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Make-a-Mega: Roserade

We’ve made up a mega evolution of our own for Roserade – image, stats and all!

With over seven hundred Pokémon currently in existence, it is perhaps not surprising that there’s a fair few really cool ones out there. Some of them have great designs, some of them are brutally powerful and some of them are even both! Sadly though, there’s a lot of Pokémon that have really good concepts or designs that fall short of the benchmark in competitive battle. Generation six, however, introduced to us a way for some of these Pokémon to get a second chance: Mega Evolution.

The PokéCommunity was asked which Pokémon they would like to give a shot at the limelight by creating a new theoretical Mega Evolution for them. After a vote, the community settled on Roserade. While its power boost, typing and ability were decided upon as well, PokéCommunity members also had a go at designing the new Mega form!

A fan favourite since back in the fourth generation, Roserade has a lot of potential but just falls short of the bar residing in the UnderUsed competitive tier where it sits at thirty-third in usage statistics. So what does it do well, and how can it do it better?

The Original

I may be pretty... (Image Source)
“I may be pretty… “(Image Source)

#407 Roserade
Classification: Bouquet Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Ability: Natural Cure/Poison Point/Technician

Base Stats
HP: 60
Attack: 70
Defence: 65
Special Attack: 125
Special Defence: 105
Speed: 90

Roserade has a fair few positives to it already. It has a notably high Special Attack stat and a fairly decent Special Defence on top of that. It’s also fast enough to outspeed a lot of the physically bulky Pokémon you can come across and hit them hard with its great Special Attack whilst still being able to take a few decent neutral Special attacks. As an added bonus, two of the abilities it has access to – Natural Cure and Technician – are pretty good. With Natural Cure, if Roserade cops a paralysis or burn it can switch out and make it go away, whilst Technician powers up weaker moves quite a lot. Roserade even has an exceptional movepool having access to great offensive moves like Sludge Bomb and Giga Drain, entry hazards in the form of Toxic Spikes and Spikes, utility moves like Sleep Powder and Toxic and even Recovery with Synthesis.

So with all these great characteristics, you’re probably wondering why Roserade doesn’t even make the top twenty Pokémon of its own tier, let alone see much use in OU or Ubers. The biggest reasons are its typing and stats. Fire, Flying and Psychic Pokémon are extremely common and Water Pokémon (that Roserade will generally be switched into) often carry Ice Beam. Steel Pokémon are also very common, and whilst Roserade can run a powerful Hidden Power (Fire) to deal with them, many sets don’t leaving it completely walled. In addition to this, Roserade’s physical stats and HP are extremely low leaving it vulnerable to physical attacks – even those its type resists. Its Speed is also an issue as even though it can outspeed a fair few bulky, defensive Pokémon, it is severely outpaced by common offensive threats.

New and Improved

 

...But I'm fabulous! (Image Source)
“…But I’m fabulous!”

 

Mega Roserade
Type: Grass/Poison
Ability: Storm Drain

Base Stats
HP: 60
Attack: 50 (-20)
Defence: 75 (+10)
Special Attack: 165 (+40)
Special Defence: 125 (+20)
Speed: 140 (+50)

Our new Mega Roserade does retain its original Grass and Poison typing, however it gets a really handy ability in Storm Drain and a huge boost to its Speed and Special attack as well as a nice little prop-up to its defensive stats. This means that it unfortunately retains the weaknesses to common Flying, Fire, Psychic and Ice attacks. However, it retains the positives that this typing brings too – it is immune to powder moves (ie. Spore), Poisoning and it cannot be burned switching into Scald now thanks to Storm Drain. In fact, switching into any Water attack will provide our already formidable Mega Roserade a nice boost to its massive Special Attack whilst taking no damage.

Our Mega Roserade takes the typing that once served as a hindrance and uses its now monstrous Special Attack and Speed to turn it into a dangerous anti-meta Pokémon. With powerful STAB-boosted Sludge Bombs and Giga Drains Mega Roserade can outspeed and demolish common and dangerous Water and Fairy types like Keldeo and Clefable with super-effective damage or deal hefty neutral damage to many other Pokemon. There’ll be no switching in with Latios/Latias or Jirachi (without a Choice Scarf) to get a revenge kill either since Roserade has access to Shadow Ball to cover those pesky Psychic types, the majority of which our Mega is now faster than. Meanwhile in a Doubles environment, Mega Roserade sees the attack Surf on a partner Pokémon become useful. Using the move hits both opponents and simultaneously grants Roserade a free special attack boost, which even possibly helps cover the stat drop that comes with using a powerful Leaf Storm.

This is not an overpowered Mega that will be banished to the depths of Ubers (where it would never be seen again) though. Despite its good Special Defence that will allow it to take some neutral hits, our Mega Roserade still has poor HP and Defence. This means that it will have trouble switching in to dangerous physical attackers like Landorus and Talonflame or super-effective special attackers like the aforementioned Latias, Latios and Heatran.

The PokéCommunity’s design for Mega Roserade checks all the boxes for a good Mega Evolution. It’s powerful, has a niche it can easily fit into and looks amazing whilst not being overpowered thanks to its defensive limitations and typing.

We’ve already started working on the next Mega evolution for a deserving Pokemon. If you’re interested, check out the following thread to join in the voting and discussion!

Roserade’s mega form by Fairy/Kirby. You can view other submissions here!
Edited by Astinus and bobandbill.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to discussions.