Steelix Mega

Mega Steelix
So here we are with the second mega I'm going to take a look at and honestly it's one of my least favourites. Design wise I dislike it but its not the worst looking Pokemon out there and more importantly it's stat layout and ability as a mega evolution leave quite a bit to be desired. I'm going to try and look at it in a bright light since it's only fair. Lets 'attempt' to look at this massive metal snake thing.

Guess I should start by comparing it to its base form as a lot of mega's are. Regular old Steelix was introduced back in Generation 2 as an evolution to Onix. It's ability's are pretty standard for a Steel/Rock/Ground type in Sturdy and Rock head. It also gets Sheer force as its HA which is probably the best ability Steelix can abuse. Naturally it's defence is sky high resting at an impressive 200 but that's about it for our friend Steelix. Its full stats are as follows: 75/85/200/55/65/30. It's attack is incredibly low for something that looks like it could rip right through buildings and it's disappointing HP and Spdf leave it Petrified of anything remotely specially based. This doesn't mean Steelix is a bad Pokemon however, in fact far from it. Back in the olden days of VGC13 a Steelix was used to grab 10th place at US nationals. I'll leave a link to the report since it probably details regular Steelix a lot better than I am haha. http://nuggetbridge.com/reports/fullmetal-steelix-10th-place-us-nationals-report/

Now onto the main event, Mega Steelix himself.  He rides into the action with new and improved base stats, He now rocks the following: 75/125/230/55/95/30. It's defence is now almost Shuckle level and its spdf is much more usable, It's attack is far from awful as well, although for a mega evolution it's a bit low. Honestly looking at it's base stats in this form it looks like what Steelix should of been when it was introduced. What really kills this mega evolution for me is the removal of Sheer Force for Sand force, which gives a damage increase in sand. The problem with this? You're forced to run a sand stream Pokemon to take full effect of the ability, this means Hippowdon or Tyranitar, both of which share weaknesses, with Hippo having less overall but lower stats than Ttar. It's also slow as balls which means Trick room is likely on the cards and if you've played VGC15 at all you'll know T-room is much harder to set up than previous years although still doable. There's also a calculation I'd like to share: 

-1 252+ Atk Mega Steelix Ice Fang vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Landorus-T: 116-140 (70.7 - 85.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Steelix Ice Fang vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Landorus-T: 156-187 (95.1 - 114%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

Yikes, Regular outpowers with a Life Orb which is not an appealing trait for a mega.Now before you wonder, Yes I have indeed tried out Steelix-M and my experience was that the Hippowdon I paired it with ended up doing much more damage to the other team which was a shame. I had hoped to completely destroy everything to prove myself wrong but it just wasn't happening. The move set I ran was: Heavy slam Earthquake, Ice fang and Protect. Pretty standard but I really didn't know how to improve from there. I used heavy slam over Gyro ball simply because it had more PP and with Pressure being everywhere I felt it necessary. Steelix will still struggle against special attackers even with the boost in stats, so don't believe it's gonna take any rain boosted hydro pumps, at most it can take a scald from a Suicune and hit something back. It lacks good partners since the instant you add a sand setter you'll share weaknesses and struggle to suppress them although it could definitely be done by someone with more time on their hands than myself since I just threw a boring FWG core in with it and a Crobat haha.With all the obvious downsides to this Pokemon  it's hard to say go out and give it a try yourself, Unless your a master of getting up Trick room and want to flinch everything with Rock Slide when under it I'd say avoid this thing.
 PS: When Steelix-M wins worlds I'll take back everything I said like the hypocrite I am :]

Rating: 2/10