I apologize for having to postpone this post last week. I had a bit of writer’s block on how to end this next post, and in fact I still don’t have any idea how to end it at the moment. Even so, I’d rather not postpone this edition for a second week in a row, so on with the show!
This is Mega Factor!
This post covers a Pokemon with a Mega Evolution not only turns it into something of a living contradiction, but makes it bare little resemblance to what it originally was in regards to its type. Presenting the adorable bird-dragon of Generation 3, Altaria.
Altaria was one of those Pokemon that I never used much when playing the original Ruby and Sapphire versions, despite the fact that it had an awesome design. For one thing, Altaria is more of a defensive Pokemon and when I played the games I was more about speed and offense. Even so, Altaria is a pretty interesting Pokemon. It starts out as a cute little bird with fluffy wings like the kind that might whistle along with the song of a Disney princess, but then later on it turns into a dragon. Of course even though Altaria is a dragon it still looks pretty much like a bird, but its Mega Evolution makes Altaria anything but that.
Normal Evolution: Most players will usually start out with this Pokemon’s base from in the games, the little blue bird known as Swablu. Swablu are a pretty common species of bird Pokemon to find and fairly easy to catch. At level thirty-five though, Swablu evolves into Altaria and goes through a startling transformation from a Normal/Flying-Type to a Dragon/Flying-Type. I think I should note that in the original Ruby and Sapphire games it was possible to find wild Altaria on the upper floors of Rayquaza’s hangout, the Sky Pillar; but getting up to those floors is kind of a hassle, and there are certain reasons why it might be better to just raise an Altaria from a Swablu. The bottom line is that Altaria is one of those Pokemon that’s good for trainers new to using the Dragon-Type.
Mega Evolution: Altaria’s Mega Evolution causes it to go through a pretty astounding transformation. In addition to its body becoming a lighter shade of blue and its cloud-like plumage getting redistributed, Altaria changes from a Dragon/Flying-Type to a Dragon/Fairy-Type. This not only eliminates Altaria’s double weakness to Ice-Type moves, it also turns this Pokemon into a sort of living contradiction: a Pokemon with two types that are pretty much polar opposites. Other examples of such Pokemon are Volcanion and Lanturn. Altaria’s Mega Evolution also causes its attack, defense, special attack and special defense stats to pretty much even with each other, which means that while Altaria is still more of a defensive Pokemon even after going through its Mega Evolution, any offensive moves that it can learn can pack a little more of a punch.
The final major feature of Altaria’s Mega Evolution is that it gains a little ability called Pixilate. Basically what pixilate does is increase the power of Normal-Type moves by thirty percent and changes them into Fairy-Type moves. Altaria has a pretty good set of Normal-Types moves to choose from, but I’ve read online that one of the best Normal moves it can use with Pixilate is that famous little attack called Return. As I’m sure that most of you reading know, Return is that little attack that gains power based on how happy a Pokemon is with its trainer. I’d usually use Return just to try and gage how close Pokemon like Eevee and Togepi were to evolving without having to go to that happiness rater too much. With the advent of the Pixilate ability though, Return can now be used a little more competitively. This is one reason why it’s better to raise an Altaria from a Swablu instead of just catching one in the wild.
That about covers it for this week’s post. Normally I try to end these posts with a third segment, but I kept drawing a blank as to what that could be. Hence why this post was postponed for a week. Fortunately all the stuff about Mega Altaria’s Pixilate ability managed to fill the void. Next week I’ll be covering a Pokemon from Generation 2 with a Mega Evolution. Until next time, I apologize if this week’s post seemed a little half-baked. I’ll try and do a much better job with the next one.
