Mega Camerupt has a decent Attack stat, but surprisingly low defensive stats, resulting in less bulk that its appearance may imply. It is a dual Fire and Ground type, definitely a rare combination in the meta. It was the signature Mega Evolution of Team Magma in Hoenn, so let’s see how their choice stands up to the Pokémon GO meta.

Fire and Ground is certainly an interesting type combination. It only has two weaknesses, with a weakness to Ground and a double weakness to Water. While Fire and Ground do cover some of each other’s weaknesses, this results in a lot of types dealing neutral damage to Mega Camerupt. Grass and Ice moves that a Fire type would normally resist become neutral, as do Rock moves that Ground would resist. In the end, it ends up resisting Bug, Fairy and Steel moves with a double resistance to Electric. Overall not bad, but not nearly as effective as some other dual type combinations manage to achieve.

As far as moves go, Mega Camerupt does have a usable Fire type moveset in Incinerate and Overheat. Where it runs into issues is with its Ground moves. While it has access to great Charged Moves in Earthquake and Earth Power, it distinctly lacks a Ground type Fast Move, meaning it is already starting at an extreme deficit in this category.

As a Fire and Ground type, Mega Camerupt has a good number of other Mega Evolutions that share its typing. For fire, there is Mega Charizard X/Y, Mega Houndoom, Mega Blaziken, and Primal Groudon, plus the future Mega Delphox. As a Ground type, it is competing against Mega Steelix, Mega Swampert, Primal Groudon, and Mega Garchomp. Let’s see how Mega Camerupt stands up to the competition!

One thing that should be addressed is that Mega Camerupt seems to be doing its very best Primal Groudon impression, although it is undoubtedly falling short. As a Legendary Pokémon, Primal Groudon naturally has higher stats. Mega Evolutions can usually compete with standard Legendary Pokémon, but one of these Legendaries getting a Mega Evolution bonus of their own almost doesn’t seem fair (it’s really not). This results in Primal Groudon basically being a strict upgrade over Mega Camerupt in almost every scenario, with the exception being in terms of pure Fire type damage. However, Primal Groudon’s stats are so much better than Mega Camerupt’s that its performance is still significantly better in neutral matchups. Mega Camerupt may gain a slight edge against targets double weak to Fire, but overall Primal Groudon severely outclasses it.

Ignoring Primal Groudon, we can still compare Mega Camerupt to the other Mega Evolutions of its types. Starting with Ground, where again it struggles due to a lack of a full STAB Ground type moveset. Additionally, it has steep competition in the form of Mega Garchomp and Mega Swampert. On top of having full Ground movesets, their stats are overall just better than Mega Camerupt’s. There may be certain matchups where Mega Camerupt performs better thanks to its unique typing, but in general it falls pretty far below the others. On the bright side though, it is stronger than Mega Steelix, who also lacks a full Ground type moveset. Mega Steelix’s sky high Defense stat results in a pretty significant lack of offensive ability, meaning Camerupt at least doesn’t fall to the bottom of the list of Mega Evolutions, although it is still far from good. Its best options as a Ground attacker are against other Fire types thanks to resisting their Fire moves, but the options of using a resisted Incinerate/Ember or the pitiful Rock Smash means that the other options are better, especially since Mega Garchomp and Mega Swampert also resist Fire moves with their secondary typings.

On paper it seems like Mega Camerupt would perform better as a Fire type, and while that’s true, it actually stands up to its competition here much worse. This is mostly due to the fact that, even ignoring Primal Groudon again, Mega Charizard X/Y, Mega Houndoom, and Mega Blaziken are extremely powerful Mega Evolutions, and Mega Delphox will probably fall somewhere closer to them than Mega Camerupt. Mega Camerupt’s niche here comes from some of the unique things it can do as a Ground type, namely the double resistance to Electric. However, as a Fire type you want to be using Mega Camerupt against Grass, Bug, Ice, or Steel types. While Bug and Steel remain resistances for all but Mega Houndoom, Grass and Ice moves deal neutral damage to Mega Camerupt. All four other Mega Evolutions maintain these resistances except for Ice with Mega Charizard X/Y, meaning that generally there is a better Fire type Mega Evolution to choose other than Mega Camerupt. It’s far from bad, but fails to stand on its own compared to the power of the rest.

Mega Camerupt’s only real unique advantage is over dual Bug/Electric types or Steel/Electric types, able to resist both types unlike its peers. However, a Mega Evolution’s best matchups being against the likes of Vikavolt or Magnezone is hardly something to brag about. Again, you could try using it against other Fire types, but without a full Ground moveset it gets outclassed. Its best usage comes as a Fire type attacker against the likes of Genesect, Registeel, Mega Scizor, and Mega Aggron. It also has strong matchups against powerful Pokémon from later installments such as Slither Wing, Iron Crown, and Iron Leaves. Overall it is far from a bad Pokémon, but even in its best matchups it can struggle to compare to other Fire type Mega Evolution options.

Overall, Mega Camerupt definitely isn’t a bad Pokémon, but it definitely can’t be considered powerful either. Without a full Ground type moveset it really struggles, and as a Fire type it has a few key disadvantages even compared to other Fire type Mega Evolutions. Definitely worth picking up in case it ever gets a fully Ground moveset, but definitely not a priority. Maybe this is why Team Magma lost…