Gamefreak definitely hit it with Basculegion in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, with how unique and powerful this Pokemon can be. With that said, it’s totally understandable why you’d want to try this Pokemon for yourself. If you are looking forward to adding the Pokemon to your team, especially for competitive purposes, we’ve got you covered! In this guide, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about Basculegion!
Basculegion Moveset Guide
Basculegion is a beast of a Pokemon and there are multiple reasons why. It’s bulky, can be fast, and hits hard, with an extremely strong STAB move namely Last Respects. So, there is a high chance that this Pokemon will be meta for the upcoming competitive Videogame Championships (VGC). Furthermore, I’ll explain all its abilities, movesets, possible items, as well as strategies in the guide. Let’s get into it!
Male/Female Form
So basically, this Pokemon has two forms. Basculegion-M (Male) is a physical-attacker with a base attack of 112, while Basculegion-F (Female) is a special-attacker with a base special attack of 100. However, many will agree with me when I say that Basculegion-M is much stronger than the female form since it can use the move Last Respects the best. With that said, I’ll only provide movesets for Basculegion-M.
Abilities
Here are Basculegion’s best abilities that you can both use depending on how you want to utilize him for your team:
- Adaptability – this ability make STAB moves deal from 1.5x to 2x damage which is insane and scary on Basculegion. It can make Last Respects have a whopping 600 base damage when played right and makes it hit harder in general. Especially when combined with Choice sets (Scarf/Band), Basculegion becomes an extremely strong Pokemon.
- Swift Swim – this ability doubles Basculegion’s speed in the rain. Okay, let’s be real, compared to Adaptability, this is much lackluster since you lose out on the power of the ability. However, you can opt to this if you are planning on running rain teams which can work amazingly with proper setup.
Basculegion- M Best Movesets and Items
For Basculegion-M, I suggest taking this move and item set. If you are looking for explanations as well as other options, look further into the guide. Also, the image below includes the recommended spread for the Basculegion-M like Nature and IVs which are more focused on Attack and Speed.
MOVESET
- Last Respects – this Ghost-type STAB move is what makes this Pokemon even more scary. It has a base power of 50 which increases by another 50 for every fainted Pokemon in your party. If Basculegion-M is your remaining Pokemon, this move will deal 300 damage which increases to 600 damage with Adaptability.
- Liquidation/Wavecrash– this are both Basculegion’s best Water-type STAB moves. You can choose anything to your liking and what you think works best with your team/setup.
- Psychic Fangs/Head Smash – basically coverage moves, choose what you think will your Basculegion-M need depending on your team/setup.
- Aqua Jet/ – this priority STAB move always moves first. It is needed since Basculegion-M is not the fastest Pokemon, even with Choice Scarf. Though keep in mind to swap this with the other mentioned coverage moves if you are going to use him in a rain team.
ITEMS
- Choice Band – this will make your Basculegion-M hit much harder and become an extremely strong wallbreaker. However, keep in mind that running this set will definitely get you outsped at times.
- Choice Scarf – this will make your Basculegion-M faster in exchange of the power that Choice Band offers.
TERA TYPE
For this section, we won’t be discussing defensive options since this Basculegion-M build is focused on wallbreaking and hitting hard. With that said, here are the possible offensive options to boost up your STAB moves even more:
- Water – this is the more viable choice since your Ghost-type STAB move will already hit hard anyway.
- Ghost – as mentioned before, getting this Tera Type can be overkill. But it can be useful for making sure your Basculegion-M OHKO’s every single Pokemon on its path.
NATURE
- Adamant – this is hands down the best option. It will make your Basculegion-M hit much harder and stronger wallbreaker.
- Jolly – you will lose out on the power but if you are looking forward to outspeeding certain Pokemons, you can choose this.
How to Use Basculegion-M
With the build laid out on the table, here are tips/strategies on how you should utilize Basculegion-M on your team and in general:
- Basculegion-M works fantastic in a rain team with its ability, Swift Swim. From being a strong wallbreaker, it can also become a sweeper. In case of using him on rain teams, make sure to focus on more physical setups in terms of Nature and Items since you won’t be needing speed buffs anymore.
- For teambuilding as well, consider pairing him with Pokemons that can give him speed in general, so that can be a Rain Pokemon namely Pelliper or strong Tailwind/Raindance Pokemons like Tornadus or Thundurus.
- With Basculegion-M’s low speed, it’s not viable to run him as a sweeper. Instead, use him to break Walls from your enemy’s Pokemons.
- As mentioned before, Last Respects is an extremely strong and spam-able move. Make sure to have Basculegion-M as your last Pokemon as possible so it can deal as much damage as possible.
That concludes this guide! If you are looking for more Pokemon Scarlet & Violet content, make sure to check out our other articles as well.
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