Pinsir
Stag Beetle Pokémon
It grips prey with its pincers until the prey is torn in half. What it can’t tear, it tosses far.
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Competitive
Strategy Overview
Mega Pinsir has an impressive base 155 Attack stat, which it can boost even further with Swords Dance, allowing it to shred past many walls after a boost and act as a fearsome late-game cleaner. Thanks to the switches Mega Pinsir can force and its surprisingly decent bulk, it can find opportunities to set up rather easily. Aerilate gives its Normal-type moves a power boost and makes them Flying-type, giving Mega Pinsir a ridiculously powerful, drawback-free move in Return to take advantage of. It also makes Quick Attack a viable option for picking off faster foes. Flying is a great offensive type in CAP, as it allows Mega Pinsir to break down many cores, including the Tomohawk + Chansey core and the Tomohawk + Cyclohm + Colossoil core. Mega Pinsir can take advantage of Pokemon that cannot do much back to it or passive Pokemon like Colossoil, Chansey, Mega Venusaur, Pyroak, specially defensive Gliscor, and Fidgit to set up a Swords Dance. Its decent coverage options in Earthquake and Close Combat complement its Flying-type STAB moves well, giving it the ability to sweep through plenty of common defensive cores in CAP.
However, Mega Pinsir has a rather crippling Stealth Rock weakness, which limits the number of times it can switch in. It is heavily threatened by paralysis, burn, faster Pokemon that can pick it off, and faster priority users, making an outright sweep rather difficult for Mega Pinsir.
Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc