Self-stat-down moves lower the stat you used.
pls put this in the OP, in bold, to aid clarity.
Also, I meant to add as far as Mega Medicham vs Mega Gallade that the main thing Mega Gallade has is a much better Speed tier -Mega Gallade's 165 Attack is nowhere near Mega Medicham's Pure Power boosted Attack. After investment, it's the equivalent of (Also fully invested)
247 base Attack. Put another way, Mega Medicham hits almost as hard with
Drain Punch as Mega Gallade does with Close Combat -so no, Mega Gallade having Close Combat is
not a meaningful point in its favor over Mega Medicham, even before considering Mega Medicham gets High Jump Kick.
Also
Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Lonely Nature
- Hurricane
- Earthquake
- Extreme Speed
- Fire Blast
So, this guy is scary. Hurricane is inaccurate, but with a 110 BP and STAB, it can kind of afford to be, and the amount of damage it outputs while retaining stab makes it seem viable to me.
Screw that, stick this guy in Rain and replace Fire Blast with Thunder and it's a
murder machine.
Also note Dragonite gets Surf for further rain abuse. I'd argue that it's more sensible than Earthquake in a Rain team.
Also: Volcarona has a huge Physical movepool and no ability to use it normally. Now it has surprisingly good coverage, including Wild Charge -and also it gets U-Turn to duck out of bad situations or just surprise unsuspecting opponents with a U-Turn over a Quiver Dance.
Mega Gardevoir gets real priority! (Shadow Sneak)
Gourgeist can actually use it's obnoxiously good Special movepool.
Machamp can Focus Blast you out of existence. And Fire Blast you. Also, it finally gets STAB priority -Vacuum Wave.
By a similar token Golurk can replace Dynamic Punch with Focus Blast for sheer raw BP, in addition to upping its Ghost offense by 33% via Shadow Ball. Also it can replace its crappy elemental punches with Thunderbolt and Ice Beam. (No, it doesn't get Thunder or Blizzard. That would be
good, so of course Golurk can't get it)
Weather Ball can be run as Physical. Mostly relevant to Victreebel, but that's still cool. So can Solar Beam, and Sludge Bomb/Wave...
In general most Physical Dragons are perfectly happy to replace Dragon Claw/Outrage with Draco Meteor, which is very powerful and has a manageable disadvantage.
Keldeo gets usable priority. (Aqua Jet)
A surprising number of Pokemon that are Special-oriented can suddenly run Earthquake, including the Latis, Typhlosion, Hydreigon, Sceptile, Regice, Wailord, Slowbro/Slowking...
Speaking of Hydreigon, it gets on-stat U-Turn, Acrobatics,
Head Smash, Superpower, and of course the aforementioned Earthquake.
Regular Metagross is perfectly happy to replace Zen Headbutt with Psychic. Or Psyshock, for that matter.
Mega Metagross would rather have Zen Headbutt anyway, because of Tough Claws, but it
might run Psyshock to get past Physical walls.
Sylveon actually cares about Pixilated Quick Attack now.
Manaphy can smack you with a Tail Glow-ed Knock Off! Also it can U-Turn out of trouble off that same Tail Glow. Some teams might opt for Waterfall over Scald for Flinches.
Thundurus-Therian is happy with Special U-Turn, Hammer Arm, and of course Knock Off.
Heliolisk might actually
use its access to Dragon Tail and U-Turn.
... Mega Beedrill
might run Solar Beam or Giga Drain? Maybe? oh and i guess it can replace Poison Jab with Sludge Bomb but why are you taking Poison STAB at all
Crobat
finally cares about its fairly good Special movepool, most notably
Heat Wave! Actually, a lot of bird-like Flying types (Shut up I know Crobat isn't a bird) get Fire coverage suddenly out of Heat Wave.
Porygon-Z is perfectly happy to accept an approximately 25% damage increase on its primary STAB (Replace Tri Attack with Return/Frustration), or possibly take a straight-up 50% increase at cost (Double-Edge), or possibly try to fit in Last Resort for 140 Adaptability-boosted BP of pain.
Another point worth noting is that balanced Pokemon are generally inherently unpredictable -that Cobalion that just Close Combated you might be Physical, or it might be Special! They're both equally valid -so don't assume stuff like "Cobalion is Physical being Close Combat is Physical".