Medicham, the Meditate Pokemon
“Every day, it sharpens battle skills by imagining itself fighting strong foes. It refuses to eat until it comes up with the perfect strategy in battles.”
Meditate is a Psychic-type move introduced in Generation I as a way to encourage trainers to stretch their body in exchange for a higher attacking power. Two generations later, the Hoenn region leads us to the perfect user of this move, Meditite, an adorable psychic monkey training on yoga. Fast forward to the modern Generation IX, Meditate unfortunately did not survive through Moveit, but Meditite is readily available in the Paldea region. Meditite can be spotted easily around the southern region of Paldea, with it being available as early as Level 20 in Province Four. Meditite is a reliable fighter, dishing out a steady output of Fighting-type damage. It even learns the strong Zen Headbutt at the early Level 25, which means it won’t really need to worry about not having the right moves to use. However, as Meditite would only evolve into the mentally and physically stronger Medicham starting at the late Level 37, trainers might want to hold off catching Meditite until they reach Province Six, where Meditite and even Medicham itself can be encountered at the early forties. Regardless, trainers will be stuck with the relatively weaker Meditite for the mid-game or directly obtain the powerful Medicham around Gym six. While Medicham definitely has an unfortunately late availability, it will prove itself with the trouble thanks to the pure power it brings.
At first glance, Medicham seems to be a pathetically weak Pokemon in terms of base stats, with its best attribute being a Base 80 Speed that isn’t even that impressive. Its base total of 410 points is so abysmal that it makes Sunflora’s 425 looks bright. Do not worry, as Medicham has more tricks up its yoga pants. Naturally, Medicham will come with the Pure Power ability, which doubles its Attack with no negative consequences. It isn’t exactly how it works, but for simplicity’s sake, Medicham’s base 60 Attack is basically doubled to a base 120 Attack. With that, Medicham’s firepower is at least on par with powerhouses like Quaquaval and Hariyama. In general, the more levels Medicham gains and the more EVs it receives, the more it will stand out in terms of physical power. Unfortunately, Pure Power cannot fix the rest of Medicham’s underwhelming stats, which means Medicham still has an overall subpar 60/75/75 bulk. It doesn’t quite exactly faint immediately in every battle, but it surely should not be tasked to take big hits. Thankfully, that base 80 Speed is enough to outspeed most foes in Paldea, making Medicham a good physical glass cannon. Being a dual Psychic/Fighting-type Pokemon, Medicham unfortunately does not outperform the newly buffed Gallade, who just happens to have the best synergy between its moves. That being said, Medicham still holds up to its own and is by all means a great candidate as a Psychic or a Fighting team member. Speaking of typing, Fighting and Psychic complement each other quite well, leaving Medicham with only three weaknesses. Make no mistakes, however, as Medicham is still not going to be a bulky tank whatsoever, and it won’t make very good uses of its Rock and Fighting resistances either. Its weaknesses to Flying, Ghost and Fairy also lead to unfortunate matchup against the third Elite Four member, the seventh Gym Leader and the fourth Team Star boss, which heavily limit Medicham’s late-game utility after its long-awaited evolution. On the bright side, its STAB options work well in the offense as well, since Fighting can pick up Steel-type and Dark-type Pokemon which would normally cause troubles for Psychic-type attackers. Ironically, Medicham’s biggest issue is fellow Psychic-type Pokemon, which are unfazed by Medicham’s types and easily plow through Medicham’s unimpressive special bulk. While Medicham’s dual typing works quite well, it also does not mind taking one of them off through Terastallization, since the brilliant mechanic brings Medicham’s attack power up to eleven. Which STAB-Tera Medicham wants depends on the need of the team, as well as which one comes naturally, since both of them can provide niche defensive utility in certain situations. Overall, Medicham is not the flashiest toy around Paldea, but its solid attributes will undoubtedly prove itself to be a valid physical attacker for teams that appreciate its Fighting/Psychic offenses. Just bear in mind Medicham is one of the few Pokemon that want to avoid its Hidden Ability at all costs, as Telepathy completely takes away Medicham’s uniqueness and is mostly useless anyways.
No offensive powerhouse can claim to be such without a wide selection of strong moves. Medicham takes pride in its kicking moves, and it would have already learned the powerful High Jump Kick by the time it evolves. High Jump Kick’s base 130 power, when doubled by Pure Power, is more than enough to knock out almost everything in sight. Just make sure not to click this move when a Ghost-type is around, and Medicham will be fine. Even if Medicham unluckily crashes from missing the move, it will probably have a second chance to fix things right. At Level 53, Medicham can change its kicking style to the brand new Axe Kick with a slightly lower power for an added chance of confusion. That being said, since Medicham is all about sweeping teams, it prefers having the stronger High Jump Kick most of the time. In fact, the immense power of High Jump Kick is the sole reason why Medicham stands out among the many Fighting-type Pokemon found in Paldea. While High Jump Kick is likely what Medicham uses most of the time, it will still need an auxiliary Psychic-type STAB. Zen Headbutt learned prior to its evolution will actually be Medicham’s only Psychic-type attack to use, and its relatively mediocre power is certainly disappointing. Medicham will mostly be clicking High Jump Kick or Zen Headbutt, and there really isn’t much need of extra moves. That being said, its STAB combinations will leave Medicham walled by most Psychic-type Pokemon and the rare Sableye or Spiritomb, so Medicham probably won’t mind filling its moveslots with some more offensive options. While Medicham has a colourful selection of attacks, none of them really help the Meditate Pokemon that much, and they are far away from being necessary coverage options. It learns all elemental punches right after evolution, with Thunder Punch and Ice Punch being extra handy for fighting Flying-type Pokemon, which would otherwise require the use of Rock Slide to deal with. Thief is Medicham’s most reliable way to counter Psychic-type Pokemon, but the low power leaves a lot to be desired. Fling is not exactly consistent, but it will bring a much stronger one-time nuke when equipped with a Big Nugget or even Hard Stone. Finally, Poison Jab is mostly useful for jabbing Fairy-type Pokemon that try to take advantage of Medicham’s Fighting typing. It is quite unfortunate to see that Medicham’s coverage options are all quite weak in power, making them not as effective. Because of that, Medicham may want to prioritize running boosting moves instead, with Bulk Up being an obvious choice available from an early TM. Medicham won’t be the best use of the Defense boost, but it will be much more comfortable facing physical threats with that move. For trainers who do not wish to use the Bulk Up TM, Medicham will be the stuck with the inferior Work Up or the unpredictable Acurpressure, though the latter can definitely be an interesting way to spice up adventures. Since Medicham struggles to fill up its four move slots, it can even free its final move for recovery purpose, with Recover being a steady option and Drain Punch being a decent utility without completely forgoing offenses. To sum it all up, Medicham actually has quite a wide movepool, but the moves it gets are not exactly ideal. Sure, Medicham learns some interesting support moves, but a Pokemon with an Ability called Pure Power really should be going purely offensive, right? Its coverage options are interesting to say the least, but their weak power means they are only good in specific situations. Granted, a Pokemon with great Attack to use High Jump Kick is far away from bad, but its one-dimension tactic will be quite disappointing for those who are looking for a more splashable team member. At the very least, if you need a good Fighting-type Pokemon and do not want to use anything else, Medicham will prove itself to be an effective meditator.
The land of Kitakami is well known for two things: Dark-type rivals and Poison-type titans. Medicham’s peculiar typing almost seems tailor-made for handling these two types of foes. Medicham is not perfect though, as Kieran runs many Flying-type on his team, most all things Medicham hates to see. Munkidori does not fear Medicham’s stats and easily overwhelms Medicham with its sheer offensive power. Overall, Medicham still find itself with more advantageous matchups than the bad ones. The real problem is, type advantages are not enough to save Medicham’s real flaws. Previously, Medicham’s subpar bulk is more or less seen as a mild inconvenience that doesn’t really get in Medicham’s way of sweeping opponents. However, the DLC wave brought a massive increase in power, defense and speed of opposing Pokemon, meaning that Medicham may not be able to outspeed that much without some investments itself. And if Medicham is not faster than its foe, then it will easily turn into the recipient of a sweep instead of doing the sweep itself. At this point, trainers will probably realize there are other more well-rounded Fighting-type Pokemon to be considered over Medicham. While Medicham is not dropping to Luvdisc-tier of bad, it is certainly sad to see a Pokemon with such potential to fall behind.
The Double Battles in the Blueberry Academy encourage trainers to develop interesting strategies by exploring synergy between Pokemon and moves. Medicham is fortunate enough to receive some tools, but it is quite lacking in the synergy department. Fake Out is one of the best moves in Double Battles, and Medicham has access to the move through the use of Mirror Herb. Having a Pure Power-buffed Fake Out is definitely nice, but it’s also quite a waste of Medicham’s potential. In fact, there are many other Fighting-type Pokemon that can provide a better Fake Out use thanks to their other utility, such as Hitmontop and Scrafty with their Intimidate. While Huge Power is a fantastic ability, the harsh environment in Blueberry Academy demands something that synergizes better with other Pokemon or moves, and doubling Attack simply doesn’t cut it. Eventually, Medicham finds itself an incredibly funny niche as a Huge Power Pokemon with Skill Swap, which is a silly but reliable way to enable powerful allies like Slaking. Medicham is somewhat decent in the majority of Canyon Biome and the Polar Biome but will suffer through other regions, especially the Coastal Biome boss fight. It will continue to struggle in the Area Zero expedition, since it is likely to be slower than the boss Pokemon and is completely walled by the second form of said boss. Thanks to its good matchups against Poison-type and Dark-type Pokemon, it is somewhat usable in the Epilogue, though it is still not the best Pokemon to use in Double Battles. Overall, Medicham remains its one-trick monkey status in the DLC of Scarlet/Violet, offering a powerful High Jump Kick and nothing much else. It is quite disappointing to see its lack of versatility, but at least Medicham proves itself to be good with what it is good at. Fortunate for Medicham, as it will be seeing its favourite game mechanic return soon, but a Paldea journey is perhaps not what it wishes the most.
Having a strong High Jump Kick has always been what saves Medicham from the Trubbish can, but that merit shines even brighter when Medicham is fighting alongside a group of Psychic-type Pokemon. Psychic is resisted by Steel, Dark and Psychic, and Medicham alone can solve the first two problems. Of course, Gardevoir or Hatterene can deal with Dark, while Rabsca can even hit Psychic on top of that. But handling the biggest two issues of Psychic coverage with one strong leg is just too good to pass up on. In addition, Medicham is one of the few physical attackers available and is one of the best ways to break physical walls like bulky Steel-type Pokemon. Of course, Medicham faces stiff competition in the form of Gallade, which is usually the go-to physical Fighting-type coverage found on mono-Psychic teams, and Medicham does not offer much outside of that High Jump Kick coverage. Do not worry, as Medicham can choose to back Gallade up for a doubled Fighting assault, and High Jump Kick is more than enough to justify a team slot against Fighting-weak opponents. Medicham has always been nothing more than an interesting typing combined with an incredibly high Attack, but that’s just exactly what it takes to be good on a Mono-Psychic adventure.
Honourable Mentions:
Physical: Counter, Low Kick, Trailblaze, Low Sweep, Brick Break, Body Slam, Reversal, Giga Impact, Tera Blast, Focus Punch (Teal), Upper Hand (Indigo)
Status: Reflect, Light Screen, Taunt, Pain Split (Indigo)
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