Road to Hoenn: Swablu and Altaria

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.

In-Game

In R/S/E the earliest place you could poach a Swablu was route 114 coming in between level 15 and 17, 20 to 18 levels off from evolution. It's early enough in the game to not be a terrible option as you're flying-type of choice if you want, but you forgo other better options in the process. We don't know by how much, but the Hoenn dex has been confirmed to have expanded and even if it isn't as insane as the Kalos dex, which it could be, you are looking at a large swath of competition regardless. Sadly, as it's built mainly defensively (and poorly so at that) it will tend to miss out on KO's that other flying-types would have an easier time with. Since most mega-stones are reserved for the post game, we'll assume that a potential Mega Altaria will be as well. As far as move pool goes you have a few notable choices, but nothing that really gives you that much of an edge for a Pokemon that has to cope with such low attacking stats to begin with. You are given the option of Dragon Dance which I might even recommend if your physical attacking options were better than Fly, Dragon Claw, Steel Wing and Earthquake. On the special side you fair a bit better with Moon Blast which is at your disposal despite not being a Fairy-type, or having lore connecting you to the moon in some capacity, Flamethrower, Dragon Pulse, and Ice Beam. I will say you could do a Toxic/ Cotton Guard thing if you are into that, but as far as in game goes, stalling is not very fun. Here is how I would augment it's move pool, additions/ changes will be underlined.

Original Level-Up Move Pool 

- Sky Attack
- Pluck
- Peck
- Growl
- Astonish
- Sing
4 Astonish
8 Sing
10 Fury Attack
15 Safeguard
18 Mist
21 Round
25 Take Down
29 Refresh
34 Dragon Dance
35 Dragon Breath
42 Cotton Guard
48 Dragon Pulse
57 Perish Song
60 Moon Blast
64 Sky Attack

New Level-Up Move Pool

- Sky Attack
- Defog
- Peck
- Growl
- Astonish
- Sing
4 Astonish
8 Sing
10 Fury Attack
12 Disarming Voice
15 Safeguard
18 Mist
19 Pluck
21 Round
23 Dragon Breath
25 Take Down
29 Refresh
31 Draining Kiss
34 Dragon Dance
35 Dragon Pulse
40 Air Slash
42 Cotton Guard
45 Moon Blast
50 Hyper Voice
57 Parish Song
64 Sky Attack

As I mentioned above, the earliest you can get a Swablu is at level 15 so Disarming voice was added to give you something other than Fury Attack to start with offensively. Pluck was a level 0 move, but I changed that to give you a respectable flying-type STAB early on. Despite neither Pokemon looking much like a dragon, Swablu gets Dragon Dance before it evolves, so I saw no harm in moving Dragon Breath down as a starting move to work around Pokemon that resist both of it's STAB's and provide the off chance of paralyzing. This is nice as, while rare, when it does occur, it deals with your middling speed. Since Altaria get's the best fairy move, that even some actual fairy-types don't even have access to, I see no reason it shouldn't be able to run the gambit. Draining Kiss is nice in that it not only provides more coverage, but as you will tend to be a bit slower than most things, you can recover a bit of damage after sustaining a hit which will increase your longevity. Now that Dragon Breath has been moved down, I gave Altaria Dragon Pulse upon evolution to replace it. Coming in next at 40 is Air Slash to replace Pluck as your Flying move of choice. Since both attacking stats are 70, there is no harm in running a physical move such as Fly in this spot, but as most of it's good offensive moves are special, this seemed to be the consistent choice. Moon Blast has been moved down from level 60 to level 45. As it's attacking stats are so low for a fully evolved Pokemon, it needs those hard hitting moves ASAP. Hyper Voice is more of a throw away move that I added to the level up move pool from the egg move section that can act as a place holder if you don't have access to the Flamethrower or Ice Beam TM at this point in the game. Defog was put in as a level 0 move to add to it's already decent support move pool of Cotton Guard, Roost, Toxic, Heal Bell, Parish Song, and Roar. After these modifications I felt no need to add any TM or egg moves, it has enough going between Moon Blast, Fly, Dragon Pulse, Earthquake, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Air Slash to get by offensively and it already has a good support move pool to begin with. While it won't hit very hard, the options you do have will allow you to cover your bases and do as much damage as possible.

Mega Evolution Time:

Let's start with typing, Dragon/Flying isn't super over crowded, but Dragonite, Salamence, Rayquaza and Noivern put this poor poof ball to shame. It carries 1 quad resistance, 4 double resistances, and 3 double weaknesses. That actually isn't bad, but let's change things up and give it a unique typing allowing it to carve out a niche of it's own. With it's access to Moon Blast and aesthetically looking more like a fairy than a dragon I thought why not make a typing that would be hard to create otherwise. We shall swap flying for fairy making Mega Altaria the first Fairy/Dragon-type. We trade our immunity to ground for an immunity to dragon and now have 6 double resistances, and 4 double weaknesses. All things considered it seems like a fair trade. Now I'd like to talk stats before moving on to abilities. Here are my proposed stat altercations.

Altaria's current stat spread:

HP: 75 Atk: 70 Def: 90 SpA: 70 SpD: 105 Spd: 80

And the new and improved spread:

HP: 75 Atk: 70 Def: 120 SpA: 100 SpD: 170 Spd: 55

A majority of mega pokemon are built to serve as offensive power houses, some have notable bulk but aside from one or two exceptions we haven't seen the role of a dedicated defensive mega evolution become very prominent. Speed is irrelevant to the role Mega Altaria is attempting to play so we are going to cannibalize 25 points from it to help boost it's defenses. As special defense is it's best stat to begin with, that is what we're going to specialize in at 170. Defense is a respectable 120, I might have made it higher if not for the ability I am going to give it, but we'll get there in a moment. 30 points were added to special attack, most sets will predominantly be supporting roles, but it's nice to be able to go on the offensive if needed if only to fire off a Moon Blast or a Draco Meteor. As for abilities we have Natural Cure which is quite good, no doubt, and Cloud Nine which is negligible especially now that the prominence of weather has waned, not that it was an effective means to deal with weather regardless. So while Natural Cure is nice, let's have a little fun and give it something better, namely Magic Guard. Such an ability will make it perfectly capable of becoming an intense special wall that only brute force will be able to smash through. An important note to make is that phasing out Mega Altaria is extremely difficult as it is immune to the major moves used for the strategy. It is immune to Dragon Tail due to it's fairy-typing, Whirlwind due to Magic Guard and it shouldn't have to deal with  Red Card as it should never be using a contact move This means the only methods of stopping it from setting up Cotton Guard is Circle Throw...which it resists. Passive damage now eliminated, statuses absorbed and the vast majority of special hits not doing much, Mega Altaria is primed to be a great addition to any team. While 120 physical defense is good, pared with 75 HP creates an opening for strong physical super effective hits to get through.

Through the power of a mega stone, Altaria could come back and be better than it ever could have dreamed. Let's cross our fingers and wait to see what happens.