Kangaskhan

[Stratos]

DO NOT discuss tiering-related concerns in this thread or you will be infracted (this means no talking about banning it, we have another thread for that)

Kangaskhan Analysis

This is a discussion thread for all things Kangaskhan-related. Some ideas for discussion topics are:

• What sets do you like to run / have you tested out on Kangaskhan?
• What teams do you like to run Kangaskhan on, and with what partners?
• What do you use to check Kangaskhan?
• What effect does Kangaskhan have on the meta, in your opinion (avoid saying "it has a good/bad effect" please)
• Anything else Kangaskhan-related! :)

Don't feel the need to address all of these if you post here—in fact, I'd kind of rather you not, just let discussion flow naturally. These are just ideas. Happy posting!

 

[Haruno]

I'M SORRY DQUAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sableye @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Feint
- Fake Out

Recently a set D-Quag has been trying lately that I shamelessly stole decided to try out was support sableye and I must say it provides interesting results since although it might look like shit and be considered near unviable, it has a powerful support movepool and prankster to captalize on it. Set should be self explanatory, sableye is essentially impossible for standard kanga to break while not being deadweight on teams that don't have it since it dicks around with physical attackers in general.

ps if you want ez wins against finally use this sableye set.

 

[youngjake93]

252 HP with Double Edge+Sucker Punch+PuP is my favorite Kanga set by far. The 20% dmg boost over Return is worth it imo since you're likely only to take about 25% recoil dmg per KO due to that nice 105 base HP with max investment. The extra 18% bulk from the HP investment goes a long way as well, while the 100 speed tier is so convoluted that I'd prefer to not risk the speed ties or losing to timid/jolly mons unless I feel that my opponent needs a surprise from me going outside of my norm with max speed Kanga. One little tip to using slow Kanga is Inner Focus>Scrappy so you can Fake Out the partner of opposing Kanga even if they know you're slower if you don't mega-evolve.

I have tried Crush Claw, Ice Punch, Crunch, Fire Punch and Body Slam all for the heck of it. Body Slam is actually pretty great at inducing paralysis. You can expect to get 2 paralyses if you fire off 4 Body Slams before kicking the bucket, so that's cool. Crush Claw rarely isn't outclassed due to much lower dmg output but it can be interesting when paired with another physical attacker since it has a 25% chance of leaving the mon at -2 Def and 50% chance at -1. Ice Punch is almost exclusively for Lando-T but it also has a side benefit of 19% freeze chance on Ice-weak mons while dealing almost the same dmg as Return(if paired with Double-Edge instead of Return it can be worthwhile to avoid recoil too). Fire Punch is similar to Ice Punch by hitting Aegislash and also having 19% to burn(its bad). Crunch is your best option against Ghosts but you're pretty much screwed against Ghosts built to beat Kanga anyway so might as well avoid it imo.

Terrakion is my favorite check to Kanga because its good at so many other things in this meta as well, but really Sableye is so damn good at the job it is amazing. Sableye(and other ghosts) also has that immense benefit of being immune to Fake Out, so Kanga can't do its usual "lemme just hit you with Fake Out while I safely switch in a check" routine which usually patches up its lack of Protect.

 

[Bughouse]

My personal favorite check to Kanga is not Terrakion, but rather Keldeo because of how it can't be played around so easily with Intimidate switch ins. Terrakion is super reliable at taking down Kanga and is undoubtedly good in this meta, but being bad against several super common switchins that Kanga will switch out to like Landoge and Aegislash is just a huge bummer.

Sableye is interesting, but that set just seems so awful if your opponent can decipher your moveset. Like... what is it even going to do against any Fire type or special attacker? I'd probably want to get Encore and Foul Play on there instead of Taunt and Feint.


EDIT: LOL that time when I thought Sableye learned Encore... my bad...

 

[Mizuhime]

As some of you may now i've been testing a set recently, to little success but that's because the rest of the team is kind of bad. Ice beam + Fire blast Kanga. Obviously I could run Ice and Fire Punch, but the mons those hit have intimidate (Mawile, Landorus-t) or Rough Skin/ Iron barbs (Chomp, Ferrothorn) and would damage me in the long run. With 0 investment Ice beam can OHKO all the mons it needs to while fireblast misses the KO on Ferrothorn, but you'll still be able to catch them on the switch. Obviously this set is acting like a lure more than anything. Another set that I really like is Adamant Kanga with Hammer Arm. Hammer Arm is a much better move than PuP is imo, as it allows you to kill other Kanga and Tyranitar rather than just chipping away at them.

One of my most iconic teams has Kangaskhan as the meta, but the team was made with the idea to use a fast fake out mon so Sylveon could do damage without taking a hit on the first turn. Choice specs Sylveon kind of owns. The rest of the members of the team sort of just do damage and blanace out the typing synergy. I find that Kangaskhan on that team is nothing more than a fake out user. As it over ends up just staying in until it dies, and it usually gets burned long before that. The synergy that Sylveon + kanga have is great, since bad players just bring in their intimidate mons on Kanga because they're terrified of it, and quickly die to Sylveon.

I know this is going to sound kind of lame and bitchy, but I generally don't build my teams worrying about Kanga, more so just outplay my opponent when they have one. There is numerous amounts of checks to Kanga, many of which I don't use lol. Ferrothorn, RH Chomp, Sub Aegislash, Faster Mons, Intimidate mons, ghosts, mons that can burn it... and so on. Another way to deal with kanga is a smart double target, it's really just that simple. Obviously not many mons can ohko Kanga but generally from what i've seen Kanga is not hard to play around at all. It's actually quite simple.

 

[Pocket]

SPL has a wealth of logs displaying the versatility of Kangaskhan.

Nollan vs Zach - here Nollan uses a more supportive set with Body Slam - Ice Punch - Drain Punch - Protect (ironically no Fake Out) versus Zach's classic Kangaskhan + Togekiss combo. -1 Ice Punch scored a clean KO on Landorurs-T, which gave Chandelure and Garchomp some more breathing room.

R Inanimate vs Biosci - Funnily enough another Togekiss + Kangaskhan team on both sides x_x. Except Biosci replaced Sucker Punch for Crunch to inflict heavy damage on Dusclops after PuP boosts (damn WoW miss :(). Randy in the other hand, replaced PuP for Hammer Arm, allowing MKanga to take advantage of the -2 speed drop in Trick Room (although still not slower than 0 spe iv Brave TTar and under).

R Inanimate vs kingofmars - This is where you get to see Facade Kangaskhan in action :d. On Randy's team, where a lot of his mons are susceptible to status, Facade is actually not a shabby option. Would be interesting to make a team that pairs Kangaskhan with a Toxic user to activate Facade at will (and block burns, paralysis, and sleep in the process :d)

 

[Nollan]

Nollan vs Zach - here Nollan uses a more supportive set with Body Slam - Ice Punch - Drain Punch - Protect (ironically no Fake Out) versus Zach's classic Kangaskhan + Togekiss combo. -1 Ice Punch scored a clean KO on Landorurs-T, which gave Chandelure and Garchomp some more breathing room.

For the record, the Kangaskhan I used was really meant to bluff Fake Out while using its better coverage (super-effective coverage that is) to punch holes in the opposing team and definitely wouldn't be as effective if the opposing player knew the set. Additionally, Protect was nice given that Kanga has a talent for getting double targeted.

 

[AuraRayquaza]

SPL has a wealth of logs displaying the versatility of Kangaskhan.

R Inanimate vs Biosci - Funnily enough another Togekiss + Kangaskhan team on both sides x_x. Except Biosci replaced Sucker Punch for Crunch to inflict heavy damage on Dusclops after PuP boosts (damn WoW miss :(). Randy in the other hand, replaced PuP for Hammer Arm, allowing MKanga to take advantage of the -2 speed drop in Trick Room (although still not slower than 0 spe iv Brave TTar and under).

i actually tried this and found that at -2, mega kanga can outpseed brave 0 iv ttar in tr with an adamant nature and 22 speed ivs. it can also underspeed brave 0 iv conkeldurr with brave nature and 5 speed ivs. this could be useful in clutch situations where you have to stay in on a conk and hit it with a return.

 

[Pocket]

It's impossible for Mega K to be slower than Conkeldurr :0 At 0 Spe IVs, Brave Kangaskhan hits 184 Speed. That's 92 Speed after Hammer Arm, which is still higher than Brave Conkeldurr's 85 Speed with 0 Spe IVs. Your 5 Spe IV Kangaskhan does manage to outslow Mega Ampharos / Mega Mawile, though, which is probably the lowest threshold it can pass; it's still a legit suggestion.

 

[AuraRayquaza]

It's impossible for Mega K to be slower than Conkeldurr :0 At 0 Spe IVs, Brave Kangaskhan hits 184 Speed. That's 92 Speed after Hammer Arm, which is still higher than Brave Conkeldurr's 85 Speed with 0 Spe IVs. Your 5 Spe IV Kangaskhan does manage to outslow Mega Ampharos / Mega Mawile, though, which is probably the lowest threshold it can pass; it's still a legit suggestion.

i see now. my mistake. i did remember it underpseeding something but it seems i got the wrong poke. i still find hammer arm a cool move though, actually providing solid coverage over steel types/rock types

 

[meowmixmax]

What is a good lead to use when my opponent leads with Khan and a Defiant user? My go to lead is usually something like Landorus T and Aegislah but they both have an extremely hard time against this lead.

 

[AuraRayquaza]

Two pokes that beat this core with ease are terrakion and keldeo. They OHKO both pokes with LO close combat/secret sword and have quick guard to stop fake outs/sucker punches. Generally, leading with a fighting type poke is a good option (but not scrafty or hitmontop, as they give bisharp a boost), as they can easily OHKO either poke.