Magcargo, The Lava Pokémon. Its brittle shell occasionally spouts intense flames that circulate throughout its body. Its body is as hot as lava and is always billowing. Flames will occasionally burst from its shell. Its body temperature is roughly 18,000 degrees F. Flames spout from gaps in its hardened shell. The shell on its back is just skin that has cooled and hardened. It breaks easily with a slight touch.
Overview
Magcargo is a Pokémon that I have always wanted to like. The problem is that it just has too much working against it Its Speed is poor, its attacking stats are mediocre at best, its HP is poor and its Special Defense is mediocre, and its typing is just asking for it to get destroyed. What it does have is a movepool with a few awesome pieces in, as well as a beastly Defense stat of 120. Despite this, however, it still doesn't have much going for it. If you wish to surprise people, then sure go for it, but there are some better choices around
Positives
- Its Defense stat makes it somewhat useable.
- Thankfully, it resists the new Fairy-type.
- It can actually work well as a Support Pokémon
Negatives
- It has a 4* weakness to two of the most commonly used types in the entire game: Water & Ground, as well as a weakness to Fighting
- Its stats, other than Defense, are just utterly dire
- It's just not that good in general
Abilities
Magma Armor:This Pokémon cannot be FREEZE condition while having this ability. - This is somewhat useless of an ability. Who would use an Ice-type move on a Magcargo? It's useful if you're hatching eggs and don't have a Talonflame, though.
Flame Body: The opponent has a 30% chance of being induced with BURN when using an attack, that requires physical contact, against this Pokémon. - Now this is better. If a move makes physical contact, which is likely if you're against a Fighting-type Pokémon, that Pokémon may be burned. So, even though Magcargo may not survive the hit, you have a chance of destroying that Pokémon's capabilities
Hidden Ability (Available):
Weak Armor: When hit by an attack, the Pokémon's Defense is lowered by one stage but Speed is increased by one stage. - This ability is good in theory, but when used on Magcargo, whose only decent stat is Defense, you're not going to want to risk losing that one stat
Movesets
You can't go to Lumiose without trying out the Magcargo.
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic / Will-o-Wisp / Yawn
- Recover
- Lava Plume / Flamethrower / Hidden Power [Rock]
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Flame Body
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Bold or Calm Nature
This is the more common of the Magcargo sets and runs its unique support features. Stealth Rock is a decent enough move and can completely cripple many trainer's teams. Toxic and Will-O-Wisp both inflict brutal status afflictions; Toxic is more accurate and has an increasing damage, but Will-O-Wisp will halve the opponent's Attack stat so it's totally your choice. If you know you're going to go against a Physical team, go with Will-O-Wisp, hands down. Yawn is another option, but as it takes a couple of turns to activate, you may end up losing prior to its activation. Recover is self explanatory and can help Magcargo last longer, especially against physical opponents. Lava Plume & Hidden Power give Magcargo some decent moves with STAB, and prevent it from being destroyed by a Taunt. Lava Plume can also burn the opponent more often than Flamethrower, so that's always a plus side
Smashing the Snail Shell
- Shell Smash
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower / Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
Item Attached: White Herb / Leftovers /
Ability: Flame Body
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Bold or Calm Nature
This set is only if you want to be a bit reckless and try running an offensive Magcargo. This set is tricky to set up, due to the fact that you need Magcargo. If you wish to go full hog, then throw a White Herb on Magcargo and you'll negate the drop in defenses for the first use. However, this does cut into any potential boost you could get from any other item. With the +2 boost, Magcargo's Speed becomes passable and its Special Attack becomes brutal though, which is where the moves come in. Earth Power gives some decent strength coverage. Flamethrower & Fire Blast give you a choice, go for more accurate but less powerful, or for more powerful but less accurate. Hidden Power Grass can be very useful here, as well. Despite being weak, it'd be able to take care of the pesky Water & Ground-type Pokémon that threaten Magcargo so much.
Other Options
Ancient Power, Heat Wave, Overheat, Pain Split, Solar Beam
Ancient Power is a decent STAB move that also has the chance of boosting all your stats, although its low chance of occurrence as well as low PP makes this a risky option.
Heat Wave can be used instead of the other Fire-type moves, as it has decent power, and can hit all opponents in Double & Triple battles.
Overheat is powerful, but you can really only get off one hit before it destroys an already mediocre Special Attack stat
Pain Split can be used to help Magcargo recover, but is rather situational. If your opponent has low Hit Points, it's worthless
Solar Beam is good at taking out Water & Ground-type Pokémon, especially if you're in a sunshine team
Double & Triple Battle Options
Competitively, more often than not, Magcargo is dismissed in its entirety because of it's terrible defensive typing. x4 weak to Water and Ground doesn't make it attractive in the slightest. But is it possible that those weaknesses are concealing Magcargo's true power?
Base 30 Speed makes it slower than Kakuna, Base 50 HP means it has less hit points than Beedrill and Base 80 Special Attack means that Butterfree is hitting harder than it. Despite that, it does have a respectable Base 120 Defense. Base 80 Special Defense might not seem like anything to write home about, but Magcargo is part Rock, so in the sand its Special Defense gets a nice boost. Not exactly tanking Hydro Pumps, but the random Thunderbolt won't hurt it much.
Magcargo can't take an Earthquake nor can it stand up to rain teams aside from being "free switch" fodder.
With such a low speed, Trick Room seems to be the only way for Magcargo to land a hit without getting killed first. Sure it gets Shell Smash, but even at +2 speed it isn't going to outspeed the most common choice scarfers available, not to mention how risky Shell Smash is in doubles.
Rock and Fire do not compliment each other very well defensively, this doesn't mix well when said Fire/Rock is supposed to be defensive and slow. And unfortunately, Magcargo isn't just something you can splash on a team and expect it to work, Trick Room had enough to worry about without catering to a Pokemon with two x4 Weaknesses to very common attacking types.
Countering Magcargo
Special Attacks are key here. If you're going to go up against Magcargo using non-Super Effective physical moves, you're going to have a bad time. Go Special and take advantage of its mediocre stat. As stated earlier, Water-type moves and Ground-type moves are key here. Magcargo would be very lucky to survive a single hit from any of them so Surfers, Hydro Pumpers and Earth Power users are key here. Failing that, Magcargo is also weak to Fighting-type moves & Rock-type moves, though there aren't many Special moves for both of those types.
Locations in Games
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Evolve Slugma
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Mt. Ember
Colosseum/XD:
Snagged from Cipher Peon Kolest in Citadark Isle (XD)
Evolve Slugma (Colosseum)
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Stark Mountain
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Slugma
Black/White:
Transfer from Generation IV
Evolve Dream World Slugma
Black 2/White 2:
Transfer from Generation IV
Evolve Dream World Slugma
X/Y:
Friend Safari
Animé Appearences
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Magcargo has made a few appearances in the anime, most notably it is owned by Flannery, the Lavaridge City Gym Leader.
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