Competitive Pokémon History - Meloetta Trivia Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Meloetta's base form has a fairly interesting stat build- its highest stat was a tie between its Special Attack and Special Defense. What amount was it?

Answer: 128

A 128 in Special Attack was decent, while a 128 in Special Defense made for a very specially tanky Pokémon. As such, if not at an obvious disadvantage, Meloetta could fairly reliably check specially offensive threats with its good stat build.

2. Meloetta-Pirouette experiences an overhaul upon changing forms. Here, we switch from a specially offensive to a physically offensive Pokémon, as Meloetta-Piroutte's Attack was tied for its highest stat. What stat was it tied with for its highest?

Answer: Speed

A 128 in Attack was good, but a 128 in Speed was marvellous. If used in standard play, Meloetta-Piroutte could get the jump on many prominent Pokémon such as Alakazam, Starmie, Gengar, the Lati twins and a Tyranitar wielding a Choice Scarf. As such, it made for quite the threat.

3. Interestingly, Meloetta became the first Pokémon capable of changing its form in the middle of battle. In fact, it could do this as many times as the trainer wanted, though it had to have a specific move in its move set to do this. What move was this?

Answer: Relic Song

Relic Song is a base 75 Normal type specially offensive attack. If it gets used and it deals damage, which it would do unless the opponent put a Ghost type on the field, it allows Meloetta to immediately change from its Base to Pirouette form, or vice versa.

This didn't see much usage on the competitive scene due to the massive difference in stats between the two forms, which made constructing a viable move set out of just three move slots very awkward, but it could definitely prove to be quite surprising if your opponent did happen to try it out.

4. Both Meloetta forms wielded the same ability. What ability was this?

Answer: Serene Grace

Serene Grace takes secondary effects of various moves the user uses and doubles the chances of them activating. For example, Psychic has a 10% chance of reducing the target's Special Defense by one stage after hitting them, and Serene Grace increases this to 20%.

This could have some mild utility, as a clutch paralysis from using Thunderbolt or extra damage provided by Psychic reducing the target's Special Defense could come in handy.

5. One thing that made Meloetta appealing as a sweeper versus Psychic type competition was its defensive typing. Specifically, Meloetta's Psychic/Normal typing gives it an immunity to a typing that would otherwise hit Psychic types super effectively. What typing does Meloetta have defense against in this regard?

Answer: Ghost

This allowed Meloetta to use Mismagius and Chandelure as setup opportunities; Pokémon who would normally batter Psychic types easily are taken advantage of by Meloetta, giving it a niche amongst the competition.

6. Most Pokémon in general have counters. Fifth generation Meloetta was no exception. Which of the following could reliably switch into it and win?

Answer: Cresselia

Blissey and Snorlax can counter its Base form, but because it could be using Relic song to switch to its Pirouette form, a form which smashes those two easily, they can't reliably pull this off.

Skarmory can counter the Pirouette form. However, the base form can simply zap it with a couple Thunderbolts.

Cresselia is remarkably tanky both physically and specially defensive wise, preventing it from being susceptible to Meloetta's form switching tricks. Even if Meloetta has Shadow Ball to hit Cresselia super effectively, Cresselia is so bulky that it can handle the move with ease. From there, it can cripple Meloetta with Thunder Wave, Toxic, or take advantage of it to begin boosting with Calm Mind and potentially threaten a sweep.

7. After a turbulent beginning to the sixth generation, what competitive tier did Meloetta end the generation in?

Answer: RarelyUsed

Meloetta wasn't a particularly bad UU Pokémon, but the overall fallout of the meta as a result of Fairy types being introduced was particularly bad for it. First off, Fairies became so common that the Pirouette form wasn't worth using at the start- this made Meloetta quite a bit one dimensional and far easier to deal with as a result. The introduction of Fairies created a ripple effect where Steel types rose up to deal with them. Many of the best Steel types happened to be weak to Dark, and with Knock Off getting a major buff, this also meant Dark types became quite common. All of this was horrible news for Meloetta, whose usage basically fell off a cliff in UU, causing it to fall to RU.

As the meta settled, it was found that Meloetta could perform adequately in UU, with good matchups against key defensive Pokémon such as Suicune, Blissey and Snorlax. It would regain viability in UU, but it stayed native to RU due to its remarkably poor start to the generation. In RU, it was thankfully an elite offensive Pokémon who demanded consideration when team building, so it wasn't down in the dumps all generation.

8. Meloetta ran into another counter in the sixth generation, one which probably stopped it from ending up banned from its native tier. Which of the following could reliably switch into it and win?

Answer: Spiritomb

Spiritomb was immune to Psychic, Fighting and Normal, meaning neither of Meloetta's forms were capable of dealing damage to it with a STAB attack. In fact, unless Meloetta's base form had Dazzling Gleam, Spiritomb would take remarkably pitiful damage from anything either form could throw at it. Even a super effective Dazzling Gleam wasn't the end of the world, as utility Spiritomb could still outgun Meloetta after switching into it, while Calm Mind Spiritomb could setup on Dazzling Gleam, or anything else.

As such, Spiritomb had to be considered when building a Meloetta RU team, and the existence of Spiritomb combined with how common it was in the tier was probably the only reason Meloetta didn't get banned from RU.

9. The Z-move era led to a unique option opening up for seventh generation Meloetta. Which Z Crystal did Meloetta make use of here?

Answer: Normalium-Z

Normality-Z when paired with Celebrate of all things was a potent combo. When used, all of Meloetta's stats except evasion gain a one stage boost, making it fast, hit hard and take a hit more reliably. After use, it could potentially aim to sweep or wall break if the opponent somehow didn't have an answer to it on their team.

10. Sadly, Meloetta had its worst generation yet in the seventh; it was banned from RU, and in UU, it was completely outclassed and useless, arguably the worst Pokémon in the entire tier. Which of the following is an example of a Pokémon who outclassed it here?

Answer: Latias

There was never, ever a single reason to use Meloetta instead of Latias if the user was interested in winning a game. Latias had much higher Speed, better bulk, higher offenses, useful secondary STAB in Dragon, reliable recovery and a wider coverage movepool to hit its checks, such as Trick to trip up Florges or Ice Beam to take out Mega Altaria.

As such, Meloetta was one of the most forgotten about Pokémon in the game, never seeing any real competitive use in the seventh generation.

Source: Author cavalier87

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Competitive Pokémon History - Meloetta Quiz

If you like competitive Pokémon but don't know much about Meloetta, you might be singing a different tune here. See what you know about the fifth generation mythical and how it fared on the competitive scene, from generations 5-7!

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