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Make-a-Mega: Castform - Part One

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The Sixth Generation of main series Pokémon games brought with it a lot of firsts. It was the first time we experienced Pokémon in three dimensions, the first time we got to customise our player character and also the first time we got to experience the mechanic of Mega Evolution. Mega Evolution was a game-changing addition that allowed Pokémon to temporarily attain a level of power previously unknown to them and saw many otherwise useless Pokémon shoot up in competitive viability.

Unfortunately however, there's a lot of Pokémon that didn't get a Mega form even though they certainly need or deserve one. For ever Pokémon that was made useful by the new mechanic, several more were looked over. The Make-a-Mega series is aiming to fix that by creating a hypothetical new Mega Evolution for a different Pokémon each month. We begin this process by voting on a Pokémon to develop a Mega Evolved form for, then as the competitive battling community works out details such as type, ability and stat changes the talented artists of the PokéCommunity attempt to develop a design befitting of the powered-up Pokémon. In the last edition we turned Weezing from a half-baked wall into a deadly anti-meta sweeper and this time around we have a special treat for you: not one but three Mega Evolutions!

Why you ask? That's because this month the Pokémon the community has turned its attentions to is Castform and we've developed a separate Mega Evolution for each of its forms. Castform is a cool little Pokémon that changes its type and appearance with the weather, unfortunately it is also pitifully weak even for a PU-tiered Pokémon. At this stage each of its forms is outclassed pretty severely by basically every other Pokémon in the tier both offensively and defensively and it wouldn't last a minute in any tier higher than PU. We're going to fix that though, starting off with Sunny Castform.

The Original


351-s.png

"I'm like a ray of sunshine!"

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

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

Castform is nothing if not well-rounded with a base seventy for all of its stats. This means that many of its unique strengths and weaknesses come from its typing and its movepool. In the heat of the sun, Castform's Forecast ability sees it turn from the Normal type to the Fire type and with this change it assumes all of the strengths and weaknesses of that typing.

As a Fire type, Castform has some pros and cons to it. The Fire type hits four types super effectively, including Steel which is arguably the best defensive type in the game. Unfortunately for Sunny Castform, it is also resisted by four types - three of them being extremely common ones at that. Unlike a lot of Fire-typed Pokémon however, Castform has access to some truly excellent coverage options such as Scald, Hydro Pump, Solarbeam and Thunderbolt. These are very rare moves on a Fire Pokémon and completely over its four weaknesses. Solarbeam in particular is useful since it hits three of the four types that resist Fire super-effectively without its damage being lessened by the sun. Castform also has access to great utility moves in Thunder Wave, Toxic and Clear Smog that can cripple many dangerous threats. Unfortunately for Castform however, these otherwise magnificent traits are offset by dreadful offensive stats. With an equal seventy for Attack, Sp. Attack and Speed there is a legion of other Fire types that can deal a lot more damage without taking hits first themselves and these alternatives are not reliant upon Sunny Day or Drought.

Defensively, Sunny Castform is also a mixed bag. The Fire type has a grand total of six resistances including the Fairy and Ice types which are among the most dangerous offensively. Furthermore, in the Sun Castform doesn't have to fear Burns as it becomes immune to the status condition whilst its ability will protect it from other weather abusers to a degree by immediately changing its type to either Water or Ice in rain or hail - unfortunately Sandstorm teams will play havoc with the weather-reliant Castform however as it has no Sand form. Furthermore, any defensive strengths of Sunny Castform are rendered all but irrelevant due to a combination of its weaknesses to the extremely common offensive types of Rock, Ground and Water as well as it's extremely fragile defensive stats that leave it unable to take even weaker attacks from types it doesn't resist.

Overall, Sunny Castform is a very unfortunate Pokémon. It has some unique positives that few other Fire types can lay claim to as well as an exceptional movepool. If it didn't have such shocking stats it would likely be an extremely useful Pokémon. So let's do something about that, shall we?

New and Improved


Insert Image and Caption Here​

Mega Castform (Sunny Form)
Type: Fire
Ability: Drought

Base Stats
HP: 70
Atk: 20 (-50)
Def: 80 (+10)
Sp. Atk: 150 (+80)
Sp. Def: 90 (+20)
Spe: 110 (+40)

Now this is a Sunny weather Pokémon done right. Sunny Mega Castform puts all of those previously redundant positives to work utilizing a far more flattering stat spread. First and foremost however, is Castform's now permanent Fire-typing and its new ability Drought. Whilst previously Castform was a slave to the weather, allowing your opponent to easily mess with your strategies simply by switching in Politoed or Tyranitar or by stalling your weather out, it is now the sun's master. This means that it is harder for other weather abusing Pokémon to cause problems, a permanent STAB benefit for Fire moves and freed up moveslots since Castform's ability now changes the weather to sunny every time it switches in.

Sunny Mega Castform turns this Pokémon from a useless gimmicky PU-resident into the quintessential offensive Fire type. Sunny Mega Castform takes a huge hit to its phsyical Attack stat but reallocates all those points to its Special Attack and Speed allowing it to make far better use of its expansive special movepool. With a massive one hundred and fifty base Special Attack, Sunny Mega Castform has the firepower to blitz through all but the sturdiest of foes with its arsenal of massively powerful attacks and extensive coverage. It's also fast enough now that it can function as a sweeper, sitting in the prestigious one hundred and ten Speed tier with the likes of Gengar or Latios this little Pokémon is now a serious offensive threat.

Defensively Sunny Castform improves less. With its defensive spread now sitting at seventy Hit Points, eighty Defense and ninety Special Defense, even as a Mega this Pokémon is extremely frail. Although its dangerous coverage will deter threats such as Landorus, Keldeo or Tyranitar from switching in, Castform in kind is likely to have a lot of trouble switching into play due to how very common its weaknesses are. The good news however, is that it is now bulky enough to take some limited neutral damage and to come in on moves it resists without much worry.

Overall, a Mega Evolution has turned Sunny Castform into a truly threatening offensive presence on the battlefield with a notable Speed tier, fearsome Special Attack stat and a potent movepool with access to many dangerous Special attacks and Stats moves that it previously lacked the swiftness and power to make use of. It is also very well balanced as even after receiving a slight buff to its defenses, it's a fragile Pokémon with very common weaknesses. All in all, this is a Mega that many fans would love to have access too - especially with such a wonderful design - and with two more Mega Forms to go, this is shaping up to be quite the selection for Make-a-Mega.



I need to crop an image for the article but otherwise this should be ready for editing.
 

tokyodrift

[i]got me looking for attention[/i]
4,532
Posts
12
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  • Age 29
  • Seen Mar 8, 2024
Just finished reading, and it looks good to me! Don't forget to make the edited by italicized.
 
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