Cacturne, The Scarecrow Pokémon. During the daytime, it remains unmoving so that it does not lose any moisture to the harsh desert sun. It becomes active at night when the temperature drops. If a traveler is going through a desert in the thick of night, it will follow in a ragtag group. They are biding their time, waiting for the traveler to tire and become incapable of moving. After spending thousands of years in harsh deserts, its blood transformed into the same substances as sand.
Battle Moveset
A Good Moveset for Cacturne would have to be this:
Attacks:
Focus Punch
Thunderpunch / Giga Drain / Hidden Power [Fire]
Substitute
Leech Seed
Items Attached:
Leftovers
Preferred Nature:
Brave
Strategy Using Cacturne
Cacturne is an offence based Pokémon with 115 stats for both offences. Unfortunately, it heavily lacks speed and defensive stats, setting down to the rank of Underused. With proper Paralysis support this set can be effective. Sub-Seeding will eventually force a switch (and with Paralysis support it'll likely cause a moment where the opponent is "Fully Paralysed") giving you a free Substitute to launch a Focus Punch. Giga Drain has STAB support and with Leech Seed helps make up for HP lost through Subs but leaves you wide open to Skarmory and Poison types. With HP Fire you can also counter standard Celebi effectively.
EV Corner:
EVs: 252 Atk / 176 Def / 82 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
With a little bit of defence, Cacturne can take the occasional Earthquake and with Leech Seed recover lost HP. The rest can go into SDef for taking the multitude of "Not Very effective" special attacks.
Other Optional Sets:
Cacturne @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Def / 6 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Giga Drain / Focus Punch
- Destiny Bond
- Leech Seed
Staller-style set up. Destiny Bond forces switches and can take out a foe as well as setting up opportunities for a free Focus Punch
Cacturne @ Petaya / Salac Berry
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 42 HP / 216 Spd / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Thunderpunch
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Dark / Fire]
- Growth / Substitute
Special sweeper set up. With solid special attack it can sweep passably with a single speed boost (from either a Baton pass or Sub-Salac). The weak base power of its attacks will hurt this sets usefulness and it is completely shut down by a good special wall.
Other Optional Moves
Encore, Sword Dance, Teeter Dance, Spikes, Needle Arm, Hidden Power [Grass], Hidden Power [Dark], Cotton Spore, Counter, Body Slam, Protect, Sandstorm. It has a very versatile move pool but is usually let down by its stats. Encore is a very cool move and can allow free set ups with good prediction. Sword Dance could work with Paralysis support but Cacturne lacks a physical move pool to support it. Teeter Dance confuses the opponent but is usually not worth the move-slot on the staller sets. It doesn't have the supportive stats to use Spikes effectively but the could still be used on free switches. Needle Arm and Hidden Power are alternate STAB moves. Cotton Spore helps make up for a lack of speed but its effects being removed by switching doesn't make it worthwhile. Counter is a one time use type of move and with Giga Drain and Leech Seed support may be usable multiple times. Body Slam opens up an opportunity for paralyse but is too unreliable to be worth the move-slot. Protect can work with Sub for Seed-stalling but is usually too predictable, but with good use can open up free opportunities for Focus Punch among other things.
Sandstorm should never be used, much like Double Team all it's for is for evasive luck. I've only mentioned it because it'll pop into people's heads when they see its trait. It isn't worth the move-slot required and you may as well just sue Double-Team if you feel the need to rely on luck.
Strategy Against Cacturne
It has weak defences but with smart play can wreak a lot of havoc. Many OU Pokémon are wide open to it, Celebi's standard offence doesn't affect it and Blissey's Seismic Toss is easily negated by Leech Seed. It's wide move pool gives it many opportunities to take the opponent by surprise and still have consistent effectiveness. Its typing gives it a wide array of resistances and weaknesses, so while it can get free switch ins on many moves (such as on a Claydol's Earthquake) it can also take a huge hit if you predict correctly (like with Ice Beam on the same Claydol).
Contest Moveset
A good Contest Moveset for Cacturne would have to be this for the Cool Contest best with Lonely, Adament, Naughty or Brave Nature:
Attacks:
Sunny Day
Solar Beam
Double Team
Destiny Bond
Items Attached:
Red Scarf
Strategy Using Cacturne
If you do the attacks in this following order you should have very few problems; 1st - Sunny day, 2nd - Solarbeam, 3rd - Sunny day, 4th - Solarbeam/Double team, 5th - Destiny Bond
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Evolve Cacnea
Colosseum/XD
Trade from RSE
Fire Red/Leaf Green
Trade from RSE
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Animé Appearences
Synopsis
Pictures
