Medicham PvP Guide

Pokémon GO Medicham

While Medicham’s stats might not look like much at first glance, its dual Fighting and Psychic typing combined with its move-set and its stats at level 40 give it good coverage against its counters and make it a beast in Great League.

Medicham’s boasts one of the best quick moves in the game, a must-have charged move that has a 100% chance to boost its attack and a couple of second charge move options that give it secondary coverage and can make it a threat against a wide variety of Pokémon.  Medicham is a hefty stardust investment as you will need to max one out to level 40 to maximize its potential on your team.

So with all that said, grab your bag of stardust and let’s delve into what makes Medicham such a must-have Pokémon for Great League.

Types and Weaknesses

Medicham has a Maximum CP of 1431 at Level 40. It has a dual typing of Fighting and Psychic and as such, is weak to Fairy Flying and Ghost

Its resistances are Fighting and Rock

Stats

Medicham has the following stat distribution:

Medicham FightingPsychic
Max CP 1431
ATK 121 DEF 152 HP 155
Weak to Strong Against
Fairy Flying Ghost Rock Fighting

Moveset

Medicham can learn the following moves in Pokémon Go:

Fast Moves Charged Moves
Counter Fighting Power Up Punch Fighting
Psycho Cut Psychic Dynamic Punch Fighting
Ice Punch Ice
Psychic Psychic

Moveset analysis

Fast Moves

Move Damage Per Turn (DPT) Energy Per Turn (EPT)
Counter Fighting 4 3.5
As I mentioned above, Medicham has been graced with arguably one of the best quick moves in the game with Counter. Delivering solid damage and generating decent energy per turn not only is the move strong, but it generates energy fairly quickly for its charged moves. 
Psycho Cut Psychic 1.5 4
The only scenario where you would want Psycho cut as an option over Counter would be matchups where Psychic moves do super effective or neutral damage and fighting moves are resisted. With such a niche use, your best to stick with Counter.

Charge Moves

For Medicham to truly be effective you’ll need to unlock it’s second charged move. It’s not cheaper to add the second charge move as a Meditite, so if you’ve already got a Medicham you want to use go ahead and add the second move.

Move Base Power Energy Cost
Power Up Punch Fighting 20 35
Even with it’s recent nerf, Power Up Punch is an essential move. It only has a base power of 20, but it only costs 35 energy and has a 100% chance to boost Medicham’s attack, it can quickly buff itself to rip through any Pokémon that don’t resist it’s fighting typing.
Ice Punch Ice 55 40
As a second charge move option, Ice Punch is your best bet with 55 base power, a 40 energy cost.  Cheap and strong, it also covers off its flying-type counters very well, I’m looking at you Alteria.  A single unbuffed Ice Punch can take Alteria down to half HP.
Psychic Psychic 90 55
With its recent buff Psychic has become a decent option with a base power of 90 and a 10% chance to lower your opponent’s defence. Its 55 energy cost makes it a little slow to charge up, and relying on the debuff to trigger at 10% is a risky endeavour especially given its high energy cost.

Psychic is a good move to handle the mirror matchup, and with an attack buff from Power up punch will deal a significant amount of damage to Azumarill.

Dynamic Punch Fighting 90 50
You can run Dynamic Punch if you’re looking for a move that deals a good chunk of Fighting-type damage, however, it’s a slow move and the extra damage doesn’t outweigh the attack boost that Power Up Punch provides.

Moveset conclusion

For PVP, the ideal move-set that you want is Counter as a fast move, and Power up Punch and Ice Punch as charge moves.

Performance in the Great League:

Medicham is a beast in Great League, especially Open Great League tournaments.  Its ability to buff itself, and it’s powerful quick move means that even when dealing neutral damage it can tear through Pokémon super quick.  Even in situations where it’s up against Pokémon that do super-effective damage against it, Medicham is surprisingly bulky and will deal a significant amount of damage before it does go down even against one of its best counters Azumarill.

Medicham also has the added bonus of being able to run Ice Punch, which will make anyone thinking of countering it with a Flying-type such as Alteria think twice.

The Cost

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the biggest downfall to Medicham, the cost to get it to where it needs to be.  A 100% IV Medicham maxes out at level 40 at 1431 CP, which means that it will cost a significant amount of stardust and possibly rare candies to get it to max level to get the most out of your Medicham.   Getting a Medicham as close to 100% is ideal, but the difference between 91% and 100% isn’t that much so don’t be afraid to invest the dust and candies in that 91% Medicham.

Conclusion

Medicham is an expensive investment, but every ounce of stardust and rare candies that you will need to pump into your Medicham will be well worth it.  It is an absolute beast in great league PvP dealing significant amounts of damage in almost every scenario and will make short work of bulky Pokémon like Bastiodon, Probopass and Umbreon.

Although it has Ice Punch, Medicham will still struggle against Flying types. It also struggles against one of the best Great League Pokémon, Azumaril.  Even when it does struggle, it will still deal out a fair share of damage.  Medicham also struggles against Ghost Pokemon as well, Haunter being a popular option there, so keep that in mind when forming your team.  Bringing along a solid Ghost counter isn’t a bad option.

Medicham could very well be considered a must-have for any open Great League tournament, functioning very well as a lead or as your second option.  In any tournament that allows Psychic-types or Fighting-types Medicham functions very well, and should be high on your list of considerations.

Medicham’s calm demeanor isn’t an accident, it’s a beast and it knows it.