if garde has a terrain boosted psyshock why wouldn't zam have a terrain boosted psychic? I agree with gardevoir going to B-. you aren't always going to have lele right beside you with psychic terrain. that's why I think having zam would be almost always the better choice. if you don't have psychic terrain alakazam will still be doing ok. but in psychic terrain it will be doing great because it can't get hit with priority moves. but garde isn't that fast, so it can still get taken out, here are some calcs.
4 Atk Life Orb Protean Greninja Gunk Shot vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 460-541 (166 - 195.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Lopunny-Mega Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 246-289 (88.8 - 104.3%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja-Ash Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gardevoir-Mega: 234-276 (84.4 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Celesteela Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 372-438 (134.2 - 158.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Gardevoir almost gets ko'd by these pokemon. they are all very common, and after 2 layers of spikes (or rocks and 1 spike) they ko gardevoir. The reason I think gardevoir should be around B/B- is because, garde get taken out by pokemon that are almost always seen once in a battle. Alakazam can usually do better than garde with and without psychic terrain(not trying to compare zam with garde, just that they both work well with lele), and its just too slow for it to sweep with psychic terrain.
I'm not saying that Alakazam doesn't get terrain boosted Psychic lol. Of course not. I meant to say, Alakazam doesn't have access to Psyshock/Psychic WHILE ALSO having Fairy-type Hyper voice, and that is very significant because fairy/psychic is good coverage. In Gardevoir's case, having both means that there really are a lot fewer safe switch ins. And before we go into that Tapu Lele can do the same, Hyper voice is 38% stronger than raw Tapu Lele's Moonblast, not factoring in choice specs or life orb on that latters part.
Also, let me state my argument further than before, because people keep comparing Tapu Lele and Mega Gardevoir. But why compare them, when we can say we have two Pokemon that are, yes, extremely similar, but synergize well with each other GIVEN THAT they are similar?
Certain sets actually have it that offense teams SPAM a certain type of move amongst similar pokemon (cough cough* Hydro Pump from Ash-Greninja) on Rain teams and such. The best part about Tapu Lele is that it has no guaranteed safe switch ins. Compound Mega-Gardevoir for the exact same purpose and you have just a hyper offense core which SPAMS Psychic and Fairy STAB, with hard hitting coverage moves.
In the context of a Lele/M-Garde core, I'm not at all saying that Mega-Gardevoir is better in any way than Tapu Lele. Imo Tapu Lele should be A+ or S rank. But given that M-Garde can capitalize and spam so well with Tapu Lele, and none of them really have hard switch ins (don't say Celesteela, because I think T-bolt is great on M-garde), it's a really viable strategy to go hyper offensive between the two. And really not many Pokemon that I can think of can take advantage of Psychic Terrain as good as it except maybe Mega-Medicham because its dual STAB. Alakazam is walled quite easily.
*Added Magearna-is-a-counter arguments*
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Magearna in Psychic Terrain: 130-153 (35.7 - 42%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Hidden Power Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Magearna: 174-206 (57.8 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gardevoir-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Magearna: 138-164 (45.8 - 54.4%) -- 51.6% chance to 2HKO
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