Species Name: Mushroom Pokémon
Typing: Grass
Pokedex Entry:
- Only the mushroom is receptive to the power of Mega Evolution. Having outgrown the bug host, it now needs to learn how to fight on its own.
- What used to be synapses between the mushroom and the bug are now exposed mycelium filaments. Mega Parasect still attempts to execute Bug-type attacks with them, but will often fail.
New Base Stat Total:
HP 60 → 60
Atk 95 → 95 (+0)
Def 80 → 105 (+25)
Sp. Atk 60 → 95 (+35)
Sp. Def 80 → 140 (+60)
Spd 30 → 10 (-20)
TOTAL 405 → 505
New Ability: Water Bubble
Thoughts?
Well, this year I'm including something. Parasect felt like a very obvious target for a Mega Evolution and it was very easy to think of a concept; this is meant to be the very last stage in the life cycle of the parasitic fungi (
Cordiceps sinensis) that Parasect is based on, when the bug host is officially killed and the mushroom starts growing upwards in order to spread its spores as much as possible. This idea works even better as a Mega Evolution when you remember what (allegedly) happens to Glalie, whose jaw apparently gets dislocated because of all the excess energy. Why not make it even more extreme with Parasect's mushroom then?
Thing is, I realized very soon into this creative process that... Parasect absolutely sucks across the board. Stats, abilities and typing are all bad, but even moves are absolutely terrible, and that's something that Mega Evolution really can't fix. Even with what I've tried to do here, the resulting Mega Parasect probably wouldn't fare much different than many other
base form Grass-types like Amoonguss, Breloom, or Tangrowth. But I did try to play into the one small niche Parasect seemed to have, which is to support its team under rain or under Trick Room with Spore and an immunity to Water-type moves (thanks to Dry Skin).
Truth be told, I took that away from it by changing its Mega ability, but with Water Bubble and the loss of the Bug-type, I made Parasect take just 1x damage from Fire-types, a slightly different niche that none of its competitors really have. This should help it at least a bit when paired with an increase in its defensive stats, especially on the Special side. The loss in Speed was necessary to make these buffs happen, but it results in an even bigger advantage under Trick Room.
A very fast Spore under Trick Room would still be very powerful, which is why I did not boost Parasect's attacking stats that much. I want it to stay mostly a supportive Pokémon or, at the very least, an attacker that needs some set-up. I think this should make things more fair and differentiate it from Breloom a bit more. The Special Attack boost, at least with the current moveset, is absolutely mandatory so that Parasect can make some decent use of its Grass-type moves.
All of these changes were thought out as just ways to improve its viability, but they tie into its
concept too. Water Bubble as an ability not only reflects Parasect's love for damp, humid places, but also the very important role of mycelium within Fungi as nutrient and water transporter. It also would make sense to have what were previously inner organs of the Pokémon be surrounded by water when suddenly exposed, and I'm mostly talking about the nervous system terminations that connected the fungus to the bug.
The typing is meant to alleviate Parasect's problem with 4x weaknesses but also works if we consider that Parasect has now outgrown the bug and can't really fight the way it used to do. It may try to use Bug-type attacks, obviously - it's the mushroom that controlled the bug to begin with - but it only makes sense it would lose STAB on them, as it is no longer using the bug's body to execute those attacks. I was on the edge about adding more types like Ghost or Water, but I decided not to in the end. Parasect has no moves of these types, other Pokémon already have this typing, and even in terms of lore, there doesn't seem to be enough reason to add these types in. I really wish Parasect would get more moves to go with a potential Mega Evolution like this one though, right now it feels like it has too little of anything to be useful in any particular niche.
Well, Parasect... I tried :')