Kangaskhan
Parent Pokémon
The infant rarely ventures out of its mother's protective pouch until it is 3 years old.
Base Stats
Type Effectiveness
Evolution Chain
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Details
Sprites
Competitive
Strategy Overview
Kangaskhan is often labelled as a "second Tauros", and while Tauros is usually a better Normal-type attacker, Kangaskhan is not unusable and this label belies how differently it can act in practice. Kangaskhan is much more expendable during a game, fulfilling tasks that are normally too risky for the king of RBY OU. When compared with Tauros, Kangaskhan has some unique moves that make it more effective for this role as well, although they can be difficult to fit onto a set. For instance, Counter helps it oppose Normal-type attackers, and Mega Kick 2HKOes Chansey. Furthermore, Kangaskhan has formidable defensive bulk, which makes it more effective at switching into Body Slam, which cannot paralyze it.
However, Kangakhan's hefty Normal-type competition does make it redundant on most teams. It has awful Special, completely failing to take strong neutral hits from Pokemon like Alakazam, Starmie, and Zapdos. Consequently, it's very challenging to switch Kangaskhan in against a lot of the tier, as one wrong move can mean significant damage; it often requires a double switch. Worse still, its Speed is just below what would be desirable to sweep, which makes it very reliant on extensive paralysis support to face these strong, fast special attackers. Overall, while Kangaskhan is not a replacement for Tauros by any stretch of the imagination, it retains a small niche when used alongside it, forming a strong wallbreaking core.
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Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc