KevinELF said: I hate to mess up the thread with this, but unfortunately it seems necessary. Hopefully there will be no need to explain your mistakes a third time.



Poison: First and foremost, your performance vs league members has absolutely no grounds to be mentioned when it comes to the viability of a Pokemon. No matter how ranked they are in their leagues, it is in no shape or form a sign of actual skill. Now to the actual matchup: Screens and Spikes are easily dealt with by a good defogger in Crobat and Mega Venusaur easily stalls out Magearna without needing to activate the WP.



Grass: Magearna can only 3HKO Ferrothorn at +2 with 3 Spikes up. With the lack of any other form of boosting, this Pokemon stalls out Magearna with Leech+Protect & Lefties support. Not to forget that Grass rarely has the opportunity to activate that WP. Similar to the previous point, Mega Venusaur just renders Magearna useless. It never needs to use HP Fire on the Magearna because it can easily just slowly kill it with residual damage.



Normal: Again, don't mention league members, literally zero value in this setting. Also of zero value, mentioning Iron Head. This move makes you lose out on something way more important and you aren't gaining anything. The Fairy type does not need such a useless set to beat Normal and it only makes you perform worse in other matchups such as vs Mega Venusaur who is generally physically bulky.



Ground: You get the point about league members, dont need to bring it up again. Energy Ball is a useless move slot when you have teammates like Tapu Bulu. Also, as previously mentioned by me, Magearna has no actual impact on this matchup. It would be Fairy's advantage regardless with the Azumarill + Tapu Bulu pair.



Bug: Volcarona + Scizor can take of Magearna rather safely. It is important to note that +2 Magearna does not kill Volcarona and that Pokemon is generally the only one that will activate your WP. You can play another 20,000 matches but it still won't matter because your opponents on the ladder do not define what high level play is.



Psychic: +2 Magearna Thunderbolt can only 2HKO Victini, which means it can easily come in and take out Magearna with a V-Create (even with Reflect you are taking up to 85%). Similar to Volcarona, Victini is generally the only one that is triggering your WP which means it can safely handle the Pokemon.



Fire: Magearna has absolutely no effect in this matchup. Azumarill + Tapu Koko generally are the ones putting pressure on this type, Magearna is almost just fodder because it has a hard time setting up and can not KO a lot of opponents (ex: Victini, Volcarona, Mega Charizard X)



Facts: As mentioned in my previous post, ladder matches are insignificant regardless of the amount you've played. League members, ladder players and etc... are not the "greatest players in the world", so you shouldn't be considering them as such. It is also important to note that many only use 1 type which is highly detrimental to your level of discussion about the dominance of Magearna. They will often be biased by the type they use. Finally, relevant experience would be evaluating if the Pokemon has shown to be overbearing even for better players in a diversity of matchups. Click to expand...

Oh, that's quite alright, my dear. I don't mind teaching you some of the finer points of the game. But you disappeared so very quickly last night that I was unable to inform you.Poison: The performance of a Pokémon™ "has absolutely no grounds to be mentioned" when evaluating said Pokémon™? That does not seem logical. You simply must understand that in the Pokémon™ game, one does not activate an opponent's Weakness Policy by choice. They do so because they don't realize the Pokémon™ is holding a Weakness Policy, or because said Pokémon™ switches positions with another Pokémon™. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are Ice and Electric types, meaning both are super-effective against Crobat. Ironhead also has a 30% chance to flinch a Pokémon™, giving our Fairy maiden another option.Grass: In my experience, Grass activated the Weakness Policy more than half of the time. You see, Mega Venusaur often runs Hidden Power Fire. Fire moves are super-effective against Steel type, so Weakness Policy activates. As for your other point about three layers of Spikes, I'm afraid you failed to notice that if the Grass team in question doesn't have a super-effective move against Magearna, it doesn't have a super-effective move against Klefki either, meaning it would be a tiptoe through the tulips to get up three layers of Spikes, after which a Pokémon™ such as Togekiss or Mega Gardevoir or the Alolan subspecies of Ninetails could inflict substantial damage against a Grass team. As I had mentioned several times on previous occasions, I did not limit my teams to two Pokémon™. I actually had six.Ground: I'm afraid that I do not think you have a point about league members. For if league members don't matter, why are you in a league? Why do leagues exist if their members don't matter? Also, I don't believe that I ever said Magearna has no actual impact on this match up. I believe I stated in depth about how important it is at changing the match up. You see, Ice Beam is four-times-effective against both Garchomp and Landorus, which are two of the five most common Ground Pokémon™. Although Energy Ball would ensure victory over the creatures of the bayou, +2 Ice Beam also tends to wins against Gastrodon, Seisimitoad, and Mega Swampert. If such an arrangement is still not enough for you to win, you would still manage to kill two or three Pokémon™, with Reflect and/or Light Screen still up, having only sacrificed two mismatched Steel Pokémon™ yourself. A profitable exchange, to be sure. One made possible by Magearna. Once your opponent has no Water Absorb-endowed companion, Azumarill can Belly Drum and sweep through their remaining Pokémon™. Adding Tapu Bulu to the mix would only serve to improve the win rate against the denizens of the dirt. Although, as I've been trying to teach, Tapu Bulu is not as versatile against other types as Magearna.Bug: As mentioned several times now, I had Azumarill on my team, and usually Togekiss as well. With Reflect up, either can take care of Scizor or Mega Scizor fairly well, and either could defeat Volcarona while behind a Light Screen. I also noticed a slight oversight on your part. The pyromaniac of the insect world may be the best way to activate Weakness Policy, but there is another. Around half of all Mega Pinsir run Earthquake.Psychic: Slowbro and Mega Slowbro get Flamethrower. Jirachi often runs Fire Punch. Mega Gardevoir sometimes runs Hidden Power Fire as well. And some of the less-experienced 1500 Elo players have been known to add Claydol to their teams, almost always providing it with Earthquake. Let us take, for example, Mega Slowbro, one of the most powerful defenders in the game. +2 Thunderbolt will one-hit-kill our shelled friend 98% of the time. While his/her Flamethrower does less than 30% to Magearna, even without bulk investment. The remaining 2% can be compensated for by a single layer of Spikes. Magearna has a very special Ability known as Soul-Heart. This raises its Special Attack one additional stage each time a Pokémon™ on the field dies. From that point, a combination of 1-3 Spikes and +3 neutral or super-effective attacks sweep most if not all of the Psychic type Pokémon™. If not, Magearna will still have roughly 75% of its Health Points left, with Screens still active. Unless, of course, you rely on double critical hits to win. Shift Gear Magearna will also out-speed Choice Scarfed Jirachi, a Pokémon™ feared across the entire Fairy Kingdom, which has thus been rendered helpless. It also out-speeds Choice Scarfed Victini. Should it be at +3 with 3 layers of Spikes, Victini will most likely perish. Additionally, if Victini is forced to use V-Create to kill Magearna, that provides Azumarill an idea backdrop to set up Belly Drum. Thus, what would appear to be a weakness could actually be an advantage.Fire: When played correctly, Klefki and Magearna will take out a few Fire Pokémon™, leaving one or two Screens to their next of kin. Considering that Volcanion is sometimes built to creep past Azumarill at the finish line, Light Screen could be the difference between life and death for our adorable drummer. Meaning Klefki is essential for his well being. Magearna, in turn, is helpful to Klefki. In this game, Pokémon™ can usually be classified in three simple categories: Offensive, Defensive, and Support. Klefki is a Support Pokémon™ with Defensive elements. Mine usually had no attacking move. That means that it needs Offensive Pokémon™ to do the heavy lifting, such as Magearna. If Magearna is able to kill Charizard or Torkoal or Volcanion with Thunderbolt, that will make it safer for Azumarill. You see, Pokémon™ is all about teamwork. Take Charizard X, for example. Shift Gear will still out-speed Dragon Dance. As it does with, I believe, all Dragon Dancers, which provides a method to counter-act the incoming boosts to bypass Reflect and Light Screen. And although it just barely dies to +1 Flare Blitz from Charizard X, unboosted Ice Beam still deals 40% damage before Magearna fades into the ether. So even if Magearna doesn't beat every single Fire type, it still adds value. More value than most other Fairy Pokémon™. Although I must take a moment to applaud you for your innovative suggestion of using Tapu Koko. I shall be trying it out by first light upon the morrow.Facts: Again, I inquire. If the top 1% of players on the ladder aren't the greatest players, and the highest ranked, most experienced league players aren't the greatest players, then what constitutes a great player in your opinion? Personally, I feel that someone who can get past 1,500 Elo in under 100 matches would be considered a reasonably good player.