Meowscarada is the final evolution of Sprigatito, the Grass-type starter from Pokemon’s Generation 8. It is a Grass- and Dark-type, which means it is especially strong against Water-, Ground-, Rock-, Ghost- and Psychic-types but weak to Bug-, Fighting-, Flying-, Poison-, Fire-, Ice- and Fairy-type attacks.

Meowscarada Is Underrated, and Here’s Why

Meowscarada is an incredibly valuable Pokemon for how accessible it is. Because it’s a starter Pokemon, some might overlook it as a viable option for competitive Pokemon. However, it is absolutely worth trying if your team is in need of a fast physical attacker or a strong Grass-type.

Meowscarada has fairly strong attacking capabilities with a 110 Base Attack and and can easily outspeed most opponents with a 123 Base Speed. Despite being weak to seven different typings, which is not at all ideal, it is fast enough to outspeed many threatening opposing Pokemon. It also has access to a wide range of coverage moves, or moves with typings that Meowscarada itself doesn’t possess, so it is even able to threaten opponents it is weak against. Finally, its hidden ability Protean is one of the better abilities of the Pokemon franchise, as it allows Pokemon to switch their typing to the first move it uses in battle. This allows Meowscarada to completely negate weaknesses it would otherwise have if it does have its rare hidden ability instead of its normal ability Overgrow.

But perhaps the best part about Meowscarada is just its Grass typing. Some of the most popular and powerful Pokemon widely used are Water or Ground types, which can resist most other Pokemon typings. By having this fast Grass-type on your team, you can use Meowscarada to switch in to threats like Swampert, especially as a revenge killer when one of your own Pokemon goes down.

In Singles, Meowscarada is often played with moves like U-Turn, Triple Axel, Knock Off and Flower Trick. U-Turn is a bug-type, 60 base power, 100% accuracy move that will switch the Pokemon out after using it. If Meowscarada can outspeed the opponent’s Pokemon, it can get chip damage in before switching into another Pokemon more suited for the matchup instead of switching outright. Triple Axel is an Ice-type, 90% accuracy move that can hit up to three times, with a 90% chance for each hit. The power of each subsequent hit increase from 20 to 40 to 60 base power respectively. Knock Off is a Dark-type, 65 base power, 100% accuracy move that will knock off the opposing Pokemon’s held item if they hold one. If they do hold a held item, the move will do an extra 1.5x damage. It also gains STAB (Same-Type Attack Bonus) because Meowscarada, the user, has the same Dark typing as the move which. This will give another 1.5x extra damage, turning the 65 base power move into 146.25 (65 * 1.5 * 1.5) effective base power. Finally, Flower Trick is Meowscarada’s signature move. It is a Grass-type, 70 base power, 100% accuracy move that also ignores accuracy and evasiveness stat changes- the move will always hit if the opponent is not in a semi-invulnerable state like when using Protect or Fly. Not only does Flower Trick, like Knock Off, gain STAB, but the move always deals a critical hit while any typical move has a 1/24 chance to deal one. Critical hits provide another x1.5 multiplier to its power, making Flower Trick a move with 157.5 (70 * 1.5 * 1.5) effective base power that ignores accuracy and evasiveness and has no drawbacks, establishing itself among the best moves in the entire franchise.

Typically, Meowscarada is used as a revenge killer or an offensive pivot, meaning that it uses its high speed and attack stats to start an offensive against physical tanks and quickly take out weak Pokemon. Meowscarada is also viable as the lead in your party when starting a battle if you are looking to be more aggressive, since it can use U-Turn and immediately switch out if faced with a bad starting matchup.

How Is Meowscarada Used?

Not only is Meowscarada quite accessible to get, but it’s very easy to use even if you are just beginning to get into Pokemon. With Meowscarada, most matchups have a very clear strategy or plan.

Below are some common matchups you might experience when using Meowscarada and how to play them in a Singles format:

• If the opponent leads with a Water- or Ground-type (ie: Swampert, Palafin), use the super effective Flower Trick. It’s likely that they will see their type disadvantage and switch out, giving you a free hit with your strongest move.
• If they lead with a Fire-type that you outspeed (ie: Charizard, Heatran, Volcarona), use U-Turn to deal chip damage and switch out to a more favorable type matchup.
• If they lead with a Pokemon with Fire-type moves that outspeed you (ie: Dragapult, various Pokemon holding Choice Scarf), switch out immediately to a more favorable type matchup.
• If they lead with a Grass-type (ie: Rillaboom, Ogerpon), use the super effective Triple Axel. There is a 90% chance to hit each of the three attacks, leading to a ~72.9% chance to hit 3 times, if necessary.
• If they lead with a Dragon-type that you outspeed (ie: Dragonite, Salamence), use the super effective Triple Axel.
• If they lead with a Ghost-type (ie: Gengar, Gholdengo), you can either use U-turn to switch out or the super effective Knock Off depending on the Ghost-type’s moveset and whether they have a held item.
• Decide whether Flower Trick, Knock Off, U-turn, Triple Axel, or switching immediately is best depending on the opponent’s strengths and speed.

Most importantly, Meowscarada’s biggest weakness is that it is physically frail- one powerful hit can eliminate it, even if it isn’t super effective. Confirm and evaluate your opponent’s movesets, speed, and attack power before you make big decisions.

Terminology

Below is a table of technical terms used in reference in this article. This section exist to help guide new people and players that may be new to Pokemon and/or do not understand the terms used in the article.

• Starter Pokemon: Every generation of Pokemon has three Pokemon to choose from when you start the game. They are always Grass-, Fire-, and Water-type Pokemon and have three stages of evolution.
• Base Stats: Every Pokemon is assigned hidden numerical values underlining their natural strengths and weaknesses. Every member of the same species has the same base stats. The six base stats are HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed.
• Physical/Special: Attacks can either be categorized as Physical (often but not always attacks with contact) or Special (often but not always ranged attacks without contact).
• Ability: Every Pokemon has one passive trait that gives them unique effects during battles or in the overworld. They may only have one active ability at a time, but may have multiple to choose from depending on the species.
• Hidden Ability: A rare ability that a Pokemon can possess instead of its typical abilities. Probability of any given Pokemon having a hidden ability changes with the Pokemon game and method of obtaining the Pokemon, but is generally quite low.
• Coverage: An attack of a different type than the Pokemon using it, used to effectively hit opponents that may otherwise have a type advantage.
• Type Advantage: Every Pokemon is given 1-2 typings depending on the species, and some types of Pokemon are strong or weak against others (ie: Grass is weak to Fire, Steel is immune to Poison).
• Base Power: Any given move has a numerical value assigned to it that underlines how powerful the move actually is when calculating how much damage the move deals (ie: Aerial Ace is 50 Base Power, Flamethrower is 90 Base Power).
• Same-Type Attack Bonus: Abbreviated as STAB, an attack deals x1.5 damage if the move’s type matches at least one of the user’s types (or x2.0 with the ability Adaptability)
• Critical Hit: Any given move has a 1/24 chance to deal x1.5 damage. This probability can be increased through stat changes or by using certain moves that give a higher critical hit ratio.
• Pivot: A strategic switching between two Pokemon in your party in the middle of a battle to bring in a better type advantage and/or win momentum.
• Items: Pokemon can hold one item at a time during battle, which can give various boosts to the Pokemon (ie: Potion restores health, Rocky Helmet deals damage back when the opponent makes contact with the holder).
• Moveset: The combination of up to four attacks or actions given to a Pokemon at any given time. These may include attacks and/or stat-changing moves.

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