What Mega Evolution changes
Skarmory, number 227 in the National Dex and a Johto Pokémon,
holds Skarmorite to become Mega Skarmory,
taking its total from 465 to 565. The biggest single gain is 60 Attack, followed by 40 Speed. It also loses 30 Defense.
The typing does not change — it is Steel and Flying before and after — so the Mega is the same defensive problem as the base form, only bigger. Mega Evolving replaces Keen Eye, Sturdy and Weak Armor with Stalwart.
What gets through
As Steel and Flying, 2 of the eighteen attacking types get through for extra damage. It resists 8 and is outright immune to 2. 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 Skarmory is played on 0.26% of teams in the Regulation M-B VGC
ladder, which puts it 133th of the 282 Pokémon with enough games to
measure. The move almost every one of them carries is Brave Bird at 92.5%.
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 Skarmory takes extra damage from.
- Incineroar — Flare Blitz (Fire, ×2), on 91.2% of its sets
- Charizard-Mega-Y — Heat Wave (Fire, ×2), on 99.2% of its sets
- Farigiraf — Thunderbolt (Electric, ×2), on 59.2% of its sets
- Archaludon — Electro Shot (Electric, ×2), on 98.6% of its sets
- Delphox-Mega — Heat Wave (Fire, ×2), on 99.5% of its sets
- Raichu-Mega-Y — Zap Cannon (Electric, ×2), on 98.8% of its sets
Where it sits among the Megas
Of the 91 Mega forms in the dex, Mega Skarmory is 80th by base
stat total. Its best stat is Attack at 140, which is 31st
among Megas; its worst is Sp. Atk at 40, 89th.
No other Mega Evolution has the Steel and Flying typing, so this matchup board is unique to it.
The unevolved Skarmory is itself on 0.02% of teams.
Putting it on a team
A Mega slot is a commitment: the stone occupies the held item, so whatever Mega Skarmory 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
140 points of
Attack actually change a
knockout.
