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Make-a-Mega: Luxray

We’ve created an awesome Mega Evolution for Luxray. Check it out!

There are a lot of Pokémon out there: over seven hundred in fact. A great many of this number are both awesome and viable competitively. Unfortunately, though, a lot of really cool Pokémon don’t pass muster with their limited competitive prowess. Generation VI, however, gave us a way to give the passed-over a second chance: Mega Evolution. Through Mega Evolving, an otherwise useless Pokémon like Mawile or Altaria can become an absolute powerhouse.

The Make-a-Mega series asks the battlers of PokéCommunity which of these left out Pokémon they’d like to see receive a new Mega Evolution. The competitive battlers of PC then spend several weeks determining any typing, ability and stat changes our Mega Pokémon gets whilst the community’s artistic whizzes develop a design for our hypothetical Mega Evolution. This time around, the community decided to create a Mega Luxray.

Banished to the depths of the lowest possible competitive tier, Luxray is beloved for its extremely cool design but isn’t very useful at all as a competitive option. Even in its lowly home tier of PU, it is generally outclassed by other Electric-type Pokémon such as Raichu, Zebstrika and even Ampharos.

The Original

“Am I cool, or what? “(Image Source)

#405 Luxray
Classification: Gleam Eyes Pokémon
Type: Electric
Ability: Guts/Intimidate/Rivalry

Base Stats
HP: 80
Atk: 120
Def: 79
Sp. Atk: 95
Sp. Def: 79
Spe: 70

Unlike Roserade, our previous Make-a-Mega choice, Luxray doesn’t have much going for it to begin with. It has a decent Attack stat and an average at best Special Attack. So offensively it does have some power to it – although, by the current metagame’s standards, not a huge amount. It also has a fairly good ability in Guts. However, Guts requires it to cop a status condition like burn or poison which will rapidly eat away at its health since it has no recovery. On top of all this, Luxray is painfully slow and even in PU it is massively outpaced by other Pokémon. It also has an extremely narrow movepool. Despite its decent Attack stat, its lack of Speed and moves render it all but useless as an offensive Pokémon.

Luxury has nothing to boast about defensively either. Its base 80 HP isn’t too bad (all things considered). However, when you consider Luxray’s average Defence and Special Defence stats, Luxray is still painfully frail. Even if it carries Intimidate to lower the Attack stats of opposing Pokémon, it is unlikely it will survive more than a neutral hit or two, let alone a super-effective move.

All in all, as it is Luxray is essentially useless. It has limited offensive capabilities and no positives to speak of defensively. Even in PU, the land of the weak and forgotten, Luxray’s good looks conceal a distinctive lack of battle prowess. So, what can we do to remedy this travesty?

New and Improved

“You were saying?” (Art by Shadowflare)

Mega Luxray
Type: Electric/Dark
Ability: Strong Jaw

Base Stats
HP: 80
Attack: 140 (+20)
Defence: 119 (+40)
Sp. Atk: 65 (-30)
Sp. Def: 99 (+20)
Speed: 120 (+50)

Now this is more like it! Our Mega Luxray has a lot more to work with than its regular counterpart. Gaining a Mega Evolution doesn’t do anything to improve Luxray’s rather pathetic movepool, but its new ability does help fix the problem. Luxray’s main sources of coverage are the biting moves Fire Fang, Ice Fang and Crunch, but, aside from Crunch, these moves are quite weak. Strong Jaw, however, makes these moves 50% more powerful, turning the weak elemental fangs into powerful coverage moves each with 96 base power and good accuracy. Thunder Fang also becomes a reliable STAB option, lacking Wild Charge’s recoil but having a similar base power. Crunch, with Luxray’s added Dark type, becomes a powerful primary STAB move with a base power of 120 and no drawbacks.

Even better is the 20 point boost to Luxray’s Attack stat and the complementary 50 point boost to its Speed. The boosts solidify Luxray as a powerful physical attacker, allowing it to do some really serious damage to all but the sturdiest of foes. Now, however, Luxray lacks the hindrance of its once mediocre Speed stat and is able to outspeed Pokémon that would have once obliterated it like defensive Landorus, Tyranitar without a Choice Scarf and Excadrill without the benefit of Sand Rush.

Luxray is also nowhere as flimsy as it once was, either. Before this Mega Evolution, Luxray would fold over like paper before any moderate offensive Pokémon capable of dealing neutral damage. Now, with 119 base Defence and 99 base Special Defence, Luxray has some decent bulk that will allow it to not blink an eye at attacks it resists and to even take some neutral damage.

Despite all these boons, however, our Mega Luxray does have some balancing factors. Its new typing provides it with a powerful STAB boosted Crunch, but also results in an additional set of weaknesses to the common Fighting and Fairy types. Mega Luxray’s Speed boost is notable, but it is still slower than most Choice Scarfed Pokémon, Sand Rush Excadrill and several Mega Pokemon that can all hit Luxray very hard. It also had to lose points from its once decent Special Attack in order to have room for the massive increase to its Speed.

The PokéCommunity’s theoretical Mega Luxray, like Mega Roserade before it, ticks all the boxes for a superb Mega Evolution. It turns an otherwise useless Pokémon into a powerful offensive threat, but it also has balancing factors that prevent it from being absurdly powerful like Pokémon such as Mega Rayquayza. Add on a fantastic design, and you’ve got the making of something that could be a fan favourite… if only it were real.

Submit an idea to our current Make-a-Mega polls or take a look at some other potential designs for a Mega Luxray.

Edited by Astinus, bobandbill, El Hero Oscuro and Aurora.