Hello and welcome to our fourth issue of Pokemon of the Week! This week's Pokemon of the Week is Lucario!

Lucario was the flagship Pokemon of the 4th generation. Not only was it one of the first Pokemon revealed for gen 4, it remained one of the top threats of 4th generation. If you didn't have a counter to Lucario on your team, you could go ahead and give up the moment you saw it, it was that deadly. Things haven't exactly remained the same for Lucario in the 5th generation. Fighting types are insanely popular this generation, and we've received some amazing new ones in Terrakion, Conkeldurr, and Mienshao, as well as older Fighting types getting better, such as Technician Breloom. Lucario has gotten a bit lost in the shuffle, and has a plethora of new threats to deal with. Nevertheless, Lucario is a very solid Pokemon, and if you get it setup late in the game, you can sweep through the opponent's team.

Lucario really is a one-trick pony when it comes to the competitive scene in 5th gen. When you see it, you can safely guess what it's going to do, because it only really does one thing well enough to merit using it.

Lucario@ Life Orb Justified / Inner Focus Adamant nature (+Attack, -Sp. Attack) EVs: 252 Speed / 252 Attack / 4 HP Swords Dance Close Combat Extremespeed Ice Punch / Crunch / Bullet Punch

Lucario is an offensive powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with after it uses a Swords Dance, where its Attack is boosted to 700. Close Combat is Lucario's main STAB move, and a powerful one at that. The reason for using Close Combat instead of the more powerful Hi Jump Kick is that the 10% chance of missing will end your sweep immediately. Extremespeed is Lucario's most powerful priority move, and is part of what makes Lucario so dangerous. +2 ExtremeSpeed will bring down many fast, frail sweepers like Infernape and Starmie, as well as finishing off other weakened Pokemon.

The last move is a tough decision, and I'd say it depends heavily on what your team can and cannot deal with. Ice Punch allows Lucario to break through Dragonite, Gliscor and Landorus-T. This will, however, leave you completely walled by Jellicent, Slowbro and Reuniclus, due to its excellent bulk and resistance to Close Combat. Bullet Punch may at first seem redundant alongside ExtremeSpeed, however it serves as an excellent way to beat fast, frail Pokemon that resist ExtremeSpeed, such as Gengar, and Terrakion. It also gives Lucario a 37% chance at beating a full health Choice Scarf Tyranitar, a guaranteed OHKO with Stealth Rock up.

Now, there may be some expecting a Nasty Plot set, and I actually wrote one up in its entirety, but it is simply not viable. The reason is that Lucario has a very middling 90 base Speed, and the opponent can simply bring in Landorus, Gengar, Starmie or anything faster than Lucario, and not fear Lucario at all, and often times, force it right back out after it uses Nasty Plot. Special variants of Lucario suffer from Lucario's low Speed, leaving Lucario reliant on Vacuum Wave, which Lucario's checks and counters will already resist, expecting to come in on Close Combat (since the SD set is standard). It's simply not worth it to use any set except Swords Dance on Lucario, at least, not in the current metagame.

Obtaining Riolu in-game is easy enough, post-game. Riolu can be found in Challenger's Cave at level 49 and 50 in both the Black and the White version. After that, it evolves when it reaches maximum happiness and levels up during the daytime. A good moveset for an in-game Lucario would be:

Lucario Aura Sphere Dark Pulse Psychic Dragon Pulse / Flash Cannon

BUT YOU SAID SPECIAL SETS ARE BAD! Yeah, the best set for an in-game Lucario is actually specially offensive, and this is because in-game and competitive are nothing alike. In-game, Lucario will easily get faster than what you're up against through leveling up, allowing you to use all of Lucario's most powerful moves. Aura Sphere is Lucario's STAB move; it's powerful and has great consistency, with never-miss accuracy and good power. Dark Pulse will need to be obtained with a Heart Scale, but paired with Aura Sphere, you obtain near-perfect neutral coverage, as well as hitting the Ghost and Psychic types that are immune and resistant to Aura Sphere. Psychic allows Lucario to beat Fighting types, as well as give you a Super Effective attack against Poison types, which also resist Aura Sphere. In the last slot, Dragon Pulse hits Dragon types, while Flash Cannon provides a secondary STAB move. I'd recommend Dragon Pulse, since there are few Pokemon that are hit harder by Flash Cannon than Aura Sphere or your other coverage moves. Use Dragon Pulse unless you can think of a really specific reason to use Flash Cannon.

Lucario was one of the first Pokemon introduced from the 4th gen and, frankly, when I first saw it I didn’t really like it. I didn't hate it either, but I just didn't see the appeal that other people saw in it immediately. It has grown on me over time even though I've yet to raise one myself. Lucario's Pokedex entries raise some interesting points, however:

"By catching the Aura emanating from others, it can read their thoughts and movements."
"It's said that no foe can remain invisible to Lucario, since it can detect Auras. Even foes it could not otherwise see."

Lucario's unique ability to read the aura of people and Pokemon allows it to see them, even if they are concealed. It seems to have innate psychic abilities, which is unusual for Fighting type Pokemon without a secondary Psychic typing. In fact, Lucario is one of the two Fighting types that can learn Psychic without being part Psychic type, the other being Poliwrath. Despite the claim that it can read thoughts, Lucario cannot learn Mind Reader, though it learns moves to suggest that this is true, such as Detect and Foresight.

Lucario's popularity saw it through as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, to the delight of many fans. Unfortunately, Lucario's offensive presence in the 4th gen metagame did not transfer well to Brawl, and it remains a poor choice in comparison to some of the other Brawlers.

Lucario's design has a very Egyptian feel about it, and indeed he has a humanoid body with the head of a black jackal, much like an Egyptian god associated with the Underworld: Anubis. Anubis was said to pass judgement on people's souls as they entered the Underworld by weighing their heart against a feather to see which was heavier - this is echoed by Lucario being able to "see" people's "souls" in the form of Aura. It's also a symbol of passing judgement / justice being taken, hence Lucario's Hidden Ability being Justified. (I find it quite funny that Lucario learns Bone Rush, given that Anubis was the embalmer, ie the one that prepared dead bodies for the afterlife.. he had a handy supply of bones, I guess!)

The jackal part of Lucario is probably specifically the Black-backed Jackal, given his face markings, but it could be any really.

Lucario's comical baggy shorts are probably an allusion to boxing shorts, given its Fighting type - it's a lightweight boxer! Boxing was a popular sport in Ancient Egypt, and is depicted on the walls of tombs up to 4000 years old. It was fought by men dressed in only loincloths with no gloves. The Romans adopted the sport to make it more bloody (and therefore more entertaining to watch) by giving the boxers something to wear on their hands: the cestus, which was a set of bandages or cloth wrapped around the hands with metal bands across the knuckles. This could be the inspiration behind Lucario's little hand spikes.

Article written by Richard and Blaziken

Unearthed by Dragonpika

Digg this! | del.icio.us | Reddit | Stumble Upon | Facebook

Tags: None!

There are currently 0 comments on this story... you could be first!