MEOWSCARADE STRATEGY IN COMPETITIVE POKÉMON

With the arrival of the ninth generation many things change in Competitive Pokémon . Many changes to abilities, movements, climates… And above all, we have a new trio of Starter Pokémon to incorporate into our teams.

Today we bring the new magician Pokémon, the plant jester, our writing’s favorite kitten: Meowscarada . Good stats, good moves and one of the best skills for the Competitive. Here we show you how to play this fantastic Pokémon.

? MEOWSCARADE’S STATS

His statistics add up to a total of 530 points , normal for a starter. Let’s see how they are distributed, which is interesting:

• Health: 76.
• Attack: 110.
• Defense: 70.
• Special Attack: 81.
• Special Defense: 70.
• Speed: 123.

Let’s start with its weaknesses. 76 Health is low and with 70 in each of its Defenses our Pokémon will fall if it receives a very effective hit. But this magician has many tricks.

110 Attack is great, we will hit very hard. But with 123 Speed ​​we will hit first against most non-legendary Pokémon (Dragapult is one of the few and is a pseudo-legendary). He is also the fastest of the Mutatipo trio, ahead of Greninja and Cinderace .

TYPE, RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES

Meowscarade is a Dark Grass Type , which gives it the following weaknesses and resistances:

• He is immune to Psychic and the Trickster ability (we explain it below).
• It is resistant to Water, Electric, Grass, Ground, Ghost, and Dark.
• It is weak to Fire, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Flying, and Fairy.
• It is very weak to Bug.

Immunity to Psychic is not too decisive, since it is a rare type. But its immunity to priority status moves using Pokémon with the Joker ability is very good. If a Grimmsnarl or Sableye  uses  a move against us (like Taunt) we will be immune to it.

His 6 resistances are fantastic, although we will see that with his ability he will be able to gain even more (losing some along the way).

And now we go with his 6 weaknesses. Although there are many, some are of rare types. Let’s see what they are and what Pokémon can be dangerous:

• Fire : A very tricky weakness. Pokémon like Skeledirge or Charizard are other starters that endanger our kitten.
• Ice : With gen 9 the Ice type has received changes and new Pokémon that can make this weakness very decisive. Keep an eye out for Pokémon like Cetitan for example.
• Fighting : A very common type in coverages. Highlight Quacaval who can do us very effective damage if we don’t eliminate him in time.
• Venom : Another rare type, but Venusaur has an uncomfortable Pokémon due to its high speed in Sol thanks to its ability.
• Flying : A very common type that will put us in danger very often. Keep an eye out for Pokemon like Togekiss or Salamence.
• Bug : This weakness is not very dangerous, but be careful with Scizor .

MEOWSCARA’S ABILITIES

Let’s now see their abilities and which ones could be interesting:

THICKNESS

As is customary with Grass-type starter Pokémon, Meowscarade has access to Wilderness. This ability boosts the damage of Grass-type movements by 50% when our Pokémon is at 1/3 Health or below.

And as usual, we will not use this ability in our sets.

MUTATYPE

Meowscarade rounds out the trio of starter Pokémon with Mutatipo (and its Libero counterpart). This ability changes the type of our Pokémon to the type of the movement that we are going to use, giving us STAB in said movement.

Since the 9th generation this ability has changed! It only gives us that type change ONCE every time we enter the field , resetting itself if we return to the Pokéball.

This is the ability that we will use, since its versatility and damage is great both defensively and offensively. Defensively it allows us to change our type to avoid that very effective hit from one of its weaknesses, which makes it very difficult to remove. It is not clear at the moment how this will interact with the Teracrystallization, we will comment shortly.

IVS, EVS AND NATURE

The perfect Iv’s, and we will see that we will use classic EV’s for an attacker:

• EV’s : The already standard 252 in Attack, 252 in Speed ​​and 4 in Health.
• Nature : We will carry Cheerful Nature (+Speed, -Special Attack).

RECOMMENDED ITEM

These are the objects that we recommend for Meowscarada:

• Vidasfera : Enhances the damage produced by 30% and damages our Pokémon for 10% of its life. A great alternative to still have high damage and retain versatility.
• Choice Scarf : Increases the Pokémon’s Speed ​​by 50%, but forces us to use only one movement. Meowscarade’s low defenses make attacking first a necessity, plus we’ll have a good singles strategy with our lower set.
• Focus Band : This object will leave us at 1 point of Health if an attack is going to weaken us with 100% Health.
• Expert Tape : This item increases the damage of super effective attacks by 20%. It gives us great synergy with Mutatipo, having a lot of versatility.

FLOWER TRICK: HIS SIGNATURE MOVE

• Type: Plant.
• Physical.
• Power: 70.
• Precision: 100.
• Effect: Always hits critical and never misses.

This move is outrageous. Assured Critic is much better than it seems. Not only is it much more damage, crits ignore defense boosts from opposing Pokémon. It’s one of the best moves for an attacking Pokémon, especially since it can’t miss.

BEST MOVES FOR MEOWSCARADE

The cat Pokémon has many moves. Here we recommend the ones we liked the most:

• Floral Trick : His favorite Plant STAB as we have already seen above. It is very effective against Water, Rock and Ground. For those threats like Palafin Hero, Tyranitar , or Garchomp .
• Disarm : Dark STAB, Physical, 65 Potency, 100% Accuracy, and removes item from opponent. Very effective against Ghost and Psychic. Our very effective damage against Pokemon like Skeledirge, Hatterene , or Chandelure .
• Round Trip : Bug, Physical, 70 power and 100% accuracy. The Pokémon returns to the Pokéball after attacking. It does not hit badly and in a confrontation against another Meowscarada we will hit it 4x. It is very effective against Grass, Psychic and Dark. It gives us an answer for Pokemon like Kingambit. It is also our way of pivoting to restart our Mutatipo.
• Carantoña : Fairy, Physical, 90 power and 90 precision, with a 10% drop in one level of the opponent’s attack. Our answer for Dragon, Fighting, and Dark-types. Pokemon like Salamence and Dragonite .
• Thunder Fist : Electric, Physical, 75 power and 100% accuracy. Has a 10% chance to paralyze the target. It is our coverage for Water and Flying, with the latter type being the important one for this move. Pokémon like Corviknight or Gyarados won’t wait for the damage we can do to them with this move.
• Low Kick : Fight, 100% accuracy. Very effective against Steel, Ice, Normal, Rock and Dark. This coverage is great against troublesome Pokemon like  Ferrothorn , Duralodon , or Zacian . The power depends on the Weight of the Target Pokémon:
  • From 0.1 to 9.9 kg 20 power.
  • From 10 to 24.9 kg 40 power.
  • From 25 to 49.9 kg 60 power.
  • From 50 to 99.9 kg 80 power.
  • From 100 to 199.9 kg 100 power.
  • More than 200 kg 120 power.

• Taunt : Dark, Condition, 100% accuracy. It makes the enemy Pokémon only able to use Fighting Moves, so if it uses Status Moves, it will miss. It’s our way of avoiding getting Tricked (or other status moves) that would put our Meowscarade in trouble.
• Trick : Psychic, Status, change the item equipped on our Meowscarade for the opponent’s. This is our way of breaking many Pokémon.

MEOWSCARADE STRATEGIES

The Wizard Pokémon is capable of dealing a lot of damage, and its versatility makes it very difficult to predict. Let’s see how we can get the most out of it:

MEOWSCARADE ATTACKER (SINGLES)

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 252 Attack, 4 Defense, 252 Speed.
• Nature: Cheerful.
• Item: Choice Scarf / Life Orb (if you’ve already used Scarf on another).
• Ability: Mutatetype.
• Movements:
  • Flower Trick.
  • Disarm/Trick.
  • Sweetheart/Thunder Punch.
  • Round trip.

The choice between Disarm and Trick is up to the consumer (Trick is better against tanks to disable them, but Disarm gives us a STAB offensive move and more cover).

Sweetheart or Thunder Punch depends on how we cover the rest of our team, but Thunder Punch is usually a better option to cover us from the very annoying Flying-types.

Finally Round Trip is our way of returning to the Pokéball when our Mutatipo does not give us perfect damage against the rival, or we want to protect ourselves.

MEOWSCARADE ATTACKER (VGC DOUBLES)

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, and 4 Health.
• Nature: Cheerful.
• Item: Life Orb/Expert Tape/Focus Band.
• Ability: Mutatetype.
• Movements:
  • Flower Trick.
  • Disarm/Foolish/Thunder Punch.
  • Round trip.
  • Low Kick/Taunt.

In VGC Doubles there are more ways to control Speed, so we can opt for other items. Life Orb is the safest option, although if we have this item on another Expert Tape Pokémon it makes a lot of synergy with Mutatipo , increasing our super effective damage with all the coverages we can carry.

The choice of movements is conditioned by the Types that we want to cover with our Meowscarade, but we recommend that you always take Flower Trick for its damage and Back and forth to be able to return Meowscarada to its ball and continue using its ability. Thunder Punch we’ve already said how good it is for flying types and Low Kick is a very surprising move for opponents like Galarian Darmanitan .

Finally, with Mofa we can prevent the rival from using enhancing Movements such as Sword Dance or Machination. In addition to the already mentioned Rare Space.

MEOWSCARADE TERACRYSTALLIZATION

• Teracrystallization: Plant.

Meowscarda’s job is to wear down opposing Pokemon as quickly as possible, so the Grass-type Teracrystallization is our best bet. This will further boost our STAB (x2) on our Flower Trick move and on critical damage it will do massive damage. Also when teracrystallizing we will not lose our original Sinister STAB.

HOW TO DEFEAT MEOWSCARADE AND COUNTERS

Its two predecessors Greninja and Cinderace are big Pokémon that are very difficult to counter, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have options. Let’s see how you can face Meowscarada:

• Trick Room : Its high speed (and its possible use of the Choice Scarf) makes it almost always the first to hit and by changing its type it will be difficult to eliminate. Therefore, changing the speed order is one of the best ways to limit its effect and be able to remove it.
• Debilitate it in one hit : Although there are few Pokémon faster than Meowscarada, if we manage to hit it very effectively the damage will be very high (due to its low defenses). Dragapult with fire cover or Cinderace with Choice Scarf can be good options.