Overview
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Say hello to Medicham, a Pokemon that has suffered in the lower tiers of competitive battling in the past but has received new hope for its existence in OU due to its Mega Evolution. It has a fantastic ability, Pure Power, which doubles its Attack stat, boosting it to an equivalent of base 249 with a positive nature and maximum Attack investment. Additionally, Mega Medicham is the fastest user of Pure / Huge Power and Medicham also has a good movepool that allows it to annihilate any type of foe. Unfortunately, it does suffer from four-moveslot syndrome, and its type coverage moves are generally lacking in Base Power aside from High Jump Kick, which has its own downfall in unreliability. Medicham also has very poor bulk and has susceptibility to all most all forms of priority and it competes with other physical Mega Evolutions like Mega Mawile and Mega Heracross. Still, Medicham is a powerful physical attacker worthy of a spot on any offensive team.
Wallbreaker
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name: Wallbreaker
move 1: High Jump Kick / Drain Punch
move 2: Zen Headbutt
move 3: Ice Punch / Baton Pass
move 4: Substitute
ability: Pure Power
item: Medichamite
evs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
nature: Adamant / Jolly
Moves
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Mega Medicham boasts one of the highest Attack stats in the game and a fantastic base 100 Speed to back it up, which Azumarill, Kyurem-B, and Mega Mawile lack. This set is built to simply use all that power to its fullest potential. High Jump Kick is used because it's Medicham's strongest physical STAB move. While it is powerful, don't be reckless with it, as a Ghost-type switch-in, miss, or well-timed Protect can be costly. Ice Punch is for hitting Gliscor, both Landorus formes, and Dragonite (as well as hitting Garchomp more reliably).
Zen Headbutt is a great secondary STAB move for Medicham and it also allows Medicham to hit physically defensive Mega Venusaur, which normally take very little from Medicham's attacks. It also lets Medicham beat defensive Fairy-types such as Clefable and Sylveon and deal good damage to Azumarill. Baton Pass is a nice option to use as it works very nicely with Substitute; you lose important type coverage, however you can simply pass Substitutes to an appropriate teammate that would beat Medicham, having lost type coverage, and the Substitute will provide free switch initiative. Thunder Punch can be used to hit primarily Slowbro, but it also achieves an OHKO on Azumarill, Talonflame and Gyarados, but using this move sacrifices more useful type coverage. For the last slot, Substitute can be very useful to ease prediction as well as keeping Medicham from being crippled by status. Fake Out is also a good option for repeated chip damage, a guaranteed flinch against a big threat, breaking sturdy or focus sashes, and granting you the ability to safely Mega Evolve. If you want, you can also use a set with High Jump Kick, Zen Headbutt, Ice Punch, and Thunder Punch for maximum coverage. Fire Punch can be used to OHKO Scizor, have a 100% realiable means of killing Skarmory and Excadrill, and not have to worry about using High Jump Kick against Ferrothorn with the possibility of Ferrothorn using Protect, but you miss out on a lot of type coverage with using Fire Punch.
Set Details
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Medichamite is essential for the all-around massive stat boosts achieved by the Mega Evolution. Adamant nature is preferred as it gives Medicham the ability to achieve a guaranteed 2HKO against physically defensive Clefable. 240 Speed evs are used because this way Mega Medicham will outspeed Jolly Pinsir before he Mega Evolves and you can easily live a Quick Attack if you haven't received prior damage; 252 speed evs are not used as the final 12 evs are conpletely arbitrary. The situation is rare, but it may be useful to get a free KO.
Usage Tips
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Mega Medicham is basically a nuke, but it has trouble switching into battle, so your team should have ways to bring it in safely, such as U-turn or Volt Switch users. Successfully setting up a Substitute is instrumental to doing heavy damage with Mega Medicham since you don't have to predict as much; Medicham can attack much more freely when it doesn't fear a potential OHKO in return. Setting up a Substitute on the prediction of a Ghost-type switch-in or faster Fighting resist is key. Mega Medicham can deal the maximum amount of devastation to enemy teams if you're setting up a Substitute when you predict the enemy to switch out into another Pokemon or hitting a predicted switch in for the most possible damage. It is also advised not to use Sand-setting Pokémon in conjuction with Medicham as Medicham doesn't have any means of recovery and it's very frail so it's best to attain as much HP as possible.
Team Options
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Good teammates for Mega Medicham are Pokemon with access to U-turn or Volt Switch because it doesn't like hard switching into attacks due to its frailty. Among Pokemon found on VoltTurning teams, Scizor is a great partner because Mega Medicham takes care of many checks to Scizor. Rotom-W is a great Volt Switch user that is capable of stomaching attacks from common priority users that want to pick off Mega Medicham and retaliate by crippling it with a burn. Rotom-W and Landorus-T both have good synergy with Medicham, have access to Volt Switch and U-Turn, respectively, and also are very importantly take care of Talonflame, Mega Pinsir, and Staraptor so Medicham doesn't have any troubles with them. Mid- to late-game sweepers are great teammates for Mega Medicham because they can sweep with ease after Mega Medicham has already broken down the opponent's walls.
It should be noted that Mega Medicham is average speed-wise, making it vulnerable to revenge kills from faster threats. A good way to amend this somewhat (at least for grounded threats) is by pairing it with a Sticky Web user; Smeargle and Shuckle are good users depending on the team. Another way of getting around the speed problem is by using Prankster Thunder Wave Thundurus; not only is Thundurus naturally quick and can check and KO some of Mega Medicham's most common checks such as Talonflame and Mega Pinsir, but it can also use its priority Thunder Wave to slow down absurdly faster threats for Mega Medicham to pick off. Together, both Mega Medicham and Thundurus make a devastating offensive combination, only stopped by their frailty. Talonflame is a fantastic offensive partner because Medicham opens up a sweep for SD Talonflane by obliterated its counters and Talonflame also easily beats Clefable, a pretty annoying Medicham check. Latias is a good teammate because it can take on make pokemon that can revenge kill Medicham. Healing Wish Latias also allows you to play much more aggressively and not worry as much about taking damage from High Jump Kick because Latias can heal that off with Healing Wish. Lastly, Dark-types in general are good partners for Medicham so you can beat bulky Psychic-types, especially Mew. Bisharp and Choice Scarf Tyranitar are exceptional picks for this role as they can also trap Psychic-types for a free kill with Pursuit. The Lati@s are also very common checks, although checks at best, thus Ferrothorn, Clefable, and Heatran are good teammates to dispose of them.
All-Out Attacker
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name: All-Out Attacker
move 1: High Jump Kick
move 2: Zen Headbutt
move 3: Fake Out
move 4: Bullet Punch / Ice Punch
ability: Pure Power
item: Medichamite
evs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
nature: Adamant / Jolly
Moves
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High Jump Kick is the compulsory STAB move on this set as it is Medicham's main move for nuking, just be careful when using it against Pokémon that might carry protect or if the enemy has a ghost type switch-in. Zen Headbutt is the secondary STAB move for Medicham because it enables Medicham to hit physically defensive Mega Venusaur, which would otherwise wall you and it also allows Medicham to 2HKO any bulky Fairy-Type that attempts to resist High Jump Kick. Fake Out and Bullet Punch together composes pretty powerful priority with Medicham's God-like Attack stat, which is very useful against quicker offensive teams that normally very much trouble Medicham. Ice Punch can be used over Bullet Punch to allow you to beat Celebi, Gliscor, and Landorus-T, have a 75% chance to OHKO Dragonite through Multiscale, and OHKO the Lati@s on the switch, but Fake Out alone can sometimes end up being a bit too weak to get the job done.
Set Details
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Again, Medichamite is the mandatory item for the all-around massive stat boosts achieved by the Mega Evolution. Adamant nature is still preferred to enable Medicham to achieve a guaranteed 2HKO against physically defensive Clefable. Lastly, 240 Speed evs are still recommended since Mega Medicham will outspeed Jolly Pinsir before he Mega Evolves and Mega Medicham can easily live a Quick Attack if it hasn't received prior damage; 252 speed evs are not used as the final 12 evs are conpletely arbitrary. The situation is rare, but it may be useful to get a free KO.
Usage Tips
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This Medicham set plays quite similar to the Wallbreaking set; however, the added priority is useful against offensive teams, but less type coverage means defensive teams will have an easier time stopping you. It is also still greatly advised to use Medicham along with means of safely bringing it in due to being so frail and sand offensive still isn't advised so you don't get worn down so quickly, especially since this set won't run Drain Punch whereas the wallbreaking set might. This Medicham set is also an incredible anti-lead that can beat pretty much all of the most common leads and Stealth Rock setters other than Garchomp.
Team Options
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The team options advised for the wallbreaking set are just as advised for this set. However the type coverage of this set, or lack thereof, is limited to your dual STABs which means that Landorus-T, Gliscor, Slowbro, and Defensive Gyarados will completely shut you down, thus having teammates to handle these Pokémon is highly suggested.
Other Options
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If you really want to use Mega Medicham as a sweeper, interchange the third or fourth moveslot for Bulk Up. The Defense boost from Bulk Up is mostly arbitrary, but achieving over 900 Attack is something that even some of the best physical sweepers with Swords Dance can only dream to have. Your opponent will also usually expect Mega Medicham to be a wallbreaker instead of a sweeper. Recover can be used in stead of Ice Punch or Thunder Punch as those moves are not necessarily 100% obligatory to use on Medicham, and Recover works very well with Substitute. Recover will let you use more Substitutes, thus becoming a more long-term threat.
Checks & Counters
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**Bulky Psychic-types**: Mew, Cresselia, Stall Breaker Victini, and Slowbro completely stop Medicham, being able to stomach any of Medicham's attacks. However, while Thunder Punch is rare, it will let Medicham easily defeat Slowbro. The Lati@s can also check Medicham and they are faster and can KO with Psyshock. Physically Defensive Celebi is another check to Medicham as it will wall Medicham variants without Ice Punch.
**Ghost-types**:
Gengar naturally outruns Mega Medicham and can OHKO with its STAB Shadow Ball, but can't switch into Zen Headbutt or the elemental punches or risk being OHKOed. Their Ghost typings also greatly limits High Jump Kick, making use of said move extremely risky. Sabelye deserves a special mention as it can burn Medicham with a priority Will-O-Wisp and 2HKO with Foul Play. Medicham does 2HKO Sabeleye with a coverage move on the switch, but Sableye has priority Recover and if Medicham has a sub it can simply take a hit to break Medicham's sub and then burn Medicham. Physically Defensive Sableye though is a hard counter. Cofagrigas can also avoid being 2HKOed by Zen Headbutt and remove Medicham's Pure Power with Mummy.
**Revenge Killers**: Talonflame can revenge kill Medicham with a priority Brave Bird, but it doesn't like switching into any attacks besides Fire Punch at all. Likewise, Scizor, Bisharp, and other common priority users can pick off a slightly weakened Medicham as long as it isn't protected by Substitute. Strong Choice Scarf users can revenge kill Medicham, as long as Medicham doesn't have a Substitute up, pack certain priority attacks, or is supported by Sticky Web. Such examples of this include Landorus-T, Excadrill, Gardevoir, and Kyurem-B. Naturally faster Pokemon such as Greninja, Gengar, and Latios also apply.
**Landorus-T and Gliscor**: Physically defensive Landorus-T and Gliscor are decent checks to Medicham, since any Medicham set not using Ice Punch will get walled by these two Pokemon.
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