Ability Lightning Rod Roles Mega, fast attacker, wallbreaker, setup sweeper, pivot Assessment
A tail that doubles as a cannon shell-scared yet?
With the arrival of ORAS, Sceptile, as a Starter Pokémon, duly received a Mega Evolution. Then... just like Mawile, it started pointing its rear at the enemy. Mega Sceptile became a Grass/Dragon type before Tropius did. Even now, Mega Sceptile and Alolan Exeggutor were the only two Grass/Dragon types, and neither was particularly strong, partly because their typing held them back. Grass/Dragon offered quadruple resistance to Water, Grass, and Electric, along with a Ground resistance and no Fire weakness. However, multiple quadruple resistances meant the two types' resistances overlapped heavily, while doing little to cancel out their weaknesses. Not being weak to Fire was about all Grass/Dragon gained; its other weaknesses were essentially the sum of both types' weaknesses, and Mega Sceptile successfully joined the quadruple-Ice-weakness club. That quadruple Ice weakness made its quadruple Water and Electric resistances awkward to exploit. Offensively, Grass and Dragon shared a huge blind spot against Steel, so coverage moves remained essential. Thus, although Mega Sceptile's base stats looked excellent, its typing held it back considerably. With 145 Speed and 145 Special Attack, it was undoubtedly something like a special-attacking Mega Beedrill. Although it lacked a Special Attack setup move, its naturally high Speed and power were excellent for both applying pressure and cleaning up. Of the 100 base stat points gained through Mega Evolution, only 10 went into Defense, with everything else going into its attacking stats and Speed. Its Attack therefore reached 110 too, giving Swords Dance sets a respectable punch. However, the lack of improvement to its bulk meant Mega Sceptile remained a frail attacker. It struggled to take Ice Beam from bulky Water types or Hidden Power Ice