What Mega Evolution changes
Garchomp, number 445 in the National Dex and a Sinnoh Pokémon,
holds Garchompite to become Mega Garchomp,
taking its total from 600 to 700. The biggest single gain is 40 Attack, followed by 40 Sp. Atk. It also loses 10 Speed.
The typing does not change — it is Dragon and Ground before and after — so the Mega is the same defensive problem as the base form, only bigger. Mega Evolving replaces Sand Veil and Rough Skin with Sand Force.
What gets through
As Dragon and Ground, 3 of the eighteen attacking types get through for extra damage, and Ice lands for quadruple. It resists 3 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 Garchomp is played on 1.1% of teams in the Regulation M-B VGC
ladder, which puts it 71th of the 282 Pokémon with enough games to
measure. The move almost every one of them carries is Protect at 97.5%.
The Champions module tiers it (OU).
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 Garchomp takes extra damage from.
- Garchomp — Dragon Claw (Dragon, ×2), on 91.6% of its sets
- Whimsicott — Moonblast (Fairy, ×2), on 93.9% of its sets
- Floette-Mega — Dazzling Gleam (Fairy, ×2), on 95.9% of its sets
- Archaludon — Dragon Pulse (Dragon, ×2), on 82.8% of its sets
- Grimmsnarl — Spirit Break (Fairy, ×2), on 59.3% of its sets
- Aerodactyl-Mega — Ice Fang (Ice, ×4), on 60.6% of its sets
Where it sits among the Megas
Of the 91 Mega forms in the dex, Mega Garchomp is 8th by base
stat total. Its best stat is Attack at 170, which is 5th
among Megas; its worst is Speed at 92, 51st.
One other Mega shares the Dragon and Ground typing and therefore this exact matchup board: Mega Zygarde.
The unevolved Garchomp is itself on 33.2% of teams.
Putting it on a team
A Mega slot is a commitment: the stone occupies the held item, so whatever Mega Garchomp 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
170 points of
Attack actually change a
knockout.
