Our most recent Make-a-Mega selection is a bit special. Normally, each month we release one article introducing a new Mega Evolution, which is chosen by the PokéCommunity. However this time around you’re getting three in one! That’s because our most recent selection was none other than Castform and we have decided to develop a special Mega Evolution for each of its weather-based forms.

In the previous entry, you saw the PokéCommunity’s concept for a Fire-typed Sunny Mega Castform. This time around you get to meet its rainy weather counterpart. First though, let’s have a look at why the ordinary Rainy Castform doesn’t cut it.

The Original

#351 Castform (Rainy Form)
Classification: The Weather Pokémon
Type: Water (Formerly Normal)
Ability: Forecast

Base Stats
HP: 70
Atk: 70
Def: 70
Sp. Atk: 70
Sp. Def: 70
Spe: 70

Just like its Sunny Form before it, Rainy Castform is a jack of all trades with a base seventy for each of its stats. This means that most of its unique traits are based around its type and relation to the weather rather than any individual stats.

In the rain, Castform sheds its Normal type and becomes a Water-typed Pokémon, gaining all the positives and negatives that come along with it. The Water type is super-effective against three other typings – Fire, Ground and Rock – with two of these types being extremely common in competitive play. Unfortunately for Rainy Castform, Water is also resisted by itself, Dragon and Grass which are three very common types in competitive play. An offset to this extra bit of bad luck though, is that Castform has access to the powerful moves Thunder, Blizzard and Hurricane which completely cover those resistances as well as a plethora of other potent offensive and status moves.

Defensively, Rainy Castform has an edge on its counterparts. It has four resistances to Fire, Ice, Steel and Water – three of these being very common offensive types – whilst only being weak to two offensive types: Electric and Grass. Just like Sunny Castform, it also has the benefit of not being weak to other forms of weather like most weather-based Pokémon too. This is because it will automatically change form to suit sun, rain or hail. Sadly however, Castform is still vulnerable to Sandstorm regardless of the form you choose to focus on due to no form related to Sandstorm as of yet.

Just looking at that type-based information, Castform might seem like a good addition to your rain team. This would be a mistake though, as those stats mentioned before have to come into play also. Castform might be a jack of all trades but with only a measly base seventy for each stat it’s the master of none and will never be able to put its Water-typed positives to good work either. So once again, let’s fix that problem.

New and Improved

Mega Castform (Rainy Form)
Type: Water
Ability: Drizzle

Base Stats
HP: 70
Atk: 20 (-50)
Def: 95 (+25)
Sp. Atk: 140 (+70)
Sp. Def: 95 (+25)
Spe: 100 (+30)

This stat spread is a lot better and, unlike the previous base seventies, allows Rainy Mega Castform to take full advantage of its excellent and now permanent pure Water typing. Before that though, is the wonderfully apt Drizzle ability that allows Rainy Mega Castform to start its own downpour instead of being completely reliant on another Drizzle Pokémon like Politoed or a Rain Dance user. As an added bonus, Drizzle allows Mega Castform to cause problems for other weather-based teams, especially Sandstorm teams – which were formerly a big issue – as both Sand Stream Pokémon have a huge weakness to Water attacks and will be dissuaded from switching back in to end your rain as a result.

Although it has slightly less offensive power and Speed than the previous Mega Castform, this Pokémon still packs quite the punch with a base one hundred and forty Special Attack and one hundred Speed. At the expense only of fifty base physical Attack – which the specially oriented Pokémon doesn’t need – this new offensive power sees Rainy Mega Castform become even more powerful than its primary competition as a Special Water Pokémon, Manaphy and Keldeo. Rainy Mega Castform also ties with Manaphy in Speed although it is slightly slower than Keldeo. As an added bonus to this newfound offensive presence, Castform also becomes extremely hard to switch into with deadly STAB options like Hydro Pump and Scald but also scary coverage moves like Ice Beam, Thunder and Hurricane with the latter two having perfect accuracy in the rain that this Mega Castform so conveniently brings with it.

Unlike the previous Mega Castform, the Rainy version improves quite a lot from a defensive perspective reaching a base ninety-five for both its Defense and Special Defense. This allows for an ever so slightly easier time switching in without free switches and creates enough bulk to allow Rainy Mega Castform to last a bit longer on the battlefield. Especially as it resists three of the most common offensive types (and also Steel) whilst having comparatively fewer weaknesses. It is worth noting though, that with no recovery to speak of, this bulk is still insufficient to take too many neutral hits with and attempting to tank super-effective attacks is completely out of the question. Another unfortunate aspect defensively, is that the rain that allows Rainy Mega Castform to have such brutal coverage also facilitates it taking perfect accuracy Hurricanes and super-effective Thunders itself.

The PokéCommunity’s Rainy Mega Castform embodies the perfect rainy weather abuser we all wish its regular version could be. Not only does it have excellent offensive power, a killer movepool and decent bulk but it’s got a fantastic and fitting design to match. One step beyond that though, Rainy Mega Castform is an extremely fair Pokémon being both extremely powerful and having a good number of vulnerabilities. The competitive meta game could only get better with its existence.

Edited by Adrift and Volpe Artica.
Take part in creating our next Mega Evolution – Mega Arcanine.