Welcome back to Road to Hoenn, a series in which I take an evolutionary line and see how it could possibly be improved for the up coming release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The topic this article is the Altaria line. As with Sceptile I like this line quite a bit, but since it's introduction Game Freak has paid it little mind and it's performance shows. As of 4th generation it was notable for being the only fully evolved Dragon-type not in OU, currently it sits in the lower dregs of the NU tier being out shined even there. Pre-generation 6 the Dragon-type reigned supreme, however type alone was not able to solve Altaria's major problem, namely it's baffling stat spread. From what I can gather it was supposed to be a defensive dragon based on it's move pool and it's highest stat being it's special defense sitting at 105. During it's introduction in generation 3 75/90/105 defenses with the Dragon-typing could have been viewed as serviceable. Fast forward another 3 generations and you have an ever increasing amount of offensive powerhouses that make the poor draconic avianoid quake in it's cotton. With 70/70/80 offenses you aren't doing much damage to anything directly, It's offensive move pool has enough options to get you by and afford a little choice, but nothing terribly exciting. Altaria is crying out for a mega evolution and as it is a gym leader's ace in the new games, now is a perfect time to let it have one.
