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Community POTW #020

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Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon of the Week, and we have another classic

219.png


It's the classic Fire/Rock-type, Magcargo.

Despite looks, Magcargo is capable of a fair bit.

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/219.shtml

Go nuts
 

Golurk

PokeRanger
Defensive Magcargo

Item Leftovers

Ability Flame Body

Nature Bold

Moveset
~ Stealth Rock
~ Recover
~ Lava Plume
~ Toxic

EVs 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
 

TurtwigAndSquirtle

I like turtles
Sunny Day
Solar Beam
Fire Blast
Earth Power
Item: Heat Rock
Ability: Works for any ability
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. A/ 252 Speed

Sunny Day makes it sunny, boosted by Heat Rock. This lowers the power of water. Solar Beam works instantly in sun. Fire Blast can burn, has STAB and sun. Earth Power or coverage.
 

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Ugh… Magcargo, a pokemon I have used every generation since its release, though since Emerald, for egg hatching purposes only.

Typing: Magcargo has, in my (and a previous Gen PotW) opinion the worst typing in the game. 4 weaknesses for 6 resistances may sound like a fair trade off… It isn’t. With a quad weakness to Water and Earth, as well as a weakness to Rock (and thus Stealth Rocks) and Fighting, and you can see that the lava snail walks away with the booby prize of being weak to the 4 of most common attacking types in the popular metagame.
Offensively, Fire-Rock is actually fairly good. Neither has a shared resistance and both Fire and Rock attacks are treasured for taking out select targets… If only those targets didn’t fight back…

Stats: A horrible typing accompanied by subpar stats… It seems Gamefreak hates molten cuisine. The biggest shining point about Magcargo is its massive base 120 DEF. This seems great and allows it to take many-a Brave Bird, but then realize that Magcargo is super weak to Earthquake, and normal weak to fighting attacks and Stone Edge. Base 80 SDEF, while average, needs to be higher, for Surf/Scald is all but guaranteed to send Magcargo to a watery grave. Base 50 HP just ruins any illusion of tanking and makes Magcargo a stupidly frail snail. It SATK is average and as viable as you get for Magcargo. Its ATK is as pitiful as its HP and base 30 SPD is blindingly fast… in trick room.

Moves: And Gamefreak keeps hating… oh! Never mind. For such a crappy pokemon, Magcargo has a surprisingly large move pool that most Fire types wish they had. For offense in addition to Ancient Power and numerous Fire STABs, Magcargo has Earth Power, Solar Beam and Hidden Power for the entirety of its special attack pool. Not impressive but Magcargo has the coveted Shell Smash for boosting its offense… to above average levels. But like real snails, Magcargo excels at defense, and has a large support move pool to complement. In addition to the standard WTPS, Magcargo has Yawn, Recover (!), dual screens, Will-o-Wisp, Infestation, Guard Swap, Memento, Pain Split and Stealth Rock. Magcargo in theory can run a variety of sets, but only if it lives long enough to use them…

Abilities: As mentioned before, Magcargo is somewhat valued because both of its normal abilities (Magma Armor and Flame Body) halve egg steps. But in a battling environment, Flame Body is the one to use because no one in their right mind would willing attack Magcargo with an Ice attack. Flame Body works well with Magcargo’s high defense… unless the opponent is using Earthquake, or Stone Edge… or Surf. Weak Armor ruins Magcargo’s one good point to increase its worst point. Don’t use it.

The Verdict: “Only you can stop forest fires.” Standard firefighting techniques (along with punching it…) put down Magcargo fast. Just put it out before it messes with your own team.
 

Kraleck

Well-Known Member
Magcargo. Been kinda fenced on this Pokémon ever since it came out. On one hand, it has a cool design. On the other, it's terri-bad in a battle due to Type, Stats, and Abilities. Magcargo's only real saving grace is Defense, but not by much.

Stats:
-HP - Mediocre - Base 50 HP is going to get you splattered.
-Attack - Bad - Base 50 is just not usable for offense.
-Defense - Godly - Base 120.
-Sp.Atk - Average - Base 80.
-Sp.Def - Average - Base 80.
-Speed - Good (Trick Room) - Base 30 is going to be good for Trick Room Teams, but not much else.

Abilities:
-Magma Armor - Ugh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. Immunity to Freezing doesn't matter much at all when the chance is 10% and Ice is resisted by Fire.
-Flame Body - Anything going after your Defense is going to be using Earthquake anyway, so it's just not that good.
-Weak Armor (Hidden, Available [Friend Safari]) - When hit you lose some of your necessary defenses to gain a pitiful amount of Speed. Only use with both a Focus Sash and Shell Smash.

I've never had alcohol in my life, but I'm gonna need some tequila to numb the pain from this analysis. Magcargo is just bad. It has uses, just not in Battle. If you want to seriously use it, I suggest running Weak Armor, Focus Sash, Shell Smash, and Ancientpower for a chance at better stats and a come-from-behind sweep. Just clear out any Stealth Rock you may run into.
 

Swoobat

Well-Known Member
What is this? Magcargo? Really? Magcargo sucks in every possible way even in the lowest tier! C'mon Serebii, stop using the random number generator for every Pokémon, and by these times only do that with OU-worthy Pokémon, because Magcargo, Skuntank, etc., we still don't know how will their tier be, and so the analysis is worse.

Speaking of Magcargo, don't bother with a Shell Smash set, its Speed is ridiculous even after the boost. This thing's typing is one of the worst defensively, 4x weak to Ground and Water, two very common attacking types, and weak to Stealth Rock and every single form of entry hazard.

Well, it counters Talonflame I guess?
 
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What does the Dephox say?

Ring-ding-ding-di...
What is this? Magcargo? Really? Magcargo sucks in every possible way even in the lowest tier! C'mon Serebii, stop using the random number generator for every Pokémon, and by these times only do that with OU-worthy Pokémon, because Magcargo, Skuntank, etc., we still don't know how will their tier be, and so the analysis is worse.

The RNG didn't pick Magcargo, I did. The RNG picks a general list but Serebii and I edit it based off what we want.

Don't worry about future tiers. Magcargo will be trash literally everywhere, in all tiers. Its a cool Pokemon though.
 

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Doubles Review: 2 weeks ago, we did Magmortar, another fire type that began with an M, whose presence I said did not really belong in double battles, due to a weakness to Surf, Earthquake and Rock Slide. With Magcargo I am on my knees begging you not to use it in doubles. Quad weakness to Earthquake and Surf means Magcargo will drop quickly against most competitive teams, even if it is more likely than Magmortar to survive a Rock Slide. While Magcargo certainly brings a bit to doubles, including dual screens, there are pokemon that do this better.
--------------------------------------------------------------
In general as a defensive Fire type, Magcargo is outclassed by Torkoal (don't get me started about defensive Rock types) and as a Special based Rock type, it is outclassed by Omaster, Aurorus, and Tyranitar... Completely exposed to entry Hazards, crippled by all status that is not named Burn or Freeze, Magcargo is a pretty sad pokemon. Don't forget there are worse pokemon out there... Like Delibird... *shudders*

And to address concerns of PotW selecting crappy pokemon; the RNG is fair and allows exposure to all pokemon. While some pokemon may suck, or are outclassed, they will have their fans. So for people who like Magcargo, they are probably thrilled to see this PotW. So please don't complain about crappy pokemon getting exposure here, because it might be the only exposure they are getting. That is this is a thread about Magcargo, not the RNG.
 
Magcargo:

What can I say about this guy? Hes a fire type, so he cant be that bad, right? Wrong.

The only useful set:
Magcargo @ Leftovers
Flame Body
Calm Nature
248 HP 8 Def 252 SpDef
-Lava Plume
-Recover
-Toxic
-Stealth Rock

This set is meant to be used in the lower tiers, but it still works. This guy gets access to recover, so he has a reliable recovery move. Come in on something that can't hurt him, set up Stealth Rock, and Lava Plume everything in sight. Given Lava Plume's 30% Burn chance, its the perfect move for this guy. Toxic is for opposing walls, which allows him to stall them out.

Magcargo will never be OU with his typing or stats, but he still has uses in the lower tiers. Just expect to use a lot of team support to help him out.
 
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SkyDriver

Hiding in the grass
Magcargo @ Life Orb / Focus Sash
Weak Armor
Timid / Modest
252 Satk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
-Shell Smash
-Fire Blast
-Ancient Power
-Earth Power

Come in on a physical attacker, set up and sweep, it's fairly simple. Special EdgeQuake combo and STAB Fire Blast make it a pretty cool sweeper.
 

sbktdreed

Veteran Trainer
Flame Body w/ Focus Sash
Quiet w/ 252 Sp Attack, 130 Defense, 128 Sp Defense
Flamethrower
Ancient Power
Earth Power
Hidden Power [Grass]

Countering
High Sp Defense and Sp Attack with Water/Fighting/Ground/Rock-type moves like Kingdra, Empoleon, Milotic, Vaporeon, Muddy Water/Focus Blast Goodra, Dragalge, Slowking, Focus Blast Alakazam/Mr. Mime/Gardevoir/Heliolisk, or Power Gem Mismagius.
 

Manafi's Dream

フェアリータイプタイム
Ugh… Magcargo, a pokemon I have used every generation since its release, though since Emerald, for egg hatching purposes only.

Magcargo isn't even the best when it comes to hatching. Volcarona fulfills the same purpose, with the added benefit of being able to use Fly for quick transportation. Unfortunately for Magcargo, it is virtually obsolete in every aspect.
 

neoschu42

Member
Though magcargo is very bad defensively it might be able to pull off a mixed defensive set an assault vest
with an assault vest it's average 80 def goes up to 120 on par with its physical def

Just an idea.
 

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Magcargo isn't even the best when it comes to hatching. Volcarona fulfills the same purpose, with the added benefit of being able to use Fly for quick transportation. Unfortunately for Magcargo, it is virtually obsolete in every aspect.

I realize that. In that useage, a normal Talonflame is superior to Volcarona because in addition to always having Flame Body and can Fly, Talonflame is much easier to get than Volcarona... I am just stating my experience with Magcargo while playing through the games. Heck, I even used Magcargo as a key member of my team back in the days of Gold and Silver (I had no notion of team building at the time).
 

Hoppian

Dedicated Writer
Who knows maybe a supernova or quazar are hotter than that 18000 F? Most pokemon gets in their dex entry some very nonsense natural powers or capabilities... Like a bunch of rock pokemon that can burst, go through or pulverize MONTAINS; Rhyperior can even shot geodudes (it should hurt a lot)! Maybe magcargo can work as a togekiss counter, using toxic and recover to stall it because it resist it's stabs? But it wont work on one paraflinch set... At least you could toxic it if you get lucky.
By the way, quazars are high pressurized "beams" of gas that happen in black holes when they get too much filled with gas. It´s an hyper beam of spacial proportions! Think of it as the black hole´s pee (or poo if you get me).
 
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ajgrocks100

The Loomer
GOOD LORD
Excusing Magmortar(computer was broken that week :p ), the fast few weeks have been Very, very straight forward pokes. If anyone looks back, I always do something stupid or unorthodox. So finally, Magcargo. Something to work with.

Lava the Hedge-Snail.
Jolly, 252Atk/Spd, 4HP
Custap/Sash, FlameBody
-Flame Charge
-Stone Edge/Earthquake/RockSlide
-Infestation/Will-O-Wisp/Yawn/Toxic/Stockpile/Recover/Memento/Pain-Split/StillReading/Reflect/LightScreen/StealthRocks/Sub
-^
Holy Mother Of GOD! Look at that support movepool!
Anyway, lets just look at the beast we have spawned. This Magcargo is a lead, with Custap. This idea came from the idiot me who thought Magcargo had sturdy… which it doesn't. Anyway, Flame Charge Attempts to boost your speed in order to attempt a non-ShellSmash sweep. EQ for coverage, SE for power, and RS for accuracy?… I guess. Oh Well.

Now on to that top notch support pool. I will list some of the best options below:
-Infestation- Trap that sorry a*% celebi, and make it wish it had earth-power.
-Yawn- Gawd i love this move. Makes setting up a TON easier, with the added pressure from custap/Sash
-Screens/Rocks- If you wish, incase your up against a pokemon you cannot set up against.
-Stockpile- To make living water that much easier….
-PainSplit/Recover- Recovery. Huh-Der.
-Memento- Same logic as the Screens.

Use with caution: this set will fail 75% of the time, even against PU teams. Yeah. PU. That made up, Unofficial, Bottom of NU tier. As I said.
 
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Archstaraptor

Team Builder / RMT
I really wish people would stop complaining about how Magcargo(and other past entries) suck,and instead post something constructive.
Because at the end of the day,it just means that the OU pokes get all the attention and get healthy entries,but everything below is left in the darkness.
So you call Magcargo bad?Prove it in another way bar stating "its typing is bad". That typing allows it to maul major fire types such as Talonflame,Volcarona,fairy types and ice types without 4* SE coverage (which you can predict since the opponent wouldn't switch it in otherwise).Ferrothorn,Skarmory and Forretress can't do much to it,whilst Magcargo incinerates them in return.

Magcargo@lum berry/leftovers
Flame Body
-Recover
-Ancient Power
-Lava plume
-Stockpile
Spatk. focus(~150),then split what's left over into bulk. You switch in and try to burn something with flamebody,opponent switches out whilst you lava plume / recover.You know that opponent has just sent something in with an appropriate counter move,so you switch yourself.Late game,stockpile becomes very useful.Or,if you need to specialise,acid armour or amnesia - it gets both.The secondary effects of both attacks are very useful too.

Other things I have tried:

-Inferno & Will-o-wisp - the latter because it's reliable,but the former is also useful because your opponent could be switching that turn(meaning the turn before you switch you could deal a hunk of damage AND burn the "counter" switching in for free).Both have advantages,both are useful for weakening the opposing team.
-Infestation also works well,especially if you've burnt or toxic poisoned the opponent already.
-Toxic is also useful for whittling down things that have recovery and/or sp.def boosting moves.Volcarona is also less troublesome.
-Yawn is alright - but the other statuses are more threatening.
-Shell smash - it really isn't that worthwhile,because neither offense is that spectacular,and its base 30 speed is bad.On top of this,you're sacrificing your defences - the more valuable stats.Fun when it does work though - exchange with stockpile on above set,and use weak armour instead of flame body :)

Counters?Sure,it has counters.Loads of them.Water,ground,fighting,rock.But Magcargo doesn't care.If it can burn some opponents for the team,and the team in return can cover said counters and take advantage of its support,does it really matter?No, it does not.The crucial thing to remember is that it's a supporter and not a sweeper.
 
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