Looking at overpowered Pokémon

[Dufniall]

I've had a Doublade on my team in X for ages before I found out the guy actually had a third stage and it requires a stone for evolution.

[Glen-i]

2 minutes ago, Dufniall said:

I've had a Doublade on my team in X for ages before I found out the guy actually had a third stage and it requires a stone for evolution.

Oof...

Still, I hope it taught you to always scroll through your stones whenever you get a new Pokémon, just in case.

And hey, could be worse. You could be the guy who had a male LV 50 Salandit during his first playthrough of Sun, and was wondering why the hell it wasn't evolving.

Pssst. It's me, I'm that guy.

[Glen-i]

One of the absolute biggest glow-ups Mega Evolution gave a Pokémon was one that elevated it from the absolute lowest tier on Smogon, to a monstrosity that had to be banned to Ubers.
If you ask me, I think all those other Pokémon are mad that they suck so much, a toddler could beat them.

Mega Kangaskhan is another one of those Mega Evolutions that I think has a really clever design. The Kangaskhan itself doesn't Mega Evolve, but the child in it's pouch does. It still gives the Kangaskhan a stat boost though, somehow...

The stats would be good for a normal Pokémon, but they're kind of underwhelming for a Mega. Which, if you've been paying attention, means you can guess what it is that made this Pokémon so OP.

Parental Bond: Every move used by the Pokémon will hit twice. The damage inflicted by the second hit is reduced by 50%. If the move used is a damaging move, each hit is capable of afflicting Secondary Effects and Critical Hits.

The effective 50% damage boost is nice, but it's that last part that you should pay attention to. Take the move Body Slam, for example. It's an attacking move that has a 30% chance to paralyse the Pokémon it hits. But because Parental Bond makes the move hit twice, that means it checks for this paralysis chance twice. (I think that makes it effectively a 51% chance of paralysis with each use)

But it goes further then that, do some research into what moves Kangaskhan can learn, and you can come up with some absolutely killer synergies!

• Seismic Toss is a move that does fixed damage based on Kangaskhan's level. That fixed damage isn't reduced on the second hit, so in a Level 50 fight, that's a guaranteed 100 HP worth of damage. There aren't many Pokémon that have 201 HP or more.
• Rock Tomb and Bulldoze both also reduce the target's speed when it hits. Pokémon that rely on speed are pretty much crippled with that.
• Power-Up Punch, much like the name implies, attacks while also boosting Kangaskhan's Attack stat by one stage. Being able to do this twice means that you effectively attack while also getting the same attack boost as Swords Dance.

A lot of Pokémon in the OU tier can't deal with the constant secondary effects Kangaskhan rains down. Not to mention, the sheer power of 125 base Attack multiplied by 2 after one Power-Up Punch (Because it's an attacking move, you can't block it with Taunt), followed by another attack at half that power. That second hit also means that you can't use Substitute or Focus Sash to block it.

And don't think you can use a revenge killer, because Kangaskhan can also learn Sucker Punch (70 power Physical Dark Move that always goes first, but fails if the target is not using an attacking move). Fast Fighting Pokémon are your only answer, which severely limits options, and is why Mega Kangaskhan got banned only 2 months after Gen 6 (X/Y) started. Unfortunately, Ubers is not kind to it, it doesn't do well there where 100 in a base stat isn't impressive, and it's attacking options are relatively weak. It's also easily countered by other Uber Megas like Gengar and Sableye.

By the way, this is another Pokémon where Game Freak nerfed the ability in the next generation (Sun/Moon). Parental Bond's second hit only does 25% of the damage there. It's still OP, even if more reliant on Seismic Toss.

Does that mean it's good in casual play?

Hell yeah! It's one of the best Megas to use in X and Y! But that's pretty much the only game where Kangaskhan is any good in a playthrough... Mega Stones don't show up in Sun/Moon until the post game, and it's not much good in Let's Go as well, because abilities in that game don't exist, and Kangaskhan desperately needs that ability to be any good.

It'll be interesting to see if Legends: Z-A will let Mega Kangaskhan do what it's meant to do.

[Ashley]

3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

The Kangaskhan itself doesn't Mega Evolve, but the child in it's pouch does. It still gives the Kangaskhan a stat boost though, somehow...