Lucario Goes to Duat! - with 0kamii

[0kamii]

 

Hey, everybody! It’s 0kamii, and I have some bad news for you all!

That’s right. Lucario totally sucks in VGC this year. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, nor shall I beat around the bush. Lucario just doesn’t hold a candle to some of the other mons we’ve been seeing a lot of this season. How do I know? Why, test battles of course! I ran a sample size of 15 battles with Lucario, and do you want to know the win-to-lose ratio: 1:2. One to two isn’t good, it’s not bad either, no…it’s terrible! Even Emolga had a better ratio than that, and hers keeps rising every month. But I digress, you all voted for Lucario, and I’m saddened to report the bad news…

Type:

 

Weaknesses: x2,  x2,  x2
Resistances: x1/2 , x1/2 , x1/2 , x1/2 , x1/2 , x1/2 , x1/2 , x1/2
Immunities:

Lucario has simultaneously the best and the worst typing possible in this metagame. It’s easy to see why pokemon like Celesteela shine. An abundance of resistances with few weaknesses and great immunitites. Lucario has one of those three things, being lots of resistances. The thing that separates this Steel-Type from the Ultra Beast is that Lucario packs none of the immunities, nor the bulk that make Celesteela the monster that it is. Lucario isn’t a Flying-Type, so it carries the common Steel-Type weaknesses of Fire, Ground, and Fighting, all of which are very prevalent this metagame. It’s only true saving grace is an immunity to Poison-Type, which is admittedly useful against Alolan Muk and Nihilego, but both of these mons see half the usage of mons like Arcanine, Garchomp, and Kartana. All of which can OHKO Lucario with ease thanks to its three handicaps. In terms of Type, Lucario starts slow.

Stats:
 

HP: 70 (130 – 177)

Attack: 110 (103 – 178)

Defense: 70 (67 – 134)

Sp. Attack: 115 (108 – 183)

Sp. Defense: 70 (67 – 134)
Speed: 90 (85 - 156)

 

 

Looking at Lucario’s stats, you’d think it’d be more useful than it is. Its Speed is about average, and it has great mixed attacking potential, right? Right? Yeah, no. The thing that really kills Lucario, in Doubles anyway, is that it has virtually no bulk, and not enough natural Speed to take advantage of those attack stats. It’ll be OHKOed by just about anything super-effective, and most things that aren’t. Not only that, but since you’d otherwise be forced to invest in Speed, it won’t be doing enough damage even with those Attack stats. Unfortunately, in Doubles, it seems Lucario has been reduced to support. Or at the very least mixed utility.

Abilities:

Moving into the jackal’s abilities, there’s no clear victor here because they’re all sort of meh. Steadfast is useless because if Lucario flinches, it’s dead. Guaranteed. Inner Focus helps to prevent flinches from moves like Fake Out, which is more useful, especially given one of the sets you’ll see. But otherwise it’s kind of situational. And Justified, eh…it’s okay. I’ve see people try and use Whimsicott to up Beat Up and boost its Attack to +4, but Lucario rarely sticks around long enough to take advantage of it. In total, I’d say Inner Focus is generally the most reliable. And that’s not good…

Movepool:

As we go into Lucario’s movepool, there’s no shortage of color. This guy was basically the poster boy for the Sinnoh games, so it should come as no surprise that Lucario got some special treatment. It has access to great Fighting-Type moves, good Steel-Type for STAB, and then there’s no shortage of coverage available to it. It has Dragon Pulse, Earthquake, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Rock Slide, Poison Jab, and even Blaze Kick. In terms of STAB, your best moves are going to be either Close Combat or Aura Sphere depending on whether you’re using a physical or special set. Focus Blast misses too much in my opinion, so I’d rather use Aura Sphere. For Steel-Type, you’ve got Flash Cannon for special STAB, but not really anything in the physical department. Other notable moves it gets, while not necessarily meta are Follow Me, Feint,  Toxic, Extreme Speed, Vacuum Wave, Quick Guard, and Bullet Punch.

Overall:

And finally we’ve reach the climax of this sad, sad story. Lucario is just not a reliable choice for VGC this year. You’ll get maybe one turn out of it at most, and even then it’ll probably get outsped before it can even do anything. Unless you Protect, set up Tailwind, and then try to attack. But even then you’ve wasted a turn Protecting while your opponent has likely setup their own win-condition. It’s just not worth it, guys. Lucario is still a great pokemon, it’s just better in Singles, where it can manage its weaknesses head-on without fear of being sucker punched by the other opposing mon. As always, I’ve three sets to share, but I’d be surprised if you make any of these ones work.

 

Set 1 - Tailwind Physical Attacker

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Extreme Speed
-Close Combat/High Jump Kick
- Poison Jab/Blaze Kick 

 

 

 Set 1 requires Tailwind support, as will most of these. Lucario doesn’t particularly have enough damage output to make any serious dents in the opponent, but it could be useful for picking up KOHOs in the late game with priority attacks like Extreme Speed. Because Lucario don’t have good physical Steel-Type STAB without Move Tutors, I'd suggest working in a coverage move like Blaze Kick for Celesteela or Kartana, or Poison Jab for the Tapus. Otherwise, it’ll hit opposing Snorlax and Porygon hard, but be hit back just as hard with no recovery.

Set 2 - Tailwind Special Attacker

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Protect
- Vacuum Wave
- Focus Blast/Aura Sphere
- Flash Cannon

 

 

Lucario fairs a bit better on the special side of things, but you’re still going to need Tailwind up to help it outspeed common threats like Arcanine and Garchomp. Vacuum Wave, in my opinion, is going to be the best priority move for the special set, and the split between Aura Sphere and Focus Blast just comes down to preference. I mentioned that Focus Blast misses too much for me, but you could always try and give it a Fightinum Z and use Z-Focus Blast for extra power. Something to consider. Flash Cannon is just strong STAB. Otherwise there’s not much to say about this set.

Set 3 - The 0kamii Misdirection Set

Lucario @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 20 HP / 76 Atk / 132 Def / 28 Sp. Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Extreme Speed
-Follow Me
- Close Combat/Substitute

I can’t do one of these analyses without having a little fun, now can I? As usual, here’s where I showcase my VGC brilliance and try something so unbelievably confounded that it just has to work, right? Right? Yeah, no. This strategy transcends the realm of gimmicky and arrives firmly on the stage of the absurd. There’s no way I see this strategy working in VGC, all the same though I figured I’d share it. Lucario is one of the only mons that gets Follow Me this metagame, and I thought it’d be wasted potential not to try it. This allows your partner to set up, and since you won’t be surviving the turn anyway a little priority never hurt anyone. Extreme Speed is just there for last minute damage, and you could easily swap out Close Combat for Substitute if you really want to go for the second Follow Me.

Partners:

 

From my test runs, Whimsicott is the most frequently used partner for Lucario. Tailwind is easy to get up thanks to Pranskter, and if you’re feeling bold you can use the two in a Justified combination with Beat Up. Kind of like Arcanine from last time. Just be weary of Nihilego’s Sludge Wave, or Sludge anything really. It’s an OHKO on Whimsicott. 


 

or

 

The activation of rain dampens the effect of Fire-Type attack against Lucario, and the Water-Type takes the straight off the Ground-Types too. Personally, I would recommend Pelipper over Politoed because the Flying-Type covers the rest of Lucario’s weaknesses and it can provide Tailwind support for the rest of the team. But I ran both separate and both were useful.

 

 

 This pair is only useful for Set 3. It’s very much high risk high reward, but the times I got it off without interruption proven to be devastating. I wouldn’t say to rely on it, but using Follow Me on Lucario and then Swords Dance on Garchomp creates a very threathening situation for your opponent. Try it out if you want, but like always, don’t be surprised if it fails. At this point in the metagame, it’s hard to be innovative. Conclusion:

What a wild ride this has been, huh? I went into this analysis with so much hope, but the battles just don't lie. There's no way I see Lucario getting any further use in VGC this year, and with Worlds coming up in a month I doubt anyone would be bold enough to try and bring it...just because. By this point, people are definitely going to stick with what they know works and play it to the best of their abilities. Speaking of, I'll probably take a break from VGC analyses for a while now that Worlds are around the corner and everyone is likely in the process of testing their teams and making tweaks. I'll still make two-ish posts a week, just every other week when I'd usually make a VGC post, I'll make a different post instead. Anyways, on that note, check out all the other VGC notes I've done this season! Some of them may just surprise you!



 1) Emolga: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Emo...ith-0kamii)
2) Alomomola: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Alo...ith-0kamii)
3) Rampardos: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Ram...ith-0kamii)
4) Poliwrath: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Pol...ith-0kamii)
5) Bastiodon: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Bas...ith-0kamii)
6) Jolteon: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Jol...ith-0kamii)
7) Drifblim: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-It-...t-s-a-Blim)
8) Arcanine: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-First-turn-Arcanine-at-4-with-0kamii)

That's all for this analysis. I may do one more this season, but that's it. Beyond that, I'm saving all reviews for VGC 2018. Hopefully we'll get some Move Tutors in the sequels to spice things up a little bit. Thanks so much for reading everyone! Battle onwards, friends!

- 0kamii

P.S. Apparently, I can't format text that is copy-and-pasted into PokémonForever. That's the last time I try to write my post in a Word document and paste it in to save time...

Update: 8/3/2017 - 12:08am

Sorry for the confusion with the second and third sets. They're as they were meant to be now. And a big thanks to all the people leaving suggestions for improved Lucario sets in the thread. I love Lucario, and if you can think of a way to make it useful that I haven't, feel free to share! Thanks again, everyone!

- 0kamii

[wartty]

@0kamii im so confused why does the second and third set have modest nature? Ive actually had great success using a special mega Lucario, Protect, HP Ice Vacuum Wave and Flash Cannon ~ HPice is for Salamence Garchomp and Landorus protect is just nessecary vacuum wave can do incredible damage with adaptability aswell as flash cannon being a death Ray for anything weak to it xP been wanting to use vacuum wave effectively since gen4 and then one day I stumbled upon Mega-Luc <3
Edit: Tapu Bull doesn't deserve an analysis xD

[Reis]

Too bad mega stones are banned in  '17, or atleast I think they are.
if they were allowed, this would have made Close Combat, base 120 power base 240 because of it's abillity, along with flash cannon with base 140..

[0kamii]

@wartty 

Oh, gees. Sorry, wartty. The bulk of this post was copy and pasted from a Word document, so some things didn't come over so cleanly. The third set is supposed to have Jolly, and the moveset for the second is supposed to be completely different. I'm away from my computer right now, so I'll have to fix that as soon as I get home. Sorry for the confusion.

Again, last time I paste from a Word document. 

- 0kamii

[Spyro190]

Someone should mention NPlot and SDance as more reliable sets. Being an unpredictable setup sweeper and spamming Espeed everywhere is what Lucario can do better than Buzzwole and Pheromosa.

Plz, CC>>>HJK in Doubles. It's not questionable, Protect is everywhere.