Mega Gallade Raid Day
“Oh hey! Mega Gallade! Mega Gardevoir’s counterpart is finally here! I could maybe use Mega Gardevoir against… Oh… Never mind… Mega Rayquaza is here…”
Honestly, this is probably the first raid day where I didn’t care about the shiny at all, I just wanted that juicy, juicy mega energy. A new Mega Pokemon has just come out, Mega Gallade, meaning the pool of remaining unreleased Megas has shrunk to just… 5, I think. Mega Mewtwo X and Y, Sharpedo, Camerupt and Metagross. And since this was a raid day (really, raid three hours), everyone got a bunch of free raid passes to use. But, in all honesty, this is also the second time I didn’t use all of them. I only wanted the Mega Energy, since I already have a good Gallade from the Community Day years ago.
Mega Gallade’s raid boss difficulty was all over the place though. Its moveset is kinda weird. Low Kick is a non-move that does nothing to everything it’s weak to, but Mega Gallade can learn Charm, which will shred Mega Rayquaza. At the same time, its psychic moves will shred Mega Gengar, and considering it gets a psychic move 1/3 of the time, Mega Gengar is a risky pick. Mega Gardevoir is the safe pick (and also gives extra XL Candy because of the matching psychic type) but Mega Rayquaza is just sooooooo much better. Its charge moves are also bit or miss. Leaf Blade isn’t dangerous but it gets spammed a lot. Close Combat doesn’t really hurt because Ghost and Flying both resist it, but Psychic (the move) hits like a truck.
The two real counters here are Dawn Wings Necrozma and Mega Rayquaza, using flying moves and Dragon Ascent. Both Pokemon have absolutely massive charge attacks, and if you use Party Play, you can do huge chunks of damage with every charge attack. After those two, your best choice is ghost type Pokemon like Chandelure and Giratina (wormy form, not stompy form) since they do super effective damage and resist Mega Gallade’s fighting moves. Those two in particular also resist Leaf Blade. Gardevoir and Xerneas are alright counters with fairy moves, but they’re a LOT slower than ghost types. Even Gengar, who is a glass cannon and will die to a Psychic charge attack, even if dodged, does way more damage, and has a bonus of double-resisting the fighting moves AND Charm.
A pick I didn’t find mentioned anywhere though, which pairs nicely with Mega Rayquaza, is Moltres with Wing Attack and Sky Attack, in shadow form, if possible. Not only does Moltres resist both fighting moves and Leaf Blade, but it also gets the 30% damage bonus from Mega Rayquaza, which ghost types don’t get. Moltres IS expensive though, and requires an elite TM for Sky Attack – I just happened to get all my Moltres from the Moltres raid day in… 2018…
Oh.
Really though, Mega Rayquaza does all the work. Dragon Ascent is a stupidly strong move. In fact, you can solo Mega Gallade with a level 40 Mega Rayquaza (no XL Candy required), as long as it doesn’t have Charm. And it’s solo-able with Charm if you have windy weather or are very, very good at dodging and have a phone that can reliably re-lobby into raids. In fact, I solo’d a Mega Gallade and had 74 seconds left.
As for Mega Gallade’s usefulness? It’s not… great. Better than Mega Medicham, at least, but it’s kinda lacking. As a psychic type, Gardevoir is kinda better, but as a fighting type, Mega Lucario blows all other fighting types, Gallade included, out of the water. I suppose its unique type combination means you can get two types of XL Candy, but you could do that with Mega Medicham – that being said, Mega Gallade energy is easier to get, since you can walk a male Ralts or Kirlia and get Mega Energy for both Gardevoir and Gallade, assuming you’ve mega evolved both already. If Gallade got some better moves though, it could be a genuinelyalright Mega in the future, but Lucario and Mewtwo (when that eventually comes out) will always outclass it.
Still, a nice, relaxing raid day. Sure, I didn’t get any shinies, but I did get a 96%, I got plenty of mega energy and I managed to do a Mega Raid solo. Can’t complain too much.