Magcargo

[Blazen]

Type: Fire/Rock

HP: 50
Atk: 50
Def: 120
SpA: 80
SpD: 80
Spe: 30

Abilities:
Flame Body: 30% chance to burn Pokemon using contact moves on this Pokemon. Halves the number of steps required to hatch eggs.

Magma Armor: Cannot be frozen. Halves the amount of steps required to hatch eggs.

Breakable Armor (dream world only): When hit by a physical attack your defense decreases 1 stage, but speed increases 1 stage.

Weak/resist:
x.25: fire
x.5: normal, ice, poison, flying, bug
x2: fighting, rock
x4: water, ground

Moves (notables in bold, new in italics)

Level:

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Lv1: Yawn, Lv1: Smog, Lv1: Ember, Lv1: Rock Throw, Lv5: Ember, Lv10: Rock Throw, Lv14: Harden, Lv19: Recover, Lv23: Fire Burst, Lv28: AncientPower, Lv32: Amnesia, Lv37: Lava Plume, Lv38: Shell Break, Lv44: Rock Slide, Lv52: Body Slam, Lv59: Flamethrower, Lv67: Earth Power

TM/HM:

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TM06 - Toxic, TM10 - Hidden Power, TM11 - Sunny Day, TM15 - Hyper Beam, TM16 - Light Screen, TM17 - Protect, TM21 - Frustration, TM22 - Solar Beam, TM23 - Strike Down, TM26 - Earthquake, TM27 - Return, TM32 - Double Team, TM33 - Reflect, TM35 - Flamethower, TM37 - Sandstorm, TM38 - Fire Blast , TM39 - Rock Tomb, TM42 - Facade, TM43 - Nitro Charge, TM44 - Rest, TM45 - Attract, TM48 - Troll, TM50 - Overheat, TM59 - Complete Burn, TM61 - Will-O-Wisp, TM64 - Explosion, TM68 - Giga Impact, TM69 - Rock Polish, TM71 - Stone Edge, TM74 - Gyro Ball, TM78 - Smooth Over, TM80 - Rock Slide, TM87 - Swagger, TM90 - Substitute, TM94 - Rock Smash, HM04 - Strength

New Moves:

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Fire Burst: Special, Fire, 15 PP, 50 Power, 100 Acc, hits all targets

Shell Break: Other, Normal, 15 PP, raises Atk, SpA, Spe, lowers Def, SpD

Nitro Charge: Physical, Fire, 20 PP, 50 Power, 100 Acc, raise users Spe 1 stage

Complete Burn: Special, Fire, 15 PP, 30 Power, 100 Acc, Destroys opponent's berry.

Egg:

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Acid Armor
Heat Wave
Curse
SmokeScreen
Memento
Stockpile
Spit Up
Swallow
Rollout
Purgatory
Earth Power

Gen 3/4 notables:

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Stealth Rock (TM)
Iron Defense

Magcargo, Magcargo, Magcargo. Not much I can really say bout him. His sole good stat is his 120 Def. The problem is that his HP sits at a measly 50, and he's 4x weak to 2 of the most common types in the game. However this gen gives him 2 fun new tricks. Shell Break, and Breakable Armor. With these he will be able to boost his cripplingly low 30 speed through the roof fairly easily. The problem is finding a safe point to switch in, and set up. The new balloon item also helps eliminate one of his 4x ground weakness, albeit temporarily.


Sets:

Shrapcargo
Magcargo @ Balloon
Modest/Timid Breakable Armor
252 Spe, 252 SpA, 4 HP
Shell Break
Ancient Power
Flame Thrower/Lava Plume/ Fire Blast
Earth Power

Switch in on a ground move and start setting up. Fairly basic.

 

[Athena]

Magcargo, completely forgotten about in Gen IV. Fortunately, with it's new toys in Shell Break and Breakable Armor, it has potential to sweep, though shallow.

 

[Darkamber8828]

Oh fuck yes.

Step 1: Switch on Heatran/Choiced EQ (with balloon)

Step 2: Shell Break on the switch

Step 3: Sweep

Step 4: PROFIT

Slash Explosion somewhere on there, though. Perhaps over Ancientpower?

Also, Lava Plume is shit on a defensively weak poke with a cc drop.

Shell Break
Fire Blast/Flamethrower
Earth Power
Ancientpower/Explosion

[Smogon stamp of approval]

 

[Nastyjungle]

I'm not sure how well Breakable Armor will work on Magcargo. Most are going to be attacking him from the Special side anyways, and +1 SPE boost to a base 30 isn't all that much when you think about it; he'll have to take multiple hits- so switching in on a ground move might be deadly, even if balloon takes the first hit, he'll most likely be slower than the attacker, and 4x weakness to ground hurts a ton. He also has less than stellar SPA, his only usable attack stat with the only way to boost being Shell Break, making his good DEF go down, thus rendering Breakable Armor a little silly.

Also, I'm not sure you'd even get the Breakable Armor boost when getting hit with a ground attack with a Balloon, because the attack doesn't technically hit you. I'm not 100% on this, however.

 

[breh]

Such a pity that Magcargo has such meh SpA..

In any case I just noticed that every pokemon that learns Shell Break can learn a 100+ BP STAB move...

Also that last slot should be occupied by either Ancientpower (which is still a crappy STAB but still) or Hidden Power Electric/Grass (preferably the former)

 

[Nanoswine]

Balloon + Shell Break = Awesome

I think he should run Shell Break/Fire Blast/Earth Power/HP Grass. Otherwise bulky waters will put a stop to his sweep really easily. Something else kinda disappointing is even after a shell break with Timid 252 Spe he's only hitting 348. That means he gets outsped by positive natured base 110's, not something to really brag about when you're at +2 :/

 

[Blazen]

While I doubt that these new moves will bring him into OU, it may be enough to put him in the UU tier where he could be a powerhouse. I was thinking about another set involving Nitro Charge, so you can up speed without sacrificing Def

 

[Darkamber8828]

^No.

There are many better users of Nitro Charge, including almost every fire pokemon in the game. Not to mention it gets Rock Polish (which still sucks). 80 base spa without a boost isn't cutting it.

 

[Athena]

I'm not sure how well Breakable Armor will work on Magcargo. Most are going to be attacking him from the Special side anyways, and +1 SPE boost to a base 30 isn't all that much when you think about it; he'll have to take multiple hits- so switching in on a ground move might be deadly, even if balloon takes the first hit, he'll most likely be slower than the attacker, and 4x weakness to ground hurts a ton. He also has less than stellar SPA, his only usable attack stat with the only way to boost being Shell Break, making his good DEF go down, thus rendering Breakable Armor a little silly.

Also, I'm not sure you'd even get the Breakable Armor boost when getting hit with a ground attack with a Balloon, because the attack doesn't technically hit you. I'm not 100% on this, however.

Breakable Armor (dream world only): When hit by a physical attack your defense decreases 1 stage, but speed increases 1 stage.

Balloon provides a Levitate effect, therefore it is immune to ground type attacks until it is attacked, which means it is not hit. Switching Magcargo into a ground type attack does not activate Breakable Armor, because, as logic states, it is activated when it is hit by an attack, while Levitate makes a ground type attack miss.

 

[Nastyjungle]

Breakable Armor (dream world only): When hit by a physical attack your defense decreases 1 stage, but speed increases 1 stage.

Balloon provides a Levitate effect, therefore it is immune to ground type attacks until it is attacked, which means it is not hit. Switching Magcargo into a ground type attack does not activate Breakable Armor, because, as logic states, it is activated when it is hit by an attack, while Levitate makes a ground type attack miss.

Just as I suspected.

 

[Blazen]

Hows about a physical wall lead?

Magcargo @ Leftovers
Impish/Careful Flame Body
252 Def, 252 HP, 4 SpD
Stealth Rocks
Recover
Toxic
Explosion

 

[Thorhammer]

Explosion is a bad idea on any Magcargo set now that it's been nerfed.

 

[Green Thunder]

Hows about a physical wall lead?

Magcargo @ Leftovers
Impish/Careful Flame Body
252 Def, 252 HP, 4 SpD
Stealth Rocks
Recover
Toxic
Explosion

Outclassed by sturdy users also recover+explosion is kinda pointless ANNND explosion isn't good on most things any more because it doesn't have defense anymore. EDIT: ninja'd kinda...

 

[manetbo]

It seems like you could use him in double/triple battles. Pair him with a fast partner to attack him with a (weak/resisted) muliple-hit attack. If things happen like I think they do, then each physical hit of the multi-hit attack would boost his speed.

 

[SJCrew]

I don't think these new toys did anything to help the fact that he's inherently dreadful, both offensively and defensively. Even if there were a way for him to get +6 Speed in one turn, you're still going to have to try and sweep with 50/80 offenses.

Honestly, the only way you were going to get much use out of him in the first place was as a defensive check/support platform, and something like Solid Rock really would have been novel for that (even if mostly insignificant).

I guess now he's a bigger threat in NU?

 

[Blazen]

With a +2 offenses and speed from shell break, he should be able to decently sweep. The problem is getting the 2.

 

[BurningMan]

With a +2 offenses and speed from shell break, he should be able to decently sweep. The problem is getting the 2.

even with +2 in speed he will be too slow to sweep not to mention that 80 base SpA is pretty weak even with a +2 boost and outside of Fire Blast/Flamethrower/EarthPower his special attacking movepool sucks.

He will still be NU i guess, since together with Torkoal he is the worst user of Shellbreak.

 

[Wynought]

lowers Def?

Aqua Jet and Mach Punch say hi! Why would you even use this in the higher tiers?

 

[red12345]

Shell Break is very broken but magcargo manages to unbreak it with 30 base speed. Better luck next generation magcargo.

 

[Green Mage]

^Thank you. Someone finally put a stop to the ridiculous overhype.

Magcargo has 30 base speed. He's still getting outsped by practically everything after a shell break. He ain't sweeping a dang thing.

 

[Wynought]

If you were to use Marcargo to sweep then I'd probably opt for a Sash and try to troll some Physical attackers into giving me that Breakable Armour boost along side the Shell Break boost.

But it's abysmal Speed, shite Typing will lessen sweeping potential. It's a shame this isn't even effective in the lower tiers ):

 

[Blazen]

Defensively it is a horrible typing. I wish they had considered making it more offensively oriented. Even in a trick room team I don;t see him doing well since he has no way to effectively boost Atk.

 

[DiscoDucky]

Despite this, this is just more than a gimmick. Shell Break may increas its Attack, Special Attack, and Speed by 2 stages, it lowers its Defenses by 1, and with its horrible typing, which make it Weak to Water-type and Ground-type moves 4x, many Pokemon can actually surpass its bad boosted Speed, making it somewhat useful, but not useful enough.

 

[WizzleKidd]

WHY was my post deleted? all i said was fire/rock is a bad defensive typing.. whats the point of a forum if you have some over-sensitive moderator..

 

[Farewell]

He gets boosted by 2 weathers! Drought or Sandstream can make him better. Drought reduces his Water weakness, increases his Fire STAB, and gives him Solar Beam. Don't settle for HP Grass.

Sandstream gives him a Special Defense Boost, and hits foes that aren't Ground, Steel, Rock for damage each turn. This also means with a Special Defense boost, Shell Break's -1 SpD drop isn't as bad... Plus, since it is slow, the turn it will use Shell Break will be after getting hit, so it will have the defenses to survive the hit before using Shell Break.

Think of good items: Petaya Berry, Focus Sash, Salac Berry, Balloon, etc.

Instead of singling him out, think of what makes his sweep possible...

In UU, say Vulpix is UU, Ninetails and Politoad are OU, there wont be any rain teams because no pre-evo of Politoad has Drizzle.