Overview
Medicham is one of the best physical attackers and strongest wallbreakers in the January 2026 meta. With the help of its ability in Pure Power, boosting its attack, and its colourful movepool, allowing it to hit most of the meta, its able to dish out great damage and punch holes through any team. With its strong STAB moves and decent speed tier, Medicham is easy to fit on most teams, outspeed pretty much all the defensive Pokemon, and OHKO premier defensive Pokemon such as Cobalion, Hatterene, Type:Null, and Rotom-Wash. Especially after Stealth Rocks support, which is easy to set up in this meta. However, Medicham is very easily worn down by hazards, Life Orb recoil, which it likes to run on most sets, and Rocky Helmet chip, which is quite common on defensive Pokemon this meta. It’s frail nature does not help either; Medicham can almost never safely switch directly in on any predicted attack, as it takes massive damage from neutral hits, even resisted. Furthermore, as Life Orb is the preferred item on Medicham, with good plays from the opponent, it can be forced to waste Life Orb chip on resisted hits and be put in range of priority moves or resisted moves, though Medicham still hits resisteds hard as well. Finally, Medicham is outsped by most of the premier offensive Pokémon and is often forced out.
Moves
Close Combat is Medicham’s best move, hitting everything in the tier except ghost types for a lot, or enough to put them in range of one of its various coverage moves. For example, Max HP Max Defense Hatterene does not appreciate taking a Close Combat for Medicham since Poison Jab is able to kill it right after. And this is guaranteed after Stealth Rocks.
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hatterene: 62-74 (19.4 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hatterene: 226-268 (71 - 84.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
High Jump Kick is Medicham’s strongest move, however its so strong in this meta that it doesn’t need the extra power at the cost of missing and taking 50% recoil. Zen Headbutt and Poison Jab cover what Close Combat cannot hit. Typloshion-Hisui can get OHKO’d by Zen Headbutt.
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Zen Headbutt vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typhlosion-Hisui: 281-331 (97.9 - 115.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
Fezandipiti too.
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Zen Headbutt vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Fezandipiti: 374-439 (98.6 - 115.8%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
Hatterene by Poison Jab.
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hatterene: 317-374 (99.6 - 117.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
And Celebi.
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Poison Jab vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Celebi: 304-359 (89.1 - 105.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
It’s able to 2HKO Max HP Max Def Granbull after intimidate
-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Granbull: 177-208 (46 - 54.1%) -- 48.4% chance to 2HKO
These calcs highlight how much Medicham appreciates Stealth Rocks support, but also just how hard it hits. Additionally, Choice Banded sets turn all of these into guaranteed OHKOs and 2HKOs. Although Medicham's speed stat is to its own detriment, it also works the other way as a Jolly nature isn’t helping you outspeed anything that won’t naturally outspeed you anyways, meaning you can always go Adamant with no repercussions.
Bullet Punch is a nice priority option on Medicham to pick off chipped Pokémon and mitigate its lower speed against faster offensive Pokémon. Fake Out, although niche in the meta, is good too, letting Medicham put things into range of its Close Combat, to stall out turns against Sun teams, and pick off chipped down Pokemon. Medicham also likes to make use of its access to Psycho Cut as well as elemental punches, hitting Orbeetle with Fire Punch, Gabite with Ice punch, and Hounstone with Psycho Cut to bypass Fluffy. Being able to OHKO Gabite, 2HKO defensive Orbeetle, and 2HKO Defensive Houndstone after Stealth Rocks.
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gabite: 359-426 (105.5 - 125.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orbeetle: 192-229 (59.2 - 70.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Pure Power Medicham Psycho Cut vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Houndstone: 144-172 (41.3 - 49.4%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Substitute is a niche option on Medicham that aims to make use of Medicham’s nature to force Pokemon to switch out. Substitute can make Medicham harder to revenge kill and let it chip Pokemon under a safety net. This pairs well with a Bulky Attacker set; Medicham’s speed is low enough to be viable in Trick Room in this meta. Good setters in Hatterene and Indeedee pair well with it, setting up Trick Room for Medicham to be a menace and flip the matchup against its common revenge killers, and make it still threatening outside of Trick Room.
Finally, Trailblaze is another good option on Life Orb sets to give Medicham the opportunity to outspeed and still hit hard and switch moves at the same time.
Items
Generally, Medicham wants to always run Life Orb, as its able to hit the whole meta for super effective and hard whilst being able to switch moves freely and prevent anything from switching in safely. However, there is merit to running Choiced sets. Choice Scarf lets Medicham outspeed the whole meta and it can keep its Adamant nature. However, all relevant scarfers lie within the 95-100 speed tier as opposed to Medicham’s 80, these include: Typhlosion-Hisui, Celebi, Indeedee, thus they outspeed and can revenge kill, barring Sharpedo which can click Protect once then outspeed via Speed Boost and revenge kill. Therefore, Choice Scarf is much more niche and good circumstantially, like on teams that have many item removers or against Cobalions, who’s among the top 3 used Pokemon in the meta and didn’t see any Choice Scarf usage during the month. Choice Band gives Medicham that little bit of extra power to guarantee KOs and completely disregard measures that teams take to handle it. Rotom-Wash usually opt for Special Defense investment in order to take hits from Typlohsion-Hisui better, so Life Orb sets can OHKO. However, Physically Defensive sets are viable too and this is where Choice Band comes in handy.
252+ Atk Choice Band Pure Power Medicham Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 270-318 (88.8 - 104.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
A common set on Cobalion is Max Speed Max Defense, and a common item on Cobalion is the Chople Berry. After a spike, Life Orb Adamant Medicham still cannot OHKO Chople Berry Cobalion with Close Combat, meaning Cobalion can OHKO it back after the defense drops. The same cannot be said for Choice Banded sets though.
252+ Atk Choice Band Pure Power Medicham Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Chople Berry Cobalion: 261-307 (80.8 - 95%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
50% after a spike.
Choice Band is also good to deal great damage and still break through resisted Pokémon.
Other items include Leftovers to give Medicham a little bit of recovery and longevity to mitigate its low defenses. Substitute sets appreciate Leftovers. Lum berry is a good item too, to ignore the various status spreaders in the meta, from Will-O-Wisp Rotom-Wash and Typhosion-Hisui, Thunder Wave Cobalion and Type:Null, Toxic Spikes from Overqwil, and Toxic from anyone because its National Dex. Heavy duty boots has some use case too, letting Medicham ignore hazards chip as well as Sticky Web from Orbeetle. Finally, Expert Belt isn’t bad either, capitalising on Medicham’s coverage whilst not taking chip like it would in a Life Orb set at the cost of slightly less power.
Team Options
Medicham can fit on many archetypes, as they all appreciate its massive wallbreaking capabilities. However, it best fits on Bulky Offense structures and Webs Offenses. Sticky Web Offenses help Medicham outspeed most of the meta and decrease the likelihood it is forced to switch out so that it can stay in and deal as much damage as possible Bulky Offense structures are able to support Medicham by taking hits it cannot, and slow pivot it in safely for it to punch holes into the opposing team. Medicham also appreciates other Offensive Pieces like Typhlosion-Hisui and Sharpedo. Often Medicham does not survive long but not without breaking through teams and chipping everything down to be in range of a Sharpedo to clean up the end game. However, Medicham’s favourite offensive partner is Typhlosion-hisui as they synergise beautifully, hitting each other’s checks. Medicham is able to OHKO SpDef Rotom-Wash, Fezdanipiti, Type:Null, and 2HKO Overqwil for the game to open up for Typhlosion-Hisui. Often these checks come in to trap Typhlosion and get progress, thus a double into Medicham is free alot of the time and from there it can start hitting. Medicham suffers from a case of 4-move-syndrome at times, as it cannot run its stabs, poison jab (arguably its best coverage move), elemental punches and bullet punch priority all at the same time. This is where Typhlosion-Hisui comes in to lessen the load and hit what Medicham chooses to not. These usually being Houndstone and Orbeetle. However, Typhlosion-Hisui is also appreciated into Cobalion as although Medicham can kill it, Cobalion is faster and can often OHKO Medicham if it has been chipped down. Scarf Typhlosion-Hisui solves this problem. Medicham also appreciates hazard setters in the form of Cobalion and Overqwil, turning rolls into OHKOs and 2HKOs, at the same time it likes removal in the form of Rotom-Wash who is able to Defog away hazards and slow pivot Medicham back in. Generally any bulky and slow pivot works well with Medicham, like Type:Null to switch into Ghost type attacks, and the aforementioned Rotom-Wash to take hits Medicham doesn’t and then slow pivot it in safely. Finally, as mentioned before Medicham is just about slow enough to make use of Trick Room to beat its faster offensive checks. Therefore, it can fit on pseudo Trick Room teams.
Weaknesses
It’s own speed and Choice Scarfers, as mentioned before Medicham is slower than all of the premier offensive Pokemon and due to its weak defenses, can often get OHKO’d by each one. Hazards put Medicham in range of any regular attack, even from uninvested Pokemon. 4 move syndrome; against defensively oriented teams, Medicham often needs support in order to counteract the measures and resources these teams take to deal with a Medicham’s breaking power, things like Intimidate Granbull, Physically Defensive Orbeetle, Chople Berry Cobalion, and Fluffy Defensive Houndstone. These take advantage of Medicham’s inability to run all of the moves it wants, so a good amount of support is needed to enable Medicham to punch holes and cover for what it cannot hit.
Written by 7md
QC by Essence