What Mega Evolution changes
Malamar, number 687 in the National Dex and a Kalos Pokémon,
holds Malamarite to become Mega Malamar,
taking its total from 482 to 582. The biggest single gain is 45 Sp. Def, followed by 30 Sp. Atk. Nothing goes down — HP and Defense stay exactly where they were.
The typing does not change — it is Dark and Psychic before and after — so the Mega is the same defensive problem as the base form, only bigger. The ability stays Contrary.
What gets through
As Dark and Psychic, 2 of the eighteen attacking types get through for extra damage, and Bug lands for quadruple. It resists 0 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 Malamar is played on 0.42% of teams in the Regulation M-B VGC
ladder, which puts it 109th of the 282 Pokémon with enough games to
measure. The move almost every one of them carries is Superpower at 99%.
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 Malamar takes extra damage from.
- Whimsicott — Moonblast (Fairy, ×2), on 93.9% of its sets
- Floette-Mega — Dazzling Gleam (Fairy, ×2), on 95.9% of its sets
- Grimmsnarl — Spirit Break (Fairy, ×2), on 59.3% of its sets
- Mawile-Mega — Play Rough (Fairy, ×2), on 99% of its sets
- Toxapex — Infestation (Bug, ×4), on 98.5% of its sets
- Primarina — Moonblast (Fairy, ×2), on 88.3% of its sets
Where it sits among the Megas
Of the 91 Mega forms in the dex, Mega Malamar is 72nd by base
stat total. Its best stat is Sp. Def at 120, which is 14th
among Megas; its worst is HP at 86, 27th.
No other Mega Evolution has the Dark and Psychic typing, so this matchup board is unique to it.
The unevolved Malamar is itself on 0.22% of teams.
Putting it on a team
A Mega slot is a commitment: the stone occupies the held item, so whatever Mega Malamar 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
102 points of
Attack actually change a
knockout.
