Preliminary Analysis on the 1.2 Metagame (WIP)

I’m going to post my thoughts on the Insurgence Pokemon and special mechanics here. Feel free to contribute in the comments.

Full analysis

Delta Venusaur

It could be good on bulky offense or balance. It has amazing bulky and a decent defensive typing. It’s a good check for powerful Fighting types like Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny.

252+ Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham Ice Punch vs. 240 HP / 0 Def Delta Venusaur-Mega: 149-176 (34.5 - 40.8%) – guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Mega Lopunny Return vs. 240 HP / 0 Def Delta Venusaur-Mega: 172-204 (39.9 - 47.3%) – guaranteed 3HKO

It can tank both physical and special attacks pretty well, but needs investment and/or Calm Mind boosts to tank strong attackers like Earth Plate Landorus-T, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Charizard Y.

It’s does decent damage and its ability can even let it clean weak attackers late game.

Possible sets:

Offensive

Delta Venusaur @ Delta Venusaurite

Ability: Regenerator

EVs: 240 HP / 244 SpA / 24 Spe

Modest Nature

  • Psyshock/Psychic

  • Moonblast

  • Calm Mind/Hidden Power Fire/Leech Seed

  • Moonlight

The speed lets it outspeed offensive Mega Venusaur. The attacks give it some offensive presence. Calm Mind lets it tank powerful special attacks (beats things like Mega Gardevoir, Mega Alakazam, and LO Tornadus-T in a 1v1), HP Fire lets it hit Mega Scizor and Ferrothorn, and Leech Seed gets chip damage and recovery. Watch your Moonlights carefully because you can’t use it that many times.

Defensive

Delta Venusaur @ Delta Venusaurite

Ability: Regenerator

EVs: 240 HP / 244 Def / 24 Spe

Bold Nature

  • Moonblast

  • Hidden Power Fire

  • Calm Mind/Psychic/Psyshock/Leech Seed

  • Moonlight

This set is much bulkier, with the spread allowing it to live 2 Bullet Punches from offensive Mega Scizor. It’s physical bulk lets it live insanely powerful attacks easily.

252+ Atk Earth Plate Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 240 HP / 244+ Def Delta Venusaur-Mega: 174-205 (40.3 - 47.5%) – guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Life Orb Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 240 HP / 244+ Def Delta Venusaur-Mega: 188-224 (43.6 - 51.9%) – 12.5% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Charizard X Flare Blitz vs. 240 HP / 244+ Def Delta Venusaur-Mega: 190-225 (44 - 52.2%) – 16% chance to 2HKO

Even with Special Defense investment, it can tank powerful special attacks with only 1 or 2 Calm Minds.

252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Fire Blast vs. +1 240 HP / 0 SpD Delta Venusaur-Mega in Sun: 213-252 (49.4 - 58.4%) – 98.8% chance to 2HKO (Needs +1 before Zard-Y switches in)

232 SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 240 HP / 0 SpD Delta Venusaur-Mega: 229-271 (53.1 - 62.8%) – guaranteed 2HKO

248 SpA Mega Diancie Moonblast vs. 240 HP / 0 SpD Delta Venusaur-Mega: 184-217 (42.6 - 50.3%) – 1.2% chance to 2HKO

With Calm Mind and Hubris, it can become very powerful even without special attack investment. It 2HKOs nearly any Mega Scizor varient with Hidden Power Fire and can beat Ferrothorn in a 1v1 around 60% of the time.

0 Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (127 BP) vs. 240 HP / 244+ Def Delta Venusaur-Mega: 194-230 (45 - 53.3%) – 31.6% chance to 2HKO

+1 0 SpA Delta Venusaur-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 168 SpD Ferrothorn: 276-328 (65.7 - 78%) – guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

It’s overall pretty good and would probably go in low-mid tier OU. Even in its base form, it has an amazing ability in Regenerator, a nuke in Psycho Boost coming off of a decent Special Attack stat, and a decent defensive typing, so I’d put the base form in at least low UU.

Delta Charizard

It looks like a pretty powerful wallbreaker. Ghost is a super good attacking type because it’s nearly unresisted in OU (it wouldn’t do anything to Chansey anyways, Bisharp and Tyranitar are vulnerable to coverage).

Possible sets:

Special Attacker

Delta Charizard @ Delta Charizardite

Ability: Spirit Call

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

  • Shadow Ball

  • Draco Meteor

  • Flamethrower/Sludge Bomb/Hidden Power Fighting/Shadow Sneak (Pick 2)

Shadow Ball is your main STAB, Draco Meteor hits Ghost resists or just works as a nuke in general, your last two moves provide coverage. Flamethrower hits bulky Steels and Bisharp, Sludge Bomb hits Fairies, HP Fighting hits Tyranitar and Bisharp (the speed drop hurts though). It’s not the fastest thing ever so it’s not too hard to revenge kill but if it wants a kill it’s hard to stop it.

Tyranitar is a pretty hard counter if it’s not carrying HP Fighting. Bisharp forces it to play mindgames but has to watch out for Flamethrower or HP Fighting.

Delta Charizard seems like a potent wallbreaker which I think is easily mid-high tier OU. In the base form, it’s pretty much outclassed by Gengar. It does have a nuke in Draco Meteor going for it, but it faces competition from the stronger Chandelure so I’d put it in mid RU - low UU.

Delta Blastoise

Probably the worst of the Delta Starters in my opinion. It hits pretty hard with Mega Launcher boosted STABs, but Fairies tank both STABs and threaten it out. It’s also weak to Talonflame.

Possible sets:

Bulky Setup

Delta Blastoise @ Delta Blastoisinite

Ability: Shadow Dance

EVs: 148 HP / 252 SpA / 108 Spe

Modest Nature

  • Nasty Plot

  • Aura Sphere

  • Dark Pulse

  • Flash Cannon/Vacuum Wave

The spread lets it outspeed 252+ Azumarill and pre-Mega Diancie. Max special attack lets it hit as hard as possible and the rest goes into HP so it can set up Nasty Plots. Flash Cannon hits Fairies while Vacuum Wave circumvents its horrible speed.

It’s not as good as the other Delta starters, but it’s not weak by any means. It’s probably high tier UU-BL or low tier OU. The base form is pretty bad though. It’s poor speed and weakness to common defensive typing, along with low Special Attack stats and competition with Hydreigon in UU hurt its viability a lot. I’d put it around mid tier RU due to the decent combination of Nasty Plot and Vacuum Wave.

Quick analysis

Delta Bisharp

The Mega looks pretty good with Technician and Mach Punch, Power-up Punch, and High Jump Kick. Defiant and Wind Force can both be used to deter Defog. Mega is probably OU, regular is UU-BL.

Delta Gardevoir

It’s okay, but pretty much outclassed by other Electric types like M-Manectric because of higher speed and not having a horrible defensive typing. It’s probably UU.

Delta Gallade

It looks pretty good with rare physical Electric attacks and Ice type in the back to threaten Ground types. Easily OU.

Delta Sunflora

This thing is garbage. It gets outsped by everything and easily destroyed. At least M-Camerupt has good typing. NU at best.

Delta Avalugg

Seems decent since it loses its horrible typing. It gets Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock, and Recover. It also has Sand Stream to patch up its poor Special Defense and it’s not too passive either. This should be at least UU.

Delta Scyther

It has a powerful ability (although also rage-inducing because of the miss chance) with decent good attack and speed. Ice and Fighting make an amazing offensive combo with Knock Off being able to pick off Slowbro. It is risky to use though and it’s hard to set up Hone Claws with its horrible defensive typing (Although Eviolite can help a little). I’d say it’s at least UU, possibly OU.

Delta Scizor

I don’t think it’s that good because it loses the great defensive typing which made its normal form so good. Ice Cleats might work for some Hail team but I see no use for the Mega when it’s just a worse Mega Delta Gallade. Scrappy on the normal form could make it decent in UU. UU sounds about right for this thing, not a chance that it’s OU.

Delta Scrafty

It has a pretty interesting movepool, but unfortunately it doesn’t have Dragon Dance like its regular form. It could be decent as a tank with Rough Skin and Synthesis. Super Fang can be used for support and Wood Hammer is a pretty good attack. I don’t know much about lower tiers, but it doesn’t look UU worthy because Chesnaught has Spikes. I’d say that it’s around RU.

Delta Vespiquen

I really like this thing. It has an amazing movepool with access to things like Volt Switch, Lava Plume, Stealth Rock, Roost, and of course it has its insane defensive typing. It’s stats aren’t the move amazing thing in the world, so it’s not as bulky as Heatran. I’d place it around UU with potential to be good on certain teams in OU.

Delta Weezing

I don’t see this being too good. It doesn’t have STABs to use with Amplifier (last I checked anyways). Boomburst does decent damage, but it’s Special Attack is pretty bad so it’s pretty easily outclassed. Boomburst isn’t that bad, so I guess it could work in NU-RU.

Delta Liepard

I can see it being okay because its 3 immunities let it play mindgames and it has a decent movepool and speed. However, it has horrible bulk and attack stats, so even if it can get a Nasty Plot up from a predicted switch it’s going to have a hard time doing much. It has Will-o-Wisp, Thunder Wave, Trick, and Knock Off for support, U-Turn, and pretty good coverage for surprise KOs. It’s horrible stats and competition from Zoroark hurt pretty badly, so I’d probably put it in high RU or BL2 to mid-tier UU.

Delta Trevenant

I don’t see this being too good. Although it has a surprisingly good movepool with things like Moonlight, Ice Shard, and Leech Seed, I can’t see Hail teams being good. Hail sweepers are frail and weak to priority. Delta Dugtrio is fairly weak even with amazing moves like Extreme Speed and Head Charge and Delta Scizor is too easy to revenge kill when Adamant (outsped by many Scarfers) and misses out on important KOs when Jolly. On the bright side, it’s legal in lower tiers unless something changes. For it’s support moves, I’d give it RU-UU.

Delta Glalie

It’s stats are horrible in its base form (definitely PU) and in its Mega form it lacks coverage. It’s speed isn’t anything amazing either. It also has a fairly shallow movepool, especially in its Mega form where it can only use one STAB. Fire type Stealth Rocks could provide a small niche, but Mega Steelix (Fire) outclasses it completely in that. It’s pretty much just a worse Darmanitan which is also a Mega. It’s solidly RU.

Delta Froslass
Delta

Miscellaneous

Cores
Delta Crustle + Magnezone

Delta Crustle @ White Herb

Ability: Simple

EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Adamant Nature

  • Shell Smash

  • Play Rough

  • Earthquake

  • Return

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Magnet Pull

EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Timid Nature

  • Volt Switch

  • Hidden Power Fire

  • Flash Cannon

  • Thunderbolt

Magnezone traps Scizor-Mega, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory so Delta Crustle can clear the way to sweep. Choice Specs can be run to kill more easily, but Choice Scarf lets it act as an emergency revenge killer.

Delta Crustle destroys basically everything with Play Rough after Shell Smash. Earthquake hits Heatran/weakened Ferrothorn/weakened Scizor-Mega. Return OHKOs Amoonguss and defensive Venusaur-Mega after Stealth Rock. White Herb is there so that it’s harder to be revenge killed. Stealth Rock support is absolutely needed on this team to guaranteed some OHKOs and weaken Talonflame. You also need to scout for Air Balloon Heatran. Heatran can act as a Stealth Rock setter and Talonflame counter.

Random Thoughts

Livewire is broken and should probably be banned. Gen 6 paralysis pretty much guarantees you’ll be outsped. (252+ paralyzed Weavile is slower than uninvested Dragalge). Unlike Sticky Web, there are amazing Pokemon which get it (Zapdos, Rotom-W, Mew) and at -1 Speed it’s still possible to outspeed things. Sure, Ground and Electric types absorb it but it’s a huge constraint on team building and in battle.

Permafrost should also be banned because having to risk freeze on every switch is the worst.

Corrode looks pretty interesting, especially with its ability to destroy switch ins like Ferrothorn.

2 Likes

Delta Blastoise’s Hidden Ability was changed from Intimidate to Shadow Dance in 1.1.

I saw Intimidate on the Mega Evolution list wiki page and assumed that it changed to Intimidate in 1.2. I guess I’ll fix that.

Yeah it seems like every time I’ve fixed that somewhere, another place pops up that shows the old information.

great to see this happening again. Venusaur surely my top pick as the starter , It takes out whole teams of bosses with 2-3 calm mind.

Does Delta Charizard not get Fire Blast/Focus Blast?

I don’t believe so. I am pretty sure it doesn’t learn them by level up. Also It doesn’t learn them by tutors or even by tm for focus blast’s case.

How about Fire Blast TM?

is there a tm for it? Still I am pretty sure it doesn’t learn many coverage moves. The good STAB’s are already in his movepool.

Fire Blast is a TM, but it does not get that or Focus Blast.

1 Like

No but it still has enough coverage options, e.g. Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Sludge Bomb

More analysis, please

and lunar cannon

what’s coming next :? delta haxorus

Yeah sorry I should have mentioned Lunar Cannon too. I don’t really consider it coverage since it is pseudo-STAB under Noctem and you wouldn’t run it alongside Shadow Ball (one or the other is better since they overlap so much in what you use them for).