Kangaskhan, The Parent Pokémon. Kangaskhan’s maternal love is so deep that it will brave death to protect its offspring. The child in its pouch leaves home after roughly three years. That is the only time the mother is heard to cry wildly. Kangaskhan protects its child by keeping it in its pouch. It has zero forgiveness for those who harm its child and will beat them down. You shouldn’t get close to the child when it’s playing outside its mother’s pouch. Its mother is always nearby watching over it.
Mega Kangaskhan, the Parent Pokémon. Mega Kangaskhan’s strength derives from the mother’s happiness about her child’s growth. Watching it grow up keeps her spirits high. Thanks to Mega Evolution, its child grows. But as the child is good only at fighting and nothing else, its mother feels uneasy about its future. The explosive energy the child is bathed in causes temporary growth. The mother is beside herself with worry about it. When the mother sees the back of her Mega- Evolved child, it makes her think of the day when her child will inevitably leave her.
Overview
A Pokemon that used to be considered one of the most over-centralizing threats in XYORAS, we will be paying homage to one of the most popular Mega Evolutions as the last entry for USUM. While Generation 7 has not been a kind metagame in Battle Spot Singles for Mega Kangaskhan due to Parental Bond and Sucker Punch's nerf, it can still sweep thanks to its great Speed tier, fantastic bulk, a great movepool and its high Attack. While her offensive presence has been downgraded in USUM and her reign of terror has been officially terminated in Sword / Shield, Mega Kangaskhan will always be a top threat wherever we see her again...
Positives
A base 125 Attack grants Mega Kangaskhan great offensive power which is further bolstered by Parental Bond which grants a 25% boost to her moves allowing it to hit twice (breaking Focus Sash and Sturdy in the process).
105 / 100 / 100 bulk makes Mega Kangaskhan very bulky despite its mediocre Normal typing and difficult to take down without a super-effective hit.
Her diverse movepool allows it to circumvent most of its checks and counters, having excellent options such as Fake Out and Sucker Punch for priority, Body Slam, Return or Double Edge for STAB, Power-Up Punch as a sweeping booster and other coverage moves like Earthquake, Fire Punch, Rock Slide, Ice Punch, etc.
Her pre-Mega ability, Scrappy, is pretty useful as it allows Kangaskhan to harm Ghost types with her STABs without relying on prediction, if required.
A decent base 100 Speed tier makes Mega Kangaskhan decently fast and outspeed threats like Tapu Lele on the process while speed-tying Volcarona and Mega Charizard X.
Negatives
Parental Bond is a double edged sword as it forces Mega Kangaskhan to lose incredible amount of HP against Pokemon with abilities such as Iron Barbs / Rough Skin, or those with the Rocky Helmet item. This also increases the odds of contracting status afflictions from contact abilities such as Static / Flame Body.
While her pre-Mega evolution ability allows her to damage Ghost types, once Mega evolved, it fails to break past bulky Ghost types like Dusclops and Aegislash.
Parental Bond's nerf now makes Mega Kangaskhan only deal an extra 25% on the 2nd hit (In XYORAS it was a 50%) which makes Mega Kangaskhan lose a lot of offensive power.
It's weakness to Fighting means that pretty much any STAB Fighting type will be able to OHKO it.
Status afflictions are completely dangerous for Mega Kangaskhan as poison will ruin her bulk, burns will greatly reduce its power and paralysis makes her lose her great speed.
Movesets
Lullabye
- Power-Up Punch
- Double Edge / Return
- Sucker Punch
- Earthquake / Rock Slide
Item Attached: Kangaskhanite
Ability: Parental Bond (Scrappy before Mega)
EVs and Nature:
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
With Power-Up Punch, Mega Kangaskhan becomes a quite fearsome sweeper when left unchecked. Thanks to Parental Bond, not only it acts as a Swords Dance boost since it hits twice, but also lets Mega Kangaskhan do damage in the process. Double Edge is Kangaskhan's most powerful STAB allowing her to hit like a truck, specially when boosted. However, if you are worried about Mega Kangaskhan getting worn out so easily due to the recoil, Return is a safer option allowing her to keep a bit more of her HP. Sucker Punch is the main priority move on this set as it allows Mega Kangaskhan to hit Gengar and Mega Alakazam extremely hard while providing priority and coverage. Just take in mind that it can lead to mind-games if Sucker Punch's targets carry non-attacking moves which makes it somewhat unreliable. Finally, Earthquake is the most reliable coverage move, mostly due to being non-contact, allowing Mega Kangaskhan to hit Aegislash for super-effective damage and bypass King's Shield effects while avoiding extra recoil against the likes of Ferrothorn, Garchomp and Rocky Helmet users. Rock Slide deserves a mention for letting Mega Kangaskhan hit Rocky Helmet Static Zapdos and Volcarona harder than anything else without triggering their annoying abilities. It also boasts a 51% to make its targets flinch thanks to Parental Bond making the move hit twice.
Adamant is the preferred nature as it allows Mega Kangaskhan to be a bigger threat early in the game and less reliant on boosting. Maximum Attack and Speed EVs are preferred for maximum sweeping power, while the 4 Special Defense EVs ensure that Porygon2 will not get a Special Attack boost. Jolly is also an option worth to consider since it allows Mega Kangaskhan to outspeed +252 Spe Tapu Lele and speed tie Volcarona & Mega Charizard. However, the drop on power is quite noticable and it forces Mega Kangaskhan to rely more on a PuP boost.
Partners
Tapu Fini: Thanks to Misty Terrain, it protects Mega Kangaskhan from status ailments while also providing a Fighting resist and a powerful wall breaking ability with Taunt.
Landorus-Therian: It's great ability to provide momentum to Mega Kangaskhan with U-turn switches, it's ability to set up Stealth Rock, Intimidate and its Fighting resist, makes it almost impossible to not consider Landorus-T share a spot with Mega Kangaskhan.
Greninja: Walls like Hippowdown and Cresselia fear the ninja frog due to its STAB special moves and Protean grants it a powerful offensive presence allowing it to wallbreak opposing teams with Mega Kangaskhan.
Cresselia: Cresselia has a major gift in Lunar Dance which heals completely Mega Kangaskhan and lets her obtain another chance to sweep.
Tapu Koko: Thanks to its STAB Thunderbolt, it toasts Celesteela who is a mayor threat to Mega Kangaskhan while also providing momentum thanks to Volt Switch.
Mimikyu: Along with Mega Kangaskhan both can pressure their defensive checks since they mostly overlap each others'. Mimikyu's Ghost typing allows it to switch into Fighting attacks while it can nuke something with Ghostium Z, which destroys Cresselia, or Let's Snuggle Forever on walls like Zapdos and Suicune, weakening them for Mega Kangaskhan.
Latias: Similar to Cresselia, Latias can heal Mega Kangaskhan with Healing Wish while providing a much more offensive presence thanks to her high Special Attack and great typing.
Other Options
Seismic Toss is a novelty option worth exploring as it allows Mega Kangaskhan to deal 200 HP damage every turn regardless of the opponent's moves thanks to Parental Bond. This is incredibly useful against opponents with low HP stats like Toxapex and the Rotom appliances.
Rock Tomb lets Mega Kangaskhan slow down faster threats like Mega Gengar and improving her matchup against hyper offense while also preventing Mega Salamence from ever setting up safely into it. However, as a coverage move, it is weak and thus useless against more defensive teams.
Ice Punch and Fire Punch are viable alternatives allowing Mega Kangaskhan deal nasty damage to Garchomp and Ferrothorn. However, Mega Kangaskhan really doesn't wants to touch these Pokemon due to Rough Skin / Iron Barbs and/or Rocky Helmet chipping her HP dangerously.
Fake Out is a good priority move to use first turn to break Sashes on frailer and faster Ghost types like Blacephalon and Gengar on pre-Mega. It also gains a lot more from the Parental Bond boost. However, it is weak and doesn't provides the same coverage Sucker Punch does.
Secret Power is a very interesting option on bulkier sets to avoid Rocky Helmet damage and it boasts a 30% chance to paralyze a foe as well. Note that under Grassy Terrain this changes to a sleep chance, Misty Terrain changes this to a Special Attack drop chance, and Psychic Terrain changes this to a Speed drop chance. However, it is important to note that Secret Power interacts uniquely with Parental Bond, and this chance only rolls once unlike other moves which all have two chances to activate.
VGC & Doubles Options
If you've played Doubles at all you know what Mega Kangaskhan is so let's not waste any time. Mega Kangaskhan reigned as one of the best Mega Evolutions in all Doubles metagames, and while the nerf to Parental Bond hurt its damage output, that didn't stop it from being a strong choice. Between Fake Out access, Power-Up Punch, and a strong movepool, Mega Kangaskhan has everything it needs to be a powerful attacker in any metagame. The prominence of Fairy-types also draws Fighting-types out of the metagame for the most part, which makes exploiting its one weakness more difficult. However, it does have a few weaknesses, namely the fact that it's a physical attacker in a game where Landorus-Therian and Incineroar are two of the most common Pokemon out there. Additionally, Mega Kangaskhan often has to choose between running Protect and having enough coverage to account for everything it wants, so it can't do everything at once. Regardless, Mega Kangaskhan still stands as one of the more influential Pokemon in recent Doubles metagames and we all know it by now.
Movesets
Retribution
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge / Frustration
- Sucker Punch / Low Kick
- Low Kick / Protect
Item Attached: Kangaskhanite
Ability: Parental Bond (Scrappy/Inner Focus before Mega)
EVs and Nature:
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
There are many ways to build Mega Kangakshan's moveset, but the basic offensive approach will look something like this. Fake Out is one of its most useful tools, offering great utility and support with Mega Kangaskhan's decent Speed tier. Double-Edge's raw damage output makes it the more favorable STAB option especially after the Parental Bond nerf, but on a bulkier spread or a player who dislikes the recoil, Frustration is also an effective choice for slightly less power. Sucker Punch provides useful priority that also hits Ghost-types such as Mega Gengar, but if Ferrothorn, Incineroar, and Tyranitar are a problem, then Low Kick is very effective for dealing with them, Running both of these is also valid, but if this coverage isn't needed then Protect can be used to give Mega Kangaskhan an option to defend itself against Z-Moves and other strong attacks. Giving up Fake Out is also a valid approach depending on the team's needs, but usually you want Fake Out if you're using Mega Kangaskhan.
With the Parental Bond nerf, Adamant nature becomes more favorable to ensure that Mega Kangaskhan is doing as much damage as possible. This is a basic offensive spread but with Speed tiers increasing in Gen 7, it is also common to give up Speed investment to make Mega Kangaskhan as bulky as possible by shifting most of the Speed to HP. Both Inner Focus and Scrappy are valid abilities prior to Mega Evolving, the former makes Fake Out mirrors less risky especially against faster Fake Out users, though Scrappy gives Kangaskhan the option to Fake Out a Ghost-type such as Mega Gengar or Mimikyu.
Other Options
- Power-Up Punch is the go-to option if you want Mega Kangaskhan to sweep, and also allows it to keep up its Attack in the face of heavy Intimidate usage. However, setup can be tricky in some metagames so it's not always easy to use the moveslot for this.
- In a 6v6 Doubles metagame, the optimal approach to Mega Kangaskhan is a set that entirely forgoes offensive investment and instead focuses entirely on bulk. In this scenario the offensive move of choice is Seismic Toss, since both hits deal the full amount of damage due to being a fixed amount. This turns Mega Kangaskhan into a very bulky breaker that doesn't care about its offense, though there aren't many metas where this is possible due to Seismic Toss being a transfer move.
- On a bulky set, Wish actually becomes an interesting choice to keep Mega Kangaskhan healthy. However, this is only obtainable via an obscure event so it is difficult to make use of this option.
- Mega Kangaskhan has other options such as Ice Punch and Fire Punch to deal with specific threats such as Landorus-Therian, Kartana, and Ferrothorn respectively, but the usefulness of these options depends on the team.
- Tapu Fini is an excellent teammate due to Misty Terrain and access to Heal Pulse, complementing Mega Kangaskhan's offensive presence while keeping status and Fighting-types at bay.
- In a format allowing restricted Pokemon, Mega Kangaskhan pairs well with the likes of Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, and Xerneas to provide Fake Out support for them. Unlike most Fake Out users it also has the bulk to take some heavy hits, though it also competes with Rayquaza for the Mega slot which is heavy competition on a lot of teams.
Countering Mega Kangaskhan
Chip damage is Mega Kangaskhan's worst nightmare. Due to Parental Bond making Mega Kangaskhan forced to attack twice, Mega Kangaskhan is easily punished by Rough Skin / Iron Barbs users like Ferrothorn and Garchomp. On a similar addition, Rocky Helmet pretty much does the same.
Fighting types like Mega Blaziken, Buzzwole and Mega Lucario obliterate Mega Kangaskhan thanks to their powerful STABs.
Bulky walls like Hippowdon, Celesteela, Porygon2, Skarmory and Slowbro do pretty well when it comes into countering Mega Kangaskhan. Due to their high defenses they can either phaze it away or cripple it with paralysis/poison.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Safari Zone
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Rock Tunnel
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Trade from FireRed/LeafGreen/XD
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Safari Zone
Colosseum/XD:
Snagged from Cipher Peon Litnar in Citadark Isle (XD)
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Great Marsh
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Rock Tunnel, Safari Zone
Black/White:
Route 15
Black 2/White 2:
Trade from Black/White
X/Y:
Glittering Cave
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Trade from X/Y
Sun/Moon:
Wela Volcano Park
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Wela Volcano Park
Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee!:
Rock Tunnel
Animé Appearences
