“Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites. I like your style. You understand what's important. Go on—the Champion is waiting.” Karen (Esteemed Dark Type Elite Four Member)
When it comes to the discussion of what strong pokemon is are across a lineup, it is easy to imagine in a vacuum its high base stats, a strong ability and a favorable typing. When it comes to choosing the crème de la crème for a competitive metagame filled with said powerful Mega Pokemon, options like Mega Charizard Y that sets up the sun with its Drought ability further powering up its fire type attacks and giving it access to solar beam off of a 165 base special attack stat.
Or something like Mega Salamence that has the amazing ability Intimidate in its base form dropping the attack stats of its opponents when it enters the field and then acquires Aerialate to gain STAB damage on its strong normal type moves like Hyper Voice and Double Edge further beefing up flying type damage.
Or think of something like Mega Metagross with its Clear Body base ability and then getting the Tough claws ability alongside its amazing coverage filled movepool to assist in damage output. All these Pokemon are strong but lately in a metagame that felt very centralized and closed in throughout regulation set MA and M-B, some Pokemon that felt horrible in a vacuum are already finishing strong.
Of course I am talking about the 2027 Frankfurt Regional Champion Mega Garchomp Z and a Mega Meowstic that finished 3rd place. The first reaction to both was a punch to the gut of competitive fans, calling them a wasted Mega, but the tides turned around when the format played out in action. How are these Pokémon that were ideally written off from the get go by competitive players perform so well in a competitive scene that is at its height?
Funnily enough this isn't the first instance we have seen of this happening in competitive Pokémon. If we look at the overly centralized regulation M-A and M-B a few Pokemon that no one had confidence in upon initial reveal like Mega Delphox (sporting the same mega ability as Mega Garchomp Z) and later on in Regulation M-B Mega Blastoise soared to great heights despite being a low tier mega across the previously available mega formats. Infact both of these came together forming one of the strongest teams known as set up balance finishing in the world championships top cut. This isn't a lone standing incident at all! Pokemon that look weak by themselves are highly competitively relevant. The reason for this is not the inherent strength of a Pokemon, but the metagame that forms around them.
Delphox was an amazing contender facing off versus top picks like mega Charizard Y and Mega Froslass, 2 of the staples. The few Pokémon Delphox found itself struggling against like Basculegion and Kingambit were covered well by Mega Blastoise and redirection support and vice versa. Having the ability to set up and double their special attack stats often made weaker base stats as compared to some stronger on paper megas made them bypass the criteria that is initially looked upon as strong. Who needs awesome abilities when you have moves like Nasty Plot and Shell Smash to pull them off.
Another Pokemon that was initially under fraud watch when regulation M-B began was Mega Raichu Y. Sure it was really strong in vacuum but can a Pokemon so frail keep up with a metagame filled with priority spam and Garchomps? Garchomps often carrying choice scarf mind you! Raichu started off with a phenomenal type matchup into the metagame. there were realistically no other relevant electric types around other than Raichu Y itself and Garchomp, Excadrill and the seldom seen Camerupt were the big ground types. For the rest Raichu matched up excellently well against! having the ability to hit Basculegion, Pelipper, Charizard Y and Mega Blastoise with 120 base power Zap Cannons and a 100% chance of paralysis is good enough reason if it doesn't OHKO them right away. This is perfectly covered by the coverage option of Focus Blast, given its amazing No Guard ability, it can land super effective hits on Kingambit and Archaludon. Raichu Y was one of the strongest contenders going into World Championships despite initially being somewhat written off by players. Mega Staraptor was its partner in crime in sort of its own goodstuffs team. Both of these were seen as mediocre at first but as the metagame evolved both of them found themselves in an ideal spot to take advantage like no others on the roster.
Mega Garchomp Z was called one of the biggest disappointments for a Mega but it just won 3 regional championships in the starting few weeks of the format and the 2027 season, going undefeated in rounds at Frankfurt Regionals as piloted by one of the very best, Eric Rios... Why has this happened? it wasn't the inherent strenght of Mega Garchomp Z itself, but the metagame around it. All Z megas get a base 151 speed stat which is insanely fast. The early regulation M-C metagame favored alot of the strong pieces found in M-A and M-B followed by some strong options introduced in regulation M-C, namely Mega Salamence. To follow up Mega Salamence, Dragapult also became relevant, but guess who outspeeds both? Mega Gachomp Z and can OHKO both with a single Dragon Pulse or Draco Meteor. If that wasn't enough losing its part ground typing and being a primary special attacker means it resists both water type attacks from Pokémon like Milotic, Basculegion and Pelipper and Grass type moves from Rillaboom. Intimidate is yet again one of the most relevant abilities which it bypasses by attacking from the special side.
Levitate is an ability that isn't as relevant in the moment as strong ground type options aren't super relevant besides Excadrill but still can be useful for surprise switches. It also boasts great coverage options with moves like Flamethrower to hit steels types like Gholdengo, Kingambit and Mega Lucario Z and also Power Gem and Earth Power to hit Fire and Steel types respectively. Power Gem is somewhat more relevant given Volcarona is also on the rise alongside Charizard Y which is still enjoying a strong position in the metagame.
Mega Meowstic is an even more interesting case and in the earlier stages of the regulation M-C metagame its relevant also has to do with speed, though more niche in its use cases, its rise to fame placing 3rd place at Frankfurt is nothing short of impressive. Female Meowstic in its base form gets the ability competitive which grants it 2 special attack boosts when it gets hit with a stat drop, or faces off vs intimidate. Regulation M-C added Salamence and brought back Incineroar to be more relevant in a Psyspam meta which can backfire if they face a leading Meowstic.
Its speed stat at 124 also means that it outspeeds Sneasler to land a faster Fake Out and such speed with its special attack boost and the presence of Indeedee means that it can fire off insanely strong expanding forces much like mega Gardevoir, but even speedier. For coverage options it gets moves like Dark Pulse or Thunderbolt. On the first impression Fake Out and Psyspam jammed together may feel counter productive and the trace ability might feel like it can backfire in this metagame in case you copy someone else's grassy terrain overwriting your own psychic terrain, however the fake out + mega evolution trace combination is there to help assist setup from an ally before you switch in Indeedee from the back. If Indeedee isn't lurking around, the presence of Competitive and Fake Out on the field alone is strong enough to ward off players or limit their pivoting options pressuring them to play more conservatively than they would like, making this borderline unusable mega into such a strong meta relevant option.
It should be fairly evident from this that competitive Pokémon is so much more than base stats, abilities and move pools. Do these play a huge part for a Pokémon's success? Indeed they do! but the scenarios around them help birth useful niches for Pokémon that might have fallen through the cracks of public consideration at first sight. VGC metagames are rarely, if ever, "solved". Even in extremely strict metagames like that of VGC 2016, the worlds winning team was actually brand new.
This is the part of the game that I love the most. Finding new ways to play a certain Pokémon, evolving metagames and finding relevance and potential in the obscure Pokémon others have overlooked. or even revisiting old ideas and polishing how they are played together much like the matured strength of Mega Raichu Y and Mega Staraptor. I hope this has been insightful for my readers today who were perhaps still puzzled by seeing the unused or trashed Megas like Meowstic and Garchomp Z on the top tables and as regional champions despite being weak in theory... I guess Karen knew what she was talking about all along.
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