Meganium, The Herb Pokémon. Its breath has the fantastic ability to revive dead plants and flowers. The fragrance of Meganium's flower soothes and calms emotions. In battle, it gives off more of its becalming scent to blunt the foe's fighting spirit. The aroma that rises from its petals contains a substance that calms aggressive feelings. Anyone who stands beside it becomes refreshed, just as if they were relaxing in a sunny forest.
Overview
Meganium isn't the most impressive of Pokémon. It's strong defensively, although as a Grass type it has some problems when it comes to multiple weaknesses. It excels as a supportive Pokémon in the Underused tier, supporting either with defensive screens or Aromatherapy. Offensively, matters are best left to the rest of its Grass kin. It's pretty one-dimensional, but it's by no means a bad Pokémon.
Ability
Overgrow: boosts Meganium's Grass type moves by 50% when its HP is at 1/3rd or less. For Meganium it's a mild bonus, since it'll rarely be at 1/3rd of its HP, and even then, when it is it'll probably be more concerned about healing itself than attacking.
Move Sets
Support
- Light Screen / Reflect / Aromatherapy
- Light Screen / Reflect / Aromatherapy
- Synthesis
- Energy Ball
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 178 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
A straightforward and almost all out supportive move-set provides Meganium's team with some valuable support. Meganium has room for two supporting moves, so it can either go with a pair of defensive screens or one defensive screen and the valuable status healing support provided by Aromatherapy.
Synthesis is a must, since as a supporting Pokémon and a defensive-minded Pokémon it'll be on the wrong end of plenty of attacks and it'll need to heal off the damage. Some care may need to be taken with how you use Synthesis, since its PP is much more limited (at just 5 PP) compared to the other traditional healing moves like Recover and Slack Off.
Energy Ball rounds off the move-set. It provides some direct offence, and with Meganium's Ground and Water resistances, it can follow up with some decent STAB to provide an acceptable threat.
Swords Dance
- Swords Dance
- Synthesis
- Seed Bomb
- Earthquake
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
The one true offensive outlet Meganium has is through Swords Dance. The two-stage Attack boost propels Seed Bomb to threatening levels and it can be backed by Earthquake to cover Steel and Fire types among others (sadly, this combination is blocked off by other Grass, Bug and Flying types and an assortment of other Pokémon). Synthesis keeps this offensive-minded Meganium relatively effective at the defensive aspect of the game, which is required when its Speed is incapable of reaching the levels for Meganium to function purely as an attacker; rather it needs to function as a “tank”, taking hits as it dishes them out.
EVs and Nature:
Support
Defensive EVs tend to take charge here, especially since Energy Ball offers little even with Special Attack EVs. Max HP is the main starting point, since you'll get your maximum Leftovers recovery as well as an effective all-round defensive improvement. The remaining EVs can be split evenly between both defences or you can start focusing on one stat. Defence tends to take precedent over Special Defence because there tends to be fewer physical wall choices than special walls, but either is viable. You also may want to bulk one defensive stat that isn't aided by screen support if you only carry one defensive screen. The given EV spread gives an even divide between both defensive stats, but it can be modified easily.
Swords Dance
Even with Swords Dance's aid, max Attack is a good starting spot. With the remaining EVs, you can try maxing out Speed (which will help you against other “slowish” Pokémon), but most likely you'll want to go with max HP to work in tandem with Synthesis for that “tank” approach to attacking.
Other Options
Leech Seed, Leaf Storm, Hidden Power, GrassWhistle, Rest, Sleep Talk, Counter, Substitute + Salac Berry, Flail.
Leech Seed is a slightly surprising absentee from the main move-sets. Meganium isn't fast enough to use it in the stereotypical “Sub-Seed” strategy, but it can be used as an unorthodox alternative to Synthesis or in place of a supporting move on the supporting move-set.
Leaf Storm can slot over Energy Ball on the main supporting move-set, if you're willing to risk the next incoming Pokémon taking advantage of your further weakened offensive capabilities and also take the risk on the PP. The upside is a huge burst of power that can turn what would be 2KOs from Energy Ball into 1KOs from Leaf Storm.
Hidden Power is the only other special move Meganium can really use in tandem with Energy Ball (or Leaf Storm). Ice and Fire are the preferable ones for striking other Grass types, with their Flying or Steel type coverage making the major difference between the two.
GrassWhistle provides some sleep support that can be considered for the supporting move-set, however its highly undesirable accuracy throws it out of favour.
Rest and Sleep Talk is a potential Synthesis alternative, with the added novelty attraction of Aromatherapy being picked by Sleep Talk (ending your Rest early). Of course, two move-slots is a big ask when Synthesis is available, and when Aromatherapy is also able to cure any statuses it picks up.
Counter can also slot onto the supporting move-set, providing some potential for KOs and also posing a threat to any physical attackers that it's matched with.
Substitute added with Salac Berry can provide a needed Speed boost to make a Swords Dancing sweep viable, but it comes at the huge cost of its defensive capabilities. With the low HP and Swords Dance in mind, Flail is also a viable option.
Countering Meganium
Countering supporting Meganium move-sets is pretty simple. It poses very little offensive threat and doesn't have any status moves (barring Toxic and the inaccurate GrassWhistle) to truly compensate, so anything that isn't weak to Grass moves and has super-effective moves of its own should be able to beat it one-on-one. Additionally, Taunt helps to keep Meganium from supporting its team-mates.
Up against a Swords Dancer, the main moves to look out for are Seed Bomb, Earthquake and very rarely, Flail. It isn't cringingly slow, but it isn't fast either, so there are a fair number of faster Pokémon who can capitalise on its many weaknesses without having to take a hit as well. Weezing resists Seed Bomb (and is immune to Earthquake), making a very strong choice as a counter. Charizard and Moltres both have Earthquake immunities and 4x resistances to Grass, although their huge Stealth Rock weaknesses can hinder their countering ability. Jumpluff also has a 4x resistance and an immunity, it just needs to be equipped with a Flying move (although encoring Swords Dance can set-up a team-mate to counter Meganium). This list goes on and on, since Ground and Grass makes for a poor combination, and the same can be said for Grass and Normal too for the scarcely seen Flail variants.
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Trade from ECXD (RS) Evolve Bayleef (Em Colosseum/XD Evolve Bayleef Fire Red/Leaf Green rade from ECXD Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Trade from EHGSS HeartGold/SoulSilver Evolve Bayleef
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Animé Appearences
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Meganium has had a few Animé Appearences. First, Jackson used one to help protect Raikou from Team Rocket. After that, he used one in his Silver Conference match against Ash. Later, Casey's Bayleef had evolved into one and she used it in a variety of her appearances. Officer Jenny & Nurse Joy have both got one and used them in a variety of situations, one of which had Ash's Grovyle fall in love with it.
Legend of Thunder |
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