Battle Spot: Mega Banette Trick Room and Doubles strategy

Build as of Gen 6

• Ability – Frisk → Prankster
• Stats – Attack (252), HP (252), Special Defence (4)
• Nature – Adamant
• Item – Banettite Stone
• Move set – Phantom Force (stab), Sucker Punch, Knock Off, Destiny Bond

When Banette was announced to have a mega evolution, I was quite curious on how much it would be improved. It certainly got a massive Attack stat boost and Prankster ability, making it more useful and a threat when used correctly, but its overall defences and Speed say otherwise so it's still quite fragile. So that being said, using Mega Banette is really difficult and really need good support from its partner to stay on the battlefield. And with the given stats, it can go either a Prankster-centric or full offense Pokemon, which I prefer. 

Strength

With Prankster at its disposal, the marionette has full of tricks up its sleeves (literally). It has access to many great status moves such as Curse, Grudge, Torment, Confuse Ray, Pain Split, Disable, Taunt, Toxic, Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave. If you're going for a full Prankster build, you could surprise your opponent and keep them guessing with those moves. 

Speaking of ability, you would also want to get your Banette with Frisk ability over Insomnia because it helps to identify who are holding mega stones or other important items like Life Orb, Leftovers and etc. 

Ah, how can we forget the 165 Attack stat upgrade and a new move Phantom Force which seriously badass and truly monstrous, more on that later.

Weakness

Although it's granted Prankster ability, it’s also noted that Mega Banette does not get Prankster ability on the first round upon mega-evolving which is quite and a bit unfair honestly since Mega Sableye automatically gets Magic Bounce on first-turn after all. To add on to that, there are actually better Prankster Pokemon than Mega Banette like Sableye and Whimsicott.

As for the stat build, it’s recommended to pump in HP fully instead of Speed it’s because even if gets maxed it will still get outspeed by many Pokemon regardless and be very vulnerable. Maximizing your HP is your only chance of keeping it alive for as long as possible, especially from strong physical attackers.

Moveset

Phantom Force is the strongest move and I prefer it over Shadow Claw for a pretty good reason. Although it works like Dig and Dive, what makes Phantom Force special is that it also ignores Protect, Detect, King’s Shield, Spiky Shield and Mat Block which is the highlight, but still can’t touch Normal-type, of course. Using Phantom Force also indirectly shields Mega Banette from incoming attacks from slower Pokemon.

To compensate for its average Speed stat, Sucker Punch should be included and it’s actually stronger than Shadow Sneak even with STAB. In addition, Knock Off is fantastic with Frisk and does quite an amount of damage especially on other Trick Room users which usually resulting OHKO'ing them.

Lastly, among all the support moves (as mentioned in Strength), Destiny Bond is probably the best support move for Prankster as it can surprise and bring down key threatening Pokemon whenever it's ready to faint, but it will be quite predictable over time to trainers who remember. Nonetheless, trainers can be forgetful sometimes so when they gleefully take down Mega Banette, you also get to bring your opponent down with you to hell.

Closing thoughts

With such huge Attack stat boost, I simply couldn't ignore that gift so that's why I think it should go for an all-out attack despite its many supportive moves. Similarly to Malamar, Mega Banette can be in both Trick Room or mixed Doubles to cause a great disturbance with Prankster. A perfect partner for the doll is one who can abuse Rage Powder or Follow Me since it's so fragile, along with a Fighting or Fairy Pokemon that can deal with Dark-types, or even better, switch in a Pokemon who has Justified ability like Terrakion. 

So Mega Banette, I choose you! Glhf!