enjoys a well-balanced boost to all its stats, especially its defense and special defense. The result is a living, breathing tank, that not only knows how to dish out damage, but can just as easily take it as well. In addition to its defensive stats, Mega Venasaur’s ability changes as well. When it Mega Evolves, Venasaur’s standard Overgrow is substituted for the Thick Fat Ability.
As a Grass-type, two major threats to Venasaur are Fire and Ice-Types. Thanks to Mega Venasaur’s ability, Fire and Ice type attacks have their power reduced by 50%. Effectively reducing two major threats down to mere inconveniences.
14. Weakest: Mega Audino
As the signature Pokémon for Nurse Joy in the X and Y anime, Audino’s move set centers around healing, and supporting Pokémon from the sidelines.
Mega Audino is an ideal Pokémon for providing support.
Its type changes to Fairy and receives a minor 20-point boost to its special attack. The rest of its stat boosts are divided equally between its defense and special defense. This makes Mega Audino’s true purpose that of a defensive tank that takes on damage, while healing its allies.
While this may be useful in double or multi battles, it is a different story for single battles. If Mega Audino takes up the one chance at Mega Evolution, the player will require some heavy hitters to make up for its lack of power.
13. Strongest: Mega Charizard X and Y
Since Pokémon Red & Blue, many have found it strange that despite its appearance, Charizard is not a Dragon/Fire-type. Thankfully, Pokémon X & Y gives Charizard the chance to live the dream of being a Dragon-type.
As Mega Charizard X, it receives a boost to its attack, defense, and special attack stats. Factor in its Tough Claws ability, which increases the power of contact moves like Flare Blitz and Dragon Rush, and Mega Charizard X delivers some heavy damage.
Another unique aspect to this Pokémon us that it has another equally powerful Mega Evolution.
Unlike, its X counterpart, Mega Charizard Y’s attack boost is not as strong, and its defense goes down. Thankfully, it makes up for this with a major boost to its special attack and defense stats. Plus, it learns the Draught Ability which allows it to instantly use Solarbeam to take care of pesky water types.
12. Weakest: Mega Houndoom
As far as Mega Evolutions go, Mega Houndoom is not exactly the worst, but he is not really the best either. In terms of design, Mega Houndoom is certainly one of the best. However, the same cannot be said for its abilities in battle, which are lacking in several areas.
While a boost to its special attack and defense is nice, the downside to its Mega Evolution is its ability Solar Power.
Firstly, this ability requires sunny weather to activate. Unless the player has the Draught ability, the only other option is Sunny Day. Unfortunately, using this move wastes a turn and leaves Mega Houndoom vulnerable to attack.
Secondly, with every turn Solar Power is in use, Mega Houndoom loses HP. As strong as Mega Houndoom becomes, this ability is a double-edged sword. Especially when Mega Houndoom is on the receiving end of a super effective or critical hit.
11. Strongest: Mega Altaria
As elegant as it is powerful, Altaria is a powerful ally for any trainer thanks to its strong defensive capabilities. Add Mega Evolution into the mix and you’ve got yourself one heck of powerful Pokémon.
Thanks to its Mega Evolution, Altaria transforms into a Dragon/Fairy type, eliminating its weakness to Dragon-type moves. One downside is that it exposes Altaria to the weakness of Steel-types. Fortunately, thanks to support moves like Cotton Guard, it has the means to endure them. These factors make Mega Alteria an impenetrable flying fortress that can handle almost any physical attack.
Best of all, its Pixilate ability can transform powerful normal type moves like Hyper Beam and Giga Impact into Fairy-types. As an added bonus, Mega Alteria’s ability also increases the power of these moves by 30%.
10. Weakest: Mega Scizor
Scyther, and its evolution Scizor, have always been praised for being some of the strongest Bug-type Pokémon. After Pokémon X & Y, Scizor, got its own Mega Evolution. In its new form, Mega Scizor dominates the battle with a major attack boost. However, a downside is that Scizor retains its Technician ability (or changes if the prior ability was Swarm).
Technician, which boosts moves with power below 60, is an impressive ability for Scizor. Although, it does not boost the power of variable moves like Pursuit or Fury Cutter.
Unfortunately, this ability feels underwhelming for a Pokémon like Mega Scizor, especially once it learns more powerful moves like X-Scissor and Iron Head.
If Mega Scizor had an ability like Tough Claws, which boosts contact moves, it would be another story. Plus, let’s face it. With the way Mega Scizor looks, Tough Claws would have suited it much better.
9. Strongest: Mega Gengar
Gengar was already a powerhouse back when it first appeard in Pokémon Red & Blue. Thanks to Mega Evolution, it became one of the strongest Pokémon in the game. In addition to a major boost in special attack, Mega Gengar also has its Shadow Tag ability, which prevents non-Ghost type Pokémon from switching out. This in turn, severely limits the players options and strategies.
However, the real danger in this ability lies with the combo that can be done when combined with moves like Destiny Bond and Perish Song. So even if a player can knock out Mega Gengar before the countdown ends, the Pokémon responsible for defeating it will also be eliminated.
Mega Gengar became so dangerous that fans world wide tried to get it banned from official tournaments.
8. Weakest: Mega Abomasnow
A unique aspect about Abomasnow and its pre-evolution, Snover, is that they are the only Pokémon with the Ice/Grass-type combination. By Mega Evolving, Abomasnow receives a large boost to its already impressive attack and defense stats. Unfortunately, this evolution comes with a downside. In exchange for power and defense, Abomasnow sacrifices speed.
You would think that upon Mega Evolving, Abomasnow would obtain an ability that compensates for this problem, like Thick Fat. Sadly, this is not the case.
Abomansow retain its Snow Warning ability, which is useless considering that it activates even before it Mega Evolves. As a result, its lack of speed makes it vulnerable to faster Pokémon that know Fire-type moves. Abomasnow has so much potential, so it is a shame that its Mega Evolution does not live up to our expectations.
7. Strongest: Mega Aggron
In addition to being one of the most powerful Steel-types, Mega Aggron has some of the highest defensive stats in the game. By losing its Rock-type, Mega Aggron’s only remaining vulnerabilities are Ground, Fire and Fighting-types. However, thanks to its Filter ability, all super effective moves only have a fraction of their power.
Although Mega Aggron's speed can be a slight issue, there are several strategies that can be used to counter this. One example is using the move Automatize to increase Mega Aggron’s speed at the cost of its weight. This allows it to strike first with powerful blows like Iron Head or Head Smash.
Even if it is slower, its defense ability will allow it to survive virtually any attack and return the damage dealt with interest, thanks to a well-timed Metal Burst.
6: Weakest: Mega Gyarados
Out of all the Mega Evolutions produced so far, none have been more disappointing than Mega Gyarados. Both in terms of design, and especially in terms of battle potential.
While Mega Gyarados does get a massive boost in both offense and defense, it also becomes more vulnerable.
Prior to its Mega Evolution, the only real worries for Gyarados were Electric and maybe Rock-types. By Mega Evolving, Gyarados loses its Flying-type advantage, making it more vulnerable to Grass-types, as well as Ground-type moves. It also gains weaknesses that it did not have before, such as Fighting, Bug, and Fairy Types.
Many fans have also stressed that Gyarados should have been a Water/Dragon-type. Not only does it make more sense, it would have also provided significant resistance to both Grass and Electric types.
5. Strongest: Mega Lucario
Mega Lucario is probably one of the most iconic Pokémon when it comes to Mega Evolution. In Pokémon X & Y, it is the very first Mega Evolved Pokémon the player encounters before acquiring the Mega Ring. In addition to its epic design, Mega Lucario is also popular in competitive gameplay. Its high attack and special attack stats, while threatening, become twice as deadly thanks to its Adaptability.
Thanks to this ability, along with the same-type attack bonus (STAB), all moves that are the same type as Mega Lucario will be increased by 100%. In other words, if Mega Lucario uses the move Close Combat, its power will be boosted from 120 to 240.
With such power, any attempts to fight Mega Lucario without a Pokémon with strong defensive stats would be futile.
4. Weakest: Mega Absol
With high stats in both attack and speed, Absol is quite a formidable Pokémon. Thanks to Mega Evolution, Absol’s threat level has become twice as lethal. Additionally, with its Magic Bounce ability, it has the power to reflect status lowering moves, status condition moves, as well as entry hazard moves like Stealth Rock, and Toxic Spikes.
However, Mega Evolving Absol can be super risky.
Unlike most Mega Evolutions on this list, Absol does not receive a boost in either its defense or special defense. This makes Absol pretty fragile.
As a result, if it fails to knock out an opponent, there is a high possibility that it will be knocked out in a follow-up attack. When used effectively, Mega Absol can be a real game changer. However, its unpredictability and poor defenses make it too much of a liability to waste your one Mega Evolution on.
3. Strongest: Mega Mewtwo X & Y
Aside from Charizard, Mewtwo is the only other Pokémon with two Mega Evolutions. With Mega Mewtwo X, it transforms into a Psychic/Fighting-type, receives a massive increase to its attack stat, and a slight boost in its defense. It also retains its high special attack allowing it to take advantage of moves like Psychic, and Aura Sphere.
On the other hand, Mega Mewtwo Y is just as, if not more, powerful. Except for its defense stats, which drops from 90 to 70, Mega Mewtwo Y’s attack, defense, and speed increases, along with a major boost to its special attack.
Both of Mewtwo’s Mega Evolutions are so broken that it’s hard to decide which one to use. Either way, there is little opponents can do to stop either one once they unleash their Psystrike move.
2. Weakest: Mega Banette
As one of the three Ghost-types capable of Mega Evolution, Banette faces a lot of competition. Unfortunately, despite Mega Banette’s attack stat being the highest of any Ghost-type, it does not really stand out.
If anything, Mega Banette appears as a less powerful version of Mega Gengar.
It’s ability Prankster, which gives priority to non-attack moves, does not really seem to fit it that well with the moves it can learn. Some of the few exceptions would be moves like Destiny Bond, and Grudge.
In the end, Mega Banette only serves to waste your mega evolution slot. It’s high attack stat, one of its few redeemable qualities, can be replicated with items like a Life Orb. Using your one shot to Mega Evolve Banette could be costly, especially considering there are far more ideal choices with a superior type advantage.
1. Strongest: Mega Rayquaza
Along with Mega Mewtwo X and Y, Mega Rayquaza has the highest base stats of any other Pokémon.
A big advantage to having Mega Rayquaza on your team, is that it does not require a mega stone. This allows the player to use other useful items to support Mega Rayquaza in combat. While it does not require a Mega Stone, there is still an important condition for Mega Evolving Rayquaza. It must know its signature move Dragon Ascent. Upon Mega Evolving, it will also learn a new ability called Delta Stream. A very useful ability, Delta Stream renders all move types normally super effective against flying types, neutral. In other words, the only types that can cause any super effective damage to Rayquaza are Dragon, Ice and Fairy-types.
With its overwhelming attack power, and nearly impenetrable defense, Mega Rayquaza is a force that few can hope to match.
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Which Mega Evolution is your favorite? Let us know!