Taking a look at Mega Cacturne

Battle Simulator Meta Discussion
1

Aight People, welcome to the segment, where I voice my opinion on the internet only to get bashed 10 minutes later.

So… Mega Cacturne. Cacurne in the current metagame is NU, which places it much higher than the other pokemon that are getting megas in insurgence.

Overview

Cacturne in general can learn 52(I think?) moves and has a h balanced Physical and Special Attack of 145, putting on par with Mega-Sceptile in Special Attack and Mega Lucario in Physcial Attack. This allows a nice opportunity for a mixed set or a physical moveset. The reason why a Special Moveset is not recommended is due to Cacturne (allegedly) not getting Dark Pulse, or any other Special Dark type moves. The Speed Boost ability makes the quite horrible base 75 speed go up to an above average 112.5 base speed, allowing it to outspeed Pokemon such as Mega Lucario, making it a fast sweeper after a protect or spiky shield, making protect or SS a must need for an offensive cacturne. Tanky cacturne won’t get you far, as base 70 base for Special and Physical Defence is very weak compared to other megas.

In my opinion, a Physical M-Cacturne should have a moveset like this:

-EVS: Attack: 252, Speed: 252, HP: 4

  • Nature: Jolly/Adamant (If you want to outspeed pokemon, do Jolly but if you want to hit harder, do Adamant)
  • Spiky Shield (To hurt most physical attackers when they try to attack turn 1)
  • Seed Bomb (Standard Physical Grass Attack, STAB)
  • Sucker Punch (Good base power and can counter some priority moves such as Mach Punch*, STAB)
  • Low Kick (Countering Most Heavy Steel Types such as M-Aggron [a 3-5 shot], and other Heavy Mons such as Groudon or Snorlax)
  • Or: Drain Punch (Recover HP, and with okay Base Attack)

Mixed M.Cacturne Set:

  • EVS: Special Attack: 252, Attack: 252, Speed: 4

-Nature: Hasty/Naive (Hasty Lowers Special Defence as Naive Lowers Physical Defence and both raise speed)

  • Spiky Shield (Must Have)
  • Energy Ball (STAB and pretty nice base damage)
  • Sucker Punch (Good base power and can counter some priority moves such as Mach Punch*, STAB)
  • Low Kick or Drain Punch (Coverage for Ice moves and countering steel-type Pokemon)
  • OR Nasty Plot to set up when seeing the chance
  • Or Focus Blast for a more powerful Attack

Conclusion

Mega Cacturne is a Beast when it comes to pure attack and it’s speed is on par with Mega Lucario after one protect. Howver, the main problem with Cacturne is that is is a Glass Cannon. A Very powerful at that, but still probably can only last around 3 neutral hits at most, as well as being 4x weak to U-Turn, making the team loose momentum when it gets killed off by a u-turn turn 2.

Extra: Leave your comments in the Comments and your ideas too

2

I agree with your movesets and thoughts about Mega Cacturne, but the only downfall is thats it’s 4x weak to U-turn. Every good team in the OU tier have to have atleast 1 mon with U-turn, whether that might be Talonflame, Landorus-T, Scizor etc. So I feel that Mega Cacturne will pose as a huge threat in the lower tiers. But if it drops to UU or lower then it will definitely need to be nerfed. 145 atk and sp. atk with speed boost is op.

3

That’s why I think it should be BL. (Banlist for UU but not entirely on OU)

4

I’d run max Speed on Mega Cacturne’s mixed set as without much Speed investment it won’t be outspeeding many of the threats it can outspeed at +1 with a Hasty or Naive nature, such as Mega Lucario. While that does mean it won’t hit as hard on the physical or special side, it allows it to be more of a threat overall by being faster.