“We can go where we want to, a place where they will never find. And we can act like we come from out of this world, leave the real world far behind”
-The Safety Dance, Man Without Hats (remastered by Mega Crawdaunt & the Tree Mega Water Dancers)
HI guys, girls, aggressive lobsters and everything in-between! Its time, after being in second place for so long, we finally get to talk about the second Mega Water Dancer. As the ace of the Abyssal Clult leader (#RIP, you might be remembered), we now have to see if it is as strong as it pretends.
Be warned, since there is no competitive usage stats avaliable, I do not have any reliable ways to accurately predict the metagame. This analysis is theoretical and does not entirely reflect a Pokémon’s viability.
Typing, Stats, Abilities & Movepool
Water/Dark
Ability: Adaptability (Hyper Cutter/Shell Armour/Adaptability (DW) pre-mega)
Hp: 63
Atk: 145 (120)
Def: 95 (85)
SpA: 100 (90)
SpD: 85 (55)
Spe: 80 (55)
Mega evolution transformed this lobster into a FREAKING MASS DESTRUCITON MEAL! 145 Base ask + Adaptability? Holy Moly, anything that don’t resist dark and water is in big troubles. 80 speed is low when unboosted, but coupled with Dragon Dance, you got what it takes to be a deadly sweeper. Having a little bulk boost is also nice so it can actually survive special hits. Not that it won’t take a huge chunk of HP, but it can endure a resisted hit now.
It does not have the best coverage, having only Brick Break/Superpower and X Scissor of all things. Yikes. Meh, we wasn’t designed to do much else than spamming its stab.
Sets Suggestion
Crawdance
Crawdaunt @ Crawdauntite
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Knock Off
-Crabhammer/Waterfall
-Substitute
-Dragon Dance
Dragon Dance is the main reason to use Mega Crawdaunt in the first place. After one dance, it became extremely threatening and can dismantle a lot of teams. I recommend using Crabhammer as opposed to Waterfall for the higher bp and grits rate, but if the 10% accuracy drop is the thing that keep you up at night, quivering in fear, than Waterfall flinch chance and perfect accuracy might be more appealing. Substitute is used because of the number of switch it forces, prevent Para-Prankster like Thundurus to mess with behind the substitute and makes revenge killing a difficult task.
Other Option
Swrods Dance + Aqua Jet is feasible, but is somewhat outclassed by Mega Feraligatr because it the latter higher speed tier that allow it ti use something else than aqua jet most of the time. Superpower is usable, but missing out any of the proposed attacks is not desirable.
Good Teammates
- Grass types likes Crawdaunt being able to deal with Heatran and other fire types. In return, they handle bulky water that may be problematic.
- Amoonguss is an exceptional partner, as it resists Grass, Electric, Fairy and Fighting while Crawdaunt is immune to Psychic and cover few of Amoonguss’s checks. The dancing lobster love its partner dishing out spores and stun spores than makes it easier to setup.
- Psychic weak Pokémon as Breloom, Delta Tangrowth and Delta Hydreigon appreciate Crawdaunt Dark Stab.
- Flying types like Delta Blaziken and Tornadus-T deal with Mega Venusaur, one of Mega Crawdaunt’s major roadblock.
- As mentionned, Poison types works surprisingly well with Mega Crawdaunt due to their synergy.
Checks and Counter
- Hyper Voice Users can hits behind Crawdaunt’s substitute. Mega Gardevoir destroy and outspeed unboosted ones while Choice Scarf Delta Hydreigon still outspeed even at +1. They both need to worry about Aqua Jet though.
- Most common Choice Scarf users in Keldeo, Landorus-T and Garchomp outspeed +1 Crawdaunt.
- Faster Electric Types in Thundurus and Mega Manectric preven Crawdaunt from setting up and in Thundurus’s case, use a priority Thunder Wave when substitute is down to ruin the sweep.
- Hazards setters prevents Focus Sash shenanigans and weaken the opposing team to makes the sweep easier. Landorus-T, Clefable, Heatran, Skarmory and Klefky are good ones. Delta Registeel can use Molten Rocks if steel and grass types are problematic for the team.
- Priority from Delta Blaziken and Delta Arcanine are good ways of disposing of Mega Crawdaunt unless it got a sub up.
- Mega Venusaur resist Water and weaken Knock Off, although it isn’t very good on the long run.
- However, Mega Miloctic DOES work on the long run as it resist any move Crawdaunt car trow at it and OHKO with Moonblast to heal of the damages later. Kinda like every Mega Water Dancers.
Overall
Mega Crawdaunt is decently strong, don’t get me wrong, but its frailty and inexistent movepool makes it really hard to use. But when it shows on the Offensive teams it likes to be in, nobody should feel totally safe to see it on the team preview.
I know I should do a vote, but right now, I feel like you must wake up and understand just how BROKEN Keldeo is in this meta. So no vote this time, but rest assured, I will be doing a vote the next times.
Or maybe not for halloween… #foreshadowing.