
[OVERVIEW]
Magearna boasts a wide array of sets and great typing, with resistances to Dark-, Fairy-, Psychic-, and Grass-type moves and immunity against Poison- and Dragon-type moves. Along with its impressive bulk, these attributes give it many setup opportunities, as well as making it a great switch-in to Pokemon like Tapu Lele, opposing Magearna, Latios, Latias, and Rillaboom. It also causes major mind games for opponents when trying to figure out the set. It has a great ability in Soul-Heart, which, along with the sheer power of its sets, allows it to snowball and get out of control rather quickly. Magearna does have some shortcomings, such as its weakness to Ground- and Fire-types, leaving it vulnerable to Pokemon like Nidoking, Cinderace, and Heatran. It also has a rather slow Speed stat that can be exploited easily by many Pokemon such as Cinderace, Landorus-T, Heatran, and Garchomp. Even after a Shift Gear boost, it's still outsped by Unburden-boosted Hawlucha, weather sweepers, and Choice Scarf Pokemon like Latios and Kartana, although the former struggles with being outpaced by Calm Mind sets. Magearna also has an issue with longevity due to its inconsistent healing methods in Draining Kiss and Pain Split, limiting its ability to switch in.
[SET]
name: Choice Specs
move 1: Fleur Cannon
move 2: Volt Switch
move 3: Focus Blast / Flash Cannon / Aura Sphere
move 4: Trick
item: Choice Specs
ability: Soul-Heart
nature: Modest
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Fleur Cannon serves as a very powerful move for Magearna to use, working in tandem with Choice Specs to shatter many defensive Pokemon. Volt Switch serves as a way of pivoting out of Pokemon that reliably switch into Fleur Cannon such as Toxapex and Blissey to gain momentum. Focus Blast allows it to hit Steel-types such as Heatran, Excadrill, and Ferrothorn, while Aura Sphere also hits them with more reliable accuracy but less power, which may be preferred for more consistency. Another move to consider is Flash Cannon, which is a great secondary STAB move that can be spammed to snowball out of control and deal great, consistent amounts of damage to Pokemon like opposing Magearna, Tapu Fini, Tapu Lele, and Calm Mind-boosted Clefable. However, in picking Flash Cannon, coverage against Steel-types is lost, making them more consistent switch-ins to Magearna. Trick enables Magearna to cripple walls like Ferrothorn, Toxapex, and Blissey with a Choice item, limiting their effectiveness and benefitting Magearna and its teammates.
Slowbro and Landorus-T pair very nicely with Magearna to serve as switch-ins for physical Fire-types such as Cinderace and physical Ground-types such as Garchomp and opposing Landorus-T, respectively. Slowbro can provide Future Sight support, being able to work in tandem with Magearna's attacks and leaving very few to switch in and withstand both. Both Slowbro and Landorus-T can pivot out of incoming Pokemon like Mandibuzz, Hydreigon, Latios, and Tornadus-T, allowing Magearna to safely come in and threaten them. Landorus-T appreciates Magearna's Volt Switch to gain momentum on Pokemon like Heatran, Blissey, and Toxapex, allowing it to bring in Landorus-T to threaten them out or set Stealth Rock. Other Pokemon like Garchomp, Cinderace, and Nidoking are all great partners that benefit from and pressure Pokemon that try to switch in on Magearna such as Fire-type Pokemon like Cinderace and Heatran, Steel-type Pokemon like Ferrothorn, Melmetal, and opposing Magearna, and Poison-types like Toxapex and Galarian Slowking; in return, Magearna can use Volt Switch on all of them and generate momentum for its respective partner. Cinderace especially forms a great offensive core with Magearna due to its offensive presence and ability to generate momentum for Magearna with its fast U-turn.
[SET]
name: Shift Gear + Calm Mind
move 1: Shift Gear
move 2: Calm Mind
move 3: Stored Power
move 4: Aura Sphere / Draining Kiss / Focus Blast
item: Weakness Policy / Life Orb
ability: Soul-Heart
nature: Timid
evs: 252 Spa / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Shift Gear allows Magearna to boost its Speed to outspeed Pokemon that can threaten it like Landorus-T, Cinderace, Garchomp, and Nidoking, while Calm Mind increases its Special Defense to take multiple special hits and boost further. This gives its Weakness Policy many opportunities to activate from special super effective attacks fired off by Pokemon like Moltres, Nidoking, and Heatran, giving Magearna additional boosts to its offensive stats. Life Orb can also be used to have immediate power in attacks for just a little HP loss, which can be more useful over Weakness Policy's situational boost. Stored Power lets it take advantage of all the aforementioned boosts. Focus Blast allows Magearna to hit Steel-types, while Aura Sphere hits them for less damage but more accuracy, which may be less preferred over the power Focus Blast provides. Draining Kiss is an alternative that is decently strong and recovers health for Magearna, increasing its longevity. The ability Soul-Heart allows it to start snowballing once boosted and get out of control.
Tapu Lele serves as a great teammate that can threaten Poison-types like Toxapex and provide Psychic Terrain to boost the power of Stored Power and protect Magearna against priority moves attempting to revenge kill it. Ground-type Pokemon like Landorus-T and Garchomp and Fire-type Pokemon like Cinderace and Heatran can also threaten and put pressure on Magearna's checks such as Blissey, Ferrothorn, and Heatran to give Magearna an easier time sweeping. Magearna also strives in hyper offense teams along with teammates like Cinderace, Tapu Koko, and Regieleki. The latter two can set dual screens and bring Magearna in safely with U-turn and Explosion, respectively, allowing it to set up more easily thanks to the damage reduction from the dual screens, including letting it take several physical super effective hits it couldn't take otherwise and giving it more opportunities to activate Weakness Policy.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
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Magearna can also utilize a set with Assault Vest that, alongside its great defensive typing and bulk, lets it give a solid backbone to teams and check Pokemon like opposing Magearna, Latios, Latias, Dragapult, and Tapu Lele. In addition, Choice Scarf can be used to get the jump on certain Pokemon like Cinderace, Garchomp, Tornadus-T, Kartana, Latios, and Latias. A Shift Gear + 3 attacks set can be used for more coverage options; these include Flash Cannon, which is a consistent and spammable STAB move, Ice Beam to hit incoming Ground-types, and Thunderbolt to take care of Pokemon like Toxapex, Corviknight, and Slowking. Thunderbolt can be replaced by Electro Ball, which takes advantage of the Speed boost from Shift Gear to fire off stronger hits than Thunderbolt against slower targets; however, Electro Ball is less consistent than Thunderbolt during matchups against faster Pokemon, making it unreliable as a coverage option.
Checks and Counters
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**Fire-types**: Fire-types resist both of Magearna's STAB moves and can take hits from its coverage moves very well. Cinderace can take any hit from Magearna if it is healthy and threaten it back with a super effective Pyro Ball. Heatran can take most hits very well, with the exception of Focus Blast, and threaten back with Magma Storm or Lava Plume. Volcarona can also take hits from Magearna and use Quiver Dance, using it as setup fodder.
**Toxapex**: Resisting both its STAB moves and having access to Haze, Toxapex gives Magearna a hard time to get around, although it does not like taking repeated Volt Switches from Choice Specs Magearna or Shift Gear-boosted Electro Balls.
**Specially Defensive Pokemon**: Some Pokemon have a lot of special bulk, making it difficult for Magearna to break through them. Blissey can take hits from Magearna relatively well and chip it down with Seismic Toss or slow it down with Thunder Wave. However, Blissey struggles with taking boosted Draining Kisses and can't deal enough damage back. Galarian Slowking is another Pokemon that can take hits from Magearna well and retaliate with Flamethrower or threaten it with a Scald burn; however, if Magearna accumulates multiple boosts, Stored Powers can overwhelm it. Blissey also doesn't appreciate being given a Choice item through Trick.
**Steel-types**: Steel-types resist most hits from Magearna, only fearing Focus Blast and Aura Sphere. Excadrill can take one hit well, only fearing Focus Blast to OHKO it and threaten back with an Earthquake. Ferrothorn can also chip Magearna down thanks to Leech Seed and Body Press and can even paralyze it to let faster Pokemon revenge kill it.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Aurodian, 483087]]
- Quality checked by: [[Stareal, 481219], [ausma, 360720]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Milak, 262594], [username2, userid2]]
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