This article is great! I've been wondering how to run mega pidgeot for a while now, and your article explains it perfectly. I love how you have example matches as well. I hope to see more from you soon.
I thought it would be nice to give example of what to expect assuming the games were halfway decently.
I do very much envy your love for the deck, and after reading the Mega Pidgeot Viability thread I can now see why you prefer playing it like this than how I discussed (the speed variant), but I do disagree that Speed Pidgeot (with ROS Banette [tool lock]) is useless.
I see now both variations are very different decks, the slow style you discuss relying on Mirror Move to hit lots of damage while the faster one locking them out of retreating and rendering their spirit links useless, so I think some discussion on options for blocking float stones (because I don't know about you, but at least 60% of competitive decks I see run float stones) if the player prefers to use Mach Cyclone as opposed to Mirror Move.
A mention of techs like ROS Altaria to prevent Lightning Pokémon from 1HK0ing you would've been good (Assault Vest doesn't really save you from XY/GEN Raichu)
I do like the in depth look at various match ups, and using Assault Vest is interesting but surely that reduces Mirror Move damage (unless you intend to end your turn by evolving?)
I don't want to say its bad because I did (and somewhat still do) consider Banette for that very reason, as well as a way to slightly improve the Greninja matchup. As I tested with the idea, I found that is was doing more harm than good because in some matchups, it was completely useless. At times, it took away my turn of attacking when it came into play since it turned off my spirit links and since I intended to run Octillery, I can't have a 2 retreat Pokemon in play with a dead tool.
You did say you're using a speed version of the deck so our results will very but I think its not the right way to play the card. Do keep me posted on your results of the card though. The reason I rather have tools over turning them all off is because Assault Vest is more useful for us in more matchups and since our goal is to not get KO'd in one hit, anything that helps staying power is useful.
I did have a section of Honorable Mentions but I had to remove it to reduce word count but I did discuss it. It was something I would put a 1-1 of in the deck for but Zebstrika makes it hard for its inclusion. At the time of writing, Raichu is the only relevant lightning attacker and with a bench of 5, it does 200 damage and with Assault Vest, it need a bench of 7 to KO a mega Pidgeot in one hit. If the Lightning deck choose to run Zebstrika, then Altaria becomes completely useless. Trust me, I thought about it and it is something I really wanted to add.
This deck is weird.
Like, weird in a sense where I wonder why you believe your deck is so good in the meta. I mean, you listed only 1 deck as unfavorable. If Greninja is the ONLY deck in the meta that can beat this deck (and once Giratina comes out Greninja is dead) why hasn't anyone made Top 32 at a regional playing Pidgeot?
Seems way too fishy.
EDIT: I'd also like to mention that in just about 3/4 of the listed decks you said Magearna-EX was useless, with the non-useless decks being Greninja (AKA dead with Giratina) and Mega Gardevoir. Why include it if it only works decent against 1 deck?
Well, I also listed Volcanion as unfavorable. You may have missed that but I don't blame you, it is almost 9k words, which I was told might be one of the longest articles out there. Also, I wrote this article before that card was revealed and had no idea of its release date so I only wanted cards that could could get at the time, otherwise I would have to include cards from unreleased sets and I didn't want to do that.
Believe it or not, Pidgoet-EX and its mega aren't that bad of cards. They are quite able of holding their own. I mean, you make it seem like were using Magnezone-EX here, lol. Also, a Pidgeot-EX deck made top 16 at a Regional (9th place) so there is that.
As for Magearna-EX, while I do agree that its less useful in quite a few matchups, I find it good enough to include in the deck. Like I said in the article, I like to avoid shenanigans because I have a habit of running into them, like a lot. Just recently, I ran into a Creep Show Gengar deck, which I do consider shenanigans, and I don't like losing to them.
If you want to remove the card, you can because they are techs. Pidgeot-EX does benefit for other tech attackers, which can improve other matchup so you can continue the tanking process but this is your unconventional deck, like I side in the article.
