The Problem With Mega Pokemon... 

Mad respect to all the people commenting before finishing the video. I could never, personally.

Remember mega rayquaza? A mega that was so broken that it got banned from a ban list

The real problem was NOT ENOUGH CHARIZARD MEGA FORMS 😡

I thought Mega Garchomp was really clever. GameFreak seemingly knew that a 700 BST monster might not be fair, so they took away some speed and changed it's ability. They then immediately forgot this with Mega Mence and Metagross, lol

Y'all aren't even ready for the fact that the name legends A-Z is just listing all the new mega charizard forms

A moment of silence for flygon

Can't wait for mega dudunsparce where they just add another 2 segments

The thing I always enjoyed about Mega Pokemon were the overlooked abilities getting more viable, like Thick Fat Venusaur, Scrappy Lopunny, No Guard Pidgeot and Shell Armor Slowbro. Or the Pokemon that got an entire new game strategy like Sableye, Banette and Swampert.

Commenting from the future just to say how unlucky it was that, in this year's world finals, Mega Charizard J missed origin pulse against Mega Charizard Q, allowing for Mega Charizard C to stab u-turn into Mega Charizard K which could then ohko Mega Charizard W with stab moonblast.

if I don’t have a mega flygon in my hands by the end of the 2025 calendar year, pokémon WILL be hearing from my lawyer

Mega Charizard ZA will be a Charizard with pizza slices for wings

i don't need balance, I need mega Chien-Pao with 9000 BST, 120 hp, 120 defense, 120 sp.Def, 240 speed, 400 atk, 0 SpA and "king of ruin" as an ability. (/dt King of Ruin ; Your opponents def is reduced to 0.1% and all of your moves are spread and hit twice)

Hear me out... mega talonflame would probably be a sick design

Foolish Pokémon fans: “Mega Incineroar would be cool…” VGC players: *war flashbacks* “We must not repeat the mistakes of our past.”

I saw someone say they wanted mega Gholdengo and I started quaking in my boots. I know that Pokemon has a very split player base where some people either play through only the story, do nuzlockes, speedruns, complete the pokedex, shiny hunt or of course play competitively so videos like this are much appreciated to show some perspective on how the most popular gimmick can be quite troublesome outside a casual setting. I'm not about to get mega intimidated by mega Incineroar with mega parting shot

I feel like Mega Garchomp was a good example of how to give a Mega to an already OP pokemon. Nerf one of it's better stats and give it a sub-par move - that way it doesn't outshine every other Mega Pokemon, but it's still there for people who love the "cool" factor. If Mega Gengar had been slow and tanky, (and didn't have Shadow Tag,) it would have been perfectly fine! BST isn't everything, so +100 across the board can be managed if they play their cards right. That's why, if they bring Mega Pokemon back, I hope they just change the abilities and rework the stats until they're balanced.

I want gamefreak to focus on giving more megas to forgotten or garbage mons and being more restrictive when handing them out to favorites, like 3 or 4 powerful mons. It doesn’t fix the overcentralization issue but it curbs the extent to which already strong mons abuse a good mechanic.

imo i thought the strict 100bst rule was really weird. like when they made mega beedrill they had to decrease the special attack stat by 30 points just to make it strong and fast enough to be a niche pick in ou (and still non-existent in vgc i believe), and when they made the already terrifying ones even stronger it was impossible to make them remotely balanced coz their stat totals were higher than box legendaries (unless they already were a box legendary lmao, thanks rayquaza)

Honestly, you’re video summed up everything I’ve been saying about Megas ever since people started asking about mega evolutions coming back.

I think another problem that arises from the return of Megas is that it clashes with the re-introduction of cross-gen evolutions in Gens 8 and 9. After Bisharp and Duraludon got evolutions, there's no excuse for any non 3rd-stage low-tier Pokemon not to get one too. Why risk giving something like Spidops a Mega, when you can give it a permanent cross-gen evolution instead (that can then get a Mega later on). Pokemon like Raichu, Jumpluff, and Flygon are fine because they really can't evolve further, but longtime evolution candidates like Magcargo, Tropius, or Chimecho should probably get evolutions instead of Megas now. Heck, it now seems like Pokemon like Audino, Absol, Mawile, Sableye, Lopunny, Camerupt, Banette and more kind of suffer from their Megas, since in a Gen 9 environment, they could and maybe should have gotten permanent regular evolutions instead

(Me, waiting for the perfect moment to mega the slowbro) YOU THOUGHT IT WAS REGENERATOR; BUT IT WAS I, DIO!

I’ve always wondered something else about mega pokemon that relates to that “oh it will eventually get a mega” thing and that is so megas mean that the pokemon who got them can no longer get normal evos in the future? Like is Mawile stuck as itself because its mega exists, or Absol, Sableye, Houndoom, Lucario, and pretty much every mega Pokemon that didn’t belong to a 3 stage line

I have really loved older Pokémon getting buffed by evolutions instead of megas during the last couple generations. Ursaluna, Farigiraf, and Annihilape are all so much cooler to me than a mega Ursaring, mega Girafarig, or mega Primeape could ever be.

You pretty much stated my thoughts about Mega Evolutions to a T. It's simply not feasible to give every Pokémon that would need a Mega Evolution one and competitive balance would be worse-off in the long-run with Megas introduced because it's a band-aid to powercreep. I also like the design philosophy Game Freak has taken since Gen 7 with making Pokémon stabd out more in established roles rather than making them feel unfocused. It really adds a lot to make them interesting

Charizard will have megas for every letter of the alphabet mark my words

I love mega evolution, the stones are like a nice treat when I'm feeling a little hungry 😋

Mega Alakazam was the only Pokemon who could not Mega Evolve and gain a full 100-point Boost to its base stat total it only gained 90

5:33 Thank you for explaining CHALK, I FINALLY understand how genius the Landorus version of that Tally Hall song is

The distribution of megas was the real fundamental issue, let's hope Legends ZA can remedy that (although I don't see the game being considered a main title and ofc no actual comp battles)

dude I love the idea of nerfing the OP Megas (making the stat boost

My only tiny issue with Mega Evolution is that it pretty much sets in stone that some Pokemon that could've had an additional evolution, will never have one. If Pokemon like Dunsparce had a Mega Evolution, we would've never had Dudunsparce.

That’s actually a very fair take. If a Pokémon needs 100 stats buff to be viable then it deserves permanent buffs not a mega form

About time someone mentioned the problems with mega evolutions

Some of the Mega exclusive abilities (i.e. aerialate) should of had some distribution to non-Mega mons. I mean Slyveon having pixilate really let it have a solid niche.

Imagine the insanity of a Mega Slaking that gets no BST boost, but just gets up and has its' ability change to Gorilla Tactics. They don't even have to give it an updated design - it's just decided to go all out.

My personal biggest issue with megas in competitive is that they pretty much just cannibalize each other, like you can have a perfectly solid mega but it would still get outclassed because things like Gengar, Mawile, Kangaskhan, Salamence and etc. exist

I like Mega Pokemon for Final Stage Pokemon, but I wish that single stage pokemon like Mawile, Sableye or Audino didn't feel like they lost the one bone game freak threw their way. Though since duraludon got a new evolution that does show Game Freak is willing to give evos to pokemon that used a previous generation's gimmick. So... never say never I guess? But also if Legends-ZA doesn't have Abilities then most of the common problems I see will probably be gone.

Tera was such a smart mechanic. Production wise it was very easy to implement, every Pokémon with bad typing got a buff, and it’s an unpredictable choice in competitive battle. Mega evolution on the other hand takes many man-hours to implement and because of that, fewer Pokémon get a buff through that mechanic. And your opponent knows which Pokémon will evolve and most likely when it will evolve.

I like what they did to mega garchomp, if a pokemon is already poweful the mega can’t just be a straight up buff, but a “side” grade with a different purpose

Removing the standardized BST boost and making it vary makes a lot of sense. Unown is simultaneously a mon that desperately needs a buff and a mon that basically has a Mega concept ready to go thanks to the third movie.

I think GF should rework something that was in the Pokémon anime. Have all the gimmicks, but limit one per team. Meaning you can’t use terra on your team if you use mega or you can’t use a z move if you use any other gimmic. This would get rid of the whole “missing out” feeling your team would have if it didn’t run a mega. Naturally I’d still have dynamax banned for singles play but that’s about it. Another fix would be to nerf some of the more broken megas.

I just wish Pokémon got permanent evolution instead of mega evolution Like kingambit etc

The real thing people should be talking about is what I’ve dubbed the Sableye conundrum: Megas for single stage Pokémon. They could’ve and should’ve gotten a lot more than just 1 evolution, but because it was a Mega, they can’t go any further with it, and this Pokémon is essentially done with new attention forever.

if anywhere close to 50% of us viewers are subscribed, that is actually a great number. Every time I see your content I watch. And if most of your viewers are subscribed, that is a great way to build a lasting career. Great job Moxie

I wish we would stop perpetuating this idea that they were used to balance weaker Pokemon, they weren't. They stated in an interview before XY released they wanted to make your favorites as strong as legendaries. "Bad" mega like Ampharos had 165 sp.Atk and Mega Mewtwo X had 190 Atk.

One thing I find is that power creep has kicked up to such a ridiculous level that most of the Mega Evolutions have already been power crept. For instance, many bemoan the two Mega Mewtwos, but let's be honest, who would ever actually use them over the absolute mistake that is Calyrex-Shadow (or Mega Gengar, for that manner, who suffers the same problem, alongside also being weaker offensively than one of VGC's current top Pokemon, Flutter Mane, due to its lower speed and inability to hold an item), or Lopunny/Blaziken/Lucario when another of Pokemon's biggest mistakes, Urshifu, is there to do fighting type offense better? Rayquaza is one of the only Megas to not get power crept, and that's because it violates one of the core rules of Mega Evolution (needing to hold an item), giving it less opportunity cost to use than other Megas (on top of its other ridiculous attributes).

I strongly agree with this video, it shares my idea on megas, even the height of its popularity. Great idea in concept and amazing designs, but some odd reason gave it to legendaries, pseudo-legendaries, and other Pokemon that were already really strong.

Seismic toss mega khangaskhan was insane lmao

Banette is my favourite mega form. It’s similar enough to the base form but also different enough that it could have easily been a regular evolution.

I think a rework for stronger/more popular pokemon getting mega like you mentioned would help. Cause kinda like single restricted formats it felt like megas warped teambuilding even for more niche ones like your manectric example. A rework to make them feel like another pokemon/held item option feels like a good way to go about it

@4:25 another the nice thing about mega kangas is the move double hit it goes from like 70 base power 35 per hit [it works like double kick], to like on all 4 hits 122-123 if the game rounds up or down for hits, and it has stab too making double hit a massive threat imo

Can we talk about that thumbnail tho? Charizard outside the dream looks way more depressed than I think whoever the artist is intended.

5:27 before chalk became popular people were already ripping on the prevalence thundurus-I + Landorus-T, with the infamous calls for tpci to #bangenies, that's where the idea that all teams were the same in 2015 started. Chalk doing so well at worlds just solidified the idea in people's minds

Mawile is such a cool pokemon and one of my favourites. Unfortunately it sucks without a mega. Wish it could get a lasting buff. It also sucks that a pokemon having a mega means that it probably won’t ever get a chance at a new evolution.

Megas also made an appearance in Mystery Dungeon DX, I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon it haha

Just be ready for mega Greninja, it's gonna be Protean and Battle Bond in one

I just hope that megas will be changed so that the higher the pokemon's original bst, the smaller the stat boost they get when they mega. That way we don't have to gate keep popular mons from them just because they're already strong!

my problem with Megas is that most of them don't actually buff the pokemon, they functionally replace it with a new pokemon that has a different typing, stat spread, and ability

I really wish that they kept some of the mega forms as evolutions for the 1/2 stage evolution Pokémon. Especially Pokémon like Mawile, Absol, Lopunny could really use an upgrade(even if they need to be slightly reworked to be balanced, such as mega mawile) and would allow the really cool designs to stay and make them more popular and fun to use

With the new powerlevel of paradox pokemon, mega forms are just easier ways to level the field for old fan favorites, and not have to basically ban 20 pokemon from OU.

I BELIEVE IN MEGA FLYGON SUPREMACY WE WANT NEW MEGAS 🙏

I think they should also do some sort of mini mega button that you could use on every pokemon, and it still functions as your once per battle mega, it wouldnt change their form, just make them a little glowy or something, and it would allow that pokemon to still hold an item, all it would do is pump like 30 into a chosen stat (choose like you choose a tera type) and then like 5 into the other stats, could see some intresting things happen from nieche pokemon if they get to just pump into a certain stat, like how terastalisation does for some now.

Something I've thought for a while (that I actually forgot about until the end of the video) is that megas should come back, but as an alternative battle mode like wonder launcher. I think your idea of them being a single player actually works well with that so megas aren't just party mode and serve other purposes as well.

I think an interesting way to handle mega in vgc (in combination with your suggestions) would be to make certain mega stones restricted. If a pokemon is holding one of the restricted stones, they can only be played in a restricted format and take one of the restricted slots just like any other restricted Pokémon

The mega charizard X in the thumbnail is such a cutie

I was listening to this while doing other things, and the video started buffering literally midway as you were saying Flygon, so you said, "Fly..." followed by several seconds of silence. NGL I thought that was part of the video for a second.

in gen 7 I had a bit of fun with a dragon dance moxie into mega gyarados. there was that mind game factor of do i keep it regular and go for moxie boost or mega to get mold breaker and lose th 4x weakness. its applications like that or boosting a weak mon that makes mega evolution fun. I could see mons like metagross, salamence, and tyranitar getting a lesser boost in stats with the explanation being that they have less potential for mega evolving to bring out. (them already being at 75% of their theoretical potential vs something like altaria or beedrill being at 50% in their normal forms as an example)

Tbh the best part of the announcement to me was the unanimous agreement of "Yeah besides any old or new megas we *_are_* getting Mega Char Z, like there's no way 😭😭😭😭😭"

I can't wait to see what they glue spikes onto this time!!!!!

I love the mega evolutions probably my favorite battle "gimmick" to date I just like the feeling of you and your ace pokemon being at your full power vs your opponent and their ace at their full power something that I think qould be lost a little if you nerf the megas in any way

I'm glad you touched on Gamefreak being less willing to buff Pokemon because of Megas existing, it so often goes overlooked when discussing this! Also makes me sad wondering if Gamefreak view giving evolutions to Pokemon like Absol impossible now because if they ever bring megas back it fucks with evolutionary consistency or something.

Gamefreak was in an internal struggle with balancing Mega evolution by giving them to somewhat okay pokemon to make them worth something vs. Giving them to already popular pokemon so filthy casuals like me can point at Lucario like the wojack pointing meme like "YO IT'S LUCARIO BUT HE'S MORE BADASS." Personally, also, some mega evolutions made me actually have a new found appreciation for the pokemon even after they lost them. I'm a Mawile fan now thanks to that.

Another thing that could help with pokemon that dont have megas would be the addition of "generic" mega stones, so to speak: For a basic one, let's say its a mega stone that just gives 20 to every stat (except HP) and the ability stays the same. This would allow for "on entry" abilities to trigger twice, as well as giving some merit to using a pokemon that doesn't have a proper mega form as your mega pokemon. Where this idea really shines though would be if you took it a step further and applied a lot of the philosophy from Gen 9s Tera into this mechanic, such as adding a generic "Type Mega Stone", which would change your secondary typing, as well as giving you an ability that fits that type, so something like how Pinsir gains the secondary flying type and getting aerilate. In practice this could be a way of helping out pokémon with bad type combinations, by essentially getting a more useful one in return for using an item, forcibly changing their ability (and maybe not getting a stat boost compared to how normal mega evolution works)

i agree on the part that because of the mega some niche users (like bannette, pinsir and pidgeot) got neutered the generation that didn't supported megas and thats why i hate the megas but look at gallade sharpness and some new "cut" moves make him much more better than his mega counterpart

That thumbnail rocks 😂

The thing about mega pokemon compared to things like tera and Z-moves is that it's extrememly predictable. You see a mawile? It's gonna mega evolve. You see a salamence? It's gonna mega evolve. You only normally have one or two options for the gimmick and it has less versatility and variety than something like terastalization.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but we already got a mega evolution for Flygon... it's called Garchomp

I think some sort of consolidation of the previous mechanics would be neat. Once a battle, you get the choice to use a more powerful form like a Mega or Gigantamax form, use a super powerful move, or change your type. I also think that restricting items is the right call.

I made a spreadsheet rebalancing base stats, as well as some types, abilities, moves… I reduced mega stat boosts for mons that are already basically pseudo legendary, such that they still make sense comparatively and don’t exceed the low end of box legendaries.

I'm down for more mega pokemon as long as incineroar gets a mega.

My main issue with megas is that pokemon who got mega evolution will NEVER evolve in any other way. This is of course not a concern on already fully evolved pokemon like Charizard or Beedrill but pokemon such as Mawile and Sableye deserve normal evolution in the same way Girafarig and Dunsparce got theirs eventually. Imagine if Farigiraf never existed before Girafarig had an mega evolution. This really sucks in my opinion. Plus the issues of balance you mentioned before and the unfair distribution of mega evolution to certain pokemon. But we can't abuse Dialga or Celebi to turn back in time and change things so we are stuck with broken concept of mega evolution forever. Yes they look cool BUT they could have been ALTERNATIVE evolutions (in similar way regional forms exist now). And having access to 2 different mega stones made Charizard really hard to counter because you couldn't even tell wich one it is from team preview (in the same way you can't tell Urshifu sprites apart). But at least Urshifu - once revealed in battle - is now confirmed of its form while charizard - once revealed - was still a mystery until the player decided to click the mega button and either surrpise you with sudden sun or surprise you with sudden change of types. It was harder to work around then Protean Greninja. And they nerfed that! Anyway maybe i would be less dissapointed about megas if every final form pokemon had one (and if every starter had 2 IF CHARIZARD HAD TO HAVE TWO FOR SOME REASON) But alas that is too much work for the designer team and then a lot of data would have to be added... like 30% or so more pokemon sprites would needed to exist, and then 3d models of those. They already struggle with what we have now as they can't even put all of pokemon into 1 game. This is why Z-moves were better. Sure you couldn't predict wich pokemon will use it, but at least any pokemon could use it. Same with dynamax. And while gigantamax were special for certain pokemon - they were not so much different (and sometimes worse) then dynamax counterparts so i really didn't mind that all that much. That is to say Mega form design could have been gigantamax form design and that would have been far more balanced then mega stones. And perhaps that could be a solution. Turn mega forms into dynamax forms. And let 1 stage evolution pokemon evolve! Free them from mega evolution shackles! Alternatively they could take a hint from their own pokedex entries - the mega evolution hurts and leads to death of pokemon. So basically after mega evolving make the pokemon faint after 3 turns. So its similar to dynamax but different in that there is no HP bonus and no move change. You can keep your bonus 100 BST then because its just for 3 turns and Protect exists so people could still play around that. Though it would be unfair for defensive megas like Slowbro but then again that thing is broken defensively. Maybe make pokemon lose 20% HP when they are mega evolved. Yes you may still try to heal those but that is less offensive pressure on the opponent. Still i would prefer is mega evolutions were not in competitive play. I enjoy adaptability in fight we have right now (with terastalization) - you can choose wich pokemon to terastalize and when to do it best and you get to keep having your items normally. Mega stones took away item slots = that basically forces you to mega or else you are missing out. And if you build a team with 2 potential mega evolutions then one of them will end up without an item if you had to bring them both into battle. I never enjoyed competitive plays when mega evolutions were allowed. [...] Ok so now imagine something different: A mega stone that is a form change item that works outside of battle and allow you to swap your pokemon form between its current one and its regional variant - and yes mega forms would be considered different region forms. That way you can see them clearly in team preview, you can also hold an item normally, but of course stats will be not boosted by 100 if thepokemon was already 3rd stage evolution. As for 1 or 2 stage evolutions their mega forms would change to become their normal evolutions - in wich case their mega stones will be consumable item like water or moon stones are. This would be in my opinion the best they could do to fix this mega issue.

I think that reintroducing Megas could work really well if they do what you suggested in the sense of rebalancing how much of an extra boost to a base stat total to a pokemons stats specific pokemon got. That way, strong pokemon can still be an option to receive new forms, but also, it would make the weakers ones who get the form stand out a bit more. I also personally think that if they do reintroduce megas into the a comp game, a good way to balance the mechanic could be if Z moves and / or Terastilization or both were still present to co-exist with megas. On first appearance it might seem like a lot to have to think about competitively and i cant say that isn't true but in that way there would still be viable ways to buff weaker pokemon who might not get mega forms and make them able to combat megas. Especially in the sense of if megas couldnt be terastilized and they also cant use z moves then theoretically if a player needed to they could have a tera type for a mon and a z crystal and, either terastilize the mon and pop the z move for stab or use a z move for massive damage but teratsilize to a differnt type to be more defensive vs a mega mon who wouldnt have those same options. Essentially Z moves and Tera types could combo really well into each other and could make them feel like a psuedo dynamax if used together that would be strong enough to combat problematic megas if needed or improve them for a defensive support role. That and other mons who got buffs through signature Z moves would then get those buffs back and allow them compete with megas in that sense. Really i just want Z move, megas and Teras to co-exist i think it would result in really fun and cool team comps and strategies while also giving mons 3 different possible ways to be buffed into viability.

Reminder that the main reason we don’t have Mega Flygon is because the designers couldn’t improve on regular Flygon.

As someone who's never liked Megas, I found this video to be agreeable and fair.

Pokémon that need a mega/would be cool to see: Flygon Infernape Luxray Snorlax Electivire Toxicroak Quagsire Dragonite Crobat Raichu What else did I miss that deserves a mega?

My main issue with Mega-evolutions was that a number of single and two stage Pokemon got a Mega-form that could've just as easily been an actual evolution (with adjusted stats, obviously).

Be on the lookout for Mega Maushold, whose every attack hits 10 times and Tidy Up procs 6 times.

apparently hot take: Terastallization is a better gimmick than Megas I'm biased because Tera doesn't cause ridiculous amounts of added work for the trench-level devs each generation

Same ppl that said they hate competitive bc "its just the same mons" are the same ones that says megas are the best mechanics in competitive

Yo I love the video, I find it informative and interesting. Idk what it is but the blur effect in the background is really frustrating tbh.

I live for these kinds of videos from you

I personally think some megas should just become regular evolutions for those lower tier pokemon though with some nerfs. It'd be cool if they made older, obsolete 3stage Pokémon get a 4th stage

I agree; megas shouldn't have been pokemon restricted... that's the reason i hated megas but I loved dynamax and terastal because all pokemon has access to it. sure there was gigantamax

I think if they would genuinely restrict megas to only the Pokemon who were either used in less than like 25% of competitive battles previously or absent entirely, it would be fine.

I wonder about megas in the new legends game. It’s a legends game in its own little bubble so I hope they go all out and just dump a lot of new forms like a personal ones for me are treveant, flygon, clawitzer, galvantula, and more (maybe new versions for the XY box legendaries and maybe zygarde depending if it gets any new % forms

Mega evolution is still good. I only hope they finish what they started with it. "Please give Flygon a Mega evolution."

I put dynamax way over meggas because dynamax actually makes most pokémon viable as opposed to the 7 out of 30 mega pokémon that gets thrown on every team

Surprised you didn’t bring up primal groudon or kyogre since they’re usually lumped in with the megas

It can still work for competitive but it would need to be reworked as you mentioned, or heavily regulated (only certain Megas are allowed).

Still better than Z moves