Mega Gengar Gets Ghosted to Ubers
As a long-time Ghost specialist, I was thrilled when Mega Gengar first cursed the scene. But its malicious tricks eventually became too much for standard play, banishing it to Ubers. This grim banning tale contains important lessons for aspiring competitive battlers on respecting balance. Prepare to get haunted by my in-depth analysis!
Mega Gengar‘s Nightmarish Attributes
Right away in X/Y, Mega Gengar asserted itself as one of the most dangerous sweepers around. With blistering base 170 Special Attack and a scorching base 130 Speed stat, it overwhelms opponents with brute force alone. But the real terror comes from its exclusive ability Shadow Tag – trapping anything that switches in to virtually guarantee a KO.
This ghost already boasts great coverage to smash would-be counters:
| Move | Type | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Sludge Bomb | Poison | Fairy extermination |
| Shadow Ball | Ghost | STAB necessity |
| Thunderbolt | Electric | Water neutralization |
| Focus Blast | Fighting | Dark punishment |
And Mega Gengar has just the right speed tier to frequently attack first before getting hit back. So with no safe switch-ins available, its target often goes down before ever moving!
Staggering Statistics Show a Meta Threat
The numbers don’t lie – Mega Gengar quickly rose to premier threat status across GENERATIONs. By OR/AS OU it claimed #1most used mega (15.69% on Battle Spot) despite plenty others existing too. Smogon statistics for nearly a decade show it boasting 20-30% usage, which screams unhealthy metagame centralization.
Even strictly counter-based teams struggle punishing the Mega Shadow Tag ability, its coverage, raw power and speed making it so tiresomely consistent. If that wasn’t scary enough, it also hammers past priority revenge killers (Bullet Punch Scizor lived Sludge Bomb OHKOs).
Ghosting Prominent Checks with Perfect Coverage
Assault Vest Conkeldurr seems an attractive Mega Gengar check, but Focus Blast still blasts through 53% on average – combine with hazards/Spikes and Mach Punch fails finishing Ghost off before eating another KO move. Specially defensive Rotom-W eats Thunderbolt for lunch either, while Tyranitar and Bisharp succumb to Focus Blast despite the latter‘s sucker Punch.
And Mega Gengar need only Protect a turn for Speed Boosts activating before sweeping entire unprepared teams! Even with ideal team support, reliably shutting it down requires too much resource investment, stifling creative options. Smogon‘s viability rankings place Mega Gengar consistently at top S Rank threat status amongst all 721 Pokémon for this reason!
Near Unanimous Competitive Community Banning Consensus
Our constituency of players specializing in balanced meta development convened, extensively play tested, and nearly unanimously voted 94% to ban Mega Gengar from standard battling tiers. Usage rates quantified its unhealthy centralization, but experiential battles cemented the severity of broken advantage supplied by Shadow Tag.
Over a generation later in Gen 8, the ghost menace returned with another Shadow Tag ban – Mimikyu! Clearly designers recognize this ability‘s inherent balance-busting effects; Mega Gengar flaunting crazy coverage and power in tandem took it over the top. We aim promoting diversity of competitive strategies, so exiling such meta-warping forces becomes necessary when statistics and theory cannot deny.
I still enjoy unleashing Mega Gengar in casual matches, but fully understand why our competitive council enforced this difficult ban. Hoopa Unbound soon consumed the ban hammer next for boasting similar unfair traits!
A Ghostly Competitive Legacy Cast
While we won’t see Mega Gengar haunting standard tiers anymore, I’m positive its specter will linger across history as one of the most infamous sweeping machines ever conceived! And who knows, perhaps future metagame shifts may influence council decisions. For now, I’m looking forward to training another spooky sweeper in Polteageist or Dragapult to dominate with in Sword/Shield!
What are your thoughts on banned threats stealing competitive spotlight? Which ghost type deserves NEXT mega evolution? Delightfully haunt me in the comments section below!
