Making a Sweeping Gardevoir?

Question

Hi everyone. I'm trying to make use of a Mega-Gardevoir and I seem to have encountered a few problems. The moveset I use on it is Hyper Voice, Psychic, Focus Blast and Shadow Ball. EV spread is 252 Sp. Attack, and 252 Speed, 4 HP. Modest nature (+ Sp. Attack, - Attack).

I've been doing a few test runs with it and it just seems like it doesn't sweep well. Most foes that aren't Dragon type take Hyper Voice just fine with a bit of health remaining. And Gardevoir isn't even the fastest out there and she's rather fragile too so usually the counterattack hits me pretty hard, in fact even a Moon Blast might take her out at times.

Anything I can do about this set and stuff I can change up?

Comments

Mega Gardevoir isn't really intended for sweeping, but more for wall breaking with its sheer power. As you mentioned, it's a bit too slow and too frail to be particularly effective as a sweeper. A lack of setup moves reinforces this.
By the way, which Dragon Pokemon is it failing to OHKO? I did some calculations, and Gardvoir should be able to OHKO every viable Dragon Pokemon bar Multiscale Dragonite (which you can't really expect to OHKO anyway).
If you're interested in a Fairy Pokemon that can sweep, try Dragon Dance Mega Altaria or Rock Polish Mega Diancie.

---

Just putting  this out there: Modest nature lowers the Attack stat, not Defense.

Answer 1

Gardevior, as someone pointed out in comments, is built for wallbreaking. Although it packs good power behind its attacks, its speed does hold it back. Obviously, Gardevior cannot possibly solve this itself, so the most effective way to play Gardevior is to use its teammates effectively.

• The sliver of health problem can be somewhat rectified by the usage of hazards on the team. Stealth Rock and Spikes reduces the HP of a Pokemon upon switchin, turning potential 2HKOs to OHKOs.
• Gardevior's speed can be solved in a few different ways. The least effective way would be the use of Tailwind, which is temporary, unfortunately. This will double Gardevoir's speed for a few turns. The next method would be using Sticky Web, which lowers the speed of the switched in Pokemon by one stage. However, Flying Pokemon resist it, and the Pokemon who receive aren't the most viable. Finally, Paralysis. By using Thunder Wave, Body Slam, of whatever your method may be, slowing down an opponent probably the most effective way to do so. Of course, Ground Pokemon can't be affected by Thunder Wave, while Electric Pokemon avoid paralysis completely, so use your best judgment.
• Finally, Gardevior does have access to Calm Mind to boost its SpA and SpD, but it rarely finds time to use it other than predicted switches.

Comments

Thanks for the answers. I've been experimenting a bit since i made the question and i actually found that calm mind for the most part helps out and by using it i can reliably take down 4 Pokemon on the enemy team at least or the whole team if i don't get unlucky or get hit with a nasty status effect. I also redirected all speed EVs into health, because even with full EVs the speed goes from 260 to 290 and it really isn't worth it. That 30 speed doesn't really make a difference for most, on the other hand the extra health ensure that it can take a couple hits.

Overall it's not perfect or anything, but i'm satisfied with how things are right now. And i do have a team that can both set up entry hazards and usually annoy with status effects and other similar stuff so Gardevoir is usually good enough to finish people off.