English Mega Evolution Set to Release on September 26th, But Expect Prerelease Shortages

[Frost]

No, I mean lower HP compared to Megas that are stage 1s or 2s.

 

[Psychic Nature]

I completely agree, from a gameplay design standpoint it feels incredibly arbitrary and counter-intuitive. I feel it would've been unanimously better to have new megas be like Breaks and Level X's while keeping the three-prize drawback. What sense does it make for them to go from kirlia to mega gardevoir??? why should charmeleon go straight to mega charizard??? it's just not how megas work and it doesn't really do much to help make them better

I think it’s because in the XY era, all EX pokemon were basics.
Now, ex pokemon are not automatically basic.
Imagine trying to get a stage 3 evolution, having to get a raltz, kirlia, gardevoir, THEN you can mega. Four turns to get one pokemon evolved to mega.
Yes, you can use a rare candy to skip kirlia, but I can definitely see why they did it this way for game design reasons, though its absolutely strange.

 

[Fields.]

The one thing I don't get is why have Mega Lucario and Mega Gardevoir evolve from Riolu and Kirlia respectively when they cannot skip the Lucario and Gardevoir stages respectively in the games? That literally makes no sense at all.

Because they want people to actually be able to use the Pokemon without adding ridiculous power creep. The TCG should *never* feel compelled to obey the game's mechanics. It also helps keep things simple, which I am in whole support of.

The game really shouldn't go back to temporary gimmicks like Vstars or Spirit Links.