Is there a way to make even a remotely competitive Lucario without the use of Egg moves?

3 minute read

I have a competitive Lucario that I already love. The reason I’m asking this is I desperately wish I could go shiny hunting for a Lucario, but that would mean no Bullet Punch, no Vacuum Wave and a lackluster base 90 speed…is it really worth it? I don’t wanna go hunting for a shiny Pokemon I’ll never use. My main one is a Physical one with all egg moves: High Jump Kick, Bullet Punch, Blaze Kick (well, the other one’s Swords Dance).

I could remedy the kick with Close Combat, but I don’t know what else I’d do. I feel uncomfortable running special Lucario without Vacuum Wave, but if you can reason as to why I should do it anyway I’ll give you a listen.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could do this without any egg moves? My plan is to hunt one in Ultra Moon and eventually move it up to Sword.

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

Actually, it is possible. While I rarely use it, I have a competitive Lucario without a single egg move. Here is the moveset of mine

Two of these are level up moves and the others are tm or move tutor. Personally, I think extremespeed is better because it has +2 priority and it hits harder than a stab bullet punch. The last move depends on which weakness you want to hit with it. Ice punch will deal with ground types, stone miss and earthquake for fire, zen headbutt for fighting. You can also go with shadow claw to hit everything with decent damage since ghosts hit all types for neutral or super effective damage except for normal types, which get destroyed by close combat. Alternatively, you can go for a substitute. This one is my favorite because I just love this move so much but it does leave you unable to hit any ghost type. The only note worthy egg move in my opinion is meteor mash but that would only hit fairies super effectively

I’m going to tell you that you should use Special Lucario.

Or, if you really don’t want a special-oriented one, the Masuda Method would work fine, as long as you have the required Pokémon from the game in a different language.

For some reason though, I’ve always liked Lucario as a special Pokémon more than a physical one. My Lucario currently runs Dragon Pulse, Flash Cannon, Aura Sphere, and, instead of Swords Dance, Calm Mind. It kind of surprises opponents since, yes, Physical Lucario is much more common. In my opinion, special Lucario is more competitively viable than the physical alternative for its chance to catch your opponent off-guard. It requires exactly 0 egg moves to use my special Lucario, so less breeding and hunting is needed.

For physical Lucario (if you’re for some reason not trying special) the only STAB Steel physical moves you can get your hands on are Metal Claw and Iron Tail (there might be more, but that’s all I know of) and Metal Claw is weak with no priority and Iron Tail is just plain unreliable. That leaves you with a set looking sort of like this: Metal Claw/Iron Tail, Close Combat, Extreme Speed, Swords Dance.

My point is, use a special Lucario if egg moves aren’t an option (or just use the Masuda Method).