Finally, the time has come to suspect a threat that many of us recognized from the start of generation 7. And I have a few thoughts on the effect that Magearna has on this metagame.



Magearna is versatile: From the header, it may just sound like an argument we have all heard before, but we have been looking at versatility the wrong way. Yes, Magearna can learn moves like Ice Beam or Energy Ball that can occasionally have their uses, but generally those aren’t used. However, within the four coverage moves that it generally uses, Fleur Cannon, Flash Cannon, Aura Sphere, and Thunderbolt, there are several sets that Magearna can run that are all viable in their own respects, requiring only three coverage moves and one status move, making Magearna's "4MSS" less of an issue as it only takes Magearna four moves to pull off each of these sets. While I know that there are others, I personally know of several offensive sets that can be used to great effect: Shift Gear, Trick Room, and Calm Mind.



Shift Gear: After a Shift Gear, Magearna ties in speed with Nihilego holding a Choice Scarf meaning that it outspeeds the vast majority of the metagame where it can pop its ZMove and then proceed to sweep with its coverage moves.



Trick Room: Trick Room operates in a similar manner to Shift Gear, but in a way that is generally deadlier. Under Trick Room, Magearna underspeeds most things in the metagame where it can sweep in the same way that the Shift Gear set does. However, because Magearna wants to underspeed with Trick Room, Magearna suddenly gets all the Speed EV’s of Shift Gear to invest in its bulk, making it harder to take down once it is set up. Although, Magearna can, on rare occasions be taken down under Trick Room. However, even if Magearna is taken down, Fairy has Azumarill slow enough to use it, or priority to ignore the last turns of Trick Room, leaving the faster pokemon on Fairy to do their job naturally.



Calm Mind: Calm Mind is an interesting set to me. Rather than caring so much about speed, a Calm Mind set cares more about its bulk in a similar manner to Trick Room. However, this set gets more freedom in its item because Magearna does not have to rely on one overly powerful move to start it’s sweep as Calm Mind augments its Special Attack. On the Calm Mind set, Magearna gets the chance to run Leftovers for passive recovery while also giving the Zmove to something like Azumarill.



But here is the kicker: Each of Magearna’s these viable sets require different types of pokemon to check them, and even then its checks generally aren’t able to check all variants of Magearna. Generally speaking, there are 3 types of checks to Magearna: those that outspeed Magearna, those that underspeed Magearna, and those that can tank Magearna. But note that there are flaws with each type of check because of the various sets that Magearna can run. Note: Yes, Magearna cannot run all three sets at the same time; however, the opponent cannot know which set Magearna is running from the preview, and that can make things really difficult later in the match when determining which check can actually handle Magearna.



Checks that Outspeed Shift Gear Magearna: Things like Scarf Greninja or Alolan Raichu can be good for checking or revenge killing the Shift Gear set and the Calm Mind set; however, these are screwed over by the Trick Room set as Magearna will turn around and underspeed these checks.



Checks that Underspeed Trick Room Magearna: This is a more niche check for things like Torkoal or Araquanid (with 29 speed IV’s) that only works for the Trick Room set as both the Calm Mind and the Shift Gear set will outspeed these and generally ko them.



Checks that can Tank Magearna: The Calm Mind set simply sets up on tanks like Alolan Muk and deals a lot of damage to them, often overpowering them after they have set up. Also, the Shift Gear and the Trick Room sets can cause issues too as Magearna can run a Fairy, Fighting, Steel, or even an Electric ZMove, thus limiting the abilities of pokemon that can “tank” Magearna, once it is set up.



As if that wasn’t enough, there is one more set that I find to be prominent enough to talk about: Assault Vest. Magearna is a threat that is prominent in everyone’s mind as only a few types can safely teambuild without keeping it in mind. However, with an assault vest, Magearna takes the backseat, giving momentum to its teammates. With its typing, stats, and low speed, Magearna gets many chances to slow pivot into other teammates, putting a lot of pressure on the opponent as both Fairy and Steel have strong threats that can abuse this. Despite having an assault vest, Magearna still has enough offensive pressure with its 130 base SpA and Soul Heart to do some significant damage once teams are worn down. This means that Magearna’s checks still need to survive in order to do their job despite the offense presense that pokemon like Tapu Bulu, Tapu Koko, or Excadrill have. The versatility that Magearna has is only paralleled by pokemon like Hoopa-Unbound or Greninja giving it many possible roles, and the ability to perform them all wonderfully.



Magearna also skews several matchups for the types it is on with some of the sets it has. They still can't be run all at the same time, but again, at the preview, the opponent can't know what set Magearna is running. And skewing matchups is another quality of a banworthy pokemon.



Fairy vs Poison: Barring Nidoking, a Calm Mind Magearna can sit in front of all 5 of the remaining pokemon on Poison, Venusaur, Toxapex, Muk-Alola, Nihilego, and Crobat, and set up a few Calm Minds to the point where it can ohko everything on the team with either Thunderbolt or Flash Cannon. Also noteworthy is that Calm Mind raises Magearna’s Special Defense which makes Fire Blast Muk-Alola and HP Fire Mega Venusaur far less useful vs Magearna.



Fairy vs Electric: Electric really struggles with Trick Room Magearna, especially when Rocks are up as that breaks Golem-Alola’s sash, Magnezones Sturdy, and chips Zapdos into ZFleur range. Then it becomes a case of which 4 pokemon does the Electric user want to sack to Magearna, leaving only two pokemon to handle the rest of the Fairy team.



Steel vs Water: The ability that Magearna has vs water is often ignored because Fairy also has Tapu Koko and Tapu Bulu to help. However, that doesn’t mean that Magearna can’t put in work. Trick Room completely screws over Swift Swim Water, while ZFleur Cannon, and Thunderbolt, hit everything on water really hard, making it generally simple for Magearna to sweep.



Steel vs Dragon: A similar case to Fairy vs Electric, Dragon has quite a few wall breakers that can make Steel a doable matchup, but a Trick Room from Magearna means what four pokemon do I need to sack, once again leaving Dragon with only two pokemon to handle the rest of the team.



Steel vs Dark: Dark is one of the only types to actually hit Steel neutrally, and Steel actually can struggle to break the standard Defensive Dark core. But then Magearna comes out and wipes out all four pokemon on its own, making Steel vs Dark a breeze for Steel when it was normally a relatively even match up. In fact, a case could be made for Fairy vs Dark as Dark has Muk-Alola and Scarf Greninja with Gunk Shot to handle Fairy, both of which are nullified by Magearna, giving Magearna the chance to set up it’s status move of choice.



In the end, here is the way I look at things: does Magearna add to or take away from the metagame? Magearna is a big reason why Dark does not see much usage, even though Dark should be a viable type in this metagame, having solid match ups vs Steel (without Magearna) and Psychic, two of the most prominent types in the metagame. Without Magearna, there is also a lot less pressure on the metagame because we wouldn’t have to worry about Magearna’s omnipresent status and many viable sets. And what do we lose without Magearna? Steel will still be an excellent type without Magearna because of the magnificent support that Heatran and Skarmory provide to the other Pokemon on Steel. Also, losing Magearna provides a healthy balance to Fairy while not crippling the type. Magearna has a solid match up in virtually every matchup, including Poison and Steel, which Fairy loves to have. However, Fairy still has Klefki for a poison immunity, and Mega Gardevoir is back, giving Fairy access to a stab move that is Super Effective against Poison. Without Magearna, Fairy also gets the chance to run Togekiss/Clefable alongside Mega Gardevoir, which can help out with Steel in their own respect. While Fairy would lose a pokemon that helped out the type a lot, it still has other pokemon to handle the matchups it normally won. If we were to ban Magearna, we wouldn’t be losing or crippling any prominent types, while we directly help out Dark, Dragon, and Fighting and ease the pressure on several other types, gaining far more than we lose. Therefore, I believe that we should ban Magearna from Monotype.