What Mega Evolution changes
Aerodactyl, number 142 in the National Dex and a Kanto Pokémon,
holds Aerodactylite to become Mega Aerodactyl,
taking its total from 515 to 615. The biggest single gain is 30 Attack, followed by 20 Defense. Nothing goes down — HP stays exactly where it was.
The typing does not change — it is Rock and Flying before and after — so the Mega is the same defensive problem as the base form, only bigger. Mega Evolving replaces Rock Head, Pressure and Unnerve with Tough Claws.
What gets through
As Rock and Flying, 5 of the eighteen attacking types get through for extra damage. It resists 5 and is outright immune to 1. The full board is above; the short version is that the
types listed under ×2 and ×4 are the ones worth planning around.
On the Regulation M-B ladder
Mega Aerodactyl is played on 9.9% of teams in the Regulation M-B VGC
ladder, which puts it 16th of the 282 Pokémon with enough games to
measure. The move almost every one of them carries is Rock Slide at 99.8%.
The Champions module tiers it UU.
Those figures come from Smogon's published usage statistics rather than from anything measured
here, and they describe what the ladder plays, not what is strongest.
What threatens it
Smogon publishes no head-to-head checks-and-counters data for doubles formats, so this list is
computed, not measured: these are the most-played Regulation M-B Pokémon carrying
a damaging move of a type Mega Aerodactyl takes extra damage from.
- Kingambit — Iron Head (Steel, ×2), on 67.8% of its sets
- Garchomp — Rock Slide (Rock, ×2), on 75.9% of its sets
- Basculegion — Aqua Jet (Water, ×2), on 96.6% of its sets
- Farigiraf — Thunderbolt (Electric, ×2), on 59.2% of its sets
- Archaludon — Electro Shot (Electric, ×2), on 98.6% of its sets
- Gholdengo — Make It Rain (Steel, ×2), on 99.5% of its sets
Where it sits among the Megas
Of the 91 Mega forms in the dex, Mega Aerodactyl is 43rd by base
stat total. Its best stat is Speed at 150, which is 5th
among Megas; its worst is Sp. Atk at 70, 71st.
No other Mega Evolution has the Rock and Flying typing, so this matchup board is unique to it.
The unevolved Aerodactyl is itself on 3.2% of teams.
Putting it on a team
A Mega slot is a commitment: the stone occupies the held item, so whatever Mega Aerodactyl would have
wanted from an item, it does not get. Drop it into the
team builder to see what the rest of the six then have to cover,
or take it to the damage calculator to find out whether those
135 points of
Attack actually change a
knockout.
