Competitive Pokemon History - Lucario Quiz

Answer: Its offensive movepool

Lucario had a swath of incredible options it could choose to place tons of offensive pressure on the opponent. Its stats weren't necessarily amazing, but 115 for Special Attack and 110 for Attack combined with its unpredictability were definitely enough to make it a staple on offensive standard play teams.

Answer: Inner Focus

In the fourth generation, Inner Focus renders the user immune to being flinched. Thus, Lucario made a potent lead since opposing common leads, such as Infernape or Ambipom, could not break Lucario's Focus Sash for free with Fake Out like they could with just about anything else. Thus, it could be useful in reasonably niche scenarios.

Answer: 70

A 4x resistance to Stealth Rock, along with major resistances to Rock, Dark and Bug alongside resistances to Ice, Ghost and an immunity to Poison do give Lucario some degree of leeway to switch in to battle. However, all of these Pokémon have ways of severely damaging, if not OHKOing, Lucario, so this is almost always not a safe switch in.

For example, rather than let Lucario in for free on a 4x resisted Stone Edge or Crunch, a Tyranitar user could just click a precautionary super effective Earthquake or Superpower and immediately destroy a Lucario switch in like nothing. Similarly, Gengar could use a super effective Focus Blast instead of a resisted Shadow Ball or ineffective Sludge Bomb, just as Scizor can hammer Lucario with Superpower instead of tickle it with U-Turn. Thus, switching Lucario in could have its benefit with good prediction just as easily as it could backfire due to its poor bulk.

Answer: Yes

Hippowdon's mixed bulk and type advantage enabled it to pull off this feat as long as it remained in good health. It was capable of surviving even a Swords Dance boosted Close Combat, then destroying Lucario with a retaliating Earthquake.

Beyond that, nothing comes particularly close. Being potent both physically and specially makes Lucario difficult to deal with in this manner, especially when combined with its great movepool that makes it even more unpredictable.

Answer: Justified

Justified gives the user a +1 to their Attack if they are struck by a Dark type move. Despite Lucario's middling bulk, its massive resistance to Dark makes these moves easy for it to survive. Though switching into predicted Dark type attacks still has its risks, the payoff is now much greater thanks to Justified, which ironically can "justify" such a decision.

Answer: Nasty Plot

Lucario's access to both Nasty Plot and Swords Dance means that as soon as it touches the battlefield, it can immediately exert tons of pressure on the opponent. The opponent is forced into a deadly guessing game, where if they guess wrong, they could be facing a boosted Lucario that has a good matchup to possibly twirl a sweep with.

Answer: Adaptability

Adaptability grants a +1 to Mega Lucario's STAB attacks. Its Close Combats therefore become far more vicious, and its Bullet Punches become good for staving off offensive threats as well. Notably, Mega Lucario can easily revenge kill an even slightly weakened Xerneas, doing north of 70% to it without even boosting with Swords Dance.

Answer: Mega Sableye

Mega Sableye would get throttled by Iron Tail, though it could defeat Mega Lucario easily without that move. Still, Iron Tail was an appealing move to run due to its Adaptability boost and was thus quite common, making Mega Sableye a very unreliable counter.

Ho-Oh resisted Mega Lucario's STABs, was very bulky, and could obliterate it with any attacking move of its choice in retaliation.

Mewtwo had reasonable bulk, could survive Iron Tail + Bullet Punch, and could OHKO Mega Lucario in response with just about any attacking move in its arsenal that hit for at least neutral damage.

Mega Salamence could switch in while in its base forme, cut Mega Lucario's Attack with Intimidate, then Mega Evolve, outspeed Mega Lucario, and deliver a swift KO with an Aerilate-boosted attack, Earthquake or Fire Blast. It also resisted Close Combat, giving it a clear point of entry

Answer: It matched up far more poorly against the general meta

The main niche to physically offensive Mega Lucario is that it can revenge kill Xerneas with Bullet Punch, while still being a great offensive threat in general. Specially offensive Mega Lucario cannot run Bullet Punch, depriving it of this main niche completely.

A specially offensive Mega Lucario would run a set of Nasty Plot/Focus Blast/Flash Cannot/Shadow Ball or Vacuum Wave. This set is simply far less reliable due to accuracy issues with Focus Blast, Flash Cannon being nowhere near as powerful as the physical set's Meteor Mash, and the coverage move of choice not staving off any of the Pokémon that can give Mega Lucario problems. Additionally, Vacuum Wave is far weaker than Bullet Punch, is notably resisted by Xerneas, and gets worse coverage on the meta than Bullet Punch does.

Therefore, while there is some degree of surprise value in a specially offensive Mega Lucario, the amount of effort it would take to make a sweep plausible is still far more than the physically offensive set, while the specially offensive set offers far less utility than its physical counterpart. Thus, a specially offensive set is mediocre at best in sixth or seventh generation Ubers.

Answer: UnderUsed

Lucario's stats were a smidge too low for standard play, even with its great movepool giving it an offensive presence. However, it remained an excellent threat in UU just as its base forme had been since the start of the sixth generation with said movepool.