Overview
########
Say hello to Medicham, (comma) a Pokemon which that has suffered in the lower tiers of competitive battling in the past but now has been gifted a new hope for its existence in the OU tier, due to a Mega Evolution. It has a fantastic ability, being Pure Power, which doubles its Attack stat. In Mega form, With a positive attack nature and maximum Attack investment, Pure Power boosts your Mega Medicham's Attack stat to an equivalent of heart-attack-inducing base 249. The actual attack stat being base 100. An Attack stat this high is only rivaled by pokemon such as Mega Mawile, LO/CB Kyu-B, and CB Azumarill; however, Mega Medicham is the fastest of these. The speed boost up to the 100 speed tier in Mega Form is amazing but it's not quite enough to be completely reliable. Additionally, Mega Medicham is the fastest user of Pure/Huge Power. Mega Medicham also has a good movepool that allows it to annihilate any type of foe, but suffers from four-moveslot syndrome. Unfortunately, though, Mega Medicham does suffer from chronic four move slot syndrome. Furthermore, It's its moves are have generally a mediocre Base Power aside from High Jump Kick, which has its own downfall in unreliability. Overall, Medicham is a powerful physical attacker worthy of a spot on any offensive team. Its fraility can make it difficult to switch in or mega evolve at times. Its best set-up move is Bulk Up. The attack boost is much appreciated, as always; although, the defense boost isn't quite significant enough to make a huge difference in how many hits it will take before Mega Medicham faints. Another issue is that Mega Medicham just has trouble setting up Bulk Ups. Ghosts are better than ever in this generation and are much more common, making it much more difficult to spam High Jump Kick. Mega Medicham is prone to being killed by priority. If not running Substitute, Mega Medicham requires a very heavy amount of prediction to be used to its fullest potential. I find all this about bulk up very pointless as it's not really even mentioned in the analysis. This is just far too wordy for an overview.
Mega Physical Attacker
########
name: Mega Physical Attacker
move 1: High Jump Kick
move 2: Fire Punch
move 3: Ice Punch / Zen Headbutt
move 4: Substitute / Bullet Punch
ability: Pure Power
item: Medichamite
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
nature: Jolly / Adamant
Moves
========
Mega Medicham boasts one of the highest Attack stats in the game, (RC) and a fantastic base 100 Speed to back it up, which Azumarril, Kyurem-Black, and Mega Mawile don't can't say. This set is built to simply to use all that power, as well as your movepool, to its fullest potential. High Jump Kick is used because it's simply Medicham's strongest physical STAB. While it is powerful, don't be reckless with it, as a Ghost-type switch-in or miss can be costly. We all wish Medicham got Close Combat due to High Jump Kick's unreliability but it's mostly not too bad, just be aware of enemy ghost types when using it. Fire Punch is used to annihilate Pokemon such as Aegislash, Trevenant, Gourgeist, and Skarmory that otherwise give you Medicham problems. If hitting Gliscor, Landorus-I, Landorus-T, or Dragonite (as well as reliably hitting Garchomp) is ever a concern for your team, Ice Punch is your the best way to deal with them. Zen Headbutt is a great STAB on Mega Medicham and it also allows Mega Medicham to hit Jellicent and physically defensive Mega Venusaur, who which normally takes very little from Mega Medicham's attacks, super effectively. It also lets you Medicham beat defensive Fairy-types such as Clefable and Sylveon and deal good damage doing a chunk to Azumarril. Substitute can be very useful to ease predictions as well as keeping Mega Medicham from being statused. Bullet Punch is a good option to allow Mega Medicham to function as a revenge killer and hit faster threats before they hit it you.
Set Details
========
252 Attack EVs are for you to get the most out of your Mega Medicham's monstrous Attack stat, (comma) while 252 Speed EVs are to help outspeed other offensive threats. Medichamite is essential for this massive Attack boost grants access to your Mega Evolution. A Jolly nature is to give you Medicham the maximum Speed possible to help ensure you'll it will outspeed certain Pokemon, (comma); although an Adamant nature can provide more power, enabling Mega Medicham to reach the impressive base 249 Attack. Overall, a Jolly nature provides more consistency at the cost of greater wallbreaking power. the power difference is noticable compared to an Adamant nature, the consistancy achieved from running Jolly is well worth the cost of power. However, an Adamant nature can be run to grant you that distinguishably high base 249 attack, making you a more consistant wall breaker but at the cost of being less consistant when dealing with other, more common, offensive pokemon.
Usage Tips
========
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 (U-turn, Volt Switch, etc). 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. your moves; otherwise, you have to bluff an attack in order to force a switch and if your opponent is smart, you can be punished for it in the manner of losing precious hp. Setting up a Substitute on prediction of a Ghost-type switch-in or faster fighting resist is key. Mega Medicham can deal its maximum amount of devastation to enemy teams if you're predicting switch-ins because a wasted turn can cost you a KO. If you try and pull great plays 100% of the time or try and overpredict, a smart foe can cause you to waste turns and you may never get the opportunity to do anything for the team. Using common sense and making the safe plays tends to come out with more gain than loss the majority of the time but to a certain extent; save the big, awesome plays for when they are absolutely necessary. Mega Medicham is faster than every wall, so attacking what's in front of you like, for example, a Heatran with High Jump Kick on the obvious Gliscor switch-in is perfectly acceptable.
I stopped checking this paragraph because it needs some work. It's convoluted and confusing, it just needs to be looked over.
Team Options
========
Good teammates for Mega Medicham are Volt-Switch / U-turning Pokemon because it doesn't like hard switching into attacks due to its fraility. Among Volt-turning Pokemon, Scizor is a great partner because Mega Medicham takes care of many Scizor checks. Such as? Rotom-Wash is also a great Volt Switcher 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. Mid- to late-game sweepers such as Lucario or Terrakion are great teammates for Mega Medicham because they can sweep with ease mid to late game after Mega Medicham has already broken down all the enemy walls.
Other Options
########
Thunder Punch can be used to hit Pokemon such as Slowbro, Azumarril, and Gyarados, (AC) but using this move sacrifices a ton of useful type coverage or the ever-useful Substitute. If you really want to use Mega Medicham as a sweeper, interchange the third or fourth moveslot for move slot 4 or move slot 3 from the original set for Bulk Up. The defense boost from Bulk Up is a waste, but ; however, achieving over 900 Attack is something that even some of the best physical sweepers that have access to Swords Dance (unbold) can only dream to have. Your opponent will also always usually expect Mega Medicham to be a wallbreaker instead of a setup sweeper. but then when you set up a Bulk Up it's a happy, "Surprise! You're screwed!"
Checks & Counters
########
**Slowbro**: Slowbro completely stops Medicham, taking nothing from all of Medicham's attacks and has Regerator and reliable recovery. Medicham can run Thunder Punch, but that isn't completely viable.
**Aegislash**: Aegislash can also come in on every move besides Fire Punch and threaten to either KO Medicham lower Mega Medicham's its Attack with King's Shield.
***Scarf Chandelure**: Choice Scarf Chandelure resists all of Medicham's moves outside of Zen Headbutt and can OHKO back with Shadow Ball.
**Common Priority Users**: Talonflame can revenge kill it with a priority Brave Bird, but it doesn't like switching into High Jump Kick. Likewise, Choice Banded Scizor and other common priority users can pick off a slightly weakened Mega Medicham
**Strong Choice Scarfers users**: Strong Choice Scarf users can revenge kill Medicham if they do not fear bullet punch, if not running Bullet Punch or if the opposing Choice Scarfer can easily stomach a Bullet Punch, will completely shut you down.
