After achieving reqs in the minimum games limit, I feel like I should share my thoughts on the suspect test of Mega Slowbro. I’ll start off by saying that before I played any battles for this suspect test, I was heavily on the ban side of the argument. My reasoning was it ate physical attacks like snacks…even the hardest of super effective ones in the tier:
- 252+ Atk Choice Band Scizor U-turn vs. 252 HP / 216+ Def Slowbro-Mega:182-216 (46.1 - 54.8%) -- 55.9% chance to 2HKO
- 252 Atk Adaptability Beedrill-Mega U-turn vs. 252 HP /216+ Def Slowbro-Mega: 164-196 (41.6 - 49.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
It just slacks off against these attacks which is ridiculous. And Mega Slowbro isn’t passive either as it can 2HKO most of it’s most common checks like Mega Manetric and Hydreigon with the right coverage meaning they switch in once:
- 0 SpA Slowbro-Mega Scald vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Manectric-Mega: 130-154 (46.2 -54.8%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO. Turns into a guaranteed 2HKO with Rocks up
- 0 SpA Slowbro-Mega Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hydreigon: 178-210 (54.7 -64.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Even Serperior and Celebi get 2HKO’d by Ice Beam (Celebi is after rocks) and while they mitigate that risk with Leech Seed/Giga Drain/synthesis recovery, it still shows that Mega Slowbro can pressure it’s common checks on the switchin and is not passive. So on paper, you have a mon that is borderline impossible to break on the physical side (Mega Sharpedo and Crawdaunt and SD Scizor can win 1v1 if they avoid burn. Even Life Orb Breloom needs 4 hits of Bullet Seed to have just a 6.3% chance to OHKO and nets a guaranteed OHKO with 5 hits), and can pressure it’s common switchins with the appropriate coverage. On paper, it sounds broken imo.
Now I’ve played about 60 games in total in this suspect test in total between 2 different alts, and I don’t think Mega Slowbro is as good in actual battle as on paper. I started the suspect testing by using a BO offence team that had CM Electrium Z Latias plus CB Scizor plus Mega Manectric to handle Mega Slowbro (I ended up facing just 2 Mega Slowbro in about 20 games) and that team was able to handle Mega Slowbro pretty effectively because I prepared for it. Now one game was more difficult because the opposition had an Alolan Muk alongside Mega Slowbro which made CM Latias pretty useless until I wore the Muk down…and in theory if my opponent had played well with doubles, Alolan Muk could have made it really difficult by chipping/removing Latias and Mega Manectric which would have opened up the game for his Mega Slowbro. Also note that
Stall is coming posted a list of mons in the tier that can check/counter Mega Slowbro which is helpful, but look at how many if those Alolan Muk pressures, particularly the ones considered offensive checks/counters to Mega Slowbro. And it should be noted that for the offensive checks/counters, you kind of have to go into them right away as +2 Mega Slowbro starts to become too much for things like Hydreigon, Serperior, Celebi, and Mega Manectric to break. That need to go into your offensive check/counter early before Mega Slowbro starts setting up too much creates opportunities for doubles that mons like Alolan Muk can take advantage of to pressure common answers to Mega Slowbro. Just food for thought from a gameplay perspective.
The 2nd team I used was the one I ended up getting reqs with, and it was a Mega Slowbro spike stacking team. I wanted to use Mega Bro to get the full picture of it’s viability in the tier and my experience with Mega Bro was very good but I couldn’t help but notice it’s limitations. I used a Calm Mind/Scald/Ice Beam/Slack off set with the standard calculator spread (252HP/216 Def/40 SpD). First, I will say that it is truly obnoxious on the physical side and it acted as a supreme physical wall and overall tank for me. I was able to use it to check/counter things like all the DD dragons (Mega Altaria, Haxorus, and Kommo-o), all the physical fire attackers, pretty much all the fighting types (Volt Switch Cobalion is a thing now in response), SD Gliscor, Stakataka and more. Even the Low Ladder favorite Ambipom gets walled. I did find Mega Slowbro to be very meh on the special side though, and even at +1 it wasn’t eating special hits very well. Furthermore, I noticed that it lacks relevant resists, the fighting and psychic resists gained by its typing over other bulky water type really only help it against Cobalion, Physically attacking Infernape, Terrakion, and physically attacking Lucario. On the opposite side, it opens it up to Bug types, dark types, and ghost types that other bulky waters like Suicune are less scared of. I also noticed that the lack of speed that Mega Slowbro has is really apparent, it is very consistently moving 2nd. That’s fine, but it’s constantly at the mercy of the opponent and always on the lookout for stray toxic’s or whatever which is a problem if you aren’t running rest (I’ll get into my thoughts on rest sets later).
Now I want to understand where people are getting this idea of Mega Slowbro being a stall breaker…what am I missing here because I think it does close to 0 in a stall matchup besides be a pivot with Regenerator (pre-evolved)? Doesn't Amoongus plus Blissey just slow it down?
If you're running CM Iron defense with rest then Amoongus is a hard stop if you're running Scald...especially with rest turns
If you're running CM Rest/Talk same thing
If you're running Psychic/Psyshock over Scald on either of those sets above, you get toxic stalled by Alomomla + Blissey + Amoongus can clear smog in rest turns. You also can't touch dark types and now Latias with recover (against psychic sets) and Scizor set up on you
If you’re running Ice Beam over Scald on either of the 1st two sets above, you now get walled by Blissey, steel and water types and potential Scizor set up on you
If you're running CM with both Scald and Psychic/Psyshock with Rest then Blissey walls you until you rest and then Amoongus comes in and Clear Smogs away
Amroq mentioned the lack of exploration of CM Iron Defense sets, but I think there is reason why it is being considered not the most viable of sets and Sage of the 6 covered it well. Mono attacking Slowbro is always vulnerable to something and that makes it less consistent than the other sets. Grass types are everywhere and that makes Scald lacklustre, Psychic/Psyshock will mean you get walled by dark types and now Scizor sets up on you, Ice Beam gets walled by Water and Steel types. There is no perfect coverage option and that makes it inconsistent at best in terms of viability. Rest sets are also kinda rough imo as they open up set-up opportunities at times and force you to run a cleric which is easily done but can also be taken advantage of. I really think the best sets are CM/Scald/Ice Beam with Slack off (could run rest too ifyou have a cleric), or the offensive variation with SpA investment that aims to catch typical checks/counters with a hard super effective move.
Overall, my opinion on Mega Slowbro went from the hard ban side, to after using it I’m a lot closer to neutral and that’s why I want to hear more opinions on the mon and how you think the tier would shape around it. I think in terms of viability in the tier, it’s not completely broken as there are a fair number of ways to break Mega Slowbro despite it’s ridiculous bulk and I think it would settle in around an A on the viability rankings. My question is how healthy is it for the tier having this physically defensive beast, and how does the tier shape around it. I don’t know about you, but I saw a TON of Volt-turn teams with Mega Manectric and Scizor and Hydreigon…and I think that will be common if Mega Slowbro is freed from BL. I also saw a bunch of fat balance/semi-stall teams that Mega Bro fit well on so I would expect that to continue as well. Would that style tier be satisfying for everyone?